#sovana

Ok I kinda forgot to post this here but another milkshake mansion oc fanart!! There's 3 more lol gotta keep feeding my members~ :33

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From order of appearance we have: Aurora ( @anaguel-bianca-34x ), Selene ( @kittywonkers ), Sovana ( @notyanderelucius666 ), Taiyo ( @sun--bug ), Nelle ( @crimck ), Zerxes ( @thewizardingwizard ), Amaya ( @amayalee-sweetheart ) and Talissa ( @gachaclubideas )

I’m excited about these images, because they answer a question I’ve had: are there any large scale two tailed Scyllas in ancient art, or are they just on urns? The answer is yes, there’s large scale Scyllas that survived the centuries. Let’s take a look.

I’m going to keep the name, Tomb of the Siren, even though the figure is likely Scylla or another snake-legged Etruscan demon. She’s on a pediment in an Etruscan necropolis, made between 3rd to 2nd century BCE. Today, the necropolis is in Sovana, a town in Tuscany, Italy. The details are captured in this drawing from Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria:

This Scylla is badly weathered, so some details have been lost. She has two tails, but no dogs around her waist, and is believed to have wings. Two male figures, also winged, are on either side of her. While Scylla is usually shown attacking men, she doesn’t appear to have the winged men ensnared in her tails. Here's a present-day photo:

Tomb of the Siren, Etruscan necropolis. 3rd to 2nd century BCE. Sovana, a town in Tuscany, Italy. Photo by Sidvics.

Two tailed Scyllas were common on Etruscan urns, but not on pediments. It's thought that in Etruscan mythology, Scylla is a psychopomp, escorting souls to the next world. There’s a similar Scylla, on the Tomb of the Demoni Alati, excavated in 2005:

Two-tailed Scylla, pediment. Etruscan, ca 3rd century BCE. Tomb of the Demoni Alati, Sovana, Italy. Photo by Albarubescens.

This Scylla is much better preserved, and we can clearly see her wings and acanthus leaf skirt, and the distinctive loops of one of her tails, similar to the Tomb of the Siren. This Scylla also doesn’t have any dogs, which is usually a large part of her iconography.

I'm likley going to focus on the "two Scyllas" theory next, about why some two-tailed Scyllas have no dogs.

I talked about the Tomb of the Siren here, and it's resemblance to Dacian grave steles.

Sources

Carter, Joseph Coleman. “The Tomb of the Siren.” American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 78, no. 2, 1974, pp. 131–39. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/502797.

DENNIS, GEORGE. “SOVANA.—SUANA.” Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, edited by PAMELA HEMPHILL, Princeton University Press, 1985, pp. 1–18. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7ztqrx.15. Accessed 28 June 2023.

@senterya sure, sounds good and thank you for the ask! :D

First up is my willbender, and since you haven't seen a pic of her yet, meet Qheza! (She mostly goes by Q.) She/her.

1. The basics- Profession, Race, and if they’d done the personal story, what would they have chosen?

Willbender (so guardian), and as seen above, asura! She's a Statics graduate, and none of the invention bits are particularly her style, but the Infinity Ball is closest. (And she'd fall under "charming.")

Next is harbinger, who I also haven't shared a pic of yet. This is Alison Xander! They/them is Alison's preference, but they're fine with any pronouns as long as you're polite.

4. How would they get along with Destiny’s Edge?

Short answer: like a house on fire, probably. Longer answer: They would have liked Eir and respected her, but the two of them wouldn't quite have clicked well enough to be good friends. They would have valued Zojja, but she would have irritated them a bit. Alison and Rytlock would be a constant circle of sniping at each other, kinda like Rytlock and Logan, except Alison would have literally no stake in any of it and would therefore always win any snarking competition by virtue of not caring about whatever Rytlock said. They would be exasperated by Logan (at least younger Logan) but find him an endearing kid, and if they were around for it, they would have taken him leaving the group to go to Jennah almost as hard as Rytlock did. (Though they'd hide it a lot better.) They'd actively try to befriend Caithe, which would be a mess and chaotic but would eventually work at least a little. And I'm including Snaff, too, because these two would have most definitely gotten along well.

And last but not least is Sovana, my virtuoso, who I already shared a pic for! But I think I forgot to share her pronouns--she/her for this plant, please.

8. Do they have a creative side? Are they a singer, an artist, a storyteller?

Il racconto dei racconti / Tale of Tales Matteo Garrone. 2015

Running Tomba Ildebranda, Piazza del Popolo, 58010 Sorano GR, Italy See in map