Aphrodite

Aphrodite Pandemos was a much-beloved Egregore who came to Eden during The Calamity which wiped out the Earth-665 iteration of reality. Worshipped as a goddess of love, lust, and beauty, she long held a reputation as a fickle, temperamental ditz. After her affair with the Edenian goddess Phina, however, Aphrodite was a changed woman. Ever since, she has done her best to act as a benevolent force in the city she now calls home.

Supernatural Abilities

Aphrodite possesses the ability to manipulate the erotic urges of any sapient being in Eden. She cannot create these desires from nothing, but she can increase or decrease the intensity of any romantic or sexual feeling a person might already possess.

Her presence ensnares the senses of any and all people she comes into close contact with. If you can see or hear her, you will want her. If you can smell her, you will smell the things which delight you most. If she lets you touch her, you won’t ever want to let go. And if you’re lucky enough to taste her lips, you will forever hunger to taste them again. From that day forward, no food or drink will ever be as satisfying as even the memory of her kiss.

Appearance & Personality

Aphrodite is a statuesque beauty with blue eyes and dark brown hair. She is an irredeemable flirt, an assertive exhibitionist, and a ruthless adversary. As a younger woman, she was prone to fits of jealousy, cruelty, and spite. These days, she does her best to curb those more toxic elements of her personality. Some days she does better than others.

Biography

Before she joined Zeus’s pantheon, Aphrodite was worshipped in the Near East under a number of other names. To some, she was the goddess of sex and fertility. To others, she represented desire and war. And in order to grow and maintain her power, she was happy to play whatever part the people gave her. When Zeus came calling and invited her to join the family of deities he was building, she agreed to give up the domain of war—but only because Ares was hot.

Together, Zeus and Aphrodite concocted a delightfully sordid story to explain the new goddess’ origins. Much to their chagrin, the faithful found the tale too convoluted and simplified it as they saw fit. Some said she was born of the blood of a sky god’s severed testicles. Others said she was the product of a union between Zeus and his Aunt Dione. None could remember the full, unbridled debauchery of the original tale.

The goddess is perhaps best known for her eight great infatuations, the octet of individuals who got her to stop bed-hopping for long enough to catch some deeper feelings. The list went like this:

1. Anchises, a mortal shepherd who would father Aphrodite’s child Aeneas.
2. Paris, the mortal who chose her as the most beautiful of the goddesses—in exchange for the love of the most beautiful mortal woman in the world. Aphrodite pined over the handsome mortal for the rest of his life, regretting that she hadn’t offered herself to him instead of Helen of Troy.
3. Hephaestus, who adored his work more than he adored her.
4. Ares, who reminded her of the fierce warrior she used to be.
5. Psyche, a beautiful mortal woman who spurned her advances and eventually married her son Eros.
6. Atalanta, the fastest mortal woman in the world, who spurned Aphrodite for Artemis.
7. Adonis, the most handsome man in the world, whom she was forced to share with Persephone.
8. Phina, the Edenian goddess of fire and chaos whose fits of passion scared Aphrodite into a new way of life.

While seven of these eight infatuations took place in the world she knew before she came to Eden, it was the eighth and final infatuation which would have the most profound impact on Aphrodite. Not even the painful loss of Adonis compared with the reality check she received when she saw what Phina could do when provoked. After the pair broke things off in 76 CE, Aphrodite decided that Phina had chaos covered and that she should be more mindful of how she used her powers going forward. Ever since, she has worked to be more subtle in her machinations, to appear in person only before those with the willpower to resist her, and to make her home a more joyful place for the mortals who call her neighbor.

Species

Amicus Imaginarium

Ethnicity

Egregore

Eyes

Blue

Hair

Brown