Manta Ray

Manta Ray is one of the seven Giants swimming through the space of Shattered. Most people consider her shy and graceful, making her an important symbols to art that requires careful and precise moves.

Behaviour

Hers is the most beautiful swim in space, called a dance by many people. Her movement in space is slow but ever constant, her fins always flapping, her tail always swinging. The flapping of her wings leaves a very soft thin cloudy trail of green Lidust.

Manta ray's silhouette by Catoblepon

She prefers to not be surrounded by islands, always swimming where there's less density of islands or over or under where the islands stand, always close to The Creator. Whenever she swims close to islands, she is always very careful to not touch them.

Because of her tendency of rotating while swimming, like her sister Whale, she, unlike some other Giants, does not have a civilization living in her body. The closest thing to it is that, thanks to her slow movements, many space animals have time to avoid her path, her wings and tail, or even to stop to rest on top her body. Desesperate people have been seen to use her as bridge to other islands

Yearly, with a irregular schedule, she approaches The Creator and covers as much as she can with her body. The reason of this act is unknown to the inhabitants of Shattered although there is a major agreement in a theory that explains it as her source of food or energy.

While shy to islands, whenever Giants approach her, she swims around them, almost like a happy dance, and stays around them while they are close to where she roams.

Sun manta ray's silhouette by Catoblepon

Myths

Just like the other Giants, her existance is filled with mystery, which has caused a lot of myths and legends around her person over the hundreds of years of Shattered's existance. Some of the myths have a great amount of versions, while some myths are very rare and specific to groups of people or even islands.

Relationship with the Creator

The Giants and The Creator have a close relationship, as the giants are the only thing getting near it and they even "hug" it when they approach it. This have sparked many myths related to this relationships, of many varieties, but the following approaches are the most common:

• Family: Such a close relationship is often related to family bonds and family intimacy. Many myths give The Creator a paternal figure and make the Giants its offspring. In these myths, the Manta Ray is considered to be a young child, closely living near her parent. In some cultures, her tendency of avoiding the islands is related of her being young, as many children display similar shyness when interacting with strangers.
• Partners: A myth closely tied to the previous one, but making The Creator and the Giants have a polyamorous relationship. She is considered to be very close and intimate with the The Creator, as she is always close to it and is one of Giants who visit it more, together with Whale.
• Parasits: This is the lesser known of the relationship myths, and it mostly appears on societies where only the stronger survive. It considers the Giants parasitic creatures that drain energy from The Creator. For its closeness and constants meetings, the Manta Ray is considered to be overdependant on it and is believed that she has very little storage for the stolen energy.

Representation of the Creator (coloured) by Catoblepon

Other myths

• Islandborn: There's a common myth about the origin of the Giants. This myth says that they were once an island floating close to The Creator, given life by Lidust from The Creator. Since Manta is usually close to The Creator, it is believed her island used to be very close to it. Her long tail makes people believe she was once two islands that, thanks to the Lidust, become one giant.
• Survivor of the corpses: There's a myth that says that Giants are remnants of an era from when the Corpses where alive. Since the Giants and the Corpses look alike and have a great amount of similarities, some people consider them the same species. Whatever killed the Corpses is unknown but used as a monster to scare kids into being good. Saying that Corpses and Giants are the same would mean that Giants can be hurt and killed, yet no thing alive seemed to be able to hurt them. This is supported thanks to a big scar that the Manta Ray has on her back, close to her left fin.

The rest of the Giants

Sea snake

When meeting, Snake tends to rest, curled, on top of Manta's back. When not resting, they can be observed swimming in a helix motion, circling each other.

Jellyfish

Since most time Jellyfish lives away from everything, neither of them seem to be interested of meeting each other when Jellyfish approaches The Creator.

Turtle

When Turtle visits, Manta likes to do barrel rolls around them and rest on their shell when they hide at night. During the day, Manta swimming under the Turtle.

Lionfish

Manta does not seem to interact a lot with Lionfish. Many believe it is because she does not want to be hurt with his spikes or because they do not meet a lot.

Whale

Whale swims close to Manta and while they are seen fairly commonly swimming together, Manta does not display any different comportment around her.

Sea slug

Manta does not interact with Sea slug at all, some even swear they see her getting away from the Slug when he approaches The Creator, like the islands do.