Destiny and Destination: The Ravens' Amor Fati

In the center, surrounded by a thin halo of light, stood three cloaked figures. Another, louder cackle echoed off the walls and the pirates found themselves locked in a fight against the Graea Sisters; a battle against the fates themselves.
by Beatriz Abbott (full story here)
Three ravens that huddle together as if to form one big mass of feather and fate, mumbling over shears and the alignment of the stars. My name happened to be Destiny, synonymous to the Graeas' claim to fame. And Destiny sought audience with history.


It's All Graea to Me!

Windows into history can be distorted, and the history of Aquila's Graea sisters is absolutely no exception when Ancient Greece itself is taken into consideration. Graea is barely the term for them, it's revealed. Graea is actually the term for a location categorized under the ancient city of Boeotia, formerly known as Cadmeis. Taking a glance into several articles, there doesn't seem to be anything too special about Graea except for that it's considered to be one of the oldest Ancient Greek cities in history.

This led me to think, "Hey, the Graea sisters of Pirate101 are pretty old, themselves." And so I kept looking. Soon, I stumbled upon an article detailing another famous trio of Greek sisters referred to as the Graeae. I skimmed through the first few paragraphs and concluded that they weren't at all the match for the ravens, but a note before the exposition of the article caught my attention, particularly by a capital D. In fact, this capital D was for Destiny.

A Moirai Into the Past

They were called the Moirai, likely a root for the modern-day name of Moira. I very quickly found ties to the Graea sisters in them, to my content. They were as well three and had the same names - Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos - to match their depictions as the creators of fate. However, to complement their creation of fate, was their ability to restrict it as shown in Atropos with her shears to trim the thread of life. Chilling! In the popular Pirate101 quest resulting in gaining Zeena as a companion, the Graea sisters require their shears to reclaim their prowess.

Controllers of fate in such a way is very characteristic to the methods of ancient Greco-Roman culture. It was a common belief that prophecy and destiny was laid out for any one particular person by a multitude of gods, the Moirai being no exception.

Aquila's System of Fate

Like the ancient Greco-Romans familiar to players, the Aquilan fowl were highly aware of their own several gods. Our pirates are even able to share words with them, whether through offerings or an Oracle on Delphos. Like the Greek and Roman gods of old, the Aquilan gods each have their own particular fields of expertise - Ares being the god of war, Athena representing wisdom, etc. - and theoretically all have an effect on the life of an Aquilan. Our pirate is as well influenced through the messages we get. On the quest to obtain Zeena as a companion, we share words and get an instruction from Ares.

While not gods, the Graea sisters are in fact a part of this system, able to define and even cut short the fates of others. As I'll be soon exploring, this system only affects the Aquilan race and those who meddle with it as our pirates do. The strength of the sisters is undetermined in the game as we may not be visiting them again, but my research says that for what we saw of the ravens was a prime example of their power.

Destiny and Destination

We've just explored one system of fate in Aquila. While there are many others, I found this one to require more light, as the Graea Sisters controlled fate solely. Every Aquilan is under discretion of the gods and the sisters as they live their lives to the fullest, yet our pirate is able to fall out of this system as they continue with their journey. Let's explore this a little more next time on Destiny and Destination!



Comments

  1. Nice post, how come you don't play wizard101 anymore? There is some good lore in wizard too. Have a nice day! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey, Elijah! I LOVE W101 lore - I try to do research when I can - but I can't keep up with the game since I'm such a slow quester. That, and I can only pay for one game and felt more on top of things for posting with Pirate101. Lots of other bloggers have great posts on wizardly lore that you should check out. :)

    Hope you had a nice Pesach!

    Des

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fair Ashley HolystoneApril 27, 2014

    Ooh boy...I remember doing that quest. Ok, I wasn't so much surprised with the fates, than I was with Ares. I didn't feel much honored when he said I was his favorite warrior,just because we caused the war between Marleybone and Valencia. For heavens sake- that was an accident!
    Ares is the god of war and disorder. And those are two things I don't appreciate.
    Poseidon and Athena are the gods that I think represent most of me. I felt more thrilled to speak with them.

    ReplyDelete

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