Tisiphone

**Tisiphone** is the Goddess of Vengeance from Greco-Roman mythology. She is the second-oldest of the Furies, the original erinyes who serve as castigators of mortal crimes, with her being the castigator of murder.

## Overview

**Tisiphone** ("vengeful destruction" or "avenging murder"), also known as **Tilphousia**, is one of the Furies in Greek mythology. Either a monster or minor goddess, she was born along with her sisters from the blood of Ouranos after his castration by Cronus.

She punishes those who commit crimes of murder: parricide, fratricide and homicide. She is the guardian of the gates of Tartarus in the *Aeneid*. A myth recounts of how Tisiphone fell in love with a mortal, Cithaeron, who rejected her; furious, she threw a snake from her head at him, which killed him with a venomous bite.

Some depicted her and her siblings as the daughters of Nyx.

## Appearance

Tisiphone appears as a skeletal-like woman with gray-tinted skin, hovering pale-green hair styled into a ponytail, and golden eyes with jet-black scleras. Like her sisters, she only has a single bat-like wing, which is located on the left side of her body and is a purplish-blue color.

She speaks with a raspy voice and winced while doing so, implying that the act is physically difficult for her to perform.

## Personality

Tisiphone could arguably be considered the most naive and child-like among the Furies, having a very black-and-white view of the world despite her millions-years-old age. Thanatos once stated that having it not for the nature of her origins and duties, one might never believe she is among the oldest gods in the Underworld.

According to her, murder is a crime that must be punished, especially if said crime is committed against a family member, and to let the murderer go unpunished is not only an insult toward her but toward the gods as a whole.

## History

### Early Life

Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone were created by Ouranos millions of years ago to serve as guardians of honor and to enforce the authority of the Titans. However, when Kronos overthrew his father and became ruler of the Ancient Greek cosmos, he banished them to the Underworld where they became tormentors of the shades who descended there.

### The Titanomachy

During the Titanomachy, Tisiphone and her sisters, much like other chthonic gods, swore an oath of servitude to Hades and the Olympian dynasty due to their personal discontent toward Kronos and the Titans' rule who looked down upon the chthonic gods as "lesser spirits". From then on, she became Hades' bodyguard and a physician within the rebels' armies, specialized in poisons and antidotes.

After the Olympians achieved victory, she and her sisters returned to the Underworld, having grown to love the underworldly realm as their new home. As part of their agreement upon swearing servitude, they got their positions as castigators back and are now in-charge of enforcing the rules settled down by the Olympians among humanity.

### Fostering Dionysus

According to Ovid's "Metamorphoses", Tisiphone was the goddess who, at the behest of Hera, drove Athamas and Ino mad with the breath of a serpent and poison made from froth from the mouth of Cerberus and Echidna's venom.

### Oedipus' Curse

After Oedipus found out he had killed his father Laius and committed incest with his mother Jocasta, he gouged out his own eyes in a frantic state. Seeing this as an opportunity, his sons Eteocles and Polynices, turned on him because of his transgressions and usurped his authority. Angered, he cursed his sons for their actions before wandering into the wilderness.

In the Underworld, Tisiphone heard Oedipus' curse and arrived at Thebes to enact his curse and sow fury between the brothers, resulting in the succession war that would be the basis for the epic poem, the "Thebaid", as well as many other plays such as "Seven Against Thebes" or "The Phoenician Women".

### The Oresteia

After he had killed his mother Clytemnestra, Orestes became the target of the wrath of Tisiphone for his crime of matricide and he had no choice but to flee from the palace of Argos. As he ran across Ancient Greece in an attempt to escape from them, thanks to the support of Hermes and Apollo, he was able to come and ask the *pythia* for advice and she told him to come to Athens and seek Athena's help.

At Athens, Athena arranged for him a trial on the Areopagus, which was made up of a group of twelve Athenian citizens and was supervised by none other than Athena herself. After the trial came to an end, the votes were tied and Athena casted the deciding vote and determined that Orestes would not be killed. This, unsurprisingly, didn't go well with Tisiphone's desires to have his crimes punished, and she threatened to torment all inhabitants of Athens and to poison the surrounding countryside.

To protect her patron city, Athena promised that she and the Furies would receive due honor from the Athenians, in addition to reminding them that she possessed the key to the shrine where Zeus keeps Keraunos that had defeated the other older deities. This mixture of bribes and veiled threats satisfied Tisiphone, who were then led by Athena in a procession to their new abode.

Later on, it was revealed that this entire honoring thing Athena set up for the erinyes still didn't save Orestes at the end, as the moment he took his last breath, Tisiphone personally came to capture his shade and threw him into the Fields of Punishment for endless torment.

### The Aeneid

During the battle between Mezentius and Aeneas' men, Tisiphone was described to have been raging "among the warring thousands". According to Hermes, in the battle, she had her throat cut by an unknown person with a cursed dagger and she hadn't been able to heal that curse since then.

## Powers & Abilities

### Abilities

**Divine Physiology**: Tisiphone possesses all the standard traits and physical capability of a pagan god. By absorbing the power either gained from humans' offerings and sacrifices or naturally originated in the Realm of the Dead, she can empower herself multiple times and become as powerful as a greater god, though not on par with the Twelve Olympians.

* **Supernatural Condition**: Tisiphone possesses supernatural capabilities and attributes, both physically and mentally, that are drastically beyond what is naturally possible, which allow them to dwarf most beings within the supernatural world. Despite this, however, as a minor god, her powers still aren't on-par with greater gods without being empowered.
* **Divine Presence**: Tisiphone emits a transcendent presence which has supernatural effects that can cause malefic or catastrophic events or effects to happen. As the Goddess of Murder, those in her divine presence will experience intense murderous urges and have much less control of their dark and cynical thoughts, and will most likely to commit murder soon after.
* **Immortality**: Tisiphone is an immortal pagan goddess and can exist for infinitely unless she fades away or is killed using God-Slaying Magic.
	+ **Regenerative Healing Factor**: She possesses an incredibly powerful regenerative healing factor, meaning that she can rapidly heal and get restored to her optimal and full health at an extremely fast rate. Like other chthonic deities, when her body is destroyed or when she is killed by any non-permanent means, she will instantaneously be regenerated within the Realm of the Dead.

**Master Magician**: Tisiphone has demonstrated her ability as a master spell-caster capable of a multitude of different schools and systems of magic. Her most skilled magic systems are Olympus Magic and Hadean Magic, though she is also knowledgeable about the ancient magic wielded by the primordial gods due to her former past as Ouranos' castigator.

* **Transformation Magic**: Tisiphone is proficient in Transformation Magic, which allows her to shapeshift into various different characters, as well as the physical form of various monsters.
	+ **Natural Weaponry Manipulation**: She has complete control over her own natural weaponry, allowing her to freely alter and manipulate them. She can manipulate the shape, growth, coloration, density, sharpness, project them as projectiles, induce/remove infections/ailments, etc.
* **Illusion Magic**: Tisiphone can perform powerful Illusion Magic to create various powerful and life-like illusions to trick her opponents, with some even capable of altering the physics of the environments around her.
* **Summoning Magic**: Tisiphone can use Summoning Magic to summon forth many different animals and monsters that she had made contracts with, thus allowing her to employ their service at any time she needs them. Currently, at the time of this recording, her most loyal and powerful summon was the spirit of the Caucasian Eagle who was sent by Zeus to torment Prometheus.
* **Dark Magic**: Tisiphone is proficient in Dark Magic and can place a curse on whatever she wishes. The exact effects can be nearly anything she desires, with the most common effects being misfortune/bad luck, various illnesses, infertility, physical defects/ugliness, etc.
* **Flight**: According to Hermes, Tisiphone and the other Furies can only fly through by using their magical energy for repulsion or propulsion as it is physically impossible, even by the norms of the supernatural world, for them to lift themselves above the ground, much less hover or even float above the ground, with a single wing.

**Master Whip Proficiency**: Tisiphone possesses great proficiency, capabilities, and knowledge in whips. She is able to wield a whip with great proficiency in range, accuracy, and speed, thus allowing her to perform feats such as snatching her opponent's weapons, swinging from high altitudes and slicing the flesh of her enemies when striking at great speed.

### Powers

**Divine Power**: As a minor goddess, Tisiphone possesses all the standard abilities of a god, including the ability to perform magic without the need of a magical foci or a magic circle. Due to her origins as a chthonic god, she can absorb the spiritual power of the Realm of the Dead to empower herself without having to resort to humans' sacrifices and offerings.

* **Afterlife Traveling**: Tisiphone can travel between the mortal world and the Realm of the Dead, particularly between the mortal world and the Greco-Roman Underworld, freely and safely navigating both worlds and any adjacent dimensions connecting the two.
* **Poison Manipulation**: Tisiphone can create, shape and manipulate poisons and poisonous substances, which manifest as writhing snakes located on her hair and move and react just like real, living ones. She can create poisons so powerful that, even if it couldn't kill an immortal god, it'd drive said god to insanity trying to kill themselves.
	+ **Poison Inducement**: She can cause a target to be inflicted with poison, though the exact length of the effect depends on a combination of her own desires and the target's current state. While it is possible for her to generate poison and for it be injected into the target's body through various ways, she can also utilize the natural toxins within the target's body, such as the various toxins stored within the liver that, if leaked out, can cause the target's biological system to shut down.
		- **Pain Inducement**: She is able to cause varying levels of pain, including physical, mental and/or emotional, to her targets using poisons.
		- **Paralysis Inducement**: She can immobilize the target completely or partially, causing them to be left without movement and sensation. Making motor functions and muscle movement unavailable, the victim may freeze on the spot or crumple to the ground.
		- **Necrosis Inducement**: She can cause necrosis, or premature cell death, in those affected by her poison, causing the rapid decay of the victim's flesh. Because of this, she can instantly kill any biological entity simply if she wills it.
	+ **Goo Manipulation**: She can create ooze, slime, and goo of every consistency or viscosity, whether sticky, slippery, etc. Some types of goo may be toxic or carry a disease of some kind, or may have other effects upon contact with living beings. She mainly uses this power to immobilized her opponents before solidified the slime, capturing her opponents within the frozen goo.
* **Fear Inducement**: Tisiphone can evoke and increase fear and horror in others, which resulted in alterations within the target’s perception, causing them to see their environment as ominous and her as more dark and foreboding than she already is.

## Equipment

**Adamantine Whip** (アダマントむち, *Adamanto Muchi*): Tisiphone and the Furies all wield enchanted whips created by the Elder Cyclops out of modified Adamantine, which is considered to be one of the most powerful sacred metals in existence. It possesses similar properties to the death scythes wielded by reapers, which allow it to damage the target's body and soul simultaneously.

## Trivia

* Her name, Tisiphone, means "vengeful destruction" or "avenging murder".
* 466 Tisiphone, a minor planet, is named after her.
	+ HMS *Tisiphone*, a fireship of the Royal Navy launched in 1781, was named after her.
* It's unknown why she couldn't heal her throat.
* She prefers eating out than cooking her own meals.
* She is the only one to fully memorize the phone numbers of all of her colleagues.
* She is the guardian of the gates of Tartarus, "clothed in a blood-wet dress".
* In some myths, the four immortal horses that pulled Ares' chariot are her children with Boreas.
* According to one myth, she fell in love with a mortal, Cithaeron, but was spurned; in her anger she formed a poisonous snake from her hair, which bit and killed him.