Gorgons

In Greek mythology, the **Gorgon** was a terrifying female creature. It derives from the Greek word *gorgons*, which means "dreadful." While descriptions of Gorgons vary across Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair of living, venomous snakes, and a horrifying visage that turned those who beheld it to stone. Traditionally, while two of the Gorgons were immortal, Stheno and Euryale, their sister Medusa was not, and was slain by the mythical hero Perseus.

An extremely rare variant of male gorgons was known as **a maedar**, which lacked the head serpents and the petrifying gaze of a gorgon, but possessed great physical strength and in some cases a poisonous weakening gaze.

## Descriptions

In early classical art the Gorgons were portrayed as **winged female creatures**; their hair consisted of snakes, and they were round-faced, flat-nosed, with tongues lolling out and with large projecting teeth.

## Powers and Abilities

The glowing eyes of some gorgons were feared for their petrifying power. Anyone within a range of 9.1 meters of a gorgon (or medusa) who looked at its eyes could be transformed into lifeless stone within seconds, at the user's discretion. It was possible to resist that power through extraordinary physical resilience, or by averting one's eyes from the gorgon's. The petrification was permanent, unless reversed with magic or items. A gorgon's vision and petrifying gaze can also reached into other dimensional planes. As a result of the plane's obscuring nature, the creature's features could only be recognized at dangerously close distances: its bright eyes could only be seen from 9.1 meters or less, while the serpents were only visible from a distance of less than 3.7 meters. Although a stronger gorgon's gaze can affected ethereal creatures, its head snakes and physical attacks had no effect on ethereal targets. A gorgon was immune to the petrifying stare of other gorgons, but was susceptible to be turned into stone by its own gaze, for example when looking at its own reflection in a mirror or other reflective surface. Even after death, a gorgon's eyes retained their power for several days, becoming weaker as the corpse decayed. A gorgon's typical strategy was to lure potential victims within the 9.1‑metered range of its gaze and then induce them into looking in its eyes. If the victims managed to avert their eyes in time, the gorgon followed up with powerful attacks from its head serpents, whose venom was potent enough to severely poison or even kill a creature. If none of those strategies succeeded, gorgons were also competent with a number of weapons, such as knives, short swords short bows, and longbows. Many gorgons were considered skilled archers and some greater gorgons were known to coat arrows with their poisonous saliva or blood.

* **Natural Weapons** - The ability to make use of harmful body features.
	+ **Natural Claws** - The ability to make use of sharp, piercing nails.
	+ **Natural Fangs** - The ability to make use of sharp, piercing teeth.

* **Ophidian Hair** - The ability to host a brood of snakes in place of a head of hair.
* **Petrifying Gaze** - The ability to turn others to stone via eye contact.
* **Persuasion** - Some gorgons has the ability to persuade people to open their eyes with a soothing voice.
* **Prehensile Tail** - The ability to make use of a tail as a grabbing appendage.
* **Healing Factor** - The ability to heal from illness and injury to an extent beyond human norms.
* **Reptilian Communication** - The ability to psychically perceive, communicate with and/or command reptiles.
	+ **Ophidian Communication** - The ability to psychically perceive, communicate with and/or command snakes.

* **Scaly Skin** - The ability to make use of skin layered with tough scales.
* **Supernatural Blood** - The ability to make use of blood with supernatural or otherwise supernatural properties.
	+ **Healing** - The blood from the right side of a Gorgon's body can cure anything.
	+ **Death Inducement** - The blood from the left side of a Gorgon's body can cause the cessation of life.

* **Superhuman Strength** - The ability to exert physical force beyond human norms.
	+ **Hyper Constriction** - the ability to enwrap and grip targets with physical force beyond human norms (often via Prehensile Tail).
* **Venom Generation** - The ability to physically produce or psychically form venom.
	+ **Venom Immunity** - The ability to withstand the effects of venom.

## Weaknesses

* **Mirrors** -
* **Decapitation** - Gorgons are difficult to defeat as they can only be killed by beheading, as bullets or fire cannot. Other than that they don't really have any weaknesses because they're immortal.
* **Magic** - Gorgons are susceptible to the powers of magic.