Amashilama

*This article contains spoilers for Axiom Verge 2.*

## Description

*"An intelligent entity that has healed you and now lives inside your head."*

**Amashilama** is an Arm in Axiom Verge 2. She is the first of the Arms to be found by Indra, and offers her help. She is found in an urn in The Glacier and calls out to Indra, asking for help. Indra is led into freezing water, where she inevitably drowns but is revived by Amashilama.

## Story

Amashilama, formerly Elutil and sister to Ludari, takes the appearance of a red woman. Prior to the game, she was the Arm to Mageshgetil, a scholar with similar beliefs to Amashilama herself. She became an arm during the Udug war, feeling she had no other choice, while also tempted by the near-immortality the transformation promised. Her brother did not follow her, and her name was changed from Elutil to Amashilama, named after the goddess.

   After her discovery by Indra, she acts like a mentor, guiding Indra through Kiengir and informing her about Arms, as well as the technology in this new world. Upon finding the Lamassu and hearing its words to dispose of the Arms, she urges for Indra to seek technology that will let her split her consciousness between herself and her drone, guarding her body while she uses the drone. Indra follows Amashilama's plan, unknowingly being led to a machine that directs her consciousness from her body to her drone, enabling Amashilama to take Indra's body and run away with it, seeking the Siuna- which she was previously obsessed with in her life on Kiengir. The Lamassu urges Indra to stop her before she can cause more havoc.

Amashilama proceeds to try and access the portal to A'ansur, discovered to be beneath The Glacier, before being stopped by Indra. The two fight, as Indra tries to fill the Breach Bomb at the portal, until Amashilama captures her. This is where Indra's original body runs in and tackles Amashilama, choking her and giving Indra enough time to set off the bomb. Amashilama and the Siuna she obtained both die here.

## Etymology

In Mesopotamian lore, Amashilama is a divine leech, and sister to the god Damu. After her brother dies and goes to the underworld, their mother digs up his blood, chopping it into pieces and feeding it to Amashilama with a mix of beer in hopes of bringing Damu back to life. However, after seeing their efforts, Damu realizes he is dead and declares he is not in the "grass which shall grow for his mother again," nor in the "waters which will rise." He is blessed by his mother and Amashilama dies to join him in the underworld, telling him "the day that dawns for you will also dawn for me; the day you see, I shall also see".

Her given name, Elutil, means "‘the temple (which gives) life to man". *é* ‘house’ and ‘temple’ + *lú* ‘man’ + *tìl* ‘life’.

## References

1. ↑ Becoming an Arm (Note)
2. ↑ Cutscene 0038, AV2
3. ↑ Cutscene 0041, AV2
4. ↑ Cutscene 0054, AV2
5. ↑ https://religer.org/mesopotamian-amashilama/
6. ↑ Shushan, Gregory. Conceptions of the Afterlife in Early Civilizations: Universalism, Constructivism and Near-Death Experience. United Kingdom, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011.
7. ↑ https://namenookdotcom.wordpress.com/2011/07/02/sumerian-names-part-1/