Thena (Azura)

**Thena** is a member of the Eternals, a genetically superior offshoot race of humanity who possess abilities such as levitation and immortality. She is known for being a fierce warrior and for having amorous relationships with a great multitude of men over the centuries.

Thena's most consistent recurring relationship is a forbidden one with the warlord known as Kro, who is a member of the Eternals' arch-enemy race, the Deviants. Thena held the highest title of Prime Eternal for a time, but later stepped down from this position to give it over to Ikaris.

## Thena (changed by royal decree from her original name, Azura)

### Aliases

Athena / Minerva (mistakenly), Betty Sue Bialovsky, Corona, Doctor Thena Eliot, Pallas Athene, Prime Eternal, Zura

### Relatives

Deborah Ritter (daughter with Kro), Donald Ritter (son with Kro), Joey Eliot (son), Thomas Eliot (husband, dead), Zuras (father), Cybele (mother), Kronos (paternal grandfather), Daina (paternal grandmother), Uranos (great-uncle), Oceanus (great-uncle), A'Lars (uncle), Sui-San (aunt through marriage), Thanos (cousin), Eros (cousin, dead)

### Affiliation

Eternals of Earth, Lemurian Mission, New Breed, Stark International, Heroes for Hire

### Occupation

Scholar, warrior, adventurer, weapons developer (formerly), Prime Eternal

## History

### Across the Ages

Thena, like every Eternal, was created by the Celestials one million years ago and has looked after humanity ever since.

Initially going by the name **Azura**, she encountered the Deviant known as Kro around 100,000 years ago and and the two began a relationship which was frowned on by her people, forcing them to end things.

Later on, the Eternal Sersi confronted Azura after she took another Deviant lover, but she claimed Tzaigo was different, as he was a man of science. With no option but to tell her the truth, Sersi led Azura down a cave, where they found a pool of blood and bodies. There, Tzaigo had been replacing his own organs with primitive-human and Neanderthal organs to extend his life, and was studying Thena to try and improve the process. After being discovered, he tried to attack Thena, but she reacted promptly and killed her lover. In the aftermath, she claimed she would never have a relationship with a Deviant again, but this would prove to be a lie.

Circa 500 BC, Thena re-encountered Kro in the ancient city of Babylon and the two rekindled their relationship, but once again they knew it couldn't last.

In ancient antiquity, Azura and her father Zuras met with Athena and her father Zeus. Noticing the marked physical resemblance between them, Athena suggested that the Olympian gods and the Eternals form an alliance in which the Eternals would act as the gods' representatives on Earth. Azura then took the name **Thena** as a token of this agreement.

Since the pact, Thena has often been mistaken for Athena, and the city of Athens was apparently built in her honor and not the real goddess.

In the 1940's, during the early part of World War II, Azura operated under the Roman goddess identity of "Minerva" and persuaded her father "Jupiter" (Zuras) to send "Mercury" (Makkari) to stop "Pluto" (Kro), who had assumed the guise of the Prussland dictator "Rudolph Hendler". While the dictator was sparking war across Europe, Mercury successfully thwarted these plans.

### Becoming a mother

A couple decades later, Thena and Kro met once again and made love during a war in Southeast Asia, resulting in Thena becoming pregnant with his twin heirs. Given their mixed ancestry, Thena placed their embryos inside of one Ms. Ritter, an infertile woman, who raised them as her own twin children, Donald and Deborah.

### Reveal to the World

When Kro led his armies in an attack on New York after the arrival of the Fourth Host of Celestials, Thena opposed him.

After Kro called a truce, she decided to reveal their races' existence to humanity via Professor Samuel Holden, Kro also revealed to her Deviant citizen, Ransak the Reject, a genetically stable Deviant.

With the revelation of Ransak and Kro's *willingness* for peace, Thena was convinced by the Deviant Karkas to grant both of them sanctuary. After Zuras' death and the subsequent departure of most of the Eternals from Earth, Thena became Prime Eternal. Yet, her being traumatized by her father's death allowed her to be subtly influenced by a Brain-Mine Kro had placed upon her. She turned against Ikaris to help save Kro's life, but later had to relinquish her title to Ikaris. When she learned of the Brain-Mine, she was furious with Kro, but had forgiven him after a while.[*verification needed*]

### The Waking Dream

Like Sersi and Makkari, Thena was affected by Sprite's reality-warping to have no memory of her past as an Eternal. Thena was married to Thomas Eliot, with a son named Joey, and was employed as a researcher at Stark Enterprises.

Eventually, the Eternals saw through Sprite's illusion, but Thena had grown too close to Joey and didn't want to let him go. She had a heated argument with Zuras over keeping her son due to his being born a mortal, to which the outcome came in her favor as she swore to continue loving and parenting Joey until his death by old age.

### The Final Host

When the countless bodies of Celestials rained down on the Earth to herald the arrival of the Dark Celestials, the Eternals were made to learn a dark truth that drove them mad: that the true purpose of their kind was to cultivate humankind.

Since the First Host of Celestials, the Space-Gods allowed humanity to thrive because they saw in their genetic makeup the potential to act as antibodies against the Horde. In their madness and frustration at learning their true purpose, the Eternals either turned against each other or committed suicide, including Thena.

## Attributes

### Powers

**Earth-Eternal Physiology:** Thena is an Eternal, who is capable of manipulating cosmic energy for a variety of purposes. As well as possessing skills that were learned over the course of millennia of living.

* **Superhuman Strength**: Thena is superhumanly strong and can lift around 25 tons.
* **Superhuman Durability**: Thena's Eternal body is highly resistant to injury due to her psionic control over her body's molecules. She is mostly invulnerable to conventional weaponry and can only be killed by dispersing her body's molecules over a wide area.
* **Superhuman Speed**: Thena is able to move and accelerate at speeds greater than an Olympic athlete.
* **Superhuman Stamina**: Thena possesses incredible stamina, allowing her to operate at her peak for far longer than an ordinary human.
* **Superhuman Agility**: Thena's flexibility, balance, and overall agility are far greater than that of an ordinary human.
* **Superhuman Reflexes**: Thena's reflexes are similarly enhanced, allowing her to react at blinding speeds.
* **Regenerative Healing Factor**: Thena's psionic control over her body's molecules allows her to rapidly regenerate from virtually any injury short of having her molecules dispersed over a wide area, even while asleep or unconscious.
* **Immortality**: Thena is immune to aging, poisons, toxins, and disease.
* **Flight**: By using her powers to levitate herself, Thena is able to fly at high speeds.
* **Cosmic Energy Manipulation**: Thena is capable of controlling cosmic energy for a variety of purposes:
	+ **Photokinesis**: Thena can manipulate cosmic energy to produce light.
	+ **Thermokinesis**: Thena can use cosmic energy to produce heat.
	+ **Concussive Blasts**: Thena can produce blasts of pure concussive force.
	+ **Weapon Manifestation**: Thena has the ability to use cosmic energy to form handheld weapons like swords.
* **Molecular Manipulation**: Thena is able to psionically rearrange the molecules of an object, transforming it from one thing to another, though she is not as talented as Sersi in this regard.
* **Telekinesis**: Thena is able to manipulate objects with the power of her mind alone. She is also able to use this power to create force fields.
* **Telepathy**: Thena is able to send and receive thoughts to any mind weaker than her own and is also capable of casting sophisticated illusions. She often uses this ability to disguise herself and her Deviant attendants as normal humans.
* **Teleportation**: Thena is able to teleport herself and other vast distances. However, using this power is uncomfortable and drains much of Thena's stored cosmic energy.

### Abilities

Thena is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant with knowledge of combat methods and weaponry used during various periods in Earth's history.

### Weaknesses

Thena's seeming immortality, like that of other Earth-born Eternals, depends upon the mental control she maintains over her bodily molecules. If an Eternal's control is broken and suffers a fatal injury during that time, she will not be able to heal from it.

## Paraphernalia

### Transportation

Teleportation, although doing so with her own power is unpleasant.