Matsya

**Matsya**, known as **The Great Fish**, is a deity and the first of the Dashavataras, the ten principle avatars of Vishnu. He is responsible for saving the king, Vaivasvata Manu, and his people from the great deluge.

## Appearance

Matsya is sometimes described as either a large fish with a horn, usually golden colored, or anthropomorphically with the torso of Vishnu connected to the rear-end of a fish.

## History

The tale begins when Vaivasvata Manu, the current progenitor of humanity in Hinduism, performing religious rituals alongside his people on the banks of the Cherivi River in the Badri forest. Suddenly, a small fish appeared from the waters asking Manu for protection, and promising to protect him from a great deluge in the future.

Manu then places the fish in a jar, but to his surprise, the fish outgrew the jar a few days later. Then, the fish requested to be put in a tank. Manu complied and put him in a huge tank but he once again, outgrew the size of the tank, and this continued to occur in a pond, the Ganges River, and finally, the ocean.

After a while, the fish warned Manu of the oncoming Great Flood and commanded him to build a ship for him and his people. He would then gather a pair of animals, the Saptarishi (seven sages), and all sorts of seeds and medicines from around the world. Manu accept his advice, and a few months later, the flood begins. Matsya arrives to Manu's aid, tying the ship to his horn and steer the ship to the Himalayas, carrying it through the turbulent storm. Eventually, the danger had passed and Matsya revealed himself to be Vishnu, giving Manu the power of creation.

## Powers and Abilities

**Animal Manipulation:** Matsya can create, shape and manipulate animals, multicellular eukaryotic organisms that form the biological kingdom Animalia. They can command, speak/understand, evolve/devolve, merge with, possess, etc., with all forms of animal life.

**Animal Kingdom Embodiment:** Matsya becomes the embodiment of the natural forces of life pertaining to the animal kingdom.

**Beast Divinity:** Matsya has the animal/beast form of Divinity and divine powers granting them an immense amount of raw power beyond the mundane, making Matsya a divine being by nature, a status which can be obtained several different ways. Matsya can gain this type of divinity by having a divine beast ancestry, being transformed into an divine beast, animal or half animal either by another more powerful divine being, a deity, by faith, channels, acts as a vessel for, the power/soul of an divine beast, to mimic/steal powers from an beast/animal, or be enhanced/evolved to the point of godhood. However, at times Matsya with the beast divinity is more powerful or even weaker than other deities depending on the type of divine being they are in question.

**Transcendent Physiology:** Matsya possesses the traits, attributes, characteristics and/or abilities of transcendent beings like deities, other beings that are divine in nature, and other transcendent level beings like cosmic entities. Most have surpassed the restraints of the material existence and transcended their physical limitations to achieve a higher level of status, power, and/or state of being. They achieve this either through literal transcendence, summoning or transforming into a godly entity, or already being a divine being in the first place.