Tinshemet

(Photograph by Gennadii Saus i Segura)

**Tinshemet** was the first woman created by God and unwilling ally of Satan and Lucifer. Originally intended to be Adam's first wife, she rebelled and was cast out of the Garden of Eden and became a night-demon who lured men to their death.

## Overview

Tinshemet is a nocturnal she-devil and self-proclaimed true enemy of God. Ever since the incident in Eden she has made it her personal goal to destroy God by any means necessary. Her allyship with Satan, Lucifer, Hell, and its demons are only temporary and out of a shared goal against God.

Throughout history she has taken on numerous identities in order to stay inconspicuous. At one point she acted as a maid to the Sumerian goddess Ishtar, though her motive for doing so is unclear.

## Appearance

After being driven out of the Garden of Eden and becoming a demon, Tinshemet gained the power to shapeshift, enabling her to morph between a femme fatale and an eldritch abomination.

In her more humanoid guises, Tinshemet typically has crimson eyes, black horn-like tufts of hair on her head, and a pair of owl-like wings. While being trapped in Hell, Tinshemet appeared as a giant mountain of flesh.

Her true demonic form is that of a creature twice as tall as the Empire State Building, with the upper half belonging to a woman with a myriad of breasts while her lower torso is that of a black owl-like dragon. Sprouting from around her waist are tens of thousands of giant venomous snakes, forming a dress out of living serpents. Her true face is ever-changing, always shifting into a newer face, each more horrific than the last but all are beautiful in a dark and twisted way. From her breasts and the mouths of the serpents around her waist come miasma-infused blood, which brutally transform any mortal touching it into Monsters.

## Personality

Tinshemet is a highly deceptive and calculating creature, proven manipulative enough to corrupt Abaddon, once among Heaven's most devoted, into betraying his comrades and becoming the Destroyer. She is highly opportunistic, ever watchful of the next opportunity to hurt God, and has admitted that she is attracted to hurting God the most and above all else.

She has done anything and everything in her power to hurt God and what she considers His pride. Ever since she was kicked from the Garden she has despised Him and everything He stood for. This hatred has grown to the point where she would even ally herself with Lucifer and Satan, even though she considers them both to be intolerable; the former for his narcissism and the latter for his outbursts. She has used this hatred to gather together a group of mortals who feel similarly betrayed by the Almighty.

Her opinion on mortals and gods are much more complex and nuanced, and particularly among the Congregation of MAG being positive. From her time as a maid for the Sumerian gods it's been noted that she doesn't have anything against the deities of Khaos. For the mortals wronged by God however she holds a great level of respect and sympathy, especially those who choose to fight alongside her.

While Tinshemet won't be winning 'Mother of the Year' award any time soon, Tinshemet does love her children and descendants on some level, even though she will sacrifice most of them for her own preservation if needed. That said, she does have a few that are her personal favorites which she will not be willing to part with and will go to great lengths to keep them safe if they ever threatened by Tinshemet's enemies.

## Powers and Abilities

Tinshemet is stated to be one of the most powerful Archdemons in all of Hell, she even is powerful enough to rival some of the members of the Princes of Hell in power. She is far more powerful than any other queen of the underworld, with the exception of Izanami and Nyx. However, despite her seemingly frightening disposition as the queen of the demons, she is not powerful enough to rival, much less defeat the True Archangels. Gabriel was able to give her a one-sided beatdown so great that it left her at his mercy. Tinshemet is an Archdemon of unimaginable power, capable of feats even impossible for Primevals, with only the other Emperors of Hell being close to her in strength.

* **Archdemon Physiology**: After being thrown out of the Garden of Eden, she came to be considered a Demon Lord of the highest caliber or possibly superior than that. She possessed innumerable and incredible supernatural powers that are beyond the comprehension of that of lesser demonic beings.
* **Supernatural Strength & Power**: Tinshemet possesses incredible amount of strength and power, capable of holding all of dominions and legions of demons. She is capable of dealing with threats that can harm her or her allies. However, as powerful as she can be, there are beings that can exceed her power, like Satan, Lucifer, and the True Archangels.
* **Supernatural Reproduction**: Tinshemet can supernaturally procreate with other entities; reproducing any common to completely unique beings with supernatural properties and powers that originated from her, having offspring brought forth by using supernatural methods or by natural reproduction with a partner.
	+ **Asexual Reproduction**: She has the power that can reproduce their species without the requirement of a partner or mate. She can give birth to countless new born demons, and many other demonic monsters without making sex with any male that she have affairs of.
* **Master Magician & Sorceress**: Tinshemet possesses an incredible and frightening amount of skills in magic, ancient spells, rituals, and deadly black arts. She is one of the demons on a noble rank, that can induce a powerful spell that can imprison a strong beings. She is feared among the netherworld that can use black arts on a high degree. Being one of the high ranking demons that can use a unique form of magic, that are exclusive only to lords of hell. Her sorcery however doesn't work on beings that surpass her power.

## History

### Genesis

The Almighty God Himself started watching over all of humanity and became fascinated by these creatures. God saw that every other deity was creating their own pair of "first humans" and He wanted to join in on the fun. He decided to create a male, Adam, and a female, Tinshemet, and put them in a special paradise called the Garden of Eden. Since they were made from the same material, Tinshemet argued that she should be considered equal to Adam. Even though this request was reasonable, this sparked a fight between the two, with Adam perceiving this as an attack against his dignity.

After failing to acquire equality, Tinshemet fled the Garden of Eden, taking one of the Forbidden Fruits with her just in case. Adam was angered from this, and prayed to the Maker to help him in the conundrum. Unfortunately, instead of getting the help of his creator, he received the attention of Yaldabaoth. Yaldabaoth found her trying to make her own garden and gave chase after her, overtaking her near the raging oceans. Tinshemet, running out of options, ate the Forbidden Fruit in the hopes it would help her. Evidently, it did, as the fruit was incredibly fresh and gave her power beyond mortal kind. She then pronounced the true name of God, scaring the Demiurge away and giving her more physical and spiritual strength in the process.

Confusing Yaldabaoth for the true God in Heaven, Tinshemet vowed to destroy God in the name of all that He has harmed. She teamed herself with the demons, more specifically Satan and Lucifer. She helped in corrupting Abaddon so that he would join their side. From her time with demons, she made herself a consort among the demons, creating hundreds upon thousands of Succubi and Incubi.

### Formation

Tinshemet didn't attack God directly, at least at that moment, she needed to gather a team; a group of individuals willing to both join her in her crusade against the Almighty. Her first chose was an old friend, Nachash, who was completely willing to help after his recent de-limbing from something he wasn't aware of.

Tinshemet was worried that she wouldn't be able to gain anymore allies up until she finally ran into Cain. While Cain was hesitant at first, his anger due to his unfair treatment from both his parents and grand parent motivated him to agree. The two eventually developed a romance, this was when Cain finally asked Tinshemet if she could take him to Hell, to the Devil himself. Tinshemet was unsure about this, as she considered the demons of Hell too violent and self serving to help either of them, however she decided to bring him there, that even at worst it would scare him away.

Contrary to what she thought, Cain was fascinated by Hell for reasons unknown to both Tinshemet and Nachash. From this, Cain grew to trust Tinshemet more; Tinshemet thought that she had enough close allies to finally form an official group with a name, a title. She called themselves the Congregation of Mortals Against God; for they were all mortal at one point and were punished unjustly by God. Cain eventually broke up with Tinshemet amicably, but he still helped in the Congregations missions.

### Fights with other entities

At an unknown time for unknown reasons, Tinshemet had found herself in a fight with the archangel Gabriel. When the battle was almost over, Gabriel nearly killed Tinshemet, but she was saved by the angels Amitiel and Jophiel stepping in. They told Gabriel that she wasn't a big enough danger to Heaven and God to be put down, and so she was given mercy.

At another point in time, she managed to get into a fight with Aether for unknown reasons. During the fight, she entered into her true form, which was apparently the plan of Aether. He smote her with his divine light, nearly burning her to a crisp and giving her a fear of light users. Luckily for her, she was spared due to Aether's pacifistic nature.

### Aciel

Tinshemet had found a sulking demon in the seventh circle of Hell, she had known about him for a while and wanted to help him. While she was never a fan of the kings of Hell, she thought that they would be able to help Ishaam back on his feet. She brought him to Pandemonium, where he met Satan and Lucifer, both of whom were very intrigued by this new demon. Tinshemet requested that he be given a high position in Hell, and from his ambition alone he was seen as a worthy candidate.

After he became a king of Hell, Tinshemet gave Ishaam the name Aciel and pulled him aside to ask him to join her in her crusade against God. Aciel agreed and the congregation gained another member.

## Myths and Legends

Tinshemet, also known as the screech owl, is a figure from the *Book of Isaiah*, chapter 34 verse 14, often just translated as "Lilith" in certain translations. Tinshemet is also based on the idealized version of the Judaic figure Lilith often talked about within more feminist and witchery circles. The name, Tinshemet or תנשמת, is the closest approximation of the term "screech owl" in Hebrew; being used to describe barn owls rather than screech owls. She was mainly written by Nayerb for the *Gods and Demons wiki*.

Tinshemet's backstory as the first women created by God and wife of Adam is based on a possible backstory of Lilith from the satirical *Alphabet of Sirach*. While originally just being the Judaic figure Lilith on the *Gods and Demons wiki*, it was decided that Lilith was too nuanced and important of a figure in the closed practices of the Jewish religion that it shouldn't be stolen by non-Jews and used for their fantasy wiki.

## Trivia

* Tinshemet is treated as a feminist symbol today, since she wouldn't submit to Adam and wanted equality.
* Despite often being equated by humanity to many pagan goddesses, it is a well-known fact across the supernatural world that no goddess likes to be compared to Tinshemet and see it as the worst possible insult one could give.
* The name Tinshemet has been variously transcribed in multiple iterations which all mean a type of Screech Owl or a Night Owl.
* Unlike traditional texts, myths, and beliefs, Tinshemet isn't the actual Mother of All Demons as this was simply a misunderstanding created by mortal invocators.
* Tinshemet is one of the few demons that is fluent in Enochian.
* Tinshemet is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek Monster, Lamia. Both are depicted to devour children.