Hunters of Artemis

The **Hunters of Artemis** is a group of huntresses who serve the Moon Goddess Artemis. They are blessed with eternal youth in exchange for swearing off any romantic and/or sexual desire.

## Summary

The Hunters of Artemis is a group of maidens who have sworn loyalty to the Moon Goddess Artemis, which can consist of humans, demigods, nymphs, and even other goddesses. By connecting their life-force with Artemis, they are granted immortality in the form of eternal youth for as long as they don't break their vows of rejecting love and sexual desires or are slain in battle.

Due to their elite status and training, they are often used as a small but effective strike force to take out weaker immortals or the high-ranked monsters as ordered by the Twelve Olympians. However, by 2018, due to the Second Titan War and the Second Giant War, their number has become significantly lowered and now only consists of 45% of their original number at the start of the Second Titan War.

## History

The predecessors of the Hunters of Artemis were the small group of nymphs who served Artemis during her hunt. They consisted of 60 Oceanids, who also served as Artemis' immortal handmaidens, and 20 Amnisides Nymphs who took care of her hunting dogs and her weapons while she rested. Tragically, the majority of them were killed during the Gigantomachy as they held off the Gigantes for their mistress to flee from the battlefield.

The group known as the "Hunters of Artemis", however, was only officially founded sometime in the beginning of the Greek Dark Ages, circa 1100 BC. Due to the collapse of the Mycenaean Civilization, the direct consequence of the Gigantomachy, the gods' authority became heavily weakened for over three centuries, only beginning to recover in the Archaic Greek period. During this era, many monsters took advantage of the situation to terrorize Ancient Greece. In order to protect mankind's faith toward the Olympian gods, Zeus granted Artemis permission to form an elite group of immortal soldiers to help quell the monsters' population and to protect humans from supernatural threats.

With the expansion of the Olympian Empire, so did the Hunters in terms of size and influence. From a group who patrolled the mountains of Greece, their hunting grounds grew larger and larger throughout the centuries, eventually enveloping the entire Mediterranean Basin as the Olympians became the top-ranked gods within the region's divine hierarchy. And when the Greek Pantheon became the Greco-Roman Pantheon and started to move alongside the western world, the Hunters moved alongside them.

## Ceremonies

### Joining Oath

If a maiden wants to join the Hunters of Artemis, she must recite the oath. Once Artemis agrees to that oath, it is binding and the maiden must live by it for the rest of their immortal days. On the rare occasions where Artemis decided to bless male youths with her magical blessings, they must also recite the oath to Artemis, albeit with minor adjustments.

### Leaving the Hunters

Despite popular belief, leaving the Hunters of Artemis is simple, as all the maiden has to do is talk to her current leader - be it the Maiden, the Pack Commander, or even the Goddess herself - and inform them of her decision. Afterward, her immortality will be revoked and the Hunters will organize a safe way for her to rejoin society without much troubles and even offer the former huntress a job to still work for the Maidens of the Moon as a non-hunter consultant.

## Groups

### Artemis' Inner Circle

Artemis' Inner Circle consists of her Lieutenant and second-in-command, the Commanders of the Nine Packs, and the Lady of the Maidens.

* **The Lieutenant**: Artemis' second-in-command whose authority is second only to Artemis'. The Lieutenant wears a silver circlet with a crescent moon emblem to denote her status among other huntresses. The current Lieutenant is Thalia Grace, who succeeded the position from Zoë Nightshade after she was killed trying to rescue Artemis.
* **Commander of the Packs**: There are 10 packs of immortal huntresses, each with their own Commander, though the Lieutenant is the leader of Artemis' Pack who accompanied the goddess in her personal quests. A Commander wears an upper-arm bracelet of silver with moon carvings to denote her status.
* **Lady of the Maidens**: The Lady of the Maidens is Artemis' Apostle, the High Sorcerer in-charge of keeping all sorcerers blessed by the goddess in line, as well as the leader of the Maidens of the Moon. The Lady wears elaborate silver jewelry - multiple rings, earrings, bracelets, and a plain silver diadem - to denote her status. The current Lady of the Maiden is Atlanta Edmondson, a descendant of the Greek heroine Atalanta.

### Pack Hunters

The Pack Hunters are those who are sworn off romance, sex, love and marriage in exchange for eternal youth. They are semi-immortal maidens who travel around the world in packs with their commanders, patrolling borders of Greco-Roman territories and hunting down threats to humanity such as monsters or rogue sorcerers.

* **Artemis' Pack**: The girls who travel with Artemis, consisting of the Hunters' eldest and most skilled members. The pack has a total of 20 girls, some of which travel temporarily as Artemis has just recruited them and are yet to assign them to a pack or Maiden group.
* **Northern Pack**: A group of 25 girls who travel in the North of the United States.
* **Southern Pack**: A group of 25 girls who travel in the South of the United States.
* **Eastern Pack**: A group of 25 girls who travel in the East of the United States.
* **Western Pack**: A group of 25 girls who travel in the West of the United States.
* **South American Pack**: A group of 30 girls who patrol the whole of South America.
* **European Pack**: A group of 30 girls who patrol the whole of Europe.
* **African Pack**: A group of 30 girls who patrol the whole of Africa.
* **Pacific Pack**: A group of 30 girls who patrol the whole of Polynesia and Australia.
* **Asian Pack**: A group of 30 girls who patrol the whole of Asia.

### Maidens of the Moon

The Maidens of the Moon, unlike the Pack Hunters, are not immortal nor are they sworn off sex and romance. They are sorceresses who are more in line with their Ancient Greek roots as they only sworn off marriage and men. They work to recruit more huntresses, find and protect abused children, and take in homeless and orphaned children to raise, as well as to train them if they are young girls.

* **Maidens of Youth**: The ones who take in orphaned and homeless children off the streets and give them a home.
* **Maidens of the Lost**: The ones who hunt down rapists and abusers and protect abused children.
* **Maidens of the Hunt**: They work like the Pack Hunters except they aren't immortal. They are the ones who recruit new huntresses for the Hunters when they can and hunt down weak monsters when the regional pack is unavailable.

## Trivia

* The Hunters have their own PO box in Wyoming that can be used to send messages to them through the Keruke and the Olympus Postal Service.
* Despite popular belief, not all Hunters are aro/ace and not all Hunters are queer, since the Hunters is a safe space for *all* women.
* If a huntress develops romantic feelings toward someone, she needs to have a personal talk with Artemis on options so she can have a *very* non-contact romantic relationship, with minimal kissing, cuddling, etc.
* Some male hunters such as Orion or Hippolytus are considered honorary members of the Hunters.
* The Hunters have won "Capture the Flag" against Camp Half-Blood 56 times in a row.