Sylphid Erymos

Unlike most of our work, I didn’t scrupulously comb the dialogue for clues about the playable character. In fact, I merrily contradict what little is known since it’s negligible and not fun.

---

Advertisement

• This profile features a sample or customized Player Character. See our video games writeups FAQ for more.
• This profile features tabletop RPG mechanics about the video game’s gameplay. See our video games writeups FAQ for more.
• This profile features non-canon hypotheses about in-game events and mechanics. See our video games writeups FAQ for more.

---

Background

---

Advertisement

---

Powers & Abilities

Sylphid is a minor demi-goddess. As a result, she is physically superhuman. She can lift about ten times her own body weight. She acts with a speed and physical coordination that likely are impossible for a human being. Her resistance to pain and especially fatigue are abnormally high.

She is trained as an Ancient Spartan warrior, and built from there. She’s a mistress of spears, shields, stabbing short swords, maces… as well as a good archer. And on the latter front she is certainly strong enough to string even Odysseus’ bow . Though she has zero interest in being Penelope’s suitor so that’s, like, theoretical. Also, Odysseus was well before her time.

Sylphid has a rarely-seen amount of combat experience. She has fought thousands of monsters and soldiers. It is likely that no mortal warrior, and possible that no god but Ares, matches her fighting track record.

She ages very little. Furthermore, Sylphid could become immortal using the usual procedure in the Garden of the Hesperides and the ambrosia. It worked for Lyta Hall, after all.

Call me the breeze

Unlike her sister Chioné — goddess of snow — Syphid doesn’t have a divine portfolio. She isn’t formally part of the Olympian pantheon. But she is one of the Anemoi (Aνεμοι), the gods of the winds. It’s just that there isn’t a wind associated with her, like her father is the personification of the Northern Wind.

As such :

1. The very air constantly communicates with her.
2. Sylphid can accurately perceive ripples in the air. This is a strange sense that resembles both touch and sight.
3. Minor animistic wind spirits consider Sylphid and most Anemoi as their bosses.

The start of the game, near the village of Helos. Click for a larger version.

Applications include :

• Having local wind spirits alter the way air carries her words. That translates local tongue to air elemental speech and vice-versa.
• Bringing her sustenance simply by breathing. This leaves her with little need for food, shelter or medicine.
• Talking to her and telling her about local events, the local geography and weather, etc..
• A sort of proximity sense. It allows her to track everything that moves (or otherwise interferes with air) at a good distance around her. In practice this isn’t unlike Daredevil (Matt Murdock)’s radar sense.
• Helping with her acrobatics and battlefield mobility. This is done by having gusts of wind correct the rare mistake she might make whilst in mid-air.
• Releasing large electrical arcs from her hands. These rapidly lose cohesion over but a few feet. But they can be used to charge her blows, even if her weapon isn’t that conductive (say, a spear). Or for general pretty lights.

One with nature, literally

Perhaps her most impressive ability is to merge with air or water. When doing so she’ll move as a transparent gas or liquid, going as fast as she would if sprinting. In this state she’s almost undetectable, barring magic or other super-senses to tell that *this* part of the air is a person.

This is most often used to vanish and reappear right in the middle of the enemy in (and as) a gust of wind. Thus, she can strike multiple victims in a flash as she rematerialises.

A plaza in Megara. Yes, there’s a guy juggling produce in an apparent attempt to impress a lady. Click for a larger version.

She can’t quite fly, but she can glide or use the denser air near the ground as a carpet. And she can stay underwater until the αγελάδες come home.

This can be used to travel long distances. In this application she can ignore cliffs, rivers, marshes, crevasses, etc.. She just keeps on moving.

By merging with water or air she can also control these elements’ movements with considerable strength. This is not used often, though, since she’s even stronger in the flesh.

A giant storm is coming

The mythical, immortal Yellow Emperor of China  taught Sylphid to draw on even more power. This uses chi -gathering breathing techniques. But with her nature as a divine being of air, Sylphid can draw far more energy than any monk.

When she uses this technique, Sylphid becomes about five metres tall. Her clothing, weapons and armour grow to match. She possesses in this state fantastic strength allowing her to fight other giants toe-to-toe. She has even fought gods and titans on even footing.

This is a difficult technique to use, and quite tiring.

---

Video

The under-two-minutes cinematic intro for the game. The monster that speaks is a Telkine.

---

Power level notes

In most of our AARPG  articles, we assume a reasonable power level. We also assume that what is seen is compressed in time and space compared to the in-universe events. This is usually supported by the material (see our video game FAQ).

Frex, the distance between Helos and Sparta isn’t the few kilometres depicted in game. And isn’t crossed within minutes of jogging.

Click for a larger version.

Nevertheless, I went for a high-ish power level for this character. She is indeed capable of demolishing hordes of monsters and leaving hundreds of corpses behind.

The main inspiration for this are the super-heroic Xena and Hercules from the old TV shows with Lucy Lawless and Kevin Sorbo (and Renee O’Connor). Sylphid isn’t quite as powerful as they are. But she’s in the same general weight class, not unlike Steve Reeves’ Hercules.

It also acknowledges the power of Ancient Greek mythicals in super-hero settings. For instance, Marvel Comics’ Hercules or DC’s Wonder Woman. If Sylphid were to travel to Marvel Earth, it would be a coherent power level for her to have.

As usual for CRPG  entries, the levelling treadmill and the equipment treadmill were abstracted out of our game stats and narration.

In Titan Quest: AE, she’s a Defense/Dream STR/DEX character.

---

History – pre-game

(This section is completely made up. The Titan Quest player character  is a blank slate.)

The Ancient Greeks had a god for the winds from each cardinal point – the winds from the North, South, East and West. This set of divinities is called the Anemoi . It includes smaller divinities for other kinds of winds. The god of the North Wind, Boreas, may be the most famous.

Spartan and Athenian troops at Athens’ gate. Click for a larger version.

Boreas once grew interested in a mortal princess, Orithyia (Ὠρείθυια) of Athens. But she rejected him. Being an authoritarian thug, Boreas kidnapped her and raped her instead, mostly in cloud form.

Orithyia became heavily pregnant, giving birth to:

• Chioné (Χιόνη), the minor goddess of snow.
• A mortal woman named Kleopatra, who later married a king of Thrace.
• The Boreads  – male twins named Calaïs and Zetes. They had special powers and would later join Jason’s Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece .

There was a fifth child, halfway in nature between the goddess Chioné and the heroic Boreads. But none realised her presence. She had merged with bodily fluids during the birth then melted into the air, drifting as part of the wind.

Command air, shepherd

The fifth child eventually returned to flesh a year later on Mount Taygetus, in Lacedaemon . A shepherd named Nikias found the one-year old. She was attempting to sleep among his sheep, as they looked soft and fluffy.

Helos, a typical village in this area. Click for a larger version.

The child was feral. Yet the shepherd found it easy to tame her by giving her goat milk to drink. He then sealed the deal with an improvised teddy bear made of fabric, packed wool and string.

Nikias assumed that the toddler was some sort of baby nymph. Thus, he thought that it was safer to care for her in case an irate godling was looking for the lost infant.

Ταΰγετος

But none ever came. Nikias ended up raising the child as his daughter.

Otherwise, the shepherd lived alone. Much of his old village had been lost to a landslide. The majority of survivors had left for safer ground. These included Nikias’ de facto former husband.

His adoptive daughter thus didn’t really have a name. She was usually called “the sylphid” based on her assumed nature.

(“Sylph” or “sylphid” for feminine spirits of the air came *much* later. And it likely derives from Latin rather than Greek. So “Sylphid” is a translation of her not-quite-name using a modern equivalent, rather than an Ancient Greek term.)

She’ll Be Coming ’Round the Mountain

Sylphid enjoyed life on Mount Taygetus. Nikias was the very model of the Laconian shepherd. The old man was thus charismatic, strong, wise in the ways of both man and nature… and laconic, of course.

Click for a larger version.

As an ex-soldier, he also gave his daughter the physical and martial education Spartans deem fit for lasses. Since the girl loved sparring and Nikias was nostalgic about his military days, he went long on soldierly skills. This was also a sensible precaution. The wolves of the remote heights of the famous Mount Taygetus are not like the other wolves.

When she was 14, Sylphid was frollicking in the snow near the summit of the great mount. Thus did Chioné find her. This is how the youth learned that she wasn’t a nymph, but a minor demigoddess. The teenage Chioné wisely advised her sister to stay clear of Olympus and the Anemoi.

However, upon learning of the earliest exploits of the Boreads, Sylphid decided that she too would be a hero.

She sought the wisdom of her adoptive father. Nikias told her that she could probably become such in Sparta, the capital. By the standards of the era, Spartan women enjoyed a fair bit of autonomy. And they were seen as physically capable.

Madness ? No ! This. Is. Sparta !

On the advice of Nikias, Sylphid entered the next session of the Heraean Games . These were a sort of Olympics Games sports competition for women, named after the goddess Hera.

She easily won. As her prize, she smugly asked for an audience with Queen Gorgô of Sparta .

Typical satyr warband camp. Click for a larger version.

This audience took place but days after Gorgô famously discovered  that the Persian armies were coming for Greece. Without bothering to consult King Leonidas (who was far too busy negotiating the Greek alliance against the coming invaders), the ever-sly Gorgô greatly flattered young Sylphid. She made her her personal champion.

Whilst Leonidas fielded armies, Gorgô thus fielded a demi-goddess. Though Sylphid was young and of less powerful lineage than, say, Herakles, she still was an amazingly powerful fighter. She could defeat entire Persian units by herself.

She became one of the heroes of the Second Persian War . After that conflict, Queen Gorgô had a distinctive panoply made. This way, Sylphid could be identified as her champion on the battlefield.

Potameid for hire

Once the war was over, she returned to Sparta. But a wily older man named Diomedes convinced her to instead come to his coastal village, named Helos. Riding high on the prestige of having served during the war, Diomedes was made Mayor upon his return.

He wanted to offer a job to Sylphid. Helos was close to the mouth of the river Eurotas , which was rather marshy. Diomedes wanted to bring the river’s delta under control. But such a huge undertaking was far beyond the resources of Helos.

However, he convinced young Sylphid that the Eurotas was the most prestigious river (whatever that means) in all of Peloponnese. He also said that taming its delta would be an heroic exploit akin to Herakles rerouting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus  during his labours.

In his youth Diomedes had wanted to be a Iolaus -like figure. Though that hadn’t worked out he still was on the lookout for associating with a demi-god of some sort.

For Sparta was named after her

Merging with the water, Sylphid befriended the naiad Spartê, daughter of the river Eurotas. Spartê agreed that the river would feel crisper and more vivid if its lower end would flow more freely. She successfully petitioned her father on the subject.

Cretan village. Click for a larger version.

Though reshaping the delta looked dangerously like work, Sylphid discovered that she liked it. It mostly involved merging with the river to strengthen and direct the currents to slowly shape a firmer, deeper bed.

She did that two or three hours on most days, and lived by herself not too far from Helos.

---

History

One morning, the local ferryman ran in to warn Sylphid that the village was under attack… by satyrs. Sylphid intervened, fighting off the monstrous raiders.

She was then convinced by Diomedes to petition Sparta to send troops to protect Helos. That there existed satyrs out there was known, but a large attack on a village was new and a grave threat.

As she travelled, Sylphid discovered that the whole of Greece had been invaded by monsters. These also included centaurs, harpies, the undead, giant killer animals, humanoids resembling animalistic maenads, gorgons, fish-men, minotaurs, spider people… Many peasants had had to take refuge in fortified cities. The situation was looking grim, even at dawn.

The Spartans characteristically attempted to stand alone. But they soon discovered that even they couldn’t prevail against the hordes. Thus, King Leonidas sent Sylphid to his friend the wise Timon of Megara  for advice.

Timon told her how to obtain a sacred olive branch as an offering for the Oracle of Apollo in Delphi. This would allow her to gain guidance from the gods.

Underneath the Parthenon

Destroying monsters whenever she travelled, Sylphid was directed toward her native Athens. Meanwhile, the Spartans agreed to ally with the Athenians to have a fighting chance.

In Athens, Sylphid invaded the monsters-occupied Parthenon. By this point, it had been determined that a lesser Titan of myth, a type of creature called a Telkine (pronounced tell-keen), had been attacking the world of man. And it had brought in monsters from Hades.

Part of Medea’s coven. Click for a larger version.

Underneath the Parthenon, Sylphid found a hidden base of the Order of Prometheus. This international organisation of mystics was the one keeping communications open between the realms of men and gods. However, the Telkine was specifically after them.

Sylphid was dispatched to Crete, to stop the Telkine from destroying the main artefact of the Order. Though she slew the mighty Telkine, she was too late. The conduit between man and god had been broken.

A river in Egypt

Sylphid left Knossos and landed in Egypt. There a senior mystic of the Order, going by Imhotep, had a backup plan. If Sylphid could recover an ancient invocation in the monsters-occupied library of Rhakotis , Imhotep could make preparations to contact the gods without the Cretan artefact.

On the minus side, the situation in Egypt made it clear that *several* Telkines had been unleashed upon the world of mortals. And without divine help, mankind stood poor odds against even a single Telkine.

Sylphid was successful, but the second Telkine pursued Imhotep. She had to chase them both in turn, moving down the Nile. Nevertheless, they attempted the invocation after some preparations… and the gods didn’t answer. Imhotep had to accept that mankind had to do without the gods. Well, except for the perennially overlooked Sylphid.

The best of Thebes

As a result, he sent his agent to the only Order of Prometheus hideout in Egypt that hadn’t been raided yet by a Telkine, in Thebes. After intercepting and slaying a Telkine there, Sylphid found written instructions among his belongings.

Click for a larger version.

Imhotep deduced from these that the Order of Prometheus was being raided to recover the Sickle of Chronos . This was an artefact capable of killing (or gelding) the gods themselves.

The Sickle had been secured for millennia in the Babylonian base of the Order, under the Hanging Gardens . But Babylon was attacked by a third Telkine. Using the emergency teleportation portals of the Order, which had remained unused in centuries, Imhotep sent Sylphid to Babylon.

The boys of Sumer

But even with the portal, Sylphid was too late by minutes. The mighty sickle was in the hands of a Telkine. She gave chase, but this turned out to be a *way* longer chase than expected.

The Telkine was going East, following the Silk Road. The dogged Sylphid chased him all the way, doing unpleasant things to monster hordes left in the Telkine’s wake.

Most of the fighting took place after Samarkand , whilst crossing the Tian Shan mountains then visiting scenic Mongolia. Of course, the nature of monsters continued to change with the region. Sylphid was now fighting yetis, winged monkeys and the like.

Another brick in the Wall

Sylphid reached the Great Wall. It had been under assault by the Telkine’s monsters and breached. After helping clear occupying monsters, the Greek reached another important stop on the Silk Road. It was the old capital Chang’An  (長安, since renamed Xi’an).

Click for a larger version.

An Order of Prometheus agent informed Sylphid of the Telkine’s likely objectives. Apparently, the last Titan to have been defeated by the Gods of Olympus had not been cast into Hades. He was imprisoned under Chinese soil instead. The Telkine likely intended to free him.

Sylphid continued the race. In particular, she reached the semi-mythical Jade Palace to consult with the immortal Yellow Emperor (黃帝). The seminal ruler was also besieged by the Telkine’s monsters, but was protected by the ghosts of great Chinese warriors.

The Emperor told the Greek maiden how to reach and enter Mount Wusao. Underneath, she would find the imprisoned Typhon . He also taught her certain breathing techniques.

Sylphid came but minutes after the Telkine freed Typhon. He had slashed his divine-forged chains with the Sickle. As she attacked, Typhon and a retinue of monsters where shuffled through a portal. They left for Mount Olympus.

Zeus suit

Defeating the third and final Telkine, Sylphid followed. She narrowly defeated the troops issued to Typhon to secure the top of Mount Olympus. She then even more narrowly defeated Typhon. The giant was likely groggy and diminished from thousands of years of imprisonment.

In the wake of the battle, Olympus remained deserted. The stentorian voice of Zeus then thunderously proclaimed that the gods had decided to retire from the mortal world. He added that it was okay since the plot to free Typhon had been defeated without Olympian intervention.

According to Sylphid, this very much was bullshit. She strongly suspected that a certain skyfather had catastrophically screwed something up, and was now in his “ah, I totally meant to do that !” phase.

And as she would soon discover, monsters from Hades were still loose on Earth. But no more Telkines, thankfully.

I wish I were as in the years of old / While yet the blessed daylight made itself

Sylphid was soon contacted by the great seer Tiresias  (Τειρεσίας). He asked her to come down from Olympus to Rhodes. He said that she would need to enter “where all men are destined”, which she deduced meant Hades’ underworld. She correctly assumed that Tiresias knew of a way to stop the monsters from crossing over.

Egyptian village. Click for a larger version.

Rhodes was in sorry shape, but was beginning to recover from the fighting. Tiresias was there, and sent Sylphid to the Ixian woods. There the dreaded witch Medea  lived with her entourage and sort-of-coven. Medea was one of the few who knew ways for the living to enter the underworld.

Sylphid eventually convinced the acrimonious Medea to help. The witch transported the sylph beyond Thessaly, in Epirus, near the river Acheron .

There, with Medea’s magic, it was now possible to cross over into the underworld. Sylphid just had to walk toward the Necromanteion temple . The river Acheron would slowly become the Styx as Sylphid phased into the afterlife.

Don’t pay the ferryman…

The underworld was an unholy mess. Armies of daemons were assembling, bullying or even destroying the shades. Even Charon  had abandoned his post to join this military. Sylphid defeated him. She then helped the dead organise to cross the Styx without the ferryman.

When the gods had left, Hades had stayed behind. He intended to fill the vacuum. Therefore, he was marshalling his daemons and war machines to conquer Elysium. Sylphid allied with the embattled shades of past Greek heroes.

The demi-goddess fought her way to the Elysian Fields to help the resisting heroes there. She conducted a series of strategic strikes to plunge the daemons into disarray, and support the spirits of the dead heroes.

… don’t even fix a price

The shade of Odysseus cooked up a cunning stratagem, of course. He and Sylphid used Hades’ own war machines to make a breach into his defenses. This allowed the war nymph to invade Hades’ palace. Within, she found a bound Persephone .

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Click for a larger version.

Persephone had tried to have Hades renounce his mad plan, then threatened to leave. Her husband had instead imprisoned her.

With information from Persephone, Sylphid managed to catch Hades by surprise. She defeated him on his own grounds.

Aftermath in the afterworld

Though the gods were still gone, the heroes of Elysium could now eliminate the invaders in the Fields. And the daemons no longer could cross over to rampage on Earth.

The triumvirate of afterlife judges, freed by Sylphid, resumed judging the shades’ destination. Persephone could help reorganise the underworld before she left to join the other Olympians at last.

I’ll use my Phone-A-Friend lifeline

Most of the mythical figures of Ancient Egypt, Ancient China and other places seemed to have left when the Greeks did. Albeit with, characteristically, more dignity than the Olympians.

Thus Sylphid found herself the world’s mightiest champion against supernatural threats.

As a result, she started her trek back through Epirus, central Greece, the Gulf of Corinth and Peloponnese. Because she had no idea what to do, and needed to ask her dad.

---

Description

Sylphid is unageing, and eternally seems 20-ish.

Since this is a video game, she possesses a figure with an off-the-charts curvature quotient. When she runs, many things are set into bouncy motion. This reminds us all of how lucky we are to live in a modern era of somewhat functional, if clearly perfectible, underwear.

Typical Babylonian farm. Click for a larger version.

Her skin has an unusual blue-grey tinge. Howbeit, it is not *that* notable. Most will just assume that she’s from some foreign ethnicity they hadn’t seen before.

More noticeably, her skin is always wet, as if she had just been caught under several minutes of drizzle. This makes wearing most forms of clothing unpleasant. Thus, she’ll usually just wear sandals and a sort of barely-there leather loincloth, with everything else hanging in the breeze. There’s often a bronze knife on her hip, queen-of-the-jungle style. It’s all very Boris Vallejo  by way of Paolo Serpieri .

This isn’t quite conducive to living in society (except for Nikias, who couldn’t care less). On the other hand, she likes serving in the military. Most forms of body armour can be worn without the humidity being much of a problem.

“Neon” is a Greek word, you know

In battle, Sylphid usually wears the distinctive panoply given by Queen Gorgô. It is magically reinforced. It is also custom-forged to accommodate both for the flow of water from her skin and her gravity-agnostic physique.

It is brightly coloured. Thus, the demi-goddess can readily be identified as the Queen’s champion on the battlefield. It doesn’t use the Spartan red, but an aggressive blue hue contrasting with it. The Spartan red is traditionally said to be used so the enemy will never see a Spartan’s warrior shed blood. Sylphid’s blue suit states that no one will be able to shed her blood in the first place.

Chinese burg. Click for a larger version.

The crafty Queen also had her magicians add some garish, luminous embellishments. It wasn’t too hard to do, and it is meant to flatter Sylphid’s adolescent aesthetics sensibilities. That part worked fine. Heh, it could have been spangle.

(In Titan Quest, this equipment set is a low-level one without a genuine synergy with the build. It is used here solely to give the character a distinctive look.)

Clothes make the nymph

The Queen further had a plain white minidress made. It is as water-resistant as could be managed. It’s not perfect, but it allows Sylphid to wear actual clothing without perennially looking like she’s about to win a wet T-shirt contest.

At Sylphid’s insistence it is perilously short, especially given her undulating callipygousness. This is because the waterproofed fabric is stiff, and she hates it when something hinders her legs.

---

Personality

Sylphid is a lazy ne’er do well. She has a volatile temper and little respect for anything but her adoptive father, the shepherd Nikias. Her skills for avoiding anything resembling hard work are impressive. She wouldn’t know authority from a hole in the ground.

In many respects, her eternal youth leaves her stuck, intellectually and emotionally, as a 16-year old. In particular she’s impulsive, self-centred and not very good with this whole “long-term consequences” thing. She can reasonably, if unkindly, be called a petulant brat.

She’s mostly interested in lolling about in wilderness – roaming about the air, water and land. To her semi-divine senses, this is a rich and fulfilling experience. But this isolation leaves her rather naïve, socially.

Whom the gods would ignore

Sylphid doesn’t see herself as a goddess, or even a demi-goddess. She is mortal (though with a lifespan that’s centuries without ageing), and was raised by a mortal. Though she feels little kinship with anything, what exists is with mortals.

Within Chang’An. Click for a larger version.

She also has mild affinities with minor nature spirits, such as naiads.

Ms. Erymos likes action and fighting. But Nikias taught her about the importance of killing, and how it should be reserved for war.

Sylphid is also sensitive about what her biological father did to her mother. This leads her to stay her hand in the numerous occasions where she’s tempted to take something by force like a bully. Her attempts to act responsible may be sporadic and failure-prone, but she’s much more successful if she can see she’s going to hurt somebody.

---

Marvel Universe History

Sylphid would likely be a Namor character. If only because the Submariner’s winged feet may have been inspired by paintings of Boreas. As to the Order of Prometheus, it would of course be the Shield – the ancient predecessor of S.H.I.E.L.D..

As such, the Shield could easily send this agent to journey through time.

The gods retiring from the world of mortals may be tied to their deal with the Eternals of Earth. If so, Sylphid could be recast as an Eternal. Perhaps she was a lost child of Cybele from before she met Zuras. That would make her the older half-sister of Azura (later Thena).

---

DC Universe History

In the DCU, the approach would be entirely different. She would be recast as a predecessor of Sala Nisaba as Istar. She thus wouldn’t be Greek, but from the Mashreq  or the Maghreb .

If one wants to keep her Greek, she could appear during a time-travel adventure of Wonder Woman, where Diana’s powers are diminished. In this respect it would resemble the awesome Ends of the Earth story arc. The one with Stalker, Beowulf and Claw the Unconquered.

---

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Inspired by a Titan Quest Player Character.

Helper(s): A zephyr, Darci.

Writeup completed on the 1^st of June, 2017.