Zephyr

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Background

Powers & Abilities

Zephyr is a wind goddess, her power over air both literal and metaphorical.

More concretely, the abilities she demonstrated include :

• Mentally controlling vast masses of air to focus them as supernaturally strong winds.
• Hold herself aloft without any effort.
• Take a pocket of air with her, and apparently maintain its temperature and renew its oxygen content (though having two or more persons breathing this air will eventually deplete it). She thus can exist unprotected in space.
• Fly at great speed, even in a vacuum – and in a vacuum she can of course constantly accelerate.
• Propel objects and persons away with a gigantic blast of air (in DC Heroes RPG terms, that’s Jump). She once thus shot a person from Egypt to Ohio, though the target spent 36 hours in the air to cover that distance. This was harmless – the acceleration, landing, cold, lack of air, etc. were all neutered.
• Glide between dimensions . She needs magical help to actually leave a dimension, but once in-between dimensions she can navigate under her own power.
• Summon a healing wind that gradually repairs the wounds of those in the area.

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Other assets

As an Elemental she enjoys 

1. Immortality.
2. Superhuman durability.
3. The ability to understand and speak any language.
4. General magical potency.

She also has deft fingers, is extraordinarily attractive, and is nimble and graceful.

On the other hand she clearly has no combat training.

Riders on the storm

Zephyr and Thor having sex supercharges both their powers while intercourse lasts. This produces a total energy output well beyond the sum their respective mights.

This means an uncontrollable and titanic storm around them, and orgasm triggers a lightning strike with an output comparable to a nuclear detonation.

Mystically speaking, this is quite interesting. One hypothesis is that Zephyr’s elemental energies resonate with the biospheric energies that Thor inherited from his mum (Gaea, then under the guise of Jord).

Perhaps they are derived from a very similar source – namely Demiurge for Thor through his mother, and the equivalent of Demiurge on Zephyr’s original world.

Her remarks to Ego at the end of Astonishing Thor imply that she now has a rapport with primordial biospheres. These are the equivalent of Gaea for other worlds.

It also seems likely that she has developed new air- and life-aspected divine powers, but little was seen of Zephyr at this stage.

Ding ! Ang bato ! (part 1)

Zephyr also owns an Asgardian ruby that will “soften any heart hardened against its bearer”.

More practically this means it will enhance the seduction skills of the user. This synergies well with Zephyr’s attractiveness and the charisma she derives from the magical energy within her. However she doesn’t seem to have any special seduction, acting or manipulation skills beyond these assets.

It was used against the Collector (Taneleer Tivan of the Elders of the Universe) to convince him to love Zephyr and have difficulties paying attention to anything else. Thus, it made him sloppy and unfocused.

Zephyr also used the ruby to “touch souls” with “winds of change”. More practically this meant :

• Mesmerising the Living Mummy into obedience (which he eventually shook off).
• Mesmerising beggars into thinking that they were rich sultans to temporarily uplift their spirits.
• Mentally dazing others.

Ding ! Ang bato ! (part 2)

It is possible that these latter powers can’t be used with the ruby alone, but are a combination of the ruby’s magic and Zephyr’s powers.

In the original story this is presented as an awkward “feminine mystique” thing. But her 2011 appearance clarified these abilities as being derived from the ruby.

She could also use the ruby to project an astral  form across the solar system. Apparently this is a combination of the ruby’s ability to create mental contacts and her mastery of astral winds.

The ruby is the size of her clenched fist, and it seems unlikely that she could keep it on her person given her skimpy clothing. The simplest hypothesis is that she created a spell to shrink the ruby so it could be hidden among her jewelry – say, her tiara or her belt.

History

Like the other Elementals, Zephyr was originally a mortal. They apotheosised together after jointly “obtaining arcane knowledge”.

She was repeatedly stated to have been a “serving wench” living in poverty. By contrast one gets the impression that the other three were influential and rich men even as mortals.

Even thousands of years later, Zephyr was still treated as more junior than the other Elementals. She was frequently reminded of her humble origins by her confederates.

Though this all quite intriguing, there is no further information — at all — about the past of the Elementals, the sort of world they came from (though it was apparently low-tech), what they did to ascend and why Zephyr was among them, etc.

Supernatural thrills

While exiled in the Castle Out Of Time, Zephyr learned to escape well ahead of the others, since she could fly between dimensions under her own power. She thus conducted missions on Earth to recover gems that might be the ruby scarab. Circa 1,000 CE she detected such a jewel in Scandinavia, in the coin purse of the Nordic thunder god Thor (Thor Odinson).

By the time she arrived Thor was gambling in a Viking tavern and bet the gem. Zephyr simply passed for a waitress and palmed the jewel. But as she left she realised that it was merely empowered with a seduction glamour. Thor gave chase, and caught up with her. However, their face-off quickly led to the realisation that they were far more interested in having sex than in conflict.

Though the experience was visibly unforgettable, it triggered a titanic hurricane around them. Zephyr and Thor reluctantly parted ways since they couldn’t control this unexpected destruction. The Elemental kept the ruby, which the Asgardian has presumably completely forgotten about.

Cairo, Cays, collections

Zephyr was with the Elementals during their catastrophic Cairo caper in 1974. But they chained her in dissatisfaction and she betrayed them in return. After leaving the Elementals and seeing them cast adrift between dimensions, Zephyr fled with two international thieves (Rich “the Asp” Harper and Olddan) and the ruby scarab.

Harper’s plan was to sell the artefact, then steal it back – and do that enough times to retire. Since by 1977 the trio was living in the Cays, so they may well have succeeded.

When the Elementals returned to Earth thanks to the duped Hecate, Zephyr and her companions were caught flat-footed and easily defeated. In the fray Harper was shot in the back by Hellfire, though how bad his wounds were is unrevealed. Thanks to Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), the male Elementals were defeated.

In unrevealed circumstances the Collector added them to his collection.

Zephyr remained on Earth. She tried to be more like Thor or Ms. Marvel. However, her career as an heroine was cut short. The Collector abducted her so he would have a full set of Elementals in his collection. Zephyr’s main exploit prior to her capture was apparently fighting a huge draconic creature (Fin Fang Foom ?).

Because these… aren’t the hammer (part 1)

Zephyr used the Asgardian ruby to seduce the Collector. Lacking direction as her immortality was wearing her down, she just hung around with him and enjoyed his collections. However, she never really loved him. After 30 years or so, she grew bored.

In 2011, Ego the Living Planet sought the Collector’s ship-museum. Ego had been told that another living planet was held in an universe stored aboard. Thor clashed with Ego, then came to see the Collector to learn the truth.

Zephyr was manipulating both Thor (by sending him astral visions of her) and the Collector (by clouding his mind so he would make mistakes). But she had no clear objective since she felt too washed out. Out of inertia she helped the Collector shove Thor into the universe holding the second living planet, called Alter Ego, to feed it.

Because these… aren’t the hammer (part 2)

Zephyr immediately regretted this, as Thor’s presence was rousing her out of her funk. This was a combination of sexual desire and out of admiration for the noble and driven man he had become since their first meeting.

She came to rescue him from Alter Ego. But the living planet gobbled them up and sedated them. It had them dream that they were an ordinary couple of New Yorkers enjoying a picnic in Central Park. However, Thor realised what was going on and offered to Zephyr to make love after the picnic was over.

The resulting hurricane and lightning storm was so powerful as to stun Alter Ego, and force it to expel the lovers before they would kill it.

Black holes and revelations

The Collector then came to offer them a way back to Earth-616 , and Zephyr took it. It was a trap – the Collector had realised that she had been duping him. Thus, the Elemental actually stepped through a black hole-like structure.

Whether this was meant to be fatal is unrevealed. Zephyr emerged alive and still in Universe-616 – but in the XV^th century and very, very far away from the Milky Way. Over the next six centuries, she crossed the cosmos to return to Earth, acting as a space heroine along the way.

She made it back just in time to witness the confrontation between Ego and Alter-Ego. Thor narrowly prevented the living planets from killing each other.

Zephyr took it from there, and had Ego orbitally capture the diminished Alter Ego as his moon. The two planets and Zephyr then departed for outer space, as the Elemental started healing the damage suffered by the living planets and teaching them to live in harmony.

Description

Zephyr always goes barefooted. She’s usually floating slightly off the ground, particularly when the people around are taller than she is. Her attire seems… adapted to a very hot and humid climate, I guess. Think January in Pernambuco .

In 1977, Zephyr’s long hair had suddenly gone straight and white. Perhaps she had just seen a photo of Storm (Ororo Munroe) and liked the look – but it might go deeper. Storm’s lineage has a magical connection to the Earth and its atmosphere, which is the source of their unusual hair and eye colour.

Perhaps Zephyr comes from the equivalent winds-aspected lineage on a parallel Earth, and being on Earth-616 gradually and magically aligned her with the Earth-616 look for this ancestry. Then she left and it reverted.

Personality

Zephyr is different from the other Elementals. One of her comments implied that being an Elemental came with a lust for power that might eventually consume her as it had the others. One caption implied that Zephyr remembered her proletarian roots, which prevented her from being subsumed by the power trip the other three were on.

Like the other Elementals, she yearned to be treated like a queen and a goddess and had an aristocratic temper. Unlike the others she still had a sense of empathy and responsibility, plus some common sense. She advocated for subtlety and patience, and when she was out of sight of the others she often acted in a kind manner, especially toward the downtrodden.

Unlike the others, she didn’t assume that she was all-powerful and invincible.

Back during the 1970s, Zephyr often addressed males as “man”, much like the cliché heroic fantasy barbarian would address females as “woman”. Maybe she comes from a heroic fantasy matriarchal culture, or maybe she just wanted to remind others that she’s an immortal and they’re not.

Astonishing Zephyr

Zephyr is worn by her long life, the temptation of power and a certain aimlessness after she was separated from the rest of her pantheon.

For decades after arriving on Earth-616 she didn’t know what she wanted to do, and stuck with random persons such as the Asp (Rich Harper) or the Collector in the hope that it would bring some excitement and sense of purpose to her life.

She was apparently a loyal companion to these… until she got bored again, though that was a long process.

She eventually decided to emulate Thor’s nobility and works as a defender of mortals. She seems to have blossomed in this role. After her impromptu time travel she reportedly acted as a space super-heroine for six centuries, and intended to continue in this direction. Though Ms. Marvel may have been another role-model, Thor was definitely the main influence.

She had been nostalgically thinking about their encounter for centuries, and he arouses her on every level – sexually, mystically, ethically, charismatically, etc.. Furthermore, she liked the way he had grown from an angry and arrogant boor to a noble hero, and wanted to emulate that.

It’s also clear that Thor has a weakness for her. Zephyr never used the ruby of seduction on him as it would have cheapened the experience.

After six centuries as a space heroine, Zephyr seemed much more well-adjusted and happy than ever before. In DC Heroes terms, it seems likely that her Spiritual Attributes have increased, though it’s impossible to tell from but a few panels.

Quotes

“We know that, you poor tortured man. Why do you think we brought you here ?”

“As Mistress of the Winds, I forbid you to harm that man !”

“I just wish all this would end, and there’s this naïve part of my past that keeps reminding me of the rewards becoming an Elemental promised — none of those rewards for me.”

(First meeting with Thor) “For I am Zephyr, mistress of the winds and member of the Elementals, whose dominion over this sphere predates Asgard by millenia.”

(Dumping the Collector) “Sorry, Tivan. It’s been fun… just not fun enough. Have a nice immortality. I know I will.”

“What I do need… is this. The sense of possibility… of challenge… of living in the moment.”

“Ego. You’re grievously wounded — far beyond what the eye can see. Every world has a soul, and yours is in torment. I will stay with you, I will soothe and console you, and help you to heal.”

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Marvel Universe.

Helper(s): Darci.

Writeup completed on the 26^th of April, 2014.