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Persephone, better known as Our Lady Underground, is a Goddess that appears in Julia Wicker's dream. The goddess was believed to fulfill all the requests of Free Trader Beowulf during her summoning, but it's later revealed that the goddess was never summoned; instead, Reynard the Fox, a sadistic god, was brought forth. Her true identity is the Greek Goddess Persephone and she is the wife of Hades making her the queen of the Underworld.
History[]
Our Lady Underground is mentioned for the first time by Richard, when he offered his help to Julia by showing her new and different ways to practice magic. Since then Julia established a special connection with this goddess, starting to get mixed signals in every place; votive candles with images of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, pagan goddesses images, and statues of the Virgin Mary to name a few.
When Richard and the rest of the Free Trader Beowulf coven discovered Julia's special connection with the goddess, she and Kady were in charge of looking for the goddess, collecting information in the supernatural underground, by questioning creatures like vampires and Lamiae.
Our Lady Underground altar
Eventually, Our Lady Underground 'appeared' to Julia in a dream, first as drops of milk raining from nowhere, then as silver coins appearing out of nothing, and finally as a woman of African descent bathed in divine light. She charged Julia searching one of her followers to offer him three gifts in order to get a way to summon the goddess. Julia and Kady eventually found the man, bringing him the gift of a sprig of forsythia, a honeycomb jar, and faith instead of platinum. He accepted the gifts and gave them a scroll with the invocation in return. The group, then, set up the room with an altar with votive images of the goddess, offerings of flowers and candles; They drew a symbol on the floor and, entirely dressed in white, they held hands chanting the invocation.
Invoking the goddess
The answer to the summoning was anything but pleasant, though. The entity that appeared to Julia with the features of Our Lady Underground turned out to be Reynard the Fox, a trickster god who killed all the members of the coven, took possession of Richard after eating his heart, and sexually assaulted Julia amid the blood of her dead friends, except for Kady since she managed to escape.
After the brutal event, Julia asked Marina's help to forget what happened, but her memories were restored by Ember in Fillory.
Reynard the Fox possessing Richard
Once Quentin and Julia have raided the afterlife in search of Julia's Shade, Julia discovered that Our Lady Underground exists and that she is nothing but Persephone, the queen of the Underworld. During a heated discussion between Reynard and his son, it's revealed why Reynard kills those who venerate Our Lady Underground; he had loved the goddess and was hurt by her abandonment of him, unleashing his hatred towards her followers.
Persephone appears to Julia
After Julia returned from the Underworld and shared her knowledge of the identity of 'Our Lady Underground'/Persephone with Kady and John, they came up with the plan to simulate the events associated with Persephone's descent to Earth to trick Reynard into believing that she was on Earth and lure him into a trap to kill him. After John forced Kady into killing him to extract the magic needed to kill Reynard and Julia created a god-killing bullet from the energy, Julia and Kady created a storm to simulate the phenomena associated with Persephone's arrival. Reynard, believing that Persephone had come to Earth, was lured to a location where he tried to goad Persephone into coming out and berated her for being a drama queen for creating a storm whenever she descended upon the Earth. While Kady was distracting Reynard with the knowledge of his son's death and how he begged for it, Julia sneaked up behind Reynard and pointed a gun loaded with a god-killing bullet at him. At this point, the real Persephone appeared and froze both Reynard and Kady. Persephone pleaded with Julia to spare Reynard's life since he was her son and that there are ramifications to killing a god. After Julia spared Reynard, Persephone expressed deep disappointment for Reynard's actions and teleported away with him while also leaving behind Julia's Shade.[2]
Julia meets with Our Lady Underground
It was later revealed that the magic Julia retained after the loss of the Wellspring was due to a "seed" of magic Persephone planted within Julia. A seed that would grow and become stronger, a seed that came from Reynard. Julia expressed extreme disgust at the origin of her newfound magic, angered that Persephone would place anything of Reynard's inside her without her consent. Persephone then told Julia that this was a gift granted to her for showing mercy to her son and that this magic came from Reynard but was now Julia's and hers to do with as she wished.
When Julia is captured by the Nameless to be used as a vessel for his sister, Persephone appears and freezes the Nameless before he can kill his sister's current host. She pleads with Julia to decide between being a human or a god, since being a human will not allow her to be a host for the sister and being a god will give her the ability to escape, but before Julia can decide the sister escapes and possesses Julia then snaps Persephone's neck with a snap of her fingers.
Magic and Abilities[]
- Divine Physiology: As a Deity, Persephone possesses an immense degree of physical and magical ability. She is able to imbue mortals with her Essence granting them the power equivalent of a Master Magician. However, her divinity doesn't mean she is invincible, as she is able to be killed by powerful magic, as well as other deities.
- Divine Magician: As a deity Persephone is capable of performing powerful and complex magic. She was easily able to overpower her son Reynard, another deity, and remove his seed of power rendering him nearly mortal. She was then able to gift this seed to Julia Wicker, allowing Julia to keep magic after the wellspring was "shut off" and grow its magic within her to elevate herself and become a goddess.
- Interdimensional Travel: Persephone is able to move between realms and space instantaneously.
- Possession: Persephone possessed people in order to communicate with Julia and guide Julia through the growth of her "power seed" by prompting her to help others.
- Goddess of the Underworld: As the goddess of the underworld Persephone has dominion over souls in the afterlife and was capable of taking Julia's Shade from the underworld and gifting it back to her.
- Divine Magician: As a deity Persephone is capable of performing powerful and complex magic. She was easily able to overpower her son Reynard, another deity, and remove his seed of power rendering him nearly mortal. She was then able to gift this seed to Julia Wicker, allowing Julia to keep magic after the wellspring was "shut off" and grow its magic within her to elevate herself and become a goddess.
Trivia[]
- Persephone is a legendary character found in Greek mythology. She was daughter of Zeus and Demeter who become Queen of the Underworld after being abducted by Hades.
- Persephone is the third god to appear in the series, following Reynard the Fox and Ember, respectively.
Appearances[]
| Appearances of Persephone |
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In chronological order: |
References[]
- ↑ Translated from Spanish: Our Lady
- ↑ The Magicians: 2.12: Ramifications
