The Characters

I have always been fascinated by Greek myths and female deities. The idea of writing stories surrounding goddesses and feminine power resonated with me. Not many stories in fiction’s cannon show girls being groomed as future leaders. Thus the idea of putting teen girls into a survival situation to prove themselves capable of leadership was born.

The characters chose me. The number four felt right. Their personalities emerged as I chose the perils they would face. Diana came to me first. I chose the Roman name Diana instead of the Greek Artemis because the latter had male connotations for me and I already had two characters beginning with A.

I pictured Diana as the untested, striving protagonist. I next selected Athena as the older sister and Diana’s nemesis. Athena is the warrior. She represents leadership, justice, and wisdom. The other two took a little longer to develop. I made Persephone the healer because her mythological character represented the birth-death cycle of the seasons. It was after writing about Persephone’s grandmother’s necklace that I read about Obouros, the symbol of the snake swallowing its tail. The snake is used on the caduceus, the medical symbol, and that is why I chose to use a snake. Finding out about the actual Obouros was synchronicity.

I decided to make Aphrodite the emotional one and gave her talents of a more mystical nature. The conflicts between Persephone and Aphrodite were those of fact over fiction and reason versus emotion.

The story was always always intend to be read together as four legs of the same journey. I handled the challenge of POV by creating a sort of POV relay race. I started off with Diana, handed it off to Persephone, then Aphrodite, and finished with Athena. It just felt right. While the overall story problem of surviving the island continued, each girl wrestles with a ghost from her past in her leg of the journey.

DIANA, THE ARCHER

Age: 16. Nationality: Titan. Parents: Zeus & Leto, Apollo is her twin brother.

Skills: Archery, gymnastics, knowledge of animal behavior.

Leadership Style: Perceptive, innovative, secretive and detached, curious, provocative and eccentric. Dislikes intrusions on her time and space, attracted to depth and learning. She is a tireless student and experimenter, especially in specialized or technical matters. She likes to understand in detail and spends time on research. She follows her curiosity wherever it leads. She is highly analytical and preoccupied, not paying attention to time constraints or relationships. She can deteriorate into arrogance and noncommunication, intellectual bickering and one-upmanship. At her best, she is a visionary and pioneer, bolding going where no one has gone before.

Backstory: Diana wants to be a leader. She wants to be a hero, but she has no idea what that takes. She is more of a dreamer and a loner. She is not cut-throat enough to stand out among the rough and tumble men and women on Mt. Olympus. Diana blames herself for her mother's death and she has not known a mother's love and nurturing. She is a child who in a sense has been raised by wolves. The only person she truly cares about is her twin, Apollo. She lacks the people skills required to convince people to follow her. As she sets off on her journey, she is angry that Athena was chosen leader. She has always resented Athena's confidence and dominance. The two of them have a negative effect on one another. They are complete opposites, but both of them actually need a lot of the same things. Diana wants a seat on the council, but for the wrong reason: to prove her superiority over Athena.

PERSEPHONE, THE HEALER

Age: 18. Nationality: Heliot/Titan. Parents: Demeter & Theos (son of Gaia)

Skills: Natural Medicine, knowledge of plants and poisons.

Leadership Style: Committed, responsible, anxious and suspicious, engaging, loyal and likeable. She dislikes unpredictability and rapid change. She is attracted to clear structure and foresight. She is a diligent and reliable worker. She builds alliances and partnerships that help others and scans the environment for potential problems. She dislikes taking risks and wants consensus and predictability. She can be indecisive and have difficulty taking responsibility or action without group authority and can deteriorate into evasiveness and blaming others. At her best, she is self-reliant, independent and courageous, often calling a group back to its root values.

Backstory: Persephone is caught between two worlds. Taken away from Mt. Olympus as child, she has been raised by her Heliot grandmother and trained as a healer. Persephone was very young and has blocked out the reason she was taken away. All she remembers is that her mother deserted her, therefore she does not like Titans. Persephone loves the clinical detachment of healing. She does not want to get involved in the messy emotions that other people have. She is fascinated by the clinical part of what she does, but will need to learn how to respond to people on an emotional level as well. She believes what she can see. Her grandmother warns her that she could be in danger because the Heliots want her to become their new wise woman and return to the way their society was before the Titans took over. Persephone does not want to be on the council or to be responsible for the fates of others.

APHRODITE, THE SEER

Age: 17. Nationality: Titan. Parents: Poseidon & Dione.

Skills: Divination through runes, omens, intuition, auras.

Leadership Style: Spontaneous, versatile, talkative and scattered, accomplished, upbeat and impulsive. She dislikes limitations and routines and is attracted to new possibilities and excitement. She thrives on change, variety and innovation. Articulate and humorous, she is able to get others to support her ideas. She is in touch with the latest trends and is constantly looking for new options. She is a natural multi-tasker but can also get overextended and lacks follow-through. She can deteriorate into endless talk and distractions, scattering her energy and talents and leaving many projects unfinished. At her best, she is focused on worthwhile goals and can become highly productive and accomplished.

Backstory: Aphrodite is really the most mature of the four. She was raised by both parents in a loving environment. Although she is the emotional one and can come across as hysterical, she is more grounded than the rest. I decided the women in her family would be seers, those in touch with feminine intuition. They cast runes, see auras, look at signs and try to divine the future. Aphrodite thinks of it as an amusing game. She does not realize the seriousness of guiding others by influencing beliefs. She does not understand the harm that can be done. She loves a Heliot named Adonis and that gives her a foot in both camps. She can see both sides of the Titan-Heliot problem. She was raised among the Heliots and does not have the prejudices the older Titans have, yet she believes someone needs to be in charge. However, she does not want it to be her and she does not like having other people try to control her. She wants to return to her life as it was before adult expectations intruded. She dwells in a fantasy and refuses to come to grips with reality. Her parents want her to join the adult world, but Aphrodite does not want to be drawn into such serious matters. She does not want to be on the council and feels she is being punished for loving the wrong person.

ATHENA, THE WARRIOR

Age: 17. Nationality: Titan. Parents: Zeus & Metis

Skills: Chariot driving, hand to hand combat, animal trainer.

Leadership Style: Self confident, decisive, willful and confrontational, powerful, commanding and hard driving. Dislikes indecisiveness and indirectness. Attracted to strength and strategic action. Has a clear vision of what she wants and sees serious problems as challenges to be met, obstacles to be overcome. Wants to be in control and finds it difficult to delegate tasks or share leadership. Champions people, wants to protect and empower them but can deteriorate into intimidation to get her way. She makes unnecessary enemies both within and outside of her group. At her best she is magnanimous and generous and uses her strength to improve other’s lives.

Backstory: Athena starts out a bully. She has cut herself off from emotions. Her mother died in childbirth, so she was raised by servants and a stepmother who fears her. She is her father's favorite and he does not hide it. She has adopted a tough bravado exterior to protect herself. She is rigid and controlled and comes across as assured. But inwardly she feels guilty for the death of one of her friends because of an accident that happened when they were sparring. Athena takes her responsibilities very seriously. It is why she was chosen to lead them. But she also feels like she is responsible for everything and cannot stand back and let others take their share of the load. Like Diana, she lacks people skills. People are impressed with what she can do, but they don't really like her. Athena wants a seat on the council. She feels it is what she is supposed to do and takes it very seriously. She needs control and does not like being controlled and being on the council will give her the autonomy she desires.

Next: The Myths