Asteria

Asteria (ah-STEHR-ee-uh) is known to the living and the dead as the Oracle Queen of Skíathos. As a Titaness, her sphere of power encompasses the prophetic dance of stars through the darkened sky and the ghosts that roam the night. Though a child of the bloodline of the Oracles of Delphi, Asteria did not follow her mother’s footsteps to ascend the Seat, choosing instead to wed Perses, Titan of Ravaging Fire and War General to Kronus. Her home on the island of Skíathos is sought out by both the living and the dead who wish to ask for guidance from the Oracle Queen. As such, she is bound by the oaths and gifts taught to her by her mother, to serve as guiding star to the spirits of men and gods alike.

Asteria is the second-born daughter to Coeus, the Axis of the World, and Phoebe, the Radiant One, and younger sibling of Leto, who was of Gentle Heart. As the eldest, the gifts of prophecy were Leto’s by right. After a dream of birthing the sun and the moon, Leto refused them, choosing motherhood and asking that these gifts pass to Asteria instead. Asteria thus inherited the gifts of prophecy from her mother, who was the third Oracle of Delphi and who trained Asteria to become the fourth. Before Asteria could take her vows, she met Perses and found fire to answer her own. Perses carried Asteria away to his home on the island of Skíathos, where Asteria bore him a single child: a daughter, Hekate.

Like the stars in the midnight sky, Asteria holds herself apart from those around her. Some of this is due to her training as a Seer, to maintain the purity of her Sight. This aloofness is also due to an intensely private nature. Asteria rarely lets down her walls around anyone other than her husband, her sister, and her daughter. Even then, she is something of a mystery, seen from a distance and understood in something other than words. Her beauty is sublime, starfire made flesh. She is gracious and elegant, a queen in spirit even before Perses crowned her his own. Her passionate devotion to her husband is one of her deepest weaknesses, the fire around which she gathers herself to push back her own internal darkness. For those that come to her, she offers truth as clear and cold as her hospitality is warm.