What do you guys think of Menphina's design?

[Ranaku]

As my character's patron deity, I can't help but be a bit disappointed. I know she is one of the youngest among the twelve, and I also don't think she has to be super sexy even with her title being 'The Lover' (this can be interpreted several ways), but I can't help but feel a bit short-changed when thinking about the designs of the gods we've faced thus far, whom I thought were all top notch. Especially Rhalgr.

The hairstyle, lack of eyebrows, almost pre-adolescent girlish figure. Her design seems more fitting for an entity like Nymeia, not the sister of Azeyma.

Well, maybe she'll have some awesome mechanics.

Happy New Year everyone.

I am sad for every mooncat out there, to see that their patron deity isn't even a catgirl but some sort of discount shiva.

[Tehmon]

That is a big part of my problem with the child-like appearance Menphina has. "The lover" does not have to [and now cannot] be associated with sex. In Greek mythology, Aphrodite encompasses love, sex, and beauty. Now, I really have no idea what lead to their decision making with her design here as Menphina misses the mark on all three categories. The more I think about it, the more off-putting it becomes with her design being that of a child.

The Twelve do not directly reference the Twelve Olympians outside of Grecian themes and being the Twelve. I think you were just off mark for expecting Menphina to be a representation of Aphrodite. Also, Aphrodite was a goddess of love AND beauty, not just love. I don't think it's necessarily correct to conflate love with beauty and mature sexuality, as deities of love around the globe don't necessarily adhere to that either, plus love is universal regardless of appearance. But, if we were to take into consideration the Olympians and ancient Grecian gods, Aphrodite's beauty does partially stem from her youthful appearance. Similarly Eros, the son of Aphrodite, the god of love and procreation, is often depicted as a young child in art, disturbingly so. I would also mention Ganymede, the god of homosexual love, Zeus' lover, whose depiction is also disturbingly childlike, as he was but a teenager when Zeus snatched (and violated) him, forcefully admitting him to the realm of the gods. He was called the most beautiful mortal in existence, and his youth definitely paid a factor in that.

In Roman mythology Cupid is the god of love, or more erotic love, attraction and desire, and we all know how Cupid or cupids are depicted in art, almost as babies. Taking that into account, it shouldn't come off as a huge surprise that Menphina, the goddess of love, would be depicted as extremely youthful.

I may also remind you that Nymeia is essentially Althyk little sister, whom he raised from a baby and whom he eventually fell in love with, and they are supposedly a couple now. So it's not like the Twelve is far removed from the perversions and degeneracy which was very present in Greek myhtology. Thus, if Menphina is also supposed to be the goddess of sex, attraction and beauty, it's not necessarily way off if they are actively trying to use Greek mythology as a reference.

With that, none of the lore about Menphina seems to underline her status as the goddess of love, moreso her connection to the moon. The goddess of love title seems to just be based on her being Oschon's supposed lover, nothing else. Though in that, I might be wrong.

I understand why people would be disappointed though.

[Gemina]

The Twelve do not directly reference the Twelve Olympians outside of Grecian themes and being the Twelve. I think you were just off mark for expecting Menphina to be a representation of Aphrodite. Also, Aphrodite was a goddess of love AND beauty, not just love.

I did not expect Menphina to look like or take on the traits of Aphrodite. I expected her design to be on par with the gods we have encountered thus far. She falls short on both accounts regardless of where mine, or someone else's expectation may lie. I don't feel my expectations of her are unreasonable, and are based on what we currently know about the Twelve (our Twelve, not the Olympian gods of Greek mythology). Despite that, one would be hard pressed to not say that several of them are indeed inspired by the Olympians gods.

I also did mention that Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty, and sex, and mentioned that Menphina misses all three. That being said, Menphina was very difficult to pin an image on her because there aren't a lot of accounts that mention her appearance. There are no statues erected of her like Halone, Rhalgr, and Nald'Thal. No portraits like with Nophica, and so forth. If there was an outside expectation, it was only that I wanted her to be extremely beautiful and obviously pubescent at the very least, even if she had a very 'cold' appearance. The only things we have to go off of are her being a maiden, and holding a skillet.

I don't think it's necessarily correct to conflate love with beauty and mature sexuality, as deities of love around the globe don't necessarily adhere to that either, plus love is universal regardless of appearance. But, if we were to take into consideration the Olympians and ancient Grecian gods, Aphrodite's beauty does partially stem from her youthful appearance. Similarly Eros, the son of Aphrodite, the god of love and procreation, is often depicted as a young child in art, disturbingly so. I would also mention Ganymede, the god of homosexual love, Zeus' lover, whose depiction is also disturbingly childlike, as he was but a teenager when Zeus snatched (and violated) him, forcefully admitting him to the realm of the gods. He was called the most beautiful mortal in existence, and his youth definitely paid a factor in that.

Obviously we can't conflate them. As Althyk's relationship with Nymeia would be what we consider grooming, but in his defense it's not like he had a pool of females to choose from. However, if we are not to use the Olympians as focal point into their designs and personalities, I am not sure why we use them to defend child perversion when it is convenient to do so. The same applies if taking Roman mythology into account. I also believe the 'baby' version of Cupid was more a modern day marketing ploy for things like Valentine's day. The more accurate version of Cupid depicts him as a very young, albeit pubescent male. These were days when life expectancy did not venture much further north than than the 40's, which has almost doubled since the inception of these mythologies from multiple cultures.

In short, Menphina missed my design expectation due to none of these things. Think about Byregot "The Builder". Rhalgr "The Destroyer". Nald'Thal "God of commerce". These themes tie directly into our encounters with them. They pride themselves on these titles. Why would I not have some kind of expectation with Menphina being "The Lover", and then seeing her depicted as a frost child, who could be a young version of Shiva? In this regard, much like her sister, they seemed to have gone with the celestial bodies they command opposed to their titles as Azeyma was far more revolved her command over the sun opposed to her title of "Goddess of inquiry". That to me does make sense, but I still strongly dislike her design, and feel they could have done better.