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“ | Death to Chronos! | „ |
~ Melinoë |
Melinoë, Princess of the Underworld, is the daughter of Hades and Persephone, the younger sister of Zagreus and is the main protagonist of Hades II.
Melinoë is a chthonic nymph associated with ghosts and nightmares. Before the events precede up to Hades II, while Melinoë's family lived a happy life in the underworld, the titan Chronos broke free from his prison deep in Tartarus and took control of the Underworld. On her father's orders, Hecate took Melinoë and trained her to be a titan slayer.
Melinoë now must descend to the Underworld and defeat Chronos.
Characteristics and Personality
The Princess of the Underworld has been trained her entire life to kill Chronos but has not become bitter despite all that has been stolen from her. Melinoë is resilient, hardworking, compassionate, and friendly to all, striving to get along with everyone beyond her reach. Despite being a dark goddess and her position, she races against time but will not fail to show kindness to others.
Melinoë, despite being a fierce fighter, has a soft heart and wants to reunite the separated, like the children of Nyx. She is polite, diplomatic, and well-mannered, continuing to be unreasonably kind to everyone, sometimes even too much, which may make those unaccustomed to such praise find her "strange." She also harbors divergent perspectives on the majority of characters: she adores the slumbering Hypnos, regards Commander Schelemeus with seasoned respect, and maintains an idealized vision of her family to a degree. Upon encountering someone expressing disdain towards those she knows, Melinoë becomes not only perplexed but also deeply intrigued wishing to learn more from them about her family and heritage.
Melinoë only wishes to fulfil her duty, to honor her mentor Hecate, and to reunite her family. She uses respectful honorifics when referring to everyone, whether they are lofty gods or minor ones, except for Chronos, for whom she has nothing but disdain. In spite of being understanding, she can loosen up and join in the fun by making sarcastic comments, much like Nemesis, and comically mocks Scylla and her band, whose musical style is not to her taste, and even compares Scylla to a mollusk.
An avid animal lover, she cannot help but pause in her mission just to pet them. She is also horrified to see Cerberus damaged and does her utmost to alleviate the beast's pain. Her magnetism with living creatures extends to the point where they happily align with her as her familiars. As expected of her bloodline, she has a connection to the inhabitants of the underworld, more pronounced than her brother's, as shades seem to follow her.
Melinoë is a dedicated student and dislikes disorder as she keeps her quarters tidy and is bothered by mess, scolding Dora for misplacing a single vial on her shelf and being annoyed by Eris littering in front of her. She can be extremely innocent, inviting Odysseus for a bath in the hot springs, unaware that she's embarrassing him a bit when she starts undressing in front of him.
She desires to assist all her friends but often ends up being reckless. This recklessness is the reason for her missing left arm, as she tried in the past to help her friend Icarus despite not being fully versed at the time in witchcraft. Melinoë, however, refuses to let Icarus blame himself for her condition, as it serves as a reminder of her own arrogance.
Although kind-hearted, Melinoë is vindictive against those that she considers enemies especially with Chronos and declares that she will not surrender until all the traitors of the House of Hades are broken at her feet or until she takes back what Chronos took from her.
She also has a one-track mind, which while admirable in achieving her goals, presents some obvious drawbacks. Having been molded mentally and physically into the perfect God-Killer almost from the point of birth by Hecate, Melinoë does not care what happens to her so long as her goal of slaying Chronos is achieved demonstrating both a fearlessness and recklessness during her runs. This same one-track focus also means that she has not ever stopped to consider what she'll do next if or when she ever achieves it. Conversely whenever she fails in her task, she'll slip into periods of depression and stress feeling that she's not living up to the prophecy which she feels is her only purpose for existing.
Training Methods
Melinoë, like her brother Zagreus before her, trains herself to get stronger through various methods on her quest to defeat Chronos:
- Arcana Cards: Directly increases the power of Melinoë, akin to the Mirror of Night from before, by unlocking and improving mystical Tarot cards that grant various benefits, and upgrading the attribute Grasp allows her to actively hold more of them at once.
- Nocturnal Arms: Her weapons for the battle, the successors to the Infernal Arms of her brother.
- Cauldron: Upgrades and expands the location environments, both the Crossroads and elsewhere, akin to the House Contractor from before.
One crucial difference between Zagreus and Melinoë is the latter's use of Magick, i.e. Mana, to charge up much stronger attacks known as Ω Moves. She is at her most powerful when she has a very strong Magick regeneration rate allowing her to fire these moves at a high frequency, so take note of the various ways that exist for increasing this.
Paired with the above is the potential Hex, from Selene. The successor to the powerful Calls available for Zagreus, Melinoë can choose one of several possible effects for the Hex the first time she encounters Selene, and every subsequent encounter grants upgrade points to the ability in an upgrade tree. The Hex is fuelled explicitly by spent Magick; each available Hex ability can only be fired once Melinoë has spent a certain amount of Magick in the current Encounter, and this always resets to 0 at the beginning of every Encounter. High Magick builds will also naturally be able to use Hexes frequently.
Physical description
General
Much like her older brother Zagreus, Melinoë has heterochromia with one eye red like her father's and the other green like her mother's. However, the colors are inverted in relation to Zagreus. Her left arm appears spectral with a supernatural green glow, revealing her skeleton that can be seen within it. This arm was lost in a sorcery-related accident while trying to help her friend Icarus. Her hair is wheat blonde like her mother's, the haircut is short and does not share the spiky characteristics of hers and Zagreus. In the hot spring, her hair gains more body and waves than when it is dry. Her skin is pale like her brother's, but she is slender and less muscular than him, and like her father and brother, her bare feet glow with warmth.
Clothing Description
Melinoë adorns her head with a laurel wreath that glows like embers when on her head, similar to her brother's. Parting her bangs at the center is an upward-facing crescent moon on her forehead. She wears a short saffron-colored dress fastened up to the neck brace, with her limbs adorned with metal ornaments, including lunar shapes on her right leg. On her left leg, Melinoë wears a braided cord in the colors of orange, green, blue, and black, matching that of the members of the Silver Sisters which Melinoë is a part of.
Hades II
After the events in Hades, Hades and Persephone welcomed Melinoë, their second child. A painting was commissioned to mark the joyful occasion, with their new family member. However, it didn't last long, as the Titan of Time, Chronos, escaped from Tartarus, imprisoning her family and the other members of the House of Hades deep within Tartarus. Under Hades' orders, Hecate took Melinoë, alongside the unfinished family painting and Hypnos, who was present at the time. Hecate fled with the child and hid her at The Crossroads, a safe place, out of Chronos' reach.
During this time, The Fates predicted a prophecy that Hades' second child would overthrow the Titan. Because of this, Hecate chose not to contact Melinoë's family on Olympus. Based on this prophecy, Hecate decided to raise Melinoë alone and train her under her supervision to one day defeat Chronos and fulfil the prophecy. Trained extensively to achieve mental and physical perfection, Melinoë would grow up in The Crossroads, always feeling like something was missing and only having flashes of memories and confusing dreams about her family; she would end up knowing only two of her Olympian relatives: Artemis and Hermes.
At some point when she was much older, she lost her left arm after trying to help her friend Icarus using Hecate's cauldron.
When Melinoë's training finally ended, she set out on her journey to try to defeat Chronos. Artemis decides to inform Apollo about Melinoë and her attempt to defeat Chronos, with Apollo spreading the news to all the other Olympian gods. Melinoë ends up meeting her family from Olympus, and they give her their boons, helping her on her journey.
Book of Shadows Entry
How do I know? Because you wonder, if you had never been born, perhaps none of this would have happened? When instead your charge is to live, and move beyond the past.
What are you fighting for? What do you hope to prove? And if by some stroke of Fate you prevail, what then? Do give it all some thought whilst you're out and about.'Trivia
- Due to Persephone's father being a mortal, Melinoë is 3/4 God, and 1/4 mortal.
- In Greek Mythology, Melinoë was the daughter of Zeus and Persephone or, in some versions, of Hades and Persephone. This is because Zeus and Hades were once viewed as the same being within the Orphic religion. Also, according to Orphic religion, Melinoë was conceived and born on the bank of the river Cocytus, when Zeus, disguised as Hades, tricked Persephone and impregnated her.
- Melinoë in Greek Mythology was known for many things. She is the goddess of ghosts, restless spirits, offerings to the dead, nightmares, fear and madness. All of which she brought to mortals as she roamed the earth with ghosts at her side. Yet she was also known as the protector of the dead, as many would revere and worship her in the hopes, she would reunite them with deceased loved ones with her abilities to communicate with the dead. She also had the power to cast illusions.
- In Greek Mythology, Melinoë had one half of her body black while the other was white. This might be why Melinoë's design in game features her with one arm a ghostly green, referencing her origins as the goddess of ghosts as well as the split coloration of her mythological counterpart.
- Melinoë's name means "colored like quince", a yellowish-green color associated with the pallor of illness or death.
- Melinoë was often associated with Hecate, the goddess of magic and witchcraft in Greek Mythology. This may be the reason why Melinoë is her student in the game.
- Melinoë was also known for witchcraft herself in Greek Mythology, hence why she is called a witch by other characters.
- Melinoë's overall appearance seems to be heavily inspired by the gothic-punk subcultures.
- Melinoë's animal companion, Frinos, being a frog likely comes from the fact frogs are one of Hecate's sacred animals; however, it seems Melinoë is the true owner of Frinos. The frog might've also been chosen for her due to her birth by a river in Greek Mythology.
- During a conversation with Arachne, Melinoë states that she has no appetite at all and in that same conversation she specifically mentions not being into eating animals or insects implying that she's a vegetarian.
- In an interview with Game Informer, Greg Kasavin claimed that Melinoë would listen to "Scandinavian-European symphonic metal" or "'90s industrial music" (according to Darren Korb). Kasavin theorized that she would be a fan of The Smiths.[1]
Gallery
Nendoroid of Melinoë: www.goodsmileus.com
Supergiant Games 15th Anniversary Zip-Up Hoodie: fangamer.com
Additional notes
For additional information on Melinoë that does not pertain to Hades, see Wikipedia's article: Melinoë
References
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