..:Miscellaneous:..
The titles given to the current Dark Senshi "team" are those belonging
previously to Persephone's lost Court. It's just something she's done for herself,
with no regard for how the individuals think of themselves. Most of the group
doesn’t seem to mind (Aphrodite, for example). Only one takes this as
a personal insult. The shackles they wear are a symbol of their servitude; the
Dark Senshi, despite what Persephone thinks, are in reality working for Sammael.
Yes, things that have been capitalized are supposed to be.
..:About
the Shackles:..
More than simply a symbol of bondage or slavery, the shackles, manacles and/or
collars that the Dark Senshi wear symbolize their fealty to Sammael. Each of
the Dark Senshi wears a neck collar, wrist or ankle shackles, or in some cases
all three. Demeter sports a full set because she has been with Sammael longer
than any of the others. What she thinks about them, nobody knows, and though
they do discolor her skin she has so far voiced no complaint. Persephone also
wears a full set, but hers are of polished silver instead of rusted metal. She's
perversely proud of these; the silver color is caused by her emotional attachment
to Sammael. Zeus merely has an extra-large and very thick collar. Aphrodite
wears a collar and shackles at her ankles not from any special attachment to
Sammael, but because she seems to enjoy the implied bondage. Hermes only has
shackles on her wrists, and wears long sleeves on her fuku in an attempt to
hide them. Ares has shackles on her wrists and ankles, which attach to her fingers
and the heels of her shoes with small, rusted chains. What significance this
has, nobody knows.
..:About Canyon’s Edge:..
Canyon's Edge: Canyon's Edge was created in 1998-1999 by Chris
as a backdrop for a long-running roleplaying scenario in the Champions
gaming system. It was at that time infested with supers of both the heroic and
villainous varieties. The gaming group split up in 2000, the sessions petered
out, and the city was largely forgotten... until 2007 or so. Bastion,
having been bored to tears with tales of Canyon's Edge and the wacky hijinks
that once took place there, took action. He put a lot of effort into the old
town and fleshed it out quite a bit, turning it into an arid city, much like
those adobe settlements of yore, nestled in the cradle of an actual canyon and
devoid of super heroes and villains. Canyon’s Edge became a dimensional
hub much like a community living on a trading route, and the World Gate SailorDís
was defending was one of several interdimensional connections to the city. Canyon’s
Edge became a means for the villainous Dark Senshi to enter into the world of
Sailor Moon.
The
Dark Cathedral:
Dark Traveller's base of operations and one of the most noticeable buildings
in Canyon's Edge. Modelled after the main sanctuary of the old Church of Chaos
on Ceres, the Cathedral is a huge, imposing structure built of black stone,
accented with wrought iron, and generally Gothic in design.
..:The
Chaos Church:..
A false religion initially set up by Caspar to further the encroachment of Chaos
into the Sol system. Though it started as something of a sham, the followers
were devout, and the Church grew closer and closer to the real thing over time.
By the fall of the Silver Millennium, the majority of Ceresians were Chaos-worshippers,
and almost all of the priests and priestesses of the Church could channel Chaos
in some form or fashion.
..:About SailorDís:..
The royal marking on Dís' forehead is an inverted crescent moon. It has
nothing to do with the right-side-up crescent SailorMoon has, though. It actually
symbolizes the pact Charon made with Pluto, to protect it from the shadows...
hence the image of the small moon eclipsed in Pluto's crescent.
Dís is pronounced "deese", and is one of the alternate names for Pluto. I knew
there were already a ton of Charon Senshi out there, and while I might not have
an original idea, I DID want to have some original elements to the story. This
is one of them. What's funny is now, at least in this continuum, there are essentially
three "Underworld" Senshi: Pluto, Dís, and Hades. In a way,
this makes sense. All three of them have similar missions, and all three exist
primarily out of the view of the regular world. It's just interesting how things
fall into place sometimes.
..:Mythology:..
The names here tie in more closely with Egyptian mythology than with
the traditional Roman mythology used in the SailorMoon series. Except in the
case of the Dark Senshi, where B suggested that, since that group were essentially
alternates of the existing Senshi, they should be named according to the Greek
standard.
..:Character
History:..
SailorDís originally appeared in 1996/1997. She was then known
as SailorSeven, had pale skin and dark blue hair, and carried a staff topped
with something resembling a big "3". The character was initially spawned
by a round-robin fic that my then-long-distance beau and I were writing whilst
I was away at college (featuring also Kamens Kindred and Rental, the Sailor
Clique and Sailor Chibi-Goth). That eventually begat the infamous (well, to
me, and B, who's had to read it, the poor sod) fanfic-which-will-never-see-the-light-of-day.
Ah, the things a melodramatic young heart drives one to do... SailorSeven at
first had seven pieces of herself scattered about, several of which I RPed in
the old WBS chat rooms from time to time. The only one of them who survived
the metamorphosis was Harutaki, a crossover from A!MS, which I had just discovered
that year and was very much a fan (well, let's be honest - an OTAKU) of. On
a side note, I had three characters based on the A!MS series, all demons, one
of whom featured in another god-awful fic I wrote at the time.
In 1997/1998, I discovered KiSS dolls. Around that time, I also started attending anime conventions (AWA), got a subscription to (then)Mixx Magazine, and Big Eyes, Small Mouth was published. It was decided between us local anime nuts that we'd try a session or two of the Sailormoon expansion for BESM. It flopped, mainly because our GM couldn't cope with not having specific rules for character movement (he was a Champions veteran), but renewed my interest in my fan-senshi character. Several hours of playing with the create-a-sailor KiSS set, Paint Shop Pro 3.1, and a long session with Notepad later, I had a little profile page for her. SailorSeven officially became SailorDís then.
More
background information and expansion of the character came when I played her
in a Champions game, which despite some complaints of its being "too silly"
(okay, so an evil Chef Boyardee clone working for the Negaverse was a little
corny) was enjoyed by the vast majority of the players. In 1999, she became
the Dís she is today. Hades was the result of my attempt to get my significant
other involved. He never did have quite the taste for it that I did, but it
was fun nonetheless.
Are Isis or Dís mary-sues? I say not. Well, not since about 1997. Harutaki
is actually more like me in terms of personality. Then again, she originated
in an experimental LARP from which I also got the Heart-Memory-Will concept.
I know of at least one fan-senshi cliché I'm still guilty of - having
Isis related to Setsuna/SailorPluto as a cousin, but I've always been a big
Pluto fan and to this day the contrivance works for me.
Neither Isis nor Dís are perfect, beautiful, lovable characters. Both
of them are pretty dysfunctional, actually. Heart is a little more like a normal
kid, but she can be a complete brat (at least, I envision her that way). Memory
by herself would be akin to having a catatonic person sitting in your house,
whenever she's not moving around; she just sits and stares, completely zoned
out. Harutaki is selfish, a wee bit vain, evil and holier-than-thou. She also
smokes, which for some reason makes people pariahs somehow *shrug*. Mind you,
Dís with all her pieces together would be a lot more reasonable and (relatively)
sane than any of her separate parts are on their own, but she's still not personable,
mainly because of her past. Usagi could probably try and reason with her and
might make some progress, though... especially if she managed to win over Heart
at some point.