Eli BalTuti Ima''Idu Mituti

Deity Application
Deity and Purview: Ereshkigal - Goddess of Darkness, Dust, Death and Knowing Within
Source Material URL: http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/gods/ladies/ereshkinature.html

Shared Reality: DDC
Description of Residence: There is a temple in Kutha, but she does not reside there at any time. Ereshkigal resides in Irkalla, the Underworld. Nobody but Kur, a few appointed assistants and the dead can enter this place. There are seven gates, at which stand the Annuaki, the gatekeepers. She lives in a palace called Urugal and is surrounded by the decaying bodies of the dead and the spirits of the wrongfully dead.

Personality: Ereshkigal is a curious goddess, though restrained enough to not give in to every little thing that she comes across that piques her interest. She is strong willed and quite decisive. She absolutely knows what she wants and works toward obtaining it, or outright takes it.

Representing the darker side of the Eternal Feminine, she encompasses everything one might expect. She has her softer side, though rare as it might be for others - especially outsiders - to see, as well as a vicious, violent side.

She doesn't need anybody to help her run the underworld by any means, though there are times she does wish for companionship. These are the moments when she travels above, to visit siblings and friends she has made over the years. Rarely, if ever, is anybody invited into Irkalla.

Whether due to nature or occupation, Ereshkigal tends to the darker sides of her nature. She can be foreboding and ominous, secretive and even dangerous.

Ereshkigal never takes anybody for granted, nor does she judge a person without first meeting them. Both her curious nature and her love of knowledge cause her to indulge her desires for knowing what people are really like before deciding if she might like them or not.

She is not a hard person to please, but she is also not hard to anger. While she isn't much for second chances for those she's only just met, she will give those she holds dear opportunities to redeem themselves over and over again. Ereshkigal is fiercely loyal, friends are friends for life unless they do something particularly horrible to her or one of her family, and family is blood. Even if she doesn't particularly like a member of her family, there is still some amount of respect there and she can be civil.

Though her realm is the underworld, Ereshkigal's voice and power can be felt by all in every corner of creation. Gods and men alike ignore her at their own peril.

Special Details: Hating her husband, Nergal, so very much, Ereshkigal was always looking for a way to be free of him, but fearing what he might do to her son, Namtar. Namtar was not the son of Nergal biologically, but she told her husband he was to keep the boy safe. Even despite that, she worried that any retaliation for what Nergal had done to her (break into Irkalla, threaten to cut off her head and destroy her beloved land if she did not become his wife) would result in death for her most loved boy.

When she met the Greek God Erebos, she finally discovered that she had a counterpart, something that she never thought was possible. With him, she devised a plan to be rid of Nergal completely. They attacked the War God at a gala, but he was saved by his sister.

Ereshkigal had much time to think over her actions and realize that they were selfish.

PB: Padma Lakshmi

Character Name: Ereshkigal
Pantheon: Sumerian
Parentage: Anu - Father (Sky-father), Nammu - Mother (The sea)
Patronage: Queen of the Underworld, Goddess of Death, Darkness, Dust and Knowing Within
Residence: Ereshkigal keeps her main home in her domain, Irkalla, the underworld. She is most comfortable there with the dead that she rules over. Any earthly temples she might have occupied in her life are long since gone. There is an exact replica of her dark palace in the Sumerian quarter so she can be just as comfortable when she decides to spend some time with those of her kin.

Personality: Ereshkigal is a curious goddess, though restrained enough to not give in to every little thing that she comes across that piques her interest. She is strong willed and quite decisive. She absolutely knows what she wants and works toward obtaining it, or outright takes it.

Representing the darker side of the Eternal Feminine, she encompasses everything one might expect. She has her softer side, though rare as it might be for others - especially outsiders - to see, as well as a vicious, violent side.

She doesn't need anybody to help her run the underworld by any means, though there are times she does wish for companionship. These are the moments when she travels above, to visit siblings and friends she has made over the years. Rarely, if ever, is anybody invited into Irkalla.

Whether due to nature or occupation, Ereshkigal tends to the darker sides of her nature. She can be foreboding and ominous, secretive and even dangerous.

Ereshkigal never takes anybody for granted, nor does she judge a person without first meeting them. Both her curious nature and her love of knowledge cause her to indulge her desires for knowing what people are really like before deciding if she might like them or not.

She is not a hard person to please, but she is also not hard to anger. While she isn't much for second chances for those she's only just met, she will give those she holds dear opportunities to redeem themselves over and over again. Ereshkigal is fiercely loyal, friends are friends for life unless they do something particularly horrible to her or one of her family, and family is blood. Even if she doesn't particularly like a member of her family, there is still some amount of respect there and she can be civil.

Though her realm is the underworld, Ereshkigal's voice and power can be felt by all in every corner of creation. Gods and men alike ignore her at their own peril.

History: From An and Nammu came a pair of Divine Twins, Enki and Ereshkigal. They were both very curious and often times wise beyond their years. They grew together and became constant companions, the best of friends. Together with her brother, Ereshkigal explored the world and asked as many questions as her mind could come up with.

Every day Enki and Ereshkigal would swim in the depths of Nammu, Enki floating along the top and swimming only shallowly, and Ereshkigal diving to the depths to explore whatever she could find there. Each day they swam, Ereshkigal dove deeper and deeper. Discovering more, and all the while still wanting to know more.

One day came where Enlil, Enki and Ereshkigal were sitting on the shores of Nammu's waters, discussing in depth the curiosity in the young goddess. Her brothers didn't see the world the way that she saw it, that it was full of knowledge to be had, and to have the knowledge questions must be asked. Enlil brought up the monstrous dragon, Kur, and their other siblings who had left the mound of creation and gone beyond the depths of Nammu into parts unknown.

This, of course, rose the penetrating curiosity in young Ereshkigal to the point that she just couldn't let it go. Her brothers thought that it was odd that these few should be so different, and wish to be so far from family. Ereshkigal saw it as natural, for why should everybody be the same?

More questions were asked of her brother, Enlil about the nature of the place Kur and the others had gone, and the very idea of a whole realm thus far untouched only built on her desire to Know. To discover. She continued her pattern of diving deeper every day until the day came that she did not return to the Middle world.

Instead she came upon Kur and the entrance to the Underworld. Ereshkigal didn't see anything bad about the dragon-sibling that sat at the entrance, or the other dark and twisted half siblings that Enlil had spoken about. She instead focused on the feeling of loneliness of the place and those who lived below. Of the dense desire to belong that filled the air so much it was almost crushing. Kur and Ereshkigal spoke at length about their differences and similarities until Kur relented his distrust of his half-sister, deciding to join her. She spoke about the vast kingdom she wished to claim as her own, and Kur asked her to point it out.

Little Ereshkigal turned and pointed at the Underworld behind them. Her voice rang out loud and clear in the depths of the underworld all the way to the highest point of the sky that she was claiming the untouched spaces for her own.

From that moment on she was known as the Queen of the Underworld. Her half siblings became her companions and servants. The seven twisted Annuaki becoming the guardians of the seven gates that brought the dead down to her.

Enki tried to bring her back to the World Above only once. She refused adamantly, claiming her place was where she sat. She felt whole there, and the Underworld felt complete with her in it. He returned with the seeds for the Tree of Knowledge, the Huluppu Tree, but not his twin.

Irkalla is the place that nobody returns from, the dead stay dead. In keeping with this, Ereshkigal keeps most everybody out, not wishing to risk that they should have to remain forever as well. Another need is that in order to visit the Underworld, one must have a balanced knowledge of inside and out, due to Enki's attempt at rescue. Those who try to pass the gates falsely will undoubtedly find themselves either stuck at a gate, or stuck in the Underworld.

There has been one other that could be considered a ruler of Irkalla, though Ereshkigal didn't choose to share, and does not, in fact, share now. She is the only one who can pass judgment and make laws in the underworld, though that didn't stop one being from trying.

During a space of long silence in the Underworld, when Ereshkigal didn't have siblings and other family members trying to get her to return to the World Above, there was suddenly Nergal. The son of Enlil forced his way into the Underworld, past the seven gates, past Kur, right to Ereshkigal's palace, claiming to be sent by her father.

Instead of having any gift or kind word from any in the World Above, Nergal demanded that Ereshkigal become his wife and threatened to destroy her reign and all her realm unless she do so. To save her kingdom, Ereshkigal agreed. She bore him one son, Namtar, before he returned to the World Above.

Over the ages, Ereshkigal has felt so very at home in the Underworld and with her half-sibling companions that she has not felt much need to venture out into the human world. When she does find the desire overwhelming, she leaves Kur to guard and seeks out what she wants. Her time is rarely long in the World Above, though time is relative to a goddess.

She has experienced the new human world and the new miracles of technology, though at first grudgingly. Her old fashioned ways seemed to suit her for the most part. It was truthfully only the abundant craving for Knowledge that had her exploring more eventually. She knows modern places and modern fashions, and often - though mostly briefly - wonders about having a modern home in some exotic city. Perhaps it's time to explore more.