Tielekku

Tielekku is a background heroine of the M.M.O. City of Heroes. She is a primordial goddess and though no-longer an active force, he early acts against the forces of evil still resonate in the present.

The Gift of Magic
When the universe was first created, magic did not exist. Tielekku invented many planets and species and of all of them, humans bowed down and worshiped the gods. Tielekku grew fond of humans due to their worship of her and decided to give them a taste of the potential power of the gods themselves by teaching them magic. Many of the other gods were outraged at the notion, for magic was a force the gods held over mortals and with it, humans would not be supplicants. Tielekku had thought of humans as pets but she soon saw her detractors saw them as slaves. When Tielekku refused to budge on her new policy of allowing mortals magic, the evil gods rose up to usurp her. Tielekku was the high-queen-goddess, and for good reason, she was capable of taking on the rest of her pantheon nearly single-handedly, however she would have help, many gods remained neutral, but a few specifically siding with her (which ones vary based on source.) This primordial battle of gods is what formed mountains, broke off islands and turned lush, plains into desolate deserts. Eventually Tielekku won and she personally banished every single god who opposed her. Tielekku banished the gods who opposed her to the nether-world, a limbo state between life and death in a state even immaterial to ghosts, unable to affect anything physical.

When the ordeal was over Tielekku was exhausted, her powers tested to their limits. She went into a slumber to recover her powers. Before she de-manifested, Tielekku left one of the few gods who had fought by her side in charge and then vanished. Which god Tielekku left to rule is somewhat contested.

Tielekku's Legacy
The ancient Oranbegans were the worshipers left to piece together society after the war between the gods. According to their lore they were among the first worshipers of gods and thus the reason Tielekku gifted man-kind with magic. The Oranbegan central god was called Ermeeth, god of knowledge. According to Oranbegans, Ermeeth was the one who helped Tielekku, was her lover and thus left to rule with her gone. A rival order called the Mu, worshiped the goddess Hequat - goddess of witchcraft, who claim in-fact it was Hequat who fought by Tielekku's side and Ermeeth ran away in battle, fleeing to the sea as he was too scholarly and cowardly for actual combat, and the only reason Tielekku did not banish him was he was hiding beneath the waves at the time. Contact commentary seems to imply that the Oranbegans are closer to the truth, even though they would become villains and the Mu, persecuted. Regardless of whose hands Tielekku left the world in the hands of, Hequat would have her followers attack the Oranbegans. The Oranbegans begged Ermeeth for help but received no boons or even guidance, Ermeeth was a pacifist god who supported magic but did not use it to harm and so he would not aid even as his worshipers were being slaughtered by Hequat's battle-mage Mu.

Eventually the Oranbegans summoned the hell goddess Lilitu. Lilitu had remained neutral in the war. Though she was an evil goddess, she had no issue with Tielekku teaching mortals magic and so was not banished with Tielekku's enemies. Lilitu was not a pacifist, she agreed to help the Oranbegans, but only if they proved they would worship her instead of Ermeeth. Lilitu knew as Ermeeth had taught the Oranbegans how to live, they would be tempted to offer the Mu mercy, Lilitu said once invoked she would show no mercy and so her summoners must agree to kill every single Mu even when it looked like they had won the war, with no other options, the Oranbegans agreed and Lilitu unleashed the forces of Hell as servants of the Oranbegans. Hequat's strength waned against the forces of Hell, and like Tielekku, she too needed to go into hibernation to recover and demanifested. The Mu were significantly less powerful without their flesh and blood goddess beside them and the powers of Hell became overkill. Though many a Mu battle-mage begged for peace, the Oranbegans, remorsefully refused and fed the battle-magi alive to demons they had summoned as grim tribute.

With the war one and Lilitu's demons feasting on the Mu the Oranbegans were left with a problem, what to do with the Mu families. Mu were not just a magic sect, they were a people, the widows, children and grand-parents of those who had fought still part of Oranbegan society. Normally such people would be either ignored or killed, but because of the grizzly manner in which their relatives had died, the Oranbegans took pity on them; They could not live in harmony with them but in an effort to make-up for the deaths of their relatives, the Oranbegan's spared their lives and banished them, scattering them to the winds and telling them to never return, the remaining Mu all fled, banished from society. Lilitu was furious, while the Oranbegans thought she just meant they must refuse mercy in battle, what she was asking for was a full-blown genecide, and the Oranbegans and specifically cast out the remaining Mu rather than ritually sacrificing them. The Oranbegans were cursed by Lilitu for showing mercy and their entire cities were swallowed under the ground and the Oranbegans were ripped out of their bodies and turned into ghosts, trapped in their newly subterranean cities. As a final cruelty, Lilitu lift the Oranbegans a twisted hope, that their contract was still in effect, that they would still have the foces of Hell at their disposal and could be free of their curse if they did kill all the remaining Mu, something imposbile in their current state. Most of the Mu gave-up witch-craft and the few that didn't could not get their hands on any practical instructions, which only got slimmer as time went on. It seemed the last great repository of magic and Tielekku's legacy for many kind would be buried with the Oranbegans, magic becoming a rare and often mythic force as history turned to fables.

Revival of Magic
In City of Heroes, Magic, is a semi-divine force gods used to manipulate the world, passed down to humans. Spells are improvised instructions for how to access the force and anything with a spirit or that can understand the connection between the spirit and the cosmos can re-write various aspects of localized reality around them. Magic was not uncommon in the era of the Roman Empire, but after the dark-ages not only were many of the techniques lost to man-kind, practitioners were hunted down as witches and killed/tortured for seemingly unholy practices, leading to centuries of a magical drought.

In the year 1930, Marcus Cole and Stefan Richter, got had completed an expedition to find an extra-dimensional nexus point/Divine repository, called The Well of the Furies which infused the stations of ancient gods into them, Marcus empowered by the vacant powers of Zeus, and Richter by the vacant powers of Tartarus. While empowered both agreed The Well was too powerful to be shown to the rest of the world and kept it's location a secret, however at the Well was the legendary box of Pandora. In it the "Hope" said to be kept in the box was actually the bound-up potential of humanity, every year it had remained closed, more and more built up. Both men, while not wishing humans to have the powers of gods wanted humanity to reach closer towards it's full potential and opened the box. Opening Pandora's Box created a golden age of human's figuratively, and sometimes literally, touched by the gods, not seen since the classical age of "mythology". Science fiction became reality, genetic mutation births took a sharp spike, alien organisms started touching down in secret and magic experienced a Renaissance period.

The Circle of Thorns and Mu
In the late 1920s a arcane enthusiast going by "Baron Zoria" visited the British Isles from Russia and then moved over to the US in pursuit of a theory that the lost city of Oranbega, was not only real, but the reason no one had ever found it was it was located in what was the Americas. Zoria started cult in the outward style of a gentlemen's club which he dubbed, "The Circle of Thorns" He would eventually find the city and agreed to help the Oranbegans overcome their curse if they taught him magic. The Oranbegan ghosts agreed and Zoria returned to his club members escorted them down into the sunken city and let the Oranbegans possess them, locking their souls away magical crystals, as the ghosts rejoined humanity in the stolen bodies. By 1931, The Circle of Thorns was back, the event supposedly stimulated by the opening of Pandora's Box. The Circle of Thorns used a divining tools to track down the Mu descendants, by then so disbursed through-out the world, one-third of humanity was of Mu decent. The Circle of Thorn started hunting down the Mu, when one set of bodies died, or was close to dying, they just found new ones. A few Mu descendants found documentation of their ancestry, and with them it's practices. The Mu still could not match the forces of Lilitu, even with magic slipping back into the world so they made a pact with the most powerful being they could find, Stefan Richter, one of the men to open Pandora's Box and bring back magic to the world, himself now infused with Incarnate power like that of Lilitu, Ermeeth, Hequat and Tielekku. Stefan had taken up villainy to spite Marcus for taking up heroism as super-hero Statesman. Stefan was known as Lord Recluse and the Mu became his personal battle-mage battalion to hold out against the Circle of Thorns and even fight back against them.

The Banished Pantheon
While Magic was experiencing it's revival the gods banished by Tielekku were stirring. The era of revived magical interest bought on by the opening of Pandora's Box, had given a few lone shamans in Africa dream visions. Though their meditations were meant to explore the spirit world they ended up in the netherworld, and while their, they met the gods that Tielekku had banished. The salvation of the gods, in a dark irony, became mortal worshipers. Those few lone shamen began building statues, sects and full cults to the sealed gods. The cult became large enough to become a moment and that movement was called The Banished Pantheon. While Tielekku's peers of Ermeeth and Hequat had been lost to time, The Banished Pantheon, through their vision touched shamen, now worked to create back-doors for the Tielekku's enemies to return to the world Through instructions from their gods, the Banished Pantheon built wooden idols and masked and channeled their deities into them, creating pseudo-corporeal forms for them to roam the world with and the more possessed masks and idols came to life, the more followers flocked to them and the stronger the faith, the more gods returned in their wooden shells.

The Banished Pantheon made pilgrimages to Paragon City Rhode Island, to a township named Astoria. The only god not banished by Tielekku was named Mot, he was tied to an idol and so weak that he could not participate in the fight with the idol buried at the time. Mot would physically manifest around the idol but without worshipers it took years to even start to manifest, though once he did it would be independent of the idol. As Mot was buried for thousands of years the Banished Pantheon felt uncovering him would be a chance for one of their gods to physically exist in their own flesh in the world and with the instructions of their other gods they began digging for it. The Banished Pantheon emptied Astoria's mass graveyard, turning the bodies of the dearly departed into zombies and killing the locals. The City closed off Astoria, by then re-dubbed "Dark Astoria" to keep the Banished Pantheon's necromantic rituals from harming anymore of the living, though the ghosts of those killed were still hunted down as ritual sacrifices to Mot.

Appearances
Tielekku remains a strong commonality as Magic itself exists because of her and she is woven into the backgrounds of three of the biggest Magic themed villain groups, The Circle of Thorns, Mu and Banished Pantheon. In addition the Midnight Squad, magic archivists, have many bits of lore about Tielekku and nearly everyone agrees that while some what alien even as a god due to the full scope of her power as -the- priordial goddess, she was a benevolent figure.

Awakenings
In City of Heroes tie-in comic, Awakenings, The Banished Pantheon branch outside Dark Astoria and subsume a Circle of Thorns temple to use as a ritual point to summon Tielekku. The Freedom Phalanx are contacted by Baron Zoria when his fellow Circle magi are attacked and part of their city taken over by the Banished Pantheon. Statesman and Foreshadow were fighting off Banished Pantheon idols while Numina, secretly a member of the Midnight Squad, head out the Baron Zoria. The heroes of the Freedom Phalanx see that with both civilians and Circle attacked at the same time The Banished Pantheon clearly a major operation is underway. Zoria turns the team invisible and takes them into Oranbega to see a mass congregation of Banished Pantheon worshipers all calling down Tielekku. Though she looks to be a member of The Banished Pantheon at first, the Phalanx are soon able to piece together she is being restrained and that she was the who banished the Banished Pantheon. Zoria's spell weakens the closer they get and soon is dispelled entirely by the concentrated power of the Pantheon fed by all it's worshipers in one place. While Statesman and Foreshadow fight off the zombies and Shaman, Numina heads up to the platform and breaks the bindings. Released from the ritual, Tielekku joins the heroes of the Freedom Phalanx and proceeds to eviscerate all the idols of the Banished Pantheon gods with the literal snap of her fingers all at once, furthermore she states that even if new idols are built the specific gods she exorcised will be unable to repossess them for many years even with their worshipers channeling them. Tielekku was still in a weakened state and decides to go back to sleep to fully recover but expresses that with modern heroes like the Freedom Phalanx set to fight the forces of evil she can rest in peace.

Dark Astoria Arc
For years Dark Astoria remained a haunted section of town, plagued by Banished Pantheon, Circle of Throns and the ninja crime syndicate The Tsoo, mostly locked off from the rest of the city, but with heroes occasionally going in to curtain Banished Pantheon activities. However in 2012, the Mot finally manifested and the Banished Pantheon had a flesh and blood God at their side, Mot - Incarnate of Undeath. The Tsoo though criminals had a connect to their ancestors as ghostly benefactor for their powers and as such they had been warning the Tsoo of the power stirring beneath Dark Astoria. The Tsoo had been operating in Dark Astoria to try to disrupt the Banished Pantheon. The super-villain, Scirocco was the current head of the Mu, and though not a Mu himself by blood, had picked up many Mu rituals. Scirocco's central powers came from his sword, which had cursed him for taking it without being chosen, the curse prevented the "thief" from fulfilling their heart's intent, with the assumption they would be evil, however since Scirocco was good, it meant every attempt he made to use his powers for good ended up backfiring. Scirocco had become leader of the Mu for Lord Recluse because he figured if he could not do good directly he could at-least help the lesser evils of the world and encourage honor among them, which is how the Mu had been operating since his leadership. The Hero/Villain players will team-up Scirocco, The Tsoo leader, Tub-Ci and the founder of the Midnight Squad, Dream Doctor, to try to summon Tielekku to re-banish Mot along with the entire Banished Pantheon. As it turns out the soul devouring Mot, intentionally let them gather their forces to summon Tielekku to devour her in her weakened state and with he and Tub-Ci eaten proceeded to grow stronger without any rivals to stop him. The conclusion of the arc will see the hero/villain journey into Mot's stomach and cut it open freeing the souls being digested which includes Tielekku. Once again free, Tielekku proceeds to banish Mot, cutting him off from the souls and placing him in an ethereal state where he will die of starvation. Mot works around this by devouring his own death and thus caught in a perpetual loop of dying by being bought back to life by his own death but needing to keep eating that death over and over in order to be revived.

Tielekku thanks the player for freeing her and helping to Banish the last of the Banished Pantheon. The player will have been wielding a ceremonial dagger from Tub-Ci, who was intending to absorb Tielekku's power with it, to become a god himself and smite Mot, however he was corrupted by the ill-will of the ghosts killed by Mot but would later be brought to his senses and willingly surrender the dagger to keep from doing something rash under their influence. The Player will have a choice to either stab Tielekku and absorb her powers or bid her good-bye. If the player stabs Tielekku when she is congratulating them they get a major damage boost temporarily, if they spare Tielekku and just bid her farewell, they gain a buff called Tielekku's Favor, which gives a damage resistance boost instead. If Tielekku is not betrayed she returns to her former glory but decides to leave earth for the greater spans of the multi-verse that have gone on without her in her sleep, if stabbed she needs to go to sleep for several more thousand years to begin recovering again. Either way, once the arc is over, Tielekku leaves the moral world to mortals, who have apparently exceeded her wildest dreams of potential she originally imparted on them.