Celaeno

A trio of Greek elementalist sisters- Aello, Ocypete, and a third who would later be known as Celaeno, had been working on an alchemical formula similar to the Xenopox virus of the current times. Their magical formula had mutagenic properties, and their initial plan was to create a “flying potion” that could be imbibed. Once drank, the person would grow wings like a bird’s, and for a time, fly around at their pleasure. The enchantments failed time and again, until Celaeno had an idea. She raised a demon from the Outer Darkness and took just one drop of its blood. Without telling her sisters, she added it to the next potion they were to test. The cursed substance simply waited to be drunk, and she watched as Aello took a sip. Her arms became wings! Next, Aello drank, and so did her arms. Then Celaeno consumed the rest.

For a few minutes they flew about their chamber, until Aello shrieked and fell to the ground, in pain. As her sisters landed, they also began screaming. Their feet ripped and tore and became talons, their leg bones snapped and bent and became akin to a bird’s, and their eyes grew sharp and yellow. They cawed like birds shrieking as the substance affected their minds and they became the original harpies. The three of them burst from their tower and descended on the city, Thrace, attacking and clawing all the humans; they left chaos. Other elementalists inhabited the city, and the strongest, a pair of brothers known as the Boreads, Zetes and Calaïs, called on the winds. The harpies were chased away, and the Boreads gave pursuit. Time and again, they hunted and banished the harpies from the mountainous places and islands. Until, the gods became involved. The gods managed to capture and subdue Aello and Ocypete, but Celaeno had drunk the most of the demon’s blood and she was stronger and more cunning than the other two. Aello and Ocypete would become tormentors to humanity as the behest of the gods. Celaeno fled away from Greece and its gods.

Celaeno would capture women and fly them far away from their villages, before she would infect them with her claws or bite. The women would mutate into forms similar to those her sisters had. She eventually had created a massive flock of harpies, loyal soldiers that bent to her will, and they descended on Mount Olympus in vengeance for having chased her away. The sun and clouds were drowned out because of the sheer number of screeching harpies in the air, but Celaeno’s hubris proved her downfall as the gods managed to defeat the massive force. Handfuls of the harpies managed to escape the wrath of the deities and these would form small pockets all around the world. As for Celaeno, they destroyed her body and forced her spirit to remain in the Physical World, unable to do anything but observe.