Medusa

Doing a setting with an ancient race of Medusas that use to have a balla as fuck civilization. Now there either nomads or slaves. If anyone got any good pics of male or female Medusas that'd be swell.

Make them vulnerable to each other's gaze.

the Medusa in my setting can't turn people into stone. Doesn't stop superstitious slavers from blinding medusas and selling the eyes as alchemical ingredients

FYI Medusa is an individual's name; Medusa was a Gorgon

I understand that, I'm in the middle of trying to decide to call the race either Medusas or Gorgons or something more original

something more original would be best, honestly. especially if they're meant to be a mystery to your players.
if you're not going for heavy worldbuilding though just go with Gorgons

Okay, but you have to go full ham if you call them that. Humans need to become Bobs, Dwarves need to become Gimlis, Elves need to become Sluts, etc.

Well, Gorgons works for generic, but if you want to use Medusa it might be that they use it in honor of the first of their race. Of course, you would then be required to have them hate the gods for their origin story. An innocent girl being raped by one god while her own goddess neither defends her from this nor even shows empathy after but blames her, curses and casts her out... yeah, that would sour someone's view on the divine.

You could have them be an offshoot race of normal humans, having become monstrous when their greatest queen (Medusa herself, whose name would come to describe the entire subrace) led them in a war against the gods. Obviously the gods BTFO'd them since they're mere mortals and their bloodline was cursed to be monstrous as punishment. Since they were now monsters they were hated by everyone, including themselves, and their civilization degraded to the point that they became, as you said, nomads or slaves.
Idk if you made this thread looking for advice on the worldbuilding surrounding the race or just pics, but there you have it anyway

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An entire society of autists who can't look people in the eye

A party full of Draculas, now that's a game.

I've been trying to convince people that a party full of wizards (or at least different spellcasters) would be an entertaining game.

What about Medusa being a title? Like their ruler is called Medusa X or maybe they just assume the name Medusa once they take the throne.

In some versions she's Poseidon's lover.

Flip the aspects. They've always been snake people who could turn others to stone with a gaze. Their curse, and what led to the downfall of their civilizations, is that when they die random beings erupt from their corpses. A flying horse is manageable, a thirty foot lion that breathes fire is not. This rapidly caused the Gorgon population to flee cities and soured their interactions with other races.

The stone gaze isn't innate, it's a learned magical effect that is popular for cultural reasons. Most cannot perform it all due to the loss of higher learning that came with the downfall of their civilization; among those who can a brief period of temporary muscle rigidity is the most common effect with full stone transmutation becoming increasingly rare outside deeply initiated religious figures.

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In the original mythos, Poseidon wanted to rape Medusa, and so to PROTECT HER, Athena changed her and spirited her away. This is why the Gorgon was a symbol of protection for female prostitutes.

The 'hero' that killed her was a hitman for the male divines, as Zeus was 1. Poseidons brother and 2. the actual patriarchy, not the made up kind SJW's talk about today. The legend of slaying medusa was likely a later addition.

It was later changed so Athena could not defy the other male gods entirely, and she "punished" medusa for being raped

It was originally a myth of feminine empowerment.

TIL
Cool, sounds like the older myth is worth tracking down then.

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only the finest

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Men don't have snake hair and are immune to the petrifying stare, but they have snake dicks that shoot petrifying jizz, which females are immune too.

I think the more important question is do gorgons have body hair and by extension, snake pubes?

Like all Greek myths there are several versions, many of which contradict each other. Gorgoneions were and are a common symbol of protection with the earliest examples being found on coins, masks, and temples. Originally only Medusa existed, Stheno and Euryale are later additions as are the snakes for hair. The notion of Medusa as feminine empowerment is a modern invention and is less common than the modern notion of Medusa as feminine rage.

I dig that the stone gaze is a learned ability. It could be praised among elders of nomadic clans.
I like this as well, but Medusa doesn't really fit the old language the ancients used. It could be used as a title among the nomads and warlords that pocket the world.

The origin of the snake men in my setting and other 'beast' races is about the Gods uplifting non sentient monsters as magical experiments and letting them do w/e.

*snake cloaca

OP is a fucking idiot, and bad at literally everything.

Hope your friends hate you. lmao

I remeber a home brew race of lesser gorgons. The had a stare that could petrify, as in so scare unale to move, for a turn if failed a will save, Great fun for sneak attack

what made them lesser?

Yay! Sempai noticed m--......

medusa was the individual monster, she was a gorgon

>Race of people who make you stone if you look at them
>They're not immune to their own power
Do you see the problem here buddy?

THANK YOU

They dont use mirrors or wear special lenses

Why does this make me think of JJBA?

Wouldn't it be like how monitor lizards are immune to their own venom and how spiders don't trap themselves on their own website?

Their own spiderwebs... Stupid phone.

My favorite medusa pic

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IIRC the version most people know was actually championed by the Romans, whose emperor of the time had a boner for returning to traditional values and needed ancient precedents for his views.

How the hell do you keep a creature that can turn men to stone out of sheer horror as a slave?

see

They could just go with the common practice during ancient antiquity of sons and daughters sharing their parents or grandparents names. The first Medusa names her child or grand child Medusa, they do the same, they're children do the same, more famous Medusas arise to do more famous deeds causing more gorgons to name their children Medusa to honor them. Eventually the name Medusa becomes such a common term for referring to each other that foreigners just start referring to all of them as Medusas or Medusans.

Same reason some people referred to Muslims as Mohammedans

Okay. How about in a way that doesn't gimp the entire species by taking away their most famous ability?

Sunglasses made of amber.

Well that might not help if it's her visage that is petrifying and not her vision.

They don't have heads

Just make it an innate ability that has to be strengthened through practice, like a mixture between a muscle and a cognitive technique. An angry or scared Gorgon with no training or no knowledge that they can do this may, entirely by mistake, cause a person to seize up and fumble momentarily. A Gorgon that has exceptional focus or has training in how to hone this ability could paralyse or hypnotize a person for a short time. Only religious leaders or the like with a ton of esoteric training can actually go around turning anyone that meets their eye to stone.

You could have it so that once in a while a freak Gorgon is born with a naturally powerful gaze. This could even be a quest hook - like, for example, when the PCs enter a new town the market is deserted, and they learn that a Gorgon slave freaked out and started petrifying literally everything within eyeshot with their uncontrollable power.

I actually like this idea.
Swipe.

There is one they fear
In their tongue she is Sisych-Tal
GORGON-BORN

Giving them magic eyes is kinda changing their ability anyway, considering that the eyes originally nothing to do with turning people into stone. Medusa was just so horrifically ugly that people turned into stone out of pure terror.

What if she actually was so beautiful, people were just astonished

I know this image is supposed to tug at my heartstrings, but Medusa's actions make it hard for me to sympathize with her, raped by an asshole god or not.

The party rushes into the king's palace, expecting some sort of coup or monsters. Instead, they see statues with surprised looks on their faces and gorgon slaves comatose on the ground. They find a young gorgon slave girl crying in the corner of a kitchen, hiding her visage with a cooking pot. "I...I didn't mean for a..any of this! I 'sob' I just thought it twas a...stories."

Bump for gorgons, good shit op

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There should probably be some basis for that superstition. Maybe back in the day their favorite execution method was magically petrifying the criminal. Putting the statues on display as a warning to others. But it was just a spell used by their mages, not a natural ability.

Maybe Gorgon is the proper name for their species, but humans call them Medusas.

I like the idea of Medusa being a popular name among gorgons. I was thinking of naming these guys something like Zakar-baal (a Phoenician king) and turning criminals into stone bit fits since in my setting, the gorgon empire falls because of multiple reasons, one is that the ruling class was full of decadent fucks who would use stoned victims as art or masonry.

>Medusa's actions

Hiding in obscurity?

All she does is petrify dudes that come to kill her.

>Medusa
Call them Gorgons, user, Medusa is the name of a Gorgon

>actions
Which actions? hinding in a remote place? fighting for her survival as hero after hero after hero after hero tried to claim her head? fuck off.

>2017
>Not hanging out and playing board games with Medusa and her friends.

>the Medusa in my setting can't turn people into stone
why even bother

I did something similar long ago with nagas. Ancient powerful totally - not - India - guys Empire. Slow steady decline after inbreeding ravaged the ruling caste.

only gorgon priestesses can turn people to stone, which are the highest caste in gorgon society (like the hindu caste system) with warriors and kings 2nd, landed farmers and traders 3rd, laborers 4th (maybe imported slave labor?), and outcastes being lower than slaves

Greeko-buddhist influence would be interesting as its an unexplored fantasy inspiration. there were greek kings in west india and afghanistan for centuries.

I was going to go for a Nigerian south Asian look with the wrap hats but, still keep the hindu caste system. The greek kings ruling india sounds interesting as fuck tho

There is only one good Medusa.

Oh for crying out loud, who let this hairball of a slave into my wing of the palace! I am in a forgiving mood so I'll might add your face to one of the royal bath fixtures. Now where is my young softscale of a sister?! I desire some...heh...quality time.