Of Gods and Gamemasters

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Legends of Rega: Asterion, the First Minotaur

Asterion. The First Minotaur. In the original myth, Asterion was

named for Minos' foster father. Asterion was the child of a divine white

bull sent by Poseidon as a sign of favor to Minos, intended for sacrifice.

Instead, Minos kept the bull, and as a punishment, Poseidon made his

wife, Pasiphae, fall in love with it. Asterion was the result. His unnatural

appetite for human flesh lead to his imprisonment in the Labyrinth,

where tribute of youths from other nations, like Athens, was used to sate

his hunger, until he was slain by Theseus.

Imagine being consigned to the dark, and given no love all your life, due

to the sins of a man who isn't even your father...

In Rega, Asterion was engendered by a bull demon sent by Rixa

to punish the King of Koreta for his hubris. That King had turned his

back on the bright gods, but not turned to Interitus' dark brood either,

believing that man could equal the gods. Rixa sent the bull demon who

made the King himself pregnant with Asterion. The King barely survived

the birth, and Asterion was consigned to the darkness of the Labyrinth

just as in our myths. Unlike in ancient Greece and Crete...no hero ever

killed him. The Labyrinth was sealed off with magic and stone, and

Asterion may still be trapped within. The King himself *was* killed by a

hero named Dikastis, a descendant of Magnus, and his godless reign and

sacrifice of thinking beings ended.

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