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The Furies are the antagonists of the fantasy-supernatural book The Merlin Legacy by Stephen Davis and they are the storm deities of Greek mythology.
Biography[]
Background[]
The Furies were created by the goddess Beltane along with her other creations; the Dragons, the Water Spirits, and humanity. Beltane created each of these so that they would uphold the Natural Order and protect each element of Nature. She gave special powers to each; the Furies were given the task of protecting storms and controlling them; the Dragons were given the task of looking over fire and time-travel to prevent or control disasters; and humans were given the task of looking after the earth. Beltane watched over her creations for many years and then left.
Sometime in this period, the Furies manipulated humanity into thinking that the Pagan ways were evil, having by now grown jealous and envious of Beltane's silence. The Furies appeared amongst humanity in forms they perceived as "angels." Humanity recorded the Furies' visits in a book called The Bible. The Furies appeared and told humanity to invent a new religion; Christianity, which would overthrow the Natural Order by having a masculine society, bent on war and conquest, and Chistianity would ignore and forget the Pagan ways of Beltane.
By the time of the book The Merlin Legacy, (set in modern times) the Furies had certainly been successful.
Conquest[]
The Furies set about manipulating nature, causing storms instead of preventing them, and abusing their power. The Furies caused all the Great Storms which happened along the coast of England in the 20th Century. The Furies planned to destroy humanity with floods, which then turned into global warming.
Their perpetual enemies were the Dragons, whom they encountered during time travel. One day, the Furies tricked a Dragon named Shola into time travelling, making Shola think it was urgent, and she travelled, but found nothing. When she returned to modern times she found the Furies had set up a large storm, causing blackouts across England, and when Shola returned she hit a pylon in the storm and was killed.
First downfall[]
The Dragons could not stand this and they all banded together to stop the Furies. They went back in time to the 1980s, when there was a great Storm all over England, and met the Furies, battled with them and finally killed most of them, causing great rainfall due to their defeat. The Dragons were with Wyverns too, and they killed the Furies' leader, who screamed loud as he was killed. Finally the remaining Furies fled and put off conquest for a while, rebuilding their society.
Role in The Merlin Legacy[]
In The Merlin Legacy, which concerns a young boy named Peter who has realized his abilities as Merlin the wizard, incarnated, along with an old man named Jules who was also Merlin incarnated, the Furies are causing global warming, warming up the planet. The Furies are worrying Jules because this interferes with the Natural Order so he recruits Peter, as his role as Merlin, to fight the Furies. Peter and three other incarnations of Merlin manage to meet regularly at Stonehenge where they communicate with owls, and they are able to use the Dragons to time travel, thus managing to stop the Furies' activities... for now.
Trivia[]
- Unlike most other villains in fantasy, the Furies have not been downplayed or underused. In fact, even though like many other villains they are built up to be the source of all evil in the story, they remain as such, even after their first downfall there are still enough Furies to take over again. This makes them a formidable adversary.
- Despite being the main antagonists of the book, they rarely appear, only appearing once (their presence is heralded by fierce lightning storms and rain) when the Dragons defeat them.
- The Furies are the element of water, the Dragons being the element of fire and humans being that of earth. The fairies or elementals are the element of air.
- Despite the Furies of mythology being from Greece, the Furies in this book seem to use England as their headquarters, and the last battle with the Dragons is over Dorset.
Powers and abilities[]
- Being ancient creatures made by Beltane herself, the Furies have numerous abilities.
- Time travel: - They can travel back and forth whenever they want to any point in time. The Furies use this to trick the Dragons into believing something urgent is happening.
- Omniscience: Being near deities, the Furies possess an incalculable power of awareness of whatever is happening or has happened in the Universe. They may have even been present at Creation, or made just after. Being time travellers they know nearly all there is to know about humanity, unlike many evil spirits, they do not know just about evil human nature but seem to fully understand humans. This makes them far more dangerous than other demons. However, they did not know of Beltane's true plan, which was their mistake.
- Electrokinesis: - Several times when they appear lightning storms strike. Its hinted they have a negative affect on Earth's atmosphere. The Furies also cause entire counties in England to experience blackouts when they are defeated.
- Hydrokinesis: - The Furies are of the element of water, thus they can control it. They caused worldwide floods at the time of the story and they also tried to drown England in massive storms which occurred throughout all of the Seventeenth Century.
- Aerokinesis: - The Furies can negatively affect the air, causing wind storms upon their arrival.
- Solarkinesis: - Amazingly, the Furies seem to have an influence over the Sun itself, a seemingly impossible feat. The Dragon Shola says that the Dark Ones (the Furies) will use a solar eclipse for evil, thus proving their immense power.
- Invisibility: - Throughout most of the book, its hinted the Furies are present at certain points, just never seen, due to their power of invisibility.