Euryale

Euryale is a being with succubus-like powers in addition to abilities unique to herself. She is the primary protagonist in Catching Heat and Euryale's Gambit in the Euryale Succubus Trilogy.

History
Euryale was born of Ceto and Phorcys and is the second of three Gorgon sisters. For many years she lived on an island near Crete in a temple they constructed for themselves. During the Olympian purge of the primordial gods Stheno and Euryale transformed the temple into a make-shift fortress. Despite the protections the building gave, Poseidon and Athena were still able to breach the building while Stheno and Euryale were out fishing and raped and almost killed Medusa. Euryale, returning home ahead of her sister and found Poseidon in the act of raping Medusa. Enraged Euryale attacked Poseidon, taking him by surprise. Unprepared Poseidon was barely able to withstand Euryale's quick and furious attacks. Athena, who was watching the events nearby was also caught unaware and when she tried to intervene, Euryale turned her attack on her as Poseidon fled. Athena also managed to escape but sustained heavy damage from the fight.

Death of Medusa
When Stheno returned a short time later, they decided they should keep moving around hoping to stay undetected by the Olympians. Every place they moved to, however, was near the sea so they could periodically stay in contact with their mother Ceto. Rumors began spreading that there the Gorgon sisters could always be found near the sea and Perseus the angel eventually discovered them and one day while Stheno and Euryale were sleeping, Perseus found Medusa, engaged her in a fight and killed her. Stheno and Euryale heard the commotion from the fight and rushed to intervene but they were too late. Perseus had beheaded Medusa and fled.

Devastated by the death of their sister and remembering the suggestion of Medusa to ally themselves with the Succubi, Stheno and Euryale traveled to Hell and their pledged themselves to the Succubus Queens.

Succubus Queens' Betrayal
Stheno and Euryale offered their services to the Succubus Queen to fight against the Olympians. In exchange for their service, they asked that the painful memory of their sister Medusa would be erased from their minds. The Succubus Queens recognized how vulnerable and broken the sisters were and believing they could be powerful servants, agreed to help Stheno and Euryale. Even though the sisters only asked for their memories of their younger sister to be erased, the succubus queens removed all memories. Once the ritual was complete, Stheno and Euryale had no knowledge of who they were. The queens told them they were newly formed succubi and started training them to learn the use of lust energy. Once trained, they were sent to the mortal plane and given typical succubus duties.

Curse of Apathy
Although the Succubus Queens erased most of the identity of Euryale, she still maintained some of her core personality and some pain from Medusa's death still affected her. During her succubus activities in the mortal plane, she would often get into trouble by helping women who were being mistreated or abused. Stories of her deeds caused many to revere her as some sort of protector. They created symbols of a woman with thick, snake-like hair which resembled her thick strands of hair. Over time, her symbol was put on buildings as a ward against evil and even made put on the face of coins. Her fame frightened the Succubus Queens who believed Euryale could become even more powerful than they if the heaven fire energy created by her good deeds and the worship of her symbol continued to empower her. They determined that Euryale's core, caring personality mixed with the vestiges of her memory of her sister combined to guide her actions. If they could remove her caring personality somehow, they could stop her from acting out. They called her in and made her submit to a ritual which cursed her with apathy. Over time as her deeds ceased, the symbol became more associated with her sister Medusa over time.

Meeting Spoons
Euryale and Spoons met in 1854 after Euryale had been shot following an encounter with the wife of a cheating husband. She was surprised when Spoons could see her even in her invisibility form. She later learned that Spoons was able to see her because of his unusually "open and curious mind" which negated the inconspicuous effects of succubus invisibility. She spent several months with Spoons being enchanted by his atypical worldview. Spoons had made several attempts to get Euryale to help him end slavery, but she declined saying that humans "were like cattle" and she had no desire to get involved. After spending some time with Spoons, she felt that she might be falling in love with him. The curse of apathy placed upon her by the succubus queens drove her in fear to leave Spoons and go to China where she spent some time with the monks learning mastery of her mind.

China
While in China, the farthest she could get from Spoons, she joined some Shoalin monks where she thought she could master her fear of falling in love and hopefully return to Spoons. The curse of apathy, however, could not be undone.

During her time in China, a local village was being attacked by a dragon where Euryale was. Euryale attempted to flee but the dragon spotted her and was about to attack when one of the monks that had accompanied Euryale fired a scorpion at the dragon, killing it. As Euryale and the monk looked upon the beast, they were attacked from behind by a half-dragon, half-human girl by the name of Anguisa. The dragon was apparently the mother of Anguisa who blamed Euryale for her mother's death. Seeking revenge, Anguisa engaged Euryale in combat. Euryale defeated Anguisa and removed her head. Euryale took Anguisa's dragon scale armor and used it for herself replacing the leather armor she had used previously.

Catching Heat
Euryale stayed in China for several decades before realizing that Spoons had died. She moved back to France and eventually made her way back to the United States in 2019. Shortly after arrival, Euryale was disturbed by a bright light in the sky. The light came from an meteor that was burning through the atmosphere. as the meteor burned up, Euryale felt an incredible amount of unknown energy flow into her from the meteor. This energy broke Euryale's curse of apathy and gave her a vague and cryptic vision of the future and knowledge of time travel. Euryale interpreted the vision to be related to Spoons in some way and desired to somehow reunite with him. To do this, she needed a vast amount of energy and she came up with a plan to seduce and extract lust energy from a family near where the meteor had ultimately crashed.

Days later, The Entity showed up and started following Euryale. At first it was a small creature and Euryale believed it was there to help her with her plan. The Entity, however was following her to somehow regain the power it had lost during the meteor crash. Euryale's plan started working and the seduced family members started producing lust energy. However, Euryale was not feeling empowered and actually started growing weaker over time. During this time The Entity continually grew in size and power which began to concern Euryale.

Eventually, Euryale realized that The Entity was absorbing the lust energy created by the family members instead of her which was fueling its growth. As The Entity grew, it became clear that this being was evil as it began exerting negative influence on certain humans and compelling them to do evil things. Euryale had to stop The Entity before it became too powerful and started hurting the family (and especially Elena who Euryale was developing feelings for) Euryale started caring for. Being so weak, Euryale knew she couldn't take on The Entity with the power she had. In secret, Euryale revealed herself to Elena and asked her to return the energy Euryale enchanted her with so she could defeat The Entity. Elena agreed and the two attacked and defeated The Entity. On its defeat, The Entity released the energy it gained and Euryale absorbed it. Finally she had enough energy to time travel. Before leaving, Euryale constructed a "time anchor" which she gave to Elena. The "time anchor" would allow Euryale to return back to the present (Elena's present) when activated.

Euryale's Gambit
(Main article Euryale's Gambit)