- "I do so love turning people into the beasts they are." —Circe
The Bestiamorph Army is an army of humanoid animal-men that are the servants of Circe.
Possessing mystical strength and abilities to match their animalistic natures and appearances, these beasts were once humans who fell under Circe's sorcery and became human-beast hybrids.
Circe believes that all men and women (but particularly men) are animals at their core and that, like all other creatures on Earth, they are driven by carnal urges, animalistic desires and primal instincts that they would love to follow but for the desire to maintain the "lie" of being a "civilised and cultured society" that is beyond the realm of animals. She claims that her magic simply reveals to the world what people already are within; mindless beasts that only truly desire a Queen to lead and rule them. Now trapped in primitive and primal forms, these "bestiamorphs" serve their queen with unquestioning loyalty and devotion as part of a myriad of Beasts of Myth and Legend that the sorceress has drawn under her thrall.
History[]
The first recorded instance of Circe turning people into beast was after she was banished to the island of Aeaea and had received the power of a goddess from her patron god, Hecate. One day, while Circe was gathering herbs, she met and fell in love with Picus, a son of Cronos. While Circe loved him, Picus was in love with Canens, daughter of Janus, and refused her. Scorned, Circe turned the demigod into a woodpecker and further populated the island with the transformed forms of many of Picus' friends who came to query her of Picus' whereabouts.
Following the Trojan War, Odysseus and his crew landed on Aeaea after barely escaping the Cyclops Polyphemus and the cannibal Laestrygonians. After resting on the beach for three days, Odysseus, who had seen a wisp of smoke in the distance, sent Eurylochus with twenty two men to explore the terrain. When Eurylochus' party found Circe's house, the sorceress invited them to enter and all of them followed her except for Eurylochus, who suspected a trap. Circe treated the men that followed her with a mixture of cheese, barley meal, and honey flavoured with Pramnian wine, all of which she drugged to make them forgetful of their native land before turning them into beasts. Discovering this, Eurylochus reported to Odysseus and Odysseus decided to go to confront the sorceress. On his way to her home, Odysseus was met by the god of messengers, Hermes, who gave him a fig of moly to ward off Circe's powers and also advised him in interacting with her.
With her powers rendered ineffective against the moly Odysseus wore, Circe relented her aggression and gradually learned to trust the hero; changing the men she had transformed back to human form. Charmed by the hospitality of the sorceress, Odysseus and his men stayed with her for a whole year; during which time Circe successfully seduces Odysseus into becoming her lover and through multiple incidents of passion gives birth to four children; Telegonus, Agrius, Cassiphone and Latinus; all of whom were presumably raised on the island. After Odysseus became restless to go back to Ithaca and his mortal wife, Penelope and he asks for Circe's help in returning home; whereupon she instructed him to journey to Hades to consult the seer Tiresias. Following their return, Circe alerted Odysseus of the various dangers of the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, all of whom he would encounter on his way home.
As Odysseus departed, he left a scornful Circe with their children. Some years later, their son, Telegonus, traveled to Ithaca to seek his father but ended up killing him by accident with a poisoned spear given to him by his mother. As Telegonus brought Odysseus's body back to Aeaea, he was accompanied by Odysseus's widow, Penelope, and her son, Telemachus. Circe made them all immortal and, on Athena's decree, married herself and her daughter, Cassiphone, to Telemachus, as Telegonus became married to his step-mother, Penelope.
Sharing her bed with her daughter and step-son and mating with both of them on several occasions, Circe took her step-son's young Seeds of Life into her womb and became pregnant with a son, Latinus, as Cassiphone also received her half-brother's seeds and became pregnant with a daughter, Roma. Penelope and Telegonus would also end up sleeping together despite him being old enough to be her son and being responsible for her beloved husband's death, and Telegonus became the father of Italus. Some time later, Telemachus had a quarrel with Circe and apparently killed her; Cassiphone then killed Telemachus to avenge her mother's death and presumably left the island with the other surviving members of the family.
However, Circe survived her "death" by her step-son/husband's hand (whether it was a ploy performed by her or she was healed/resurrected is unclear) and she remained on Aeaea, eventually assuming the persona of "Cassandra Colchis" to ward off unwanted attention and she begun to extend her reach to the surrounding Ionian islands, coming to be loyally served by the bestiamorph, Mikos, as her enforcer as her menagerie of bestiamorphs slowly grew into an army.
While observing the public arrival of the Themysciran princess, Diana, as the hero "Wonder Woman", Circe became concerned that the Amazon may be the one prophesied to take her powers from her and, when the princess came to Greece to visit the ancient Grecian temples and arrived on the Ionian island Cephalonia, she captured the Amazon and brought her to Aeaea in an attempt to kill her only to be thwarted by Vanessa Kapatelis leading a group of rebels from Cephalonia and Hermes' intervention.
Later, Circe utilized her Bestiamorphs yet again to aid her in a plan to fulfill Hecate's vengeance against the Greek gods by instigating a war amongst the various heavenly pantheons. While she manages to destroy the Amazons' intended "tour of peace", coerce the pantheons into fighting each other (whereby the Roman Gods pit their champion, Shazam, against the Greek pantheon's champion, Diana), brainwash Hippolyta as serving as the Amazons of Bana-Mighdall's new Shim'tar, and temporarily killing Diana by reverting her back into the clay from which she was created, Circe's plan was ultimately thwarted when Superman martialed the world's heroes against her and the Phantom Stranger, the Spectre, and Deadman resurrected Diana.
After Hippolyta dies saving Diana from an Imperiex probe during the Imperiex War, Circe launches a mass attack on New York City, teleporting and transforming all male superheroes into animals save for J'onn J'onzz, Beast Boy, and Plastic Man, whom she took special means to keep imprisoned due to their shape-shifting abilities. She also imprisoned and transformed her former confederates in the Injustice Gang, taking particular delight in tormenting Luthor. Since the only persons who were not affected by the spell were women, many female superheroes entered the city in an attempt to save their friends and stop the witch's plan. However, Circe had planned for such a rescue and convinced the female members of various supervillain communities to join forces and stop the heroes by any means necessary.
As Diana was leading the fight against Circe, Circe sent a Doomsday-altered Superman to fight her; hoping to demoralize the world by making Superman and Wonder Woman kill one another, while she transmitted the fight in a global simulcast across the world. Ultimately, Circe was unsuccessful in her plan as a majority of the female heroes were able to change back their male friends with the use of the herb moly to disrupt her powers much like Odysseus had done. After a protracted fight, Diana broke Circe's spell on Superman with her lasso. Luthor and the Joker managed to free themselves and threaten Circe's daughter, however, she was able to quickly overpowered them and escaped with her allies.
Involvement[]
- Circe's Bestiamorph Army and the Amazons of Themyscira are locked in pitched battle within the streets of the Tomorrow District of Metropolis.
- As part of Circe's Legends PvP Avatar abilities and during the Iconic Vision: Circe's Trial solo instance, Circe has two attacks that are associated with her Bestiamorphs; the first is called "Bestiamorph" which allows her to convert an enemy into a Bestiamorph for a short period of time, while her other attack is "Summon Bestiamorph Berserker", which allows her to summon a Bestiamorph Berserker who does moderate damage to enemies.
- Arcane Edicts, found within Magic Missives for heroes or Reports of Black Arts for villains, sometimes instruct the players to attack Bestiamorphs. Edict #011 Beastly Spirit instructs the player to locate the Possessed Bestiamorph Executioner in Circe's Stronghold and defeat him. Edict #014 Beasts Begone instructs the player to defeat the Bestiamorphs near the Metro Station and collect their spirits before also finding and defeating an Ardent Bestiamorph.
Heroes[]
- At Level 15, Wonder Woman will call on Magic heroes to help her drive off Circe and her Bestiamorphs in the Chinatown Cafe who are trying to steal magic based exobytes for their own purposes. Circe will turn the hero into a Bestiamorph Berserker in an attempt to turn them against Wonder Woman. In retaliation, Wonder Woman will stop the player from being under Circe's control and the heroes will have to stop the the Beastiamorphs from stealing the exobytes while Circe fights Wonder Woman. After the battle is won the player will be returned to normal.
Villains[]
- At Level 15, she will call on Magic villains to help her drive off Wonder Woman and the Amazons trying to recover the magic-based exobytes she's collected in the Chinatown Cafe. During the boss battle Circe will turn the villain into a Bestiamorph Berserker and order them to stop the Amazons who are attempting to steal the Exobytes. After the battle is won Circe will leave and leave the player as a Bestiamorph until they also leave the instance and the spells wears off.
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Trivia[]
- It is theorised that Circe chose to turn mortals into animals and beasts as that is what she considers their true selves to be. It is also stated that Circe has a taste for bestiality (much like her sister, Pasiphaë, whom conceived Asterios after mating with the Cretan Bull) and that she indulges herself with her bestiamorph servants just as much as her human slaves. While indeed being entertained by the various shapes and sizes that their bodies offer, allowing for a lot of variability in the bedroom, she enjoys sleeping with her beasts and bestiamorphs as she delights in their honest, animalistic natures; something that humans constantly try to hide and deny through lies and deceit.
- Due to his powers, Plastic Man is able to warp himself back from whichever animal form Circe turns him into. Due to her lover, the god Dionysus, also demonstrating a similar resistance to her magics, she has dubbed the hero "Dionysus".
- When one of Circe's Bestiamorphs failed to accomplish his assignment, Circe turned him into a chicken dinner and ate him.
- As with all of Circe's magics, the spell that turns people into Bestiamorphs can be undone with sprigs of Molly.