Lost Tales of Teela
By Kirk Trigon (excerpt from Eternia
Lost: Origins of the Masters of the Universe)
Teela is the daughter of Zor, king of the ancient Helestrian
gods and master of the Sun, and Hela, goddess of war
and spirit of the land (eternis). Her worship can be
traced back ten-thousand years ago to the dawn of Helestria.
Like her mother, Teela also presides
over the land, as well as dreams and fertility. She grants souls life eternal
in the
The Birth of Teela
She was born on Helios, a celestial city floating over
the Sands of Time. There, in the Hall of Wisdom, Zor
and Hela have gathered a tribunal of god-scientists,
who engineer every aspect of reality and beyond. It is this celestial congress
that shapes Teela's destiny and, ultimately, that of
all Eternia.
However, it is historical fact and tribal mythology,
which conspire to make her the most widely revered deity on all Eternia.
Before her birth, the celestial congress warns the
divine couple of a prophecy that has come to their attention. Their unborn
twins, Teela and her brother, Coda, are incomplete
beings and will serve Eternia poorly, in this
condition. Coda is a beautiful god of love and devotion, whom the
primitive world will deny. Teela, half-woman and
half-dragon, is a fierce warrior goddess destined to destroy Eternia and slaughter the celestial congress. To avert
cosmic disaster, Zor orders the divine scientists to
engineer an 'equation' that binds Teela to her
brother's gentle will for all eternity.
Hela, secretly resentful of
the elder sky gods' interference in their private affairs, welcomes their
destruction. She drinks a potion that inflames her unborn daughter with hunger,
causing Teela to devour her twin and ingest his
power. When Teela is born wearing her dragon crown,
and Coda does not follow, the sky gods are horrified.
In spite of Teela's dreadful
entrance into the world, Zor studies his daughter and
finds her to be possessed of as much wisdom and compassion, as strength. When
she is old enough to stand, Zor awards the seat in
the Hall of Wisdom, once intended for her twin brother, to Teela.
Once more, Hela finds that her
influence over Zor's judgement
is second to another's and determines to remedy the situation.
Teela
Slaughters the Celestial Congress
Teela makes no secret of her
contempt for the posturing and vanity of the god-scientists, who keep mankind
savage and ignoble to justify their pettiness and cruelty to him. When the
celestial congress withholds rain to further undermine man's progress, Teela begs them to be merciful, but they refuse. Hela hears of Teela's grief and
offers her daughter comfort. She tells Teela that the
sky gods have rain for blood and surely enough to save her mortal subjects.
Teela returns to the Hall of
Wisdom and, once more, appeals to the celestial scientists to end the drought.
When they refuse her, Teela massacres half their
number, before Zor restrains her. The blood of the
slaughtered sky gods falls to Eternia as rain, saving
the world .. and fulfilling a
prophecy.
The offended god-scientists plot to remove Teela from the Hall of Wisdom, but know that they must be
careful, as Teela is her father's favorite in all of
heaven. They complain to Zor that Teela
is too young and impetuous to sit among them and that the order of things would
be better served, if she were to live among the mortals to whom she is so
devoted. Reluctantly, Zor finds some truth in their
appeal and, upon Hela's suggestion, appoints Teela ruler of man and Eternia.
When all is done, Hela's
influence over her husband, Zor, is second to none,
and Teela, oblivious to her treachery, is
conveniently placed in her mother's debt.
The Courtship of Procrustus
The most notorious of the monsters, who
enforce the draconian edicts of the celestrial
congress, is Procrustus, Teela's four-armed half-brother and king of Eternia's giants. When Zor
appoints Teela to be mistress of the land, Procrustus (meaning 'Claims the Crown') rallies the giants
to contest her right to rule.
Though the god-scientists of Helios are eager to be rid
of Teela, they cannot deny Procrustus's
claim. They remind Zor that Procrustus
is the son of Nox, the sentient cosmos, and of Hela's giantess sister, Vargonis,
whose magic bells make earthquakes! Acknowledging this to be an auspicious
enough lineage for an Eternian ruler, the celestial
congress rules that the matter can only be settled by marrying Teela to Procrustus. As Teela is very beautiful, the king of the giants finds the
terms of the settlement more than satisfactory.
Teela agrees to marry Procrustus, but only if the giant can subdue her in fair
combat, proving himself a worthy king and protector. Zor
gives his consent, and the contest proceeds.
Procrustus knows Teela to be unbeatable in battle, as do all the gods, but
enters the tournament assured of an easy victory. Prior to the contest, he
swallows the burning, two-headed wolf, Luceres,
intending to overpower the young goddess by sheer weight. Increasing his bulk
tenfold, Procrustus succeeds in besting Teela, and calls Zor down from
the sky to proclaim his victory and seal his betrothal to Teela.
Before Zor can congratulate the king of giants, a
fever seizes Procrustus, causing him to burst aflame!
Suspecting treachery, Teela
hammers her mace into Procrustus's belly, forcing him
to disgorge his pet wolf. Luceres escapes into the
skies, where he becomes Eternia's two moons, and Procrustus returns to his own true size. Infuriated by his
deception, Teela attacks the giant, who, desperate to
escape her, digs a hole to the center of Eternia. To
spare him certain destruction at Teela's hands, Zor condemned the King of Giants to bear the planet's crust
on his four, weary arms. Procrustus's punishment
stands uncontested, and Teela is crowned the goddess
of man and Eternia.
Teela
Destroys Death
Few among gods or mortals are bold enough to challenge
the tyrannical god-scientists or the giants, who enforce their will on Eternia, but Teela is not alone
in her defiance of them. In the Sands of Time, the hero Garykonas
has often found himself in conflict with the cruel giants, as well as the
predatory Snake Men of the Serpentis Deserts.
Possessed of great strength and courage, he is mankind’s sworn protector and Teela's mightiest mortal ally.
She once entrusted her half-mortal brother, Garykonas, with driving the horseless Sun Chariot across Eternia. On his last occasion to perform this duty, the
hero stops to admire a beautiful maiden bathing in the sea.
The maiden, Myzar (or ‘bright
moon’), is one of the Adorae, the sacred warrior
virgins, who stir the Winds of Honor on winged horses, ferrying the souls of
the righteous dead to the foothills of Helios. Myzar
is also the guardian of an island sacred to Hela,
whose soil holds properties that nullify mortal frailties. Admiring the gold of
his flaming chariot, Myzar consents to lead Garykonas to this island, in exchange for a sword crafted
from the chariot's metal. After following her to the island, Garykonas twists a strip of the chariot's metal into a
flaming sword and presents it to her. Pleased with it, Myzar
gathers up some of the island's soil into an urn and sends Garykonas
back to his people with it.
Mankind mixes the magic soil into the land and yields a
great harvest. When man eats of the harvest, the weakest among him are cured of
their ailments and live twice as long as the gods originally intended. The
priests and wizards, who once used their secret knowledge of healing and
communication with the gods to rule the kingdoms of man, soon find they have no
power over them. The strongest of mortals grow even stronger and throw off the
oppression of the giants and elementals, who enforce
the will of the gods.
Hela hears of Garykonas's adventures from her priests and is outraged.
After beating Myzar nearly to death, the Queen of
Gods dispatches the Adorae to Eternia
to collect Garykonas, and though he fights valiantly,
visiting many injuries upon them, the hero is carried to Helios in chains and
imprisoned.
When word of Garykonas's
capture reaches Teela, she flies to Helios to
negotiate his release in the Hall of Wisdom. There, before Zor,
Hela and the celestial congress, Teela
asks that the hero be returned to Eternia and the
judgment of his fellow mortals.
Teela finds there is no
confidence in mortal judgment, among the gods. Hela
charges that Garykonas interference in the human
condition make pretensions to godhood and, therefore, warrant cosmic
punishment! She also reminds the gods that Garykonas
is partially divine and, therefore fit to suffer divine justice. Zor, Garykonas's father, shows
him no mercy and blames Teela for her brother's
misfortune, as she had entrusted the Sun Chariot to him. The god-scientists,
all sworn enemies of Teela and Garykonas,
concur with Zor, asserting that Garykonas
and all mortals are innately ignoble and unworthy of the trust Teela places in them. The Hall of Wisdom denies her request
and, to the surprise of all the sky gods, Teela accepts
their judgment without contest.
In consideration of mankind's innate ignobility, the
young goddess announces that she will rectify the problem by making mankind
more like his gods, and returns to Eternia.
There, Teela gives all
humankind immortality, upsetting the natural order of the cosmos and enraging
the gods! Hela demands that Teela
restore man to his appointed, finite existence, but Teela
refuses. The queen of the gods sends the Adorae to
punish her daughter with spears and swords, but Teela,
who is unbeatable in battle, does not yield. Though they assail her in the
hundreds, Teela cannot find the will to bring great
injury to them. With a half-hearted effort, Teela
breaks a few of their backs and sends the rest limping back to their winged
horses.
Zor, assured that nothing will come of punishing Teela directly, turns his attention to Eternia
and the mortals his daughter loves so much. He assails Eternia
with unbearable heat and drought. He sends Hela to
shake the land and his sister, Vargonis,
to crack open the sky and empty its terrors on the heads of mortalkind. A great portion of the world is destroyed with
storms and quakes, but Teela is undaunted and man
remains immortal.
As the world is ripped asunder, Teela
guides man to the
In turn, Teela restores the
cycle of mortal life and death. Man, once more, is consigned to a finite
existence, but those mortals most faithful to Teela
will never forget their brief time in the
Garykonas's liberty does not
come without consequences. For desecrating Hela's
island, Teela consigns Garykonas
to the maintenance of her stables for seven years. During that time, Teela gives the duty of driving the Sun Chariot to Myzar, the warrior Hela dismisses
from the Adorae for dishonoring her sworn duty.
Teela and
the He-Men of the Vines
The following lunar myth makes the jungle goddess Teela (or Tee-La), daughter of the wind goddess, Celis, and the land, Urjukota,
responsible for the birth of the Henimyar Valley
He-men.
When Molock, the giant
panther-demon, ravages the Vine Jungles, devouring Dak's
entire tribe, the young hero attacks the beast with his sword, but cannot
pierce its hide. Accepting, however reluctantly, that he cannot vanquish Molock in conventional combat, Dak
goads the beast into swallowing him, intending to destroy him from the inside.
In the belly of the beast, Dak
finds himself assailed by the beast's very blood and organs. Molock's heart is a black fortress filled with an army of
zombies, men devoured by the beast over many centuries! His blood is a winged,
flesh-eating dragon! His seed is a herd of lusty bulls! While traveling the
vast, treacherous mountains that are his bones, Dak
is attacked by a great white bull, Molock's raging
seed.
Worn down by his battles with the zombie armies of Molock's heart and his war with the hungry dragon, Dak is gored under the bull's horns, until a woman attacks
the beast with her arrows. The huntress sends many flights of arrows into
its hide, and it turns on her and attempts to rape her. When Dak castrates the bull and throws his organ into the river,
the bull follows it and drowns. To Dak's surprise, as
he lays dying on the river bank, the huntress dives
into the river to retrieve the bull's phallus.
After she recovers it, the huntress, Teela,
attempts to rub the organ over Dak's body, but he is
disgusted by the act and fights her off. With great effort, Teela
subdues him and, waving it over Dak's wounds, the
dismembered organ heals them. She then instructs Dak
to paint the bull's seed over her arrows and, with them, to attack the zombie
fortress.
When he does, the life-giving power of the seed restores
the undead warriors to life. Led by Dak, they burst
from Molock's chest and are returned to Eternia. Molock, wounded from
within, retreats to the sky and becomes the light of the moons.
In gratitude, Dak and the
liberated warriors honor the goddess Teela, whose
arrows restored them to life, and set her above all their gods.
These are the first He-Men.
Much of Teela’s legend was
inspired by the life of a Helestine princess named Es'Teela the Mace, who lived over ten thousand years ago
and fought in the Helat’s wars against King Havokrates (or Havok) of
The legends Es'Teela inspired
are more widespread than any other on Eternia. Today,
even goddesses worshipped thousands of years before Es'Teela's
birth have had aspects of her legend woven into their own. She is the defiant Ternya of the Graylands, Tilay in the Vine Jungles and Tiuay
in the