Profile
Hermes
Curses:
Curse of the seed of doubt
Musically inclined
Messenger
“Maybe I’m tired of being invisible. Maybe—maybe…just this once…I want to be the hero…”
Vienna’s theme— Dead light (oxenfree soundtrack)
Hermes originated on a distant island that was known for being peaceful and harmonious. And for being populated by hoofed human hybrids. The inhabitants lived together, sharing the plentiful food and dancing every night as they played on homemade instruments. The island was small, but was only a few days off the coast of a larger continent by boat. The civilization was built atop an ancient, inactive volcano, whose ashes fertilized the rich soil.
Deep beneath the surface of the land, at the center of the molten lava, a dark, jealous entity lay in waiting for their chance to strike. They called themself Vienna. They had lived on the island once before in solitude, but when the settlers arrived to civilize the land, Vienna was cast into the depths of the earth. Thousands of years later, and everyone had forgotten the danger they lived above. Vienna had become a bedtime story to scare children into doing as they were told. The people had forgotten the truth. Hermes, then a small child, knew no different. His life had always been lavish, comfortable, and happy. He was the son of the Figureheads, and very musically inclined. He was destined, in most people’s eyes, to become one of the greats.
Angered by their insolence and eager to have a pawn on the inside, Vienna sent a false prophecy in the form of a scripture engraved into a blackened stone. It read: *Your time of reckoning is quickly approaching. His horns of ice will freeze your home and hearts.* For years, nobody could make any sense of it. Anyone with horns or antlers had only black, grey, or brown colors. A sense of panic and foreboding spread across the island like a plague. People turned mean and irrational with fear. The night Hermes’ horns grew in changed everything.
He woke up to pure, snow white nubs poking out of his skull. It was almost worse that he was a *brown* goat hybrid. As much as he tried to hide them, the truth came out. His parents, as the figureheads, publicly shunned him. A court gathered to decide his fate. For days they argued over what to do with him. Meanwhile, Hermes was no longer living the perfect island life. Friends and neighbors he had known all his life turned their backs on him. He was attacked, chased down the street like a criminal, and called “Devil child,” “Horned menace,” and the worst—“Vienna’s spawn.”
The night before the decision was announced, Hermes spent the night in a filthy cell. Vienna, sensing the boy’s vulnerability, approached him in a dream-like state. They appeared to him as shadow of a man, and planted the Seed of Doubt in his chest. The asked him simply, “Isn’t it so hard when you can never do anything right? Wouldn’t you rather be the perfect son and never go against anyone’s wishes again?” Hermes, influenced by the new feeling of constant Doubt, eagerly agreed. And with the simple statement, “Then so it shall be,” Vienna was gone, and Hermes was cursed, although he didn’t know it yet. The day of the announcement, he realized quickly what Vienna had done.
With every jibe and jeer thrown his way, Hermes felt smaller and smaller. When his parents banished him from the island forever, he fled without protest. Despite the fact that he desperately wanted to beg and kick and scream, he physically could make no move against the order. As he sailed rigidly away, he realized—he could no longer disobey direct orders. In their volcanic prison, Vienna was cackling. They had effectively made Hermes their pawn. They were connected through the Seed of Doubt and could send Hermes to spread havoc elsewhere. Back on the island, they set the volcano to erupt and the whole place went up in flames. The irony of its demise in comparison to the false prophecy was laughable.
Hermes wandered the main continent aimlessly for weeks, starving and alone. He was desperate by the time he finally found a village, and accepted work in exchange for a night’s stay at the inn. The morning after, he set off again, this time as a messenger with a purpose. In the months that have followed, he has kept up the job in order to travel in search of a cure for his curse.
