Moon Woman

Moon Woman
What is her connection to the moon?
Information
Alternate Names/Spellings	Dama Luna, Damaluna, Donna Luna, Donnaluna, Moon Girl, Moon Lady
Origins	Medieval Legend
Alignment	Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral, Neutral Good
Element	Earth, Gravity/Space/Void, Light
Species	Humanoid
Appearance	Normal Woman, paler complected

Origins

The Moon Woman is one of a race of creatures with origins in the mythology, legend and folklore of Medieval Europe. In particular, accounts of their existence are first recorded by the likes of Conrad Lycosthenes and Ravisius Textor (and Aldrovandus, who would come to cite the former two men).

Appearance

The Moon Woman looks just like any other human woman of her time, race and land of origin. The color, of their eyes may be any that is common among humans (though, Black and Brown Moon Women may display eye colors uncommon to their ethnicity, including gray and purple). The color, length and texture of their hair may be any that is common among humans (though, Black and Brown Moon Women may display hair colors uncommon to their ethnicity, including stark white). Likewise, she can be any height, weight or body shape that a human female may normally be.

The Moon Woman appears, for all intents and purposes, normal. Though, while many have a complexion common among human women--those which humans refer to as 'White', 'Tan', 'Brown', 'Black', etc--some may appear particularly pale, leading many to mistake them for Vampires or some other sentient undead.

Enraptured, she dances in the pale moonlight...

Behavior

A Moon Woman often seems alien to those around her. In places where such attitudes are not the norm, the Moon Woman may be quiet and terribly shy, or quirky and eccentric. They are said to be spiritual, philosophical, compassionate and clever.

They are also fond of riddles, and have little fear of the strange, the mysterious or the unknown. In fact, these pique curiosity, and pose a most welcome challenge to the Moon Woman.

In fact, they tend to prefer the strange and exotic to the mundane of everyday life in the societies where they often find themselves. As such, they are deeply fond of books, and often keep not only book cases, but pads of paper on which to write down their own stories and poems.

As one might expect from a creature of such a name as Moon Woman, they are deeply enamored with gazing at the moon.

When they catch sight of the moon (regardless of its current phase), they could easily get lost, for hours, simply gazing in awe of its beauty and majesty. They may even be inspired to revel in its glory with a dance.

It is, then, no wonder that many Moon Women worship moon-based deities--Artemis, Luna, Hecate, Selene, Thoth, Khonsu, Chandra, Metztli and others.

And those of Judaeo-Christian faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc) are still often known to keep track of eclipses and the various phases of the moon. They may even still celebrate lunar holidays held by Pagans and other faith traditions.

Abilities

Moon Women might possess an unusual beauty or grace or charisma, but there are far from common, stereotypical attributes to be automatically expected.

The only common abilities shared among Moon Women are known to lie within their reproductive capabilities.

While they are sexually compatible with many of the 'typical' sentient species (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Werewolf, Vampire, Djinn, etc), they will always give birth by laying eggs. The mother's genes will entirely override any contributing factors that the father may possess. And the babies that hatch will grow up to be Giants.

There are even believed to have been cases in which a Moon Woman might produce eggs parthenogenetically (pregnancy and birth through parthenogenesis--that is, without need for a mate or sexual partner). Again, this is said to be somehow connected to the moon's influence.

Weaknesses

Moon Women are incapable of producing others of their kind. They can only ever produce Giants. A Moon Woman herself can only ever arise as a supernatural genetic anomaly among another humanoid species. Thus, their numbers are particularly rare, about as likely to be born to a family as a Mooncalf.

In addition, among these already small numbers, only a slim few ever develop any true superhuman abilities, besides their Giant-reproducing capacity. Thus, many are as vulnerable to physical, mental and other forms of harm as mundane humans.

Unfortunately, Moon Women also possess a very high rate of developing mental illness, regardless of their racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. It is believed by some that the commonality of mental illness among Moon Women is what led to phrases such as 'lunatic' and 'moonstruck'.