Beginnings
by Dan Greenberg and George Perez
Princess Diana is the reanimated spirit of a human child who died in her mother's womb in 30,000 BC and whose soul was intercepted by Gaea, the Earth Goddess. Nearly thirty-two thousand years later, five Greek Gods placed the infant soul in a clay statue of a baby, causing the statue to spring to life as a real child...a child who grew up to be Wonder Woman--an Amazon blessed by the Gods and charged with a sacred and timeless destiny.
Diana's story begins in the early days of the human race, when people banded together into tribes and struggled to live lives superior to those of the animals. Diana's mother was a Cro-Magnon woman who was murdered by her husband, an angry and frightened man who had been exiled from his tribe for losing his hand. The nimble and manipulatable digits of the human hand proved very important to the emerging race of man, as tool-making and tool use were all that gave weak and awkward primitive Man an edge over the faster, stronger animals.
The loss of a hand meant loss of status as a member of the tribe; an outcast human had little chance of surviving on his own. This primitive man, filled with terror and self loathing, turned his anger against the only person who still stood by him: his pregnant wife. Sensing her husband's pain, the woman tried to comfort and soothe him but the man felt only degradation at her touch; yet, his inner need for her sympathy intensified his feelings of shame and emasculation. In a moment of blind rage, the one handed caveman lashed out and savagely clubbed his wife to death, his unborn daughter dying in the brutal attack as well.
THE PLAN OF THE GODS
The Earth Goddess Gaea was saddened by this sudden, violent, and recurrent turn in the development of the human race. As the twin souls of the murdered mother and daughter fled their bodies, the compassionate Goddess plucked them from their journeys and gently bore them to the Cavern of Souls in Hades. There she tended the errant spirits, nurturing them and preparing them for rebirth.
Gaea continued gathering select souls of women killed at the hands of frightened and ignorant men and by 1200 BC she had located thousands. At this time, the Greek Gods were at the height of their power, a vital factor in the continuing development of the human race.
A select group of Gods, led by Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, wished to create a race of women who could teach the world the wisdom of the Gods. Artemis and four fellow Goddesses took the spirits Gaea had gathered from the Cavern of Souls and sent all but one raining down upon Earth, where they were reborn as fully grown mortal women.
THE RISE OF THE AMAZONS
These re-embodied souls were called Amazons, the Cro-Magnon woman who was the first spirit intercepted by Gaea becoming their Queen. She was reincarnated as a strong and beautiful woman called Hippolyte and she ruled with a wise and loving hand. Hippolyte guided the Amazons as they taught the human race how men and women could live together in peace with each other and in harmony with Gaea, the Earth Mother.
The Amazons built a great city-state and flourished but over many years they slowly withdrew from Mankind, neglecting their mission to set an example for Man. At length the women were betrayed and enslaved by Heracles and his troops. The Amazons broke free but they knew they had failed the Gods.
The five Goddesses who had created the Amazons then banished them from the land of Man, exiling them to the Island of Themyskira, which was shrouded from the view of the outside world by a thick blanket of turbulent clouds.
As punishment, the Amazons were made immortal, to ever recall their failure, and were forced to wear bracelets which symbolized their former bondage by Herakles. They were further charged with acting as guardians of Doom's Doorway, a gate which housed the underworld horrors of Tartarus.
To their credit, the Amazons created a veritable paradise on the island and lived through many centuries untouched by age, yet many died keeping the evil under Themyskira from passing through Doom's Doorway and into the world. The course of one such battle with the monsters from Tartarus was altered by the appearance of the first mortal adult from the outside world ever to stand on Paradise Island. The presence of this woman, Diana Trevor, changed the lives of the Amazons, and paved the way for the emergence of Wonder Woman.
THE APPEARANCE OF DIANA TREVOR
In the 1940s, Ares had taken particular delight in a massive global war that raged in Man's World. At the end of the war, a female pilot in the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying (WAF) Squadron, made her final mission flying a Sabre jet across the ocean. The pilot was Diana Trevor, a woman who lived by Amazon ideals, although she did not know it.
Diana Trevor's jet passed over the Island of Themyskira, where technology ceases to function. Her plane's controls seized up, the craft plummeted into the ocean. The God Poseidon and his Nereids rescued Diana Trevor and cast her onto Paradise Island in the very midst of a horrible battle between the Amazons and Cottus, one of the vile hundred-handed children of Uranus and Gaea which had been relegated to the world of Tartarus. A woman of courageous mettle, Diana Trevor ran to aid the Amazons without any hesitation. She died while saving many lives in the process.
The Amazons built a memorial to Diana in the Temple of Hades, where they placed the mysterious automatic pistol she used to save so many Amazon lives. They designed a warrior's coat of arms based on the American flag and WAF insignia patches found on Trevor's jacket, vowing to honor her memory and swearing to rigorously train until one of them was worthy of wearing her mantle.
THE BIRTH OF PRINCESS DIANA
Over the centuries, the power and the influence of the Gods had waned to a shadow of its former glory. But the Gods, ever wise, still had a plan to aid both Amazon and mortal alike. The five godly midwives who created the Amazons were joined by Hermes, the messenger God, to create the final Amazon. These Gods traveled to the Cavern of Souls and took the last spirit from the Womb of Gaea.
This soul was the spirit of Hippolyte's unborn child, who died with Hippolyte's previous incarnation as a Cro-Magnon woman. The Gods instructed Hippolyte to create a child from eh sacred clay of Paradise Island, which is linked to the power of Gaea. Hippolyte did so and opened herself to the power of the Midwives of Olympus.
The Gods blessed the spirit, each God in turn imbuing it with a special gift. Demeter gave the spirit the ever renewing power and strength of the Earth; Aphrodite, beauty and loving compassion; Athena gave wisdom; Artemis, a keen eye and empathy with animals; and Hestia gave the spirit of sisterhood with the Fires of Truth, and that people would always trust and speak truthfully to the new child.
The full power of Hestia's gift would manifest later, when the Gods granted the fully-grown Wonder Woman her Lasso of Truth. Hermes' own gift to the spirit was that of superhuman speed and the incomparable gift of flight.
The Gods channeled the spirit from the realm of the Gods to the realm of humans, where it passed through Hippolyte and filled the clay image with life. The child of clay transformed into a real child, to be named Diana, after the revered Diana Trevor.
Diana developed under the doting eyes of a thousand mothers, all of whom were enchanted by the child and lavished her with affection. As Diana grew to womanhood, she excelled in all endeavors. She was a scholar, an athlete, and a skilled warrior. Above all else, she had natural wisdom and harmony with all life.
THE TOURNAMENT
Diana lived an idyllic life on Themyskira, never knowing strife other then mock combat. Diana's mother, Queen Hippolyte, was over-protective of her young daughter and never let the growing Diana stand guard over Doom's Doorway, as Amazon custom would dictate.
The serenity of Paradise Island was shattered one day when Menalippe, the oracle of the Amazons, reported that Ares, the God of War had gone mad and was acquiring a horrible power that could destroy the entire world. The Amazons were to choose a champion to confront this evil.
Hippolyte forbade Diana to take part in the contest but Diana entered the tournament in secret and easily bested the opposition. Diana was named most worthy of all the Amazons and was awarded a very special pair of silver bracelets.
Diana's final contest prior to approval as Ares' opponent was the Trial of Flashing Thunder. The young Princess was taken to the Temple of Hades, where Diana Trevor's service automatic rested since the pilot's death. The gun was fired at Diana point blank range and she was required to react quickly enough to deflect the bullets with her silver bracelets. She faced the challenge bravely and survived it, although to this day she remains horrified by the deadly power of such weapons.
THE GIFTS
For triumphing over all the challenges, Princess Diana was named the champion of Themyskira and given the mantle of Diana Trevor. The Amazons had designed a costume from what they believed the banner of Diana Trevor, the American Flag. The costume was red, white and blue, with white stars on the a blue field and white stripes on red boots.
A stylized gold WAF sign was emblazoned on the breast, designed to look like an American eagle with outspread wings. To reflect Diana's Amazon heritage, the Amazons added a stylized golden girdle, and for a crowning touch, gave Diana a golden tiara, patterned after the Girdle of Gaea and adorned with a star.
To complete the awesome task they set for her, the Gods gave Diana the Lasso of Truth, forged by the God Hephaestus from the Girdle of Gaea. Hestia blessed the Lasso and endowed it with the power to make all persons speak the truth and see the truth when they deceive themselves. This powerful tool works both in accordance with the Amazon way of peaceful solutions in opposition to war and in accordance with the will of Gaea: that all her children live in peace and mutual respect.
As Diana prepared to face Ares, the War God attacked Paradise Island. In a stroke of cruel irony, he selected the son of Diana Trevor to be the pawn who would bomb Themyscira from existence, the technological might of Man's World destroying the Gods' own creations.
Stephen Trevor had become an Air Force pilot like his mother and Ares found Trevor sufficiently skilled to pilot a jet through the Bermuda Triangle and pierce the cloud cover over Paradise Island. Diana narrowly averted the bombing while also saving Steve Trevor's life. Trevor was the first man Diana ever saw.
With the aid of Hermes, Diana thwarted Ares' mad plan and actually triumphed over the god himself. By using her Lasso of Truth, Diana opened the eyes of the God of War to the folly of his plan. Gods and men are inextricably linked, Ares learned, and if all humans were killed, the Gods would perish as well, as no humans would remain to provide the Gods the honor and reverence they require to survive. Ares ended his assault and Diana was recalled to Paradise Island.
THE CHALLENGE OF THE GODS
After Diana's triumph over Ares, Zeus took a special interest in the Amazons. Encouraged by a Manhunter in the guise of the god Pan, Zeus attempted to seduce Diana. When she rejected his advances, Zeus demanded that Diana undergo a series of trials to prove her worth.
In fulfilling this challenge, Diana was made to venture through Doom's Doorway into Tartarus and defeat the monsters present. She did this, releasing the imprisoned demi-god Herakles as well. Diana's mother, Queen Hippolyte, followed Diana into the depths of Tartarus and the two fought alongside one another. With Diana's patient understanding, Hippolyte was able to come to terms with Herakles, who had so severely wronged her and the other Amazons through their enslavement, and forgave him for his cruel treatment of her. Hippolyte's forgiveness opened Herakles' heart and the two soon fell in love.
While in Tartarus, Diana met the spirit of her namesake, Diana Trevor, and learned of her own special heritage. Diana discovered that she is not just an Amazon but that she is also forever linked to the outside world through Diana Trevor.
By eradicating the monsters beneath Themyscira, Diana atoned for the Amazons' retrogressions; the Gods thus released them of their banishment from the outside world. Herakles stood on the surface of Paradise Island, symbolically ending the centuries of separation.
The Amazons were uncertain how to relate to Man's World, so they chose Diana as their ambassador. Queen Hippolyte, who had resolved to protect Diana from the danger's of the outside world, soon came to understand Diana's unique destiny and allowed her daughter to go with her blessing.
from the DC Roleplaying game: "Strangers in Paradise"
