Case Studies Page 1

The Case Study/Explainations Segment
(Also contains basic observations, references and notes.)
Feel free to correct me on anything here if you feel that it's been wrongly explained via email.

Of Goddesses and Yggdrasil
Note : Goddesses and Demonesses is the generic term used here for simplicity. This section is divided into several subsections for easier reading. Use the Back button on your page if you used a targeted link to return here.
Since this case study subject is so long, I've dedicated one entire page to it.
Condensed Lore and Basic Overview
Yggdrasil - Basic Explaination
Goddess Markings - Study into their uses?
Planes of Existence - Possible Explaination about Magic
Help Offices - Very short study into them.
Goddess Powers - Study and Explaination
Ranks, Categories, Licensing - Study and Explaination
Goddess Deaths - Study into them. (In Particular, the Theory of Death by Ageing)
Dressing - Explaination on uses of Goddess styles
Interested in a case study of Peorth's name in relation to her appearance so far in books 11 and 12? Click here.

Condensed Lore and Basic Overview :
The Goddesses in Ah! My Goddess are, as almost everyone knows by now, based on Norse Mythology after the three Norns of Destiny. Urd is Fate, Verthandi (The original name for Belldandy) is Necessity and Skuld is Being. Skuld is also a Valkyrie in the service of Odin, the Father of all Gods in Norse mythology. Also, the Norns were also commonly known as the Nornors.
The Norns knew the destiny of every living being and what lay in store for everyone and everything and were said to appear at the birth of every child. If the newborn was given presents and love, the Norns would bless the child with a good and long life. If the only thing heaped upon the child was scorn and abuse, he was fated to have a short and miserable life. Every person on Earth was said to have their own Norns caring for them, but the Norns were normally seen as dark, those activities which dominated the view on them observed. We seldom meet them as providers of happiness and success. Must be something to do with Human nature to only observe the bad points about everything and ignore the good points?
The three Norns dwell in a world known as Asgaard, the first of the Nine worlds in Norse Mythology. Humans exist on the second word, Midgaard; The Middle Earth.
The Norns were given the task of caring for the World Tree, Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil was an Ash tree that linked all the Nine worlds together and sheltered them constantly. Three wells were said to lie at its base. The Well of Wisdom, The Well of Fate and Hvergelmir "The Roaring Kettle". But Yggdrasil, like any other tree, was always plagued by pests and parasites. Nidhogg and other serpents such as Goin and Moin, Grabak, Grafvollud, Ofnir, and Svafnir were said to chew at the roots constantly. Its decay was inevitable, but the three Norns were given the task of caring for it by taking mud from the base of Yggdrasil and waters from the wells and pouring it on Yggdrasil's roots to slow the decay.
Yggdrasil also has other names : Ask Yggdrasil, Hoddmimir's Wood, Laerad, Odin's Horse, and The Terrible One's Horse.
The meanings of the Norns' names are subjects of debates between scholars, and as such it is hard to completely understand their duties and aspects. However, it is generally agreed that Urd was the most influential and prominent of the Norns, was seen as an old, ugly hag (No wonder the white hair!), while Verthandi, who was barely mentioned in Norse Mythology, as a beautiful, young woman (No wonder her role as a Main Character!) and Skuld as a spiteful, rebellious young child as well as being one of the Valkyries (No wonder the weapon!). But enough on that, on to the main body.
Also : Just a little tidbit.
While it is obvious that the Goddesses all hail from Nordic culture, isn't it interesting to know that they refer to Up Above as The Heavens? This probably means that there are more branches of Heaven than just the Nordic one.

For Reference :
The nine worlds are : Asgaard, Midgaard, Vanaheim, Alfheim, Niflheim, Hel, Jotumheim, Muspelheim, Svartalfheim and Nidavellir.

The seven Vices and Virtues are :
Vices : Sloth, Greed, Lust, Pride, Wrath, Envy and Gluttony.
Virtues : Honesty, Compassion, Spirituality, Justice, Valour, Humility and Honour.
In general, Demonesses follow the vices and Goddesses follow the virtues.

Kami-sama, the term used in the Japanese language, refers to "God" to whom all Goddesses answer directly to. It appears that even though the english translation is "the Almighty", which might mean Odin, I have a feeling it's more towards the one God, since most religions appear to point to the Ultimate one being "God" himself no matter what the name. (The Chinese translation also appears to refer to Him as The Lord.) In Japanese too, normally Kami-sama means "The Lord" unless otherwise stated. I'm guessing Kosuke-sama blended a few of the religions together to get Ah! My Goddess. Makes for interesting reading.

Primary Study :

Yggdrasil; the World Tree
The Yggdrasil seen in Ah! My Goddess is described as a massive computer system which facilitates the running of everything in all the known planes of existence on Earth, from Time to Space. Maintained by Urd, the most powerful of the Norns and the most significant in Nordic history, Yggdrasil occasionally has a bug or two appear, being the massive supercomputer that it is. It must be hard for those working at it to co-ordinate...

In Ah! My Goddess, bugs are physical entities which resemble arachnoid (Eight legged) rabbits with black tipped ears. They have the ability to displace matter from their respective locations in Space and cause random chain reactions, the ultimate final result being a total breakdown in Reality and/or Space. Skuld wields her hammer specially to take these bugs out. However, they will keep appearing wherever the proper energies are abundant.
Perhaps the breakdown of Yggdrasil in Ah! My Goddess is inevitable, as is the burning destruction of Yggdrasil during Ragnarok in Nordic myths by Surt, and the Norns are only able to maintain it for so long before a serious glitch in Yggdrasil destroys everything?

Looking into Yggdrasil itself, it appears to be a supercomputer or mainframe with a seemingly infinite number of conduits and information displays. Only specially trained Goddesses appear to understand its inner workings. (Hey, anyone can use a computer, but how many of us really know how to fix or build one?) Yggdrasil appears to be able, by its very nature, hold reality together, although at a great cost to itself. (Like overclocking a CPU beyond its initial speed. Say, an outdated Pentium 60 clocked into a 233!) However, a computer is only as functional as those who keep it that way, and since Urd is system maintainer, well...... no wonder the bugs. But I won't say she's the reason... just yet.

We know that Yggdrasil is maintained by Urd, and we also know that Urd isn't the best of workers. The Norns in Norse mythology were supposed to take care of Yggdrasil (and they did), and Urd was the one who was most well known in Norse Mythology. Could be why Kosuke chose Urd as the System Maintainer in Ah! My Goddess. And it seems that Urd is the only one who really knows how to take care of Yggdrasil, because it's seen in the second manga volume that poor Skuld (Kosuke didn't plan her design all that well in volume 2 yet.) was left to take care of it and was utterly confused, even though she's the technical expert of the three. (That's speaking a lot.)
Norse mythology didn't speak of any others taking care of Yggdrasil, although it could take care of itself in Ah! My Goddess. However, it appears that Urd takes care mostly of Yggdrasil's programming in the Ultimate Force and the hardware problems.

Goddesses : Markings, Powers, Planes of existence, etc.
All Goddesses in Ah! My Goddess (AMG! for short) are seen as having a permanent set of facial markings set about in a triangular pattern, one on the forehead and two on the cheeks. It is these markings that distinguishes a Goddess from a normal person, because in those markings are contained the Goddesses' link to Yggdrasil on Earth/Midgaard.
Author's Note : For some of you who might have played a MUD known as Valhalla, most of the names will be second nature to you by now.
The Goddess markings contain the Goddesses' link to Yggdrasil, which regulates several things while its charges (Or, those under its care) remain on Earth. First of all, it regulates their energy supply to prevent abuse of power. Goddesses appear to act like batteries of divine energy, since each one has their own capacity for storing and using energy. Once their allotted energy is expended, Goddesses must rely on their alternate source of energy until such a time as when they recover enough energy to resume their normal duties, or Yggdrasil allocates them another parcel of energy. However, Goddesses are subject to the issue of Seals. (See Goddess Power - Seals) However, Goddesses also draw some of their energy while "existing" on Earth from nature around them, allowing them to remain on Earth in a tangible form. Also, when a breakdown in Yggdrasil occurs and energy is no longer being supplied to the Goddesses, they must constantly rely on their alternate sources of energy since they no longer recieve energy from Yggdrasil.

Note on Moon Rocks (Book 6) - Goddesses can't absorb all the energy they need from their surroundings whether it be sound or otherwise, but Moon rocks appear to help argument that ability to provide them with a base amount of power proportional to the number of rocks they have in their possession. But like any good sponge, there is only so much they can absorb, and they wear our their "soaking" ability in time so must be replaced.
I'm not very sure about the Chinese explaination in my manga, so I'm guessing the moon itself actually soaks up light from the sun as a sort of battery, and the Goddesses can use the Moon's rock as a power source. Care to tell me anything about it?

Their Markings also contain their job descriptions. With different markings, the Goddesses are allocatted different posts to care for, and thus the Markings allow them to channel their energies to that end. All Goddesses appear to also have a standard set of abilities and powers regardless of job-domain though, such as Demon-banishing attacks. Apparently certain Goddess job descriptions appear to be more related to physical and mental requirements rather than "magical" ones though, although not enough evidence is evident to prove this so. With their constant uplink with Yggdrasil, the Goddesses are subject to Yggdrasil's problems too, proven in manga volume 7. If their Markings lose contact with Yggdrasil, they go haywire and send the wrong signals everywhere. Think of it as a network of computers with different designated functions dependent on a single satellite uplink to a mother base to continue functioning, and anything that happens to the base's computers, such as a virus attack, is also reflected on the computers, which then go haywire.

It appears, however, that Demonesses have no fixed set of markings. (See book 6, The Lord of Terror when he possessed Keiichi, or Book 17, Velsper. One has a star on one cheek, and the other has no cheek markings whatsoever.) They might not be linked to any fixed sets of supercomputers or power sources, which may explain why they only require a forehead marking, simply as a symbol to represent their rank in demoness society. Some demonesses don't have cheek markings, or else markings that are on only one side of the face. It seems that since Demonesses aren't so much concerned with helping the world, they have no need for any sort of uplink with any computer to constantly give them directives to do things to help the world. Demonesses also don't appear to have any fixed domains (although they may have abilities rooted in a certain domain), so they don't need additional markings to help them channel their energies towards those ends. Being beings of chaos as they are, demonesses probably just need an outlet to absorb energy to do their own sort of dirty work and a forehead marking is just enough. The shape of any cheek markings, however, might determine how much energy they do recieve from whatever their source is, since demonesses also require alternate sources of energy once in a while.

Goddesses in the series exist on different planes than that of humans. While they take up the basic three dimensions we humans do, they also take up existence in more.... esoteric planes, as explained before by Belldandy. Which may account for their abilities in the first place. Their existence in other planes allow them to manipulate things in our dimensions from their own dimensions. Their energies are probably allocated to them to help them manipulate both their dimensions and ours, this manipulation of other planes known as "Magic". By default, Goddesses go about their duties in Midgaard without being seen by mortals because since they also exist in a higher dimension (outside of Length, Breadth and Height), it is impossible for us to see them. This could also explain why when they are using their "magic", we cannot see what goes on since it occurs in the dimensions we don't exist on. Only by generating a certain energy are we able to see them in a tangible form. However, sometimes that energy builds up and causes havoc, but is a necessary evil sometimes as the Goddess may have to manipulate something physically, or to let us see them, and the only way to do that is to manifest their physical, 3 dimensional forms.

Also, it is seen in the AMG! manga series that there are several Help Offices, such as the Earth Otasuke (Help) Centre and the Goddess Help Office. Apparently, Kosuke-sama did intend for this series to follow the Norse culture closely, as it could be that Kami-sama has another 8 Help Offices, each one for the other 8 Worlds. The Goddess Help Office could be a/the central branch for all the worlds to contact? Or, if not following the Norse Mythology, then there really is life out there somewhere. (At least in the manga.)

It appears that Goddesses must develop their own powers through practice and learning as they grow and mature, probably as a test of their worth and measure. (You have to prove yourself to your boss, right? Unless you're your own boss.) Also, it seems to act as a safeguard, since Goddess powers generally manifest themselves in a Goddess when : He/she matures mentally (in relation to their physical/age maturity, actually. See Power Available to Goddesses.), learns the ethics and lessons required for safe use of their powers for the benefit of all and not just themselves, as well as acquiring a certain sort of wisdom as an indirect guide for usage of their powers (meaning, they know when to, how to, and what power to use in a given situation). The "wiser", more "mature" (physically or otherwise) and more "benevolent" a Goddess is, the more developed their powers appear to be.
It is seen that Goddesses "learn" their abilities, either by themselves or with the help of others. I know this seems confusing, but let me elaborate.

First example - Wisdom, Maturity, Safeguard : A Goddess too young to know anything who has been given too much power will definitely not know how to use it properly, what to use it on, when to use it, who to use it for, nor will the Goddess know why she should use it and for whose good is she using it for. Also, she might not be able to withstand the energies given to her and might die from its usage, or use too much and die from its exhaustion. Even Belldandy, a 1st Class Goddess of respectable maturity, fell seriously ill after using the highest level of demon-stopping attacks in Keiichi's defense and was thus exhausted. (Book 9 of the Manga)
But a Goddess who's old enough to know what, why, when, how and for who she's using her powers for will also know what her limit of usage should be, lest something untowards happen.

Next Example - Benevolence, Maturity : Take Skuld, who only recently learned the value of doing things through one's own power rather than relying on others. First of all, Goddess powers are in essence, an extension of a Goddess herself. Also, a Goddesses' power comes from her love and willingness to help Mankind. The more love and wish to help Man the Goddess acquires, the stronger, more developed their powers become. A perfect example of this would be when Skuld wanted to restore Sentaro's bike, because she cared strongly for him, she had the ability to because she wanted to help Sentaro. When he told her off though, she got angry and didn't want to help him anymore (it's common sense to arrive at this conclusion) and her control/power began to waver. Later, her powers became even more impressive (supporting an entire human safely to the ground instead of just a wrench) when she had an even stronger desire to help Sentaro.

Final Example - Learning : Skuld has to "learn" her abilities, such as lifting an object off the ground. (Basic Goddess skill) Taught by Belldandy, Skuld has to learn to do these things on her own. (Also known as practice.) Given time, she might learn these on her own, but it's not productive. When Skuld tells Sentaro she's not studying at a School, she means one on Earth. Since we see Skuld has to learn from Belldandy, it is highly possible Goddesses have to "learn" the skills required for their jobs even though they automatically qualify for it. Kind of like skills training/retraining for specialist or general jobs.

This is in contrast to the amount of energy available to them. A Goddess may have access to almost limitless energy, but if said Goddess likes lying (such as Urd) or for some other reason isn't as mature as the others yet (like maybe being irresponsible), their abilities appear to be limited to, say, basic magical skills such as a telekinetic push or lightning attack, and rudimentary physical and mental skills, which although impressive by mortal standards, is nothing to the Goddess.

Mentioned above, responsibility is a sort of not-stated-compulsory-must-have, since one must be responsible to practice their skills for the sake of others. They must also be responsible for their own actions, and know what they're getting into by using a certain power. The more responsible a Goddess is, it appears the more responsibility is handed to her, by means of power or post. It is also obvious of course, that maturing Goddess abilities also requires much, much practice, simply for the sake of fine-tuning and refining those abilities. (Practice does make perfect, after all.)

(The Class system was explained by Belldandy in manga volume 5, where a Class 2 Goddess was said to be one who had little control over her power, however vast, or one who had no power whatsoever.)

By learning to overcome her faults might a Goddess develop her powers. However, this is a paradox since Peorth has at least one prominent vice , Pride, and (most) probably lacks the Virtue of Humility. But she has a truly kind, if not over enthusiastic, heart which makes up for this shortcoming. After all, no one but Kami-sama is perfect. My hypothesis is that this maturity and ranking in power is a sort of safeguard so that only the more dependable, mature, and powerful Goddesses are allowed to know deeper secrets which require a higher security and power-restraint level because they would be dangerous in lesser hands. This is probably the reason why the one requirement all 1st Class Goddesses must have is total honesty and the inability to tell lies : So that they can be trusted all the way to the very end, to keep a secret or for some other reason. Peorth probably has these for all other appearances.

Bringing up the subject of Goddess power again, it appears that the older a Goddess is, the more power is available to that Goddess. Think of it as a battery that gains both extra storage and voltage capacity so that their potential for usage becomes higher, and more varied. However, only their potential rises since all Goddesses on Earth appear to be "sealed", where even though their powers are allocated to them by Yggdrasil are great (see Goddess Markings paragraph), they are only allowed to use a small portion of it (and it is the only portion available to them normally, even in the event of a breakdown in Yggdrasil) lest they make a big mistake... It may or may not be that while 1st Class Goddesses whose seals are removed are allowed so much power they can destroy and rebuild the world in the blink of an eye, a "sealed" 2nd Class Goddess like Urd is likewise allowed even more power simply because she's older, but appears weaker only because she isn't very skilled with her abilities.

Example : Urd has slightly more power than Belldandy even when sealed, but that is probably only because she's older.

Using the Terrible Master Urd case (AMG! Manga volumes 5 to 6) as an example, we see that when Urd becomes a Demoness, her incredible power capacity is brought into full use, and even an unsealed Belldandy can't touch her. Also, the Goddess Markings change when a Goddess breaks her seal, its change in shape and colour probably due to a change in the programming in it to tell Yggdrasil that the seal has been broken so the Goddess in question must have full priority in being allowed her powers. (Refer to Goddess markings for information on the Uplink with Yggdrasil) Yet, it appears that even without breaking a seal, a Goddess can use the full extent of her powers at a great cost to herself (probably to override the Seal's effect; see Death and Ageing or high above), and only when she puts her whole self into using those powers, or else when she unconsciously releases enough energy to override the Seal's effectiveness. So it does appear that the older a Goddess is, the more power is allocated to said Goddess, regardless of class and category.
However, there is a possibility that Urd and/or any other 2nd Class Goddess isn't sealed by any physical means, but by Yggdrasil itself. (Which might mean that Yggdrasil would allocate the full extent of Urd's power to the Demoness Urd simply because she is out of its jurisdiction to be Sealed, but would only allocate a little to her when she is in her Goddess form.)

Demonesses also appear to gain power as they age, like Mara. She can easily take on Belldandy because she's about Urd's age. And Velsper (explained in book 17), because he had forced (cursed) himself to take on a "permanently" child's body, the energy which was allocated to him was beginning to be too much for his young frame to take. Unless he "grew up" immediately, he'd die from an overload. Demons don't seal their powers like Goddesses do.

Going on to the Goddess Ranking and Category system, it appears to be quite predictable. Belldandy is a Category 2 Goddess, as is Peorth, and they appear to answer to the needs of mortals who qualify for a wish, while Urd and Skuld are Category 1 Goddesses who tend only to Yggdrasil and only when Belldandy isn't around does Urd answer the phone. Yet, Category 2 Goddesses are also required to perform basic maintainence duties on Yggdrasil when the need arises, so could there be a third and/or fourth Category which requires a Goddess to answer wishes and/or maintain Yggdrasil only? My conclusion is that Category 2 Goddesses are primarily the Office maintainers who grant the wishes to those who pass the requirements, and Category 1 Goddesses are primarily those assigned to Yggdrasil maintainence, although depending on the seniority of the Goddess, jobs may be exchanged for a while.

Going back to the earlier paragraph about power levels and skill levels, Goddesses are Ranked as 1st or 2nd Class (there can't be a third class, since Skuld is just a beginner Goddess and her level appears to be the lowest level yet) depending on their "maturity". For a Goddess such as Belldandy who is infinitely caring for everyone and has much fine control over her powers, her powers are considered very mature and as such is Ranked 1st class. Peorth too, appears to have reached that same level (even though she is a little eccentric) and even though she is vain, she does appear to have a kind, if... *ahem*... over-eager heart. Goddesses like Urd and Skuld, who haven't reached their full "maturity" potential are still considered 2nd Class Goddesses. (Skuld because she's still young, and Urd because she hasn't even learned some of the basic Virtues for all her wisdom.) However, while 1st Class Goddesses may have reached a reasonable "maturity" level, they still have to learn more skills and abilities, probably required of them since these are more complicated spells which require the skill, precision and way of thinking achieved by 1st Class Goddesses.

Think of it as a Role Playing Game, the best example being The Elder Scrolls 2 : Daggerfall by Bethesda Softworks, where skill is more important in character development than killing creatures for "experience". Of course, this means that for a Goddess to be promoted by Kami-sama, they have to "mature". Their categories may remain the same, or might change. This is still unconfirmed. Anyone care to put their views up?

Regarding licensing for Goddesses, I'm not very sure about this point. It appears that only 1st Class Goddesses attain Unlimited licenses, whereas 2nd Class Goddesses such as Urd only obtain Limited licenses. However, a guess can be hazarded that Unlimited licenses are for those who prove themselves trustworthy enough to be entrusted to permanently wield Goddess powers (of which all 1st Class Goddesses definitely are), while those who are somewhat questionable in trust are only allowed Limited licenses so that in the event that they abuse their powers or commit an unacceptable act, they can be suspended from using their powers. An example would be : "I wouldn't trust Urd to even take care of the house for a minute without changing something in it, but I could trust Belldandy to care for it forever and still see it as it was when I return."
However, it can also be guessed that those with powers which are as yet undeveloped recieve Limited Goddess licensing simply because they need not be suspended for any reason whatsoever, since they are unlikely to cause harm with their meagre powers. Skuld certainly proves that. (Refer to above explaination by Belldandy to understand why.)

It is said in Norse Mythology that Goddesses may die. I couldn't find any direct references to what they would die from; Be it from old age, unnatural causes or even natural causes. However, it is quite obvious that they can die in Ah! My Goddess, and of anything from illnesses to a knife in the gut. (Although no self-respecting Goddess would even let a crook near them. However, a knife seems too mundane.) But fret not, Goddess lovers! For it appears, however, that the only illnesses to take a Goddess are high-level diseases which only strike when a Goddess is at her weakest, and only certain types of energies may be used to kill them in combat. And, I don't think Goddesses will die from mundane reasons such as falling from a cliff or being shot in the head.
It does appear that overuse of a Goddess' powers will not only result in a dependency on their alternate source of energy for a while to come, but will also weaken a Goddess physically. Like taking more toxins than your body can purge, a Goddess using more power than is within her "normal" limits (without being sealed) is subject to the effects of illnesses and other things like perhaps physical weakness. (Although that has yet to be proven) Maybe their energies help a Goddess to maintain her body safe and healthy on all their planes of existence and a base amount is required. Removing that base could result in aforementioned illnesses.
Goddesses may be killed, however, by demonesses or their own kind. If the correct power is used to attack one, then injury and death are possible. Chieko from volume 8 of the manga wasn't affected by Urd's demon killing attack because she was a memory-body and not a demoness. Wow, think of all the different kinds of attacks required by a Goddess to take on an army of varied enemies...

Ageing too, appears to be a probable cause for death.
In volume 7-8 of the Manga just after the Terrible Master Urd event, the programming in the Goddesses' Markings went haywire, causing the Goddesses' physical forms to follow their Job Domains quite literally. Urd warned Skuld about becoming an old hag quickly (remember Urd's description in Norse Mythology mentioned above?) to which Skuld was quick to get upset over. Not only does it appear Goddesses age and their bodies change with age, but they will die eventually. (Maybe they get reborn, maybe not. I doubt that though.)

However, isn't it strange that a Goddess of Time actually ages in accordance with humans? If we see Goddess ageing through in human years, there must be a lot of predecessors and successors for Belldandy since the average human lifespan is only 70 years. Perhaps the Goddesses refresh themselves after a certain age and start over, maybe not. I have several other theories about their ageing. The first one is that they physically age to a certain point before stopping (to which their physical bodies might or might not reflect their age), and Urd's warning to Skuld might have been a lie or else.... it's horrifyingly true. (Can you imagine a crone of a Skuld who constantly gets older but never dies?! Or just imagine a permanently adult Skuld who ages but never dies, if that's too horrible to imagine.)

The second and simplest theory is that Goddesses have an unusually long lifespan, and even though they age into old crones (Heaven forbid!), they only die after a long, long time and only then are replaced with another Goddess. This is fairly believable, since it might be that Goddesses also procreate. At least then they wouldn't be constantly nagged by the need to create more Goddesses simply because another one has croaked from old age, and can go about their duties undisturbed until many, many milleniums later.

The final theory follows that of a slightly more complicated Chinese belief. An Immortal (in this case, Goddess) ages according to Heaven's time. In their perception, an immortal who spends day on Heaven will feel that it's been the usual 24 hours, but back on Earth, it will already have been centuries. Yet, an immortal which stays on Earth will feel Earth time passing as normal.

Example : If an immortal in Heaven wants to contact an immortal on Earth "in a couple of days of Earth time", the immortal in Heaven will have to contact the one on Earth a few seconds later!)

Example 2 : 4 minutes in heaven could be 10 years on Earth. Several minutes could be 20 to 30 years later.

So, it could be that Belldandy and the others have been in Heaven since the beginning of Time, and although have aged to their respective ages in Heaven, their Heaven age would be measured according to human years.

Example : Belldandy may in actuality be 65,000,000+ Earth years old, yet in Heaven she is the equivalent of 21 human years of age, and as such looks like that.

This is a more believable theory in my eyes because there would've been quite a few Goddesses of Time if Goddesses aged according to humans. But no one can be sure, no one save Kosuke-sama.

Going on to the standard Goddess Dress code, everyone can see that they are particularly fancy and flashy. However, their dressing appears to be more than just flash and dazzle. Take the compulsory Goddess jewellery and accessories for example. While most of you might know by now that Goddesses must have seals of some kind on their person to prevent a mistake in usage of power, it doesn't always have to be earrings, as in Belldandy's case. You'd never guess which of the finery on a Goddess would be her seal, unless it had some strikingly remarkable differences compared to the rest. (In Belldandy's case, her left earlobe has several symbols designating the earring as the seal.) And, for some of the finery that aren't used as Seals, they also have their own uses, perhaps as an observation camera, to contain a magic Stone such as Maxwell's Demon Stone, or to assist a Goddess in the casting of a complicated or otherwise difficult spell.

Also, Goddess dressing styles appear to follow a set pattern. They are all, for the Megami-sama (Goddess), shoulder revealing, and for the other Kami-sama (Gods, other than the Almighty Himself), variable although they are normally sleeveless vests. However, the clothes themselves are designed to emphasize the shoulder area, be it a thick leather strip (Peorth) or a cloth wrap (Belldandy). Also, it appears all Goddesses must show their legs or part thereof, no matter what they wear. This, and the general dress styles, are dependent on the Goddess' personality where the style may be simply modest (like Belldandy's long and split, yet never totally revealling skirt and much covering dress), or outrageously revealing. (Peorth's panties, fancy sports bra and nothing much else!?)

Possible Example : Skuld wears a covering blouse and a miniskirt with a secondary skirt around it, so she must be more daring than Belldandy, but a little more modest than Urd. (Oh yeah, I can see you Skuld-fans going USO! [Impossible!])

Another prominent feature is the requirement that all Goddesses wear gloves, and must have long hair regardless of whether it is bound or not. Some of the apparel appears to be a little stifling, but it certainly carries the point across they have a killer sense of good fashion in addition to their status as beings of the Divine. *laugh*

Once you're done reading, I'll bring you back to the Mini Case Studies etc. etc. etc. page!