Pure Sacrifice

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• How Did Our Real-World Mythology Inspire Pure Sacrifice's Story?
• How Does Pure Sacrifice tie in to the Mythos World?
• Have a Question about Mythos or Pure Sacrifice?

How Did Our Real-World Mythology Inspire Pure Sacrifice's Story?

(Warning: Potential Spoilers Below...)

Real-World Mythology

Unicorn mythology started with early Mesopotamian artwork and legends of India and China. They were described as resembling a horse or goat with a single (often spiraled) horn on its forehead.

Unicorns are unique among legends, as they are one of the few mythical creatures not associated with danger in any way. They were thought to be creatures of purity and grace but fierce and uncapturable, and in medieval times, they evoked ideas of chaste love and faithful marriage. In heraldry, unicorns symbolize freedom, power, and honor, and in modern times, they often symbolize rarity.

As its horn was said to have healing or protective powers, including neutralizing poison, many of the unicorn legends focused on how to hunt and capture one. However many of the original tales surrounding unicorns are actually found in bestiaries (natural history books) rather than fiction storybooks, as they were considered real animals until relatively recent times. Throughout history, descriptions of now-extinct oxen or rhinoceroses were often labeled as unicorns (such as by Marco Polo), and traders from the north sold narwhale tusks as unicorn horns (for large sums of money), all leading to difficulties in determining real versus myth. It didn't help that some translations of the Christian Bible discuss unicorns as real too.

The bestiary stories described unicorns as fast, fierce, and strong, especially in its horn, and so difficult to capture that it could be caught only if a virgin maiden was placed in its way. The story continued down a rather perverted path from there, as the unicorn was said to be compelled to stop and suckle from the virgin, especially if her breasts were bared. While the unicorn was lulled to sleep in her lap afterward, she could put a leash around its neck, essentially taming it and leaving it vulnerable to being killed by the hunters. No less than Leonardo da Vinci wrote about this "hunting" method of using a virgin as bait, mentioning the unicorn's inability to resist the virgin but skipping the sexual breast-baring, suckling aspect.

The Story within Pure Sacrifice

The stories of the Mythos Legacy series take our real-world mythology and explore how they would apply to the beings if they really existed—but were hidden among us. In addition, these Mythos beings have their own storytelling legends, such as to explain the human side of our real-world myths (Do unicorns consider virgins threatening and dangerous to them?).

Many of the ideas mentioned above, from a unicorn's powerful strength to their inability to resist virgins, are echoed in Pure Sacrifice. The story explores why unicorns are compelled to seek out a virgin, as well as the risks they take among them. In the story, unicorns are attempting to use virgins to hold off their impeding extinction. The magic of unicorns determines which virgin in the world is the Chosen Virgin with the potential to help them. However, they've been unsuccessful with every attempt until our heroine enters the picture.

To avoid fetishizing the idea of virginity, in the story, the heroine isn't special because she's a virgin. Instead, as the chosen woman, she's been manipulated and controlled to force her to conform to the unicorn tribe's needs. Rather than her virginity being a sign of her innate purity or goodness, it represents how—much like society's views of virginity in general—she hasn't been in control her own life until she forces the issue.

Unicorns in the story are warriors and thus much closer to the near-elephant size of many of the legends than the goat-sized creatures in some of the myths. The story also utilizes the "leash" and taming elements of mythology to show when he's been fully "captured" by her, as he switches primary allegiance from his unicorn tribe to prioritizing their relationship. Being a romance, the story also takes on the sexual aspect of the mythology, giving the heroine seductive powers over him that she's unaware of. At one point, he even thinks during a sexy scene that he'd be happy to die there at her breasts. *snicker*

(Warning: Potential Spoilers Below...)

• Griff of Unintended Guardian explained how he knew his missing treasure couldn't be on the Mythos plane because he would sense an imbalance. Readers see Markos's efforts to prevent an imbalance while importing and exporting between Mythos and Earth.
• Markos mentions why Mythos lacks iron, which hints at the danger of that metal to faeries.
• Markos discovers connections between some faeries and unicorns, which continues to be important through future stories.
• Markos and Archimedes wonder if faeries are in the midst of a civil war when making observations about their "helper." The truth of the tumultuous situation is revealed in Ironclad Devotion.
• Pure Sacrifice marks the first glimpse of the Mythos plane, at least of the unicorn homeland.

Have a Question about Mythos or Pure Sacrifice?
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Can't picture Markos's bedroom from the description? Here's the inspiration...

Want more “Behind the Scenes" for Pure Sacrifice?
Check out Jami's writing-focused blog posts tagged with “Pure Sacrifice"