Persona Ideas

This is the page for all those neat ideas for personas we find in research but cannot use. For now this page is organized by theme, but this may change or be expanded upon.

We recommend also searching resources on the folklore, mythology and urban legend section of the links page, as there are many resources there for finding possible ideas for personas.

Agriculture (Food, Plants Harvest, Bounty)

Name	Origin	Description
Uke-Mochi	Japanese	The Japanese goddess of food who produced volumes of food from every part of her body. This process so disgusted the moon god Tsukiyomi that he killed her. As she died, her body continued to produce food.
Xochipilli	Aztec	Aztec god of art, games, beauty, dance, flowers, song, and patron of homosexuals and male prostitutes. His name means 'flower prince'.

Death

Name	Origin	Description
Lemminkäinen	Finland	A shamanistic figure who, while attempting to kill a black swan to win the hand of a daughter of Louhi, drowned in the river of Tuonela. His mother sets on a journey to collect the pieces of his body, sew him together, and bring him back to life with a drop of honey from the halls of the over-god Ukko.
Macaria	Greek	Either the daughter of Hercules who sacrificed her life for her city, or the counterpart of Thanatos who brought good death.
Maximón	Mayan/Catholic	A modernization and mix of the Mayan god Mam and Catholic beliefs, who serves as a link between this world and the underworld. Unlike San La Muerte and Santa Muerte, he is not seen as benevolent.
Melinoe	Greek	Daughter of Persephone who wandered the earth with a retinue of ghosts every night.
Meng Po	Chinese Folk Religion	Serves the Tea of Forgetfulness to souls before reincarnation, so that they may not remember their previous lives.
Mors	Roman	A personification of death, similar to Thanatos.
San La Muerte	South American/Catholic	A modernization and mix of Catholic and South American beliefs who is worshiped as a god of death. A benevolent figure, he also answers prayers for good luck and protection against witchcraft.

Excess (Drunkenness, Greed, etc)

Name	Origin	Description
Atë	Greek	The Greek personification of hubris and folly.
Lycurgus of Thrace	Greek	The king of Edoni in Thrace, Lycurgus tried to ban Dionysus's cult. Various sources depict different consequences, such as a drought that caused his subjects to throw him to a pack of man-eating horses.
Macuiltochtli	Aztec	A member of the Ahuiateteo who was associated with inebriation and excessive consumption. He is also a named member of the 'Four Hundred Rabbits', the gods of drunkenness.
Minos II	Greek	The king of Crete in Greek mythology who was portrayed as a tyrant. Most known for his part in the story of Daedalus and Icarus and the story of the Minotaur. While pursuing Daedalus, Minos was killed by the daughter of Cocalus, who poured boiling water over him in his bath.

Fertility (Creation, Birth)

Name	Origin	Description
Nüwa	Chinese	The goddess responsible for molding mankind from yellow earth, as well as repairing the wall of heaven using five-colored stones and tortoise legs as struts.
Sobek	Egyptian	A crocodile-headed god that was associated with fertility, the power of pharaohs, and the military. He is invoked as protection from dangers associated with the Nile river.

Knowledge (Sages, Scholars, Innovators, Seekers)

Name	Origin	Description
Daedalus	Greek	A Cretan inventor who created the labyrinth for the Minotaur, among many other inventions. Imprisoned in a tower by Minos, Daedalus fashioned a pair of wings for him and his son in order to escape. Icarus flew too close to the sun and crashed into the ocean, but Daedalus escaped, moving on to build a shrine to Apollo where he hung his wings in offering.
The Three Magi (Balthazar, Casper, & Melchior)	Gospel of Matthew, c. 80-90 AD	The three Biblical Magi who visited Jesus on the night of his birth, and were considered the first religious figures to worship him.

Love (Couples, Desire, Temptation)

Name	Origin	Description
Beatrice	"Rappaccini's Daughter", by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1844	Isolated to a garden of deadly plants, Beatrice's body is poisonous due to her father's experiments. When Giovanni courts her, his own body becomes poisonous, and he blames her. Bringing an antidote, Giovanni is horrified when Beatrice drinks it and dies while stating, "Oh, was there not, from the first, more poison in thy nature than in mine?"
Lucrezia Borgia	Italy (1480-1519)	A daughter from a Renaissance family known for their Machiavellian tactics of retaining power, Lucrezia was seen as an object of desire and revulsion, though the truthfulness of the rumors of her sexual exploits and acts of murder are sometimes more fiction than fact.
Glashtyn	Manx	A variant of the kelpie myth, the Glashtyn takes the form of a handsome young man. He attempts to tempt young women to come to the river with him where he will drown them.
Pygmalion, Galatea	Metamorphoses, by Ovid, 8 AD	Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor whose devotion to Venus allowed one of his most treasured sculptures, an ivory statue of a woman, to come to life.
Haseki Hürrem Sultan	Ukraine/Turkey (1506-1558)	Also known as Roxelana. The daughter Ukrainian priest, she was kidnapped and sold into slavery, where she was selected for the harem of Suleiman the Magnificent. In a rare occurrence for that time, she went on to become his wife, and used her position to establish many public foundations like schools, baths, and places of worship.

Luck (or lack thereof)

Name	Origin	Description
Arkan Sonney	Manx	A long-haired fairy pig. It's said that anyone who catches one is blessed with good fortune, though they run from humans.
Hoichi the Earless	Japanese	A blind minstrel forced to play for a court of ghostly samurai. For protection for the next night, he had the Heart Sutra painted all over his body, except for his ears, which the ghost samurai chopped off.

Martyrs, Sacrifices

Name	Origin	Description
Iphigenia	Greek	After her father King Agamemnon's men displeased Artemis, Iphigenia was to be a sacrifice so that the winds would carry her father's ships to Troy. Depending on the version of the story, she is sacrificed or is replaced at the last minute by a deer.
Wilgefortis	Western Europe, 14th century	A former Roman Catholic saint. After being promised to a pagan king by her father, Wilgefortis took a vow of virginity and prayed that she would be made so repulsive that the engagement would be terminated. When she suddenly grew a beard, her enraged father had her crucified. She was invoked by people suffering from various tribulations, especially women wishing to escape abusive relationships.

Messengers

Name	Origin	Description
Gullinkambi	Norse	One of three roosters whose crowing signifies the beginning of the events leading to Ragnarök. His name means 'Golden Comb' in Old Norse.
Ratatoskr	Norse	A squirrel who lives in the world tree Yggdrasil. It is charged with running messages between the eagle Hræsvelgr at the top and the wyrm Níðhöggr at the bottom.
Víðópnir	Norse	One golden-combed rooster who lives at the top of is a rooster that sits at the tree Mímameiðr. His crowing at dawn signifies for the victory of light over darkness.

Magic, Mystery

Name	Origin	Description
Joan the Wad	Cornish	Queen of the pixies in Cornwall and Devon, associated with the elements of fire and water.
Marie Laveau	United States (1782–1881)	A famous 'voodoo queen' of Louisiana Creole descent, Marie used her influence, wealth of gossip, and other methods to exert her influence in New Orleans.

Pride

Name	Origin	Description
Atë	Greek	The Greek personification of hubris and folly.
Lycurgus of Thrace	Greek	The king of Edoni in Thrace, Lycurgus tried to ban Dionysus's cult. Various sources depict different consequences, such as a drought that caused his subjects to throw him to a pack of man-eating horses.
Minos II	Greek	The king of Crete in Greek mythology who was portrayed as a tyrant. Most known for his part in the story of Daedalus and Icarus and the story of the Minotaur. While pursuing Daedalus, Minos was killed by the daughter of Cocalus, who poured boiling water over him in his bath.

Prophecy

Name	Origin	Description
Elizabeth Barton	Great Britain, (1506?–1534)	A Catholic nun who began receiving visions of the future after an unknown illness, which made her popular at a time in Great Britain where Catholicism was being threatened by the English Reformation. As her visions challenged Henry VIII, she remained untouched due to her popularity. Agents of the king resorted to destroying her reputation with rumors, then arrested her. After forcing her to say that her visions were false, she was executed for treason without a public hearing.

Tricksters

Name	Origin	Description
Colombina	Commedia dell’arte theater, 16th c.	A stock character in 16th century Italian theater. Wife of Pierrot, and pursued by Harlequin. She plays the role of the trickster servant, using her intellect and ability to manipulate others to achieve good ends for her mistress.
Coyote	Native American	A figure appearing in many Native American pantheons, Coyote is portrayed often as a trickster, sometimes stealing gifts from the gods for mankind to being a sort of antihero, depending on the tale.
Dagonet	Arthurian legend	King Arthur's jester who, while claiming to be brave, was often shown to be a coward. He was legendary for the pranks he played on King Arthur's court.
Harlequin	Commedia dell’arte theater, 16th c.	A nimble, well-meaning trickster servant who loved women and food. While he fears his master, he takes risks to thwart his master's plans.
Iktomi	Native American (Lakota)	A trickster spirit and cultural hero for the Lakota people often symbolized by a spider. He exemplifies the intersection of folly and wisdom, and is known for his trouble-making ways.
Pied Piper of Hamelin	Germany	A mysterious piper who comes to the medieval town of Hamelin to take care of their rat population. When he is not paid, he turns his music on the children of the village, leading them away with his music.

Tragic Heroes

Name	Origin	Description
Kullervo	Finland	A talented magician from birth, a harsh upbringing caused Kullervo to become cruel. His attempt to avenge himself on the one responsible for his suffering only left his entire family dead and drove Kullervo to suicide.

Violence, Murder

Name	Origin	Description
Black Annis	British Isles	A blue-faced hag with iron claws that served as a bogeyman. She would haunt the glens at night looking for lambs and children, and would tan their hides and wear them on her waist.
Bluebeard	Histoires ou contes du temps passé, by Charles Perrault, 1697 AD	A nobleman with a blue beard, who secretly killed all of his wives and hid them in a locked room. Was foiled by his last wife when she discovered his past wives' bodies, and had her brothers kill him before he could murder her.
Pelops	Greek	King Tantalus's son. Was cut into pieces and made into a stew as an offering to the gods. After Demeter dined on his shoulder, the gods realized what had happened and reassembled Pelops back, replacing his shoulder with one made of ivory.
Yara-ma-yha-who	Australian Aboriginal folklore	A being who resembles a little red man, with a large head with suckers on his hands and feet and a toothless mouth. It latches onto any person that falls asleep under its tree and drains the person's blood using its suckers before consuming the victim. It would nap and then throw up the person, then repeat the process. Each time the victim resembles the Yara-ma-yha-who before finally becoming one themselves.

Warriors, War

Name	Origin	Description
Goetz von Berlichingen	Germany, 1480 - 1562	A knight and mercenary who lost his arm in a battle, only to replace it with a metal prosthetic one and continue his fighting career. Subject of a play by Goethe, who portrays him in a different light.
Julie d'Aubigny	France, 1670–1707	Also known as La Maupin. An opera singer as well as a swordswoman, who has had many stories spread about her flamboyant lifestyle.
Empress Jingu	Japan, 169–269	A mysterious figure in Japanese history, Jingu was a consort to the Emperor Chūai. After his death, she ruled as Regent and led an invasion into Korea and returned victorious after three years, though modern historians have widely debunked this as myth.
Juana Galán	Spain, 1787-1812	Nicknamed "La Galana", Juana, armed with nothing but a batan, organized the women of her village to ambush Napoleon's approaching army. Her actions led the French army to abandon the La Mancha province and ultimately allowed Spain to defeat France.
Smertios	Gallo-Roman	God of war, known for brandishing a weapon that looks like a club or brand. In Roman times, he was seen as a variant of the Roman god Mars.
Lady Triệu	Vietnam, 225-248	A colorful, fearsome warrior who managed to gather an army to successfully resist the Eastern Wu's occupation of Vietnam for a period of time.
Zenobia	Roman Syria, 240-274	The queen of the Palmyrene Empire, who led a revolt against the Romans. Her empire stretched from Anatolia to Egypt until she was taken hostage, visibly led away in gold chains.
Zhong Kui	China, c. 700 AD	Also known in Japanese as Shoki. Once a mortal man who committed suicide after being rejected as an imperial physician due to his ugly appearance, and is traditionally regarded as a vanquisher of ghosts and other evil spirits.

Water

Name	Origin	Description
Cloacina	Roman	Goddess of the Cloaca Maxima, a system of sewers located in the city of Rome, as well as sexual intercourse. Sometimes worshiped as an aspect of Venus.
Coventina	Romano-British	Goddess, specific to Roman-ruled Britain, of healing springs and wells.
Iemanjá	Umbanda	Derived from the goddess Yemaja, she is considered the Queen of the Ocean, the patron deity of the fishermen, shipwreck survivors, the feminine principle of creation, and moonlight.
Sedna	Inuit	The Inuit goddess of the sea, she also governs Adlivun, the underworld. Hunters prayed to her to ensure that their hunts of sea mammals went well.
Sironia	Celtic	A healing deity associated with healing springs worshipped in East Central Gaul. She is associated with eggs and snakes.
Tefnut	Egyptian	Lioness-headed goddess of moisture, dew, and rain.
Yemoja	Yoruba	Considered the mother of all Orishas. She is the patron spirit of motherhood, the Ogun river, the ocean, and is a protector of children.