LYRA
LYRA
Real Name: Lyra
Identity/Class: Alternate Reality (Earth-715 / "Femizonia") human;
23rd century
Occupation: Princess, warrior
Group Membership: United Sisterhood Alliance (aka the Femizons; see comments)
Affiliations: Mogon
Enemies: Syrani and her Security Police;
she was forced to slay Mogon to save herself
Known Relatives: Vega (queen, sister)
Aliases: Fair One" (from Mogon);
"Princess of Treachery," "traitor" (from Syrani)
Base of Operations: The palace of the Sisterhood, New U.S.A., Earth-715 (see comments)
First Appearance: Savage Tales I#1/2 (May, 1971)
Powers/Abilities: Lyra is a highly skilled and fierce warrior, especially deadly with a sword. Able to slay multiple experienced warriors in battle, she was also willing to slay an opponent during ritual combat.
Lyra was seemingly relatively unique in her society, feeling that bold and noble men were a missing element that left a void in their lives.
She is also an experienced equestrian.
Height: Unrevealed (she is tall, although not quite as tall as Mogon; perhaps 5'10" to even 6'2"
Weight: Unrevealed (perhaps 145 to 175 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed (black and white story; perhaps dark green or brown based on shading)
Hair: Black
History: See comments for the past history of Femizonia...
(Savage Tales#1/2 (fb) - BTS) - At the end of the 22nd century (see comments), the Sisterhood took over Earth. Wishing to
make certain that man would never rule again, the Sisterhood kept ten percent of the
men as slaves to serve the needs of the Sisterhood, as
well as to allow the continuation of the human race. The
remaining ninety percent of all the male children were abandoned
in the wilderness...where they were left to perish. However, not
all of the males died. Most of those who remained grew strong -- and
savage -- and more merciless, more brutal, than man had ever been
before: The Beast-Men.
The Sisterhood kept a supply of sperm in their Temple of Genetics,
guarded by High Priestesses, which they used to maintain the population.
(Savage
Tales#1/2 (fb) - BTS) - Lyra was born from the same sperm vial as her
sister, Vega. At some point, Vega became Queen of the United
Sisterhood Alliance, and Lyra became princess. Lyra's fighting skill
made her blade the most feared throughout the alliance.
Nonetheless, Lyra
felt that something was missing from the lives of herself and the rest
of the Sisterhood. She kept forbidden history tapes which
revealed the origins of the Sisterhood, and of the time before
the Femizons.
(Savage Tales#1/2 (fb) -
BTS) - Lyra heard that there were still men "with fire in their veins
and courage in their hearts," but she never dreamed that she would find
one. 
(Savage Tales#1/2 (fb) - BTS) - Roving Beast-Men periodically assaulted the Sisterhood, apparently slaying some and carrying off others into the wilderness. The Sisterhood gradually tracked down the Beast-Men in their lairs and presumably slew those they found.
(Savage Tales#1/2 (fb) - BTS) - Mogon of the Hills, a member of a civilized tribe of men sworn to restore the balance to society, learned of Lyra's forbidden history-detailing brain tapes. Realizing that Lyra might be sympathetic to his cause, Mogon arranged to become Lyra's slave.
(Savage Tales#1/2) - Princess Lyra, sister of Queen Vega, defeated another female warrior in combat within Vega's court and, as all present cheered her to slay her fallen foe, Lyra struck her down in the name of Vega and the New U.S.A. As a reward, Vega granted Lyra a handsome male slave (Mogon). When Vega's advisor, Syrani, noted that Lyra seemed less than pleased by her generous offering, Vega silenced Syrani, and Lyra noted that Syrani was just jealous because Syrani was the princess. Lyra further noted that she was ever loyal to the United Sisterhood Alliance, and to its creed, "Sexuality! Solidarity! Superiority!" After Lyra departed, instructing her slave to follow her and await her pleasure, Syrani nonetheless caution Vega that Lyra should be watched.
Back in her chambers, when Mogon offered Lyra a massage or balms as she prepared for her bath, Lyra instructed him that she bathed alone and that he should tidy up her chamber her return. As she undressed, bathed, and donned her evening wear, Lyra wondered why she was different from the others, plagued by doubt and discontent, feeling that something was lacking in the lives of herself and the others in the Sisterhood.
Lyra then realized that her slave was missing and the door ajar to her secret room. Grabbing her sword, she commanded the slave to stand forth or face her wrath, but Mogon grabbed her from behind, mocking her wrath and warning her to keep quiet or she would learn of true wrath. She warned the slave that he would be tortured for this, but Mogon assured her she would protect him, as he knew of her secret tapes, and that she would be slain if Vega knew she possessed them.
Despite Lyra's arguments, Mogon then donned a brain tape, which showed
him details of Earth when it was ruled by men, a world of war, poverty,
hatred, violence, and pollution. Lyra then remarked how the
Sisterhood now had the power, that they would keep the peace, and
they they would eventually destroy all of the Beast-Men. Mogon
continued, detailing the Sisterhood's takeover and decimation of men
and noting his own tribe's goals. Arguing that Lyra was a rebel and
that he would help his tribe destroy the Temple of Genetics and its
sperm supply (presumably to force women to seek out relationships with
men and eliminate the segregated societies), Mogon convinced the
initially defiant Lyra to join his cause as he was one of the lost men she had dreamed of.
In the days that followed, Lyra and Mogon publically acted as mistress
and slave, but when back in her chambers, safe from prying eyes, they
became lady and lover; Lyra considered herself fulfilled.
Syrani remained suspicious of Lyra.
Eventually, Mogon took Lyra to meet his rebel band (during which time
she finally asked and learned his name), only to find that rebels had
been replaced by Syrani's Security Police, who drew their swords and
proclaimed, "Death to the traitors!" Although Mogon advised Lyra to
flee the trap, she countered that she fled from no one, and the two
fought and slew the Security Police, seemingly eliminating the proof of
their involvement. After they returned to the Sisterhood's city, they
separated, with Lyra returning to her palace and Mogon to his quarters,
but minutes later Lyra was summoned before Vega.
Syrani accused Lyra of highest treason against the queen and Sisterhood, and Vega asked how she pleaded against these gravest charges. Proclaiming her blood as royal as Vega's, Lyra refused to plead, drew her sword and asked to face her accuser in combat. However, Syrani instead then had her guards bring in the captive Mogon. Feigning ignorance, Lyra asked what a slave had to do with her, and Vega explained that as Syrani had accused them both of conspiring against her crown, the only way to disprove her claim was to run her sword through the slave.
Reading that Mogon wished her to slay him so that their cause could live (as they both knew that there were others like Mogon hidden in the hills), Lyra briefly paused. Mogon then goaded Lyra, mocking her as being weak like all women and lacking the courage and strength to kill him. Realizing what she had to do, Lyra retorted, "You, a mere slave, speak to Lyra of strength? I strike for the Sisterhood!" As she stabbed her sword through Mogon's abdomen (see comments).
After Vega told Syrani that she had been wrong -- "Though she is strong-willed and reckless, she is still my sister!" -- Vega commanded the guards to dispose of this carrion and to send two more slaves to her chambers, as the night would be long. As she departed, tears welled in eyes as she silently vowed never to forget her beloved Mogon, and she wondered if there was really a time when men were all like him: A time of lover and valor? She prayed that such a time would come again. She considered that there were other men like Mogon out there and that she would seek them out and find them. She finally concluded, "When a man is but a slave -- it is the women who live in bondage." (Feminism according to Stan the Man).
Comments: Created by Stan "the
Man" Lee and "Jazzy" John Romita.
In fact, Stan Lee owns the Femizons, and Marvel
can't even refer to them by that name anymore. Subsequent stories have
diverged the realities, and the associated female-dominated groups are
instead referred to as the Sisterhood.
In case it's not clear, Thundra is derived from the
Femizons/Sisterhood, and she is originally from Earth-715. However,
there have been numerous temporal divergences, and Thundra current
dwells on Earth-8009, while Lyra and the Femizons in this story have
not been seen again. While not directly confirmed, Thundra's daughter,
Lyra, is almost certainly an homage to this Lyra.
I've always suspected that Thundra is a descendant of Lyra, perhaps
even via her union with Mogon, but there has never been anything to
indicate that; it's just speculation on my part.
On the matter of the name Femizons, its interesting that the title of
the story is "The Fury of the Femizons" and the introductory text names
them as the Femizons, but the main story and the people refer only
to the Sisterhood.
There is an existing Femizons
profile, but it contains a lot of information relevant to the various
alternate counterparts. I'll cover the Femizons and Mogon, at least,
and then cover Earth-715, and then move on to one of the
variant/divergent realities, and go from there...I'll probably work on
profile on Thundra during that time, and I'll try to sort out if/when
the term Femizonia was used.
Here's the history of Femizonia courtesy of the Thundra profile. When I profile Earth-715, I will sort out all of the references; I'm not 100% certain this is fully accurate for the Femizons' world, but I'll do the research as I go.
In this world, the battle of the sexes turned literal over the centuries as women genetically enhanced themselves to become equal to men, and men strengthened themselves via radiation treatments. That radiation had the side effect of sterilizing the children they subsequently conceived, and it became impossible for men and women to have children together. By the end of the 22nd century, society had split formally into two camps, men and women, and cataclysmic wars had occurred between the sides. Each side developed its own methods of reproduction, men drawing on parthogenetic cloning, and women using genetically manipulated sperm samples held in their Temples of Genetics. North America was ruled for a century by a royal sisterhood, but after the royal family’s assassination and the destruction of the Genetics Temples (forcing the females to rely on cloning and genetic manipulation to create young) in the early half of the 23rd century, the USR (United Sisterhood Republic) assumed power.
Thundra's original OHotMU profile noted the event that led to the future of the Femizons/Sisterhood to have taken place at the end of the 20th century (which was still in the future at the time of that 1982-ish profile).
By the way, a stab though the abdomen is not a merciful way to kill someone...normally they would painfully die over days from sepsis from laceration of the intestines, but perhaps Lyra knew where to strike to sever the aorta, etc. to cause nearly immediate fatal hemorrhage.
Lyra originally had a sub-profile in the Femizons profile I originally posted 11/21/2001.
This profile was completed 9/17/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Lyra should be distinguished from:
Appearances:
Savage Tales I#1/2
(May, 1971) - Stan "the
Man" Lee (writer, editor, art director), "Jazzy" John Romita (artist)
First posted: 09/22/2021
Last updated: 09/17/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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