Name

Aliases

Now learn the lesson you have forever so feared. If you would save all creation... look beyond each single life. Let those who must fall,fall. Mourn the facing of each dead leaf. But do not pause tostop it. Instead, you createanew. Create out ofashes anddeath. Create out ofdarkness andchaos. That is howexistence fought forlife. Remake yourself,Hercules. Andrise.

Origin[]

Gaea was one of theElder Gods born from theDemiurge circa four billion years ago. She emerged from theDarkness becoming one of the first beings to emerge on the planet,^[64] along with her siblingsChthon,Set,Oshtur, and others.^[65]

Gaea bore witness to her brother Chthon as he meticulously etched arcane glyphs onto the ancient pages of theDarkhold, long before the advent of recorded history.^[66]

Elder Gods Degeneration[]

The other Elder Gods, following the example of Set, started eating each other, a process that turned all but Gaea into demons. Worried that they might menace Earth's organic life forms, Gaea summoned theDemiurge and "mated" with it, to give birth to her first son, the sun-god Atum, who, in its form ofDemogorge the God-Eater, devoured all the demons, except those that escaped to other planes, such as Set and Chthon. TheUtgard-Loki came to Gaea and gave her akey to his plane,Utgard, where he would hide alongsideToranos,Kemur,Mejed, andNrgl. Gaea then merged with the Earth itself, and dedicated herself to guiding evolution. Atum went to live in theSun.^[67][65][68]

Caretaker of Evolution[]

Millions of years later, Gaea decided to allow the dinosaurs to become extinct, so mammals would evolve in their place. This angered Set, who drew power from them. He made the dinosaurs try to hunt down all mammals, so Gaea summoned the Demogorge to deal with him.Their battle may have finished killing off the dinosaurs. In the end, Set was banished from Earth again.^[69]

First Host[]

Gaea protected Earth from the influence of Set. Gaea, guardian of theWanderers, an ancient group of primates forebears to humanity, shielded them from harm during the tumultuous clash with theSerpent-Men in theGarden of Eden. As the dust settled from the battle, the Wanderers beheld the awe-inspiring sight of theFirst Host of theCelestials descending in their majestic starship. Gaea, accompanying these cosmic visitors, bestowed a gentle smile upon the tribe, encouraging them to embrace the blessings offered by these enigmatic beings from beyond the stars. These were the beings who descendants became theEternals andDeviants, as well as generating the potential for superhuman mutation within mainstreamHumans.^[70][67][71]

Mother of Pantheons[]

A time went on and ushering in the era of primitive humans, a profound shift unfolded with the emergence of the second generation of gods upon the world. Gaea, engaged in myriad unions with these divine beings, assuming diverse identities throughout. This intricate dance of creation rendered her the revered "Mother-Goddess" woven into the fabric of countless myths and legends, her divine lineage entwined with the very roots of various pantheons. This cosmic union, chronicled in various tales, epitomizes the profound interplay between divinity and mortal realm, shaping the tapestry of human understanding across time.^[55]

Gaea gave birth to the the sky deityOuranos, with whom she united to conceive the inaugural Olympian lineage, theTitans. Their union also brought forth theCyclopes and the Hecatocheiroi. However, Ouranos, displeased with these offspring, incarcerated the Cyclops and the Hecatocheiroi within the depths ofTartarus in the world.^[55]

In her guise asNinhursag, Gaea engaged in a union with theAnnunaki sky patriarch,Anu, thus giving rise to a fresh cohort of Annunaki descendants, among whom wasInanna.^[55]

In her manifestation asPachamama, Gaea collaborated with theApu sky father,Viracocha, to fashion a lineage oftowering giants fashioned after Viracocha's likeness. These colossal beings dwelled in profound darkness within the city of Tiahunaco (present-dayTiwanaku,Bolivia). Yet, the giants rebelled against their makers, compelling Viracocha to revert them to stone. While Gaea's attention was directed elsewhere, Viracocha then forged the sea goddessMama Cocha to stand as his companion.^[55]

In the mythos of theAboriginal Gods, when the malevolent deityMarmoo unleashed his swarms of insects to devastate the land, Gaea assumed various forms such asDilga andNungeena. She ingeniously wove flowers into a flock of lyrebirds, which then swooped down upon and vanquished the marauding insect horde, safeguarding the landscape from destruction.^[55]

In the form ofPapa mated with the Sky Father,Rangi, birthing the inauguralAkua, the Oceanic gods. Bound in an unyielding embrace, Papa and Rangi's offspring dwelled in perpetual darkness. In the face of this eternal night, the boldKu proposed a drastic solution: to slay their parents and end the darkness once and for all. However,Kāne dissented, opting for a more benevolent approach. With his formidable strength, Kane exerted himself to separate Papa and Rangi, thereby sundering the sky from the earth and bestowing light upon the world.^[55]

In her guise asIzanami-No-Mikoto, she encounteredIzanagi-No-Mikoto when he descended to Earth fromAma. Together, they embarked into the boundless void of eternal nothingness, overshadowed byAmatsu-Mikaboshi. Positioned on the Bridge of Heaven, they plunged Izanagi's Jeweled Spear into the abyss, catalyzing the creation ofJapan from the depths of the void. Descending to these newly formed lands, they initiated the process of populating them with living beings, including the lesserAmatsu-Kami, who would later be revered as gods by the people of Japan. However, Izanami vanished after giving birth to the fire godKagutsuchi. Believing her to be consumed by the flames, Izanagi journeyed fruitlessly into the underworld ofYomi in search of her.^[55]

The ancient mystical cow,Audumbla—an embodiment of Gaea—emerged from the icy realms ofNiffleheim mere moments after the birth of the firstFrost Giant,Ymir, whose coming thawed the ice withMuspelheim's fiery heat. Ymir sustained himself on Audumbla's milk, while she, in turn, derived nourishment from licking the boundless ice of Niffleheim. Through the passage of time, Audumbla's persistent efforts gradually eroded the ice, unveilingBuri, the progenitor of theAsgardians, from his icy confines.^[55]

TheDaevas,Brahma,Shiva, andVishnu known as the Trimurti ascended from Hiranyagarbha, the radiant womb of Gaea, later revered by the Daevas asAditi.^[55]

In the form ofErce she met the primordial god of orderRod and brought her to his native realmSvarga, where she gave birth to theDievas.^[55]

In the form ofNut, along with Atum and Demiurge, they created theHeliopolitans the gods ofEgypt.^[55]

AsA'akuluujjusi, she mated withHodiak, giving rise to the primaryInua, the revered gods of theInuit pantheon.^[55]

Referred to asAkka orIlmatar, she mated withUkko to give birth to theJumala, the revered deities of Finnish mythology.^[55]

Ouranos was slain by her sonCronus' scythe and his blood seeped into the ocean, birthing theFuries. From Uranus's blood also arose theGiants. To protectZeus from Cronus's wrath, Gaea concealed him in the Caves of Dicte onCrete's Aegean Hill, where he was nurtured by the goat Amalthea and attended to by minor goddesses. Following Gaea's prophecy on overcoming the Titans, Zeus, now grown, freed his siblings becoming theOlympians and released the Cyclopes from Tartarus, enlisting their aid in vanquishing the Titans in theTitanomachy.^[55]

Tengri, the Sky Father revered by various Altaic Turkic, Mongol, and Yakut cultures, epitomized the timeless expanse of the Eternal Blue Sky, preceding all existence. Discovering a kindred essence in the ancient Earth Mother Gaea, they united to conceive their son,Erlik. Gaea, shaping Erlik's form from mud, and Tengri, infusing it with the essence of life, known as "kut," bestowed him existence. Yet, Erlik's burgeoning pride and arrogance led to his banishment by Tengri into the depths of the netherworld, where he morphed into the god of evil and death. From this union, other divine progeny emerged: Ay, the moon goddess;Koyash, the sun god; Kuara, the thunder deity; and Ulgen, the god of light. Pleased with these subsequent creations, Tengri and Gaea endeavored to fashion humanity, entrusting Ulgen with safeguarding the nascent mortal realm.^[55]

AsUmay orYer among the Altaic Turks, referred to asEje orOtuken within Mongolian traditions, and known asAjyst among the Yakuts.^[55]

Birth of Thor[]

Pre-Cataclysmic Age[]

The Great Mother Danu was one of the deities of thePicts circa 18,500 BC.^[24]

Valka was allegedly the son of Gaea.^[77] About 30,000 BC, Valka achieved prominence, which lasted at least 12,000 years.^[78]

Hyborian Age[]

In 10,000 BC, reverence for the divine figure known as Danu manifested in various forms, with titles such as Mother Danu^[23] and Lady Danu^[12] attributed to her. Throughout his legendary exploits, the mightyConan the Barbarian encountered the venerableSisterhood of Danu, a devout sect dedicated to the worship of the Mother Goddess.^[25]

Intriguingly, as the ages turned, theDiviatix emerged, driven by a fervent desire to harness the formidable might of Danu. With incantations and invocations, Diviatix sought her divine favor, believing it to be the key to unlocking profound power.^[23]

Third Host[]

In 1000 AD, theThird Host of theCelestials occurred, during which the Space Gods informed they would return 1,000 years later to judge Earth's right to continue existing. While the pantheons prepared for war, Gaea planned a peaceful solution to the problem with many goddesses (among themAman Sinaya for theDiwatas/Philippine gods,Amaterasu of theAmatsu-Kami/Shinto gods,Ameretat of theYazatas/Zoroastrian gods,Ay of theTenger/Mongolian gods,Chalchiuhtlique of theTeteoh/Aztec gods,Haumea of theAkua/Oceanic gods^[79] (in fact herself),^[31]Hera of theOlympians/Graeco-Roman gods,Isis of theEnnead/Heliopolitans/Egyptian gods,Ixchel of theAhau/Mayan gods,Julunggul of theAboriginal Gods,Lada of theDievas/Slavic/Russian gods,Lahamu of theAnnunaki/Mesopotamian gods,Mahu of theVodū/African gods,Mama Cocha of theApu/Incan gods,Mielikki of theJumala/Finnish gods,Morrigan of theTuatha de Danaan/Celtic gods,Nelvanna of theInua/Northern gods,Wiininwaa of theManidoog/Native American gods,Xi Wangmu of theXian/Taoist/Chinese gods,Ungnyeo of theShin/Korean gods,Frigga andSigyn of theAsgardians/Norse gods, andSaraswati,Parvati andLakshmi of theDaevas/Hindu/Vedic gods.

Across the Ages[]

For the next thousand years, they searched for humans representing mankind's highest ideals, to be offered to the Celestials as an offering. The goddesses placed the candidates in suspended animation, with their superhuman potential (legacy of theFirst Host) awakened: theYoung Gods, a group of twelve humans, each representing one of mankind's achievements.^[79]

Modern Age[]

Gaea called upon the sorceressClea to protect her from “a growth in the world which was not of her desire.” She was referring to the presence ofDormammu.^[80] Held captive by Dormammu at the center of the Earth where he’d been imprisoned, Gaea called out to his niece Clea to free her.^[81] Imprisoned by Dormammu, Gaea watched with joy as theVision,Scarlet Witch andAgatha Harkness escaped the demon's clutches.^[82] Gaea again called out to Clea for help, as Dormammu attempted to destroy the Earth, butDoctor Strange transferred part of his power to Clea so that she could set Gaea free, and Gaea harnessed the power of every living being on Earth to banish Dormammu back to theDark Dimension.^[83]

Thor using theEye of Odin showed Thor the recent past, and further going back to his birth but his mother's identity was hidden in shadow.^[84]

Fourth Host[]

When the souls of allAsgardians (except Thor's) possessed the body of theDestroyer and attacked the Celestials, only to be defeated and scattered. Gaea then appeared with the Young Gods, and presented them to the Celestials as proof of man's worth to survive. They were accepted, and the Celestials left without destroying the Earth. Gaea, in the form of a dark-haired woman, then healed the wounded Thor, and explained the whole story to him. She also told him how he could restore the Asgardians' souls to their bodies with help from all the other Godheads, which he then went on to obtain. Gaea then went back to being 'one with the planet'.^[76]

Revenge on Olympus[]

Gaea orchestrated the transportation of theHulk from theCrossroads dimension to Olympus with a strategic intent: to instigate a conflict against the Olympians. In doing so, she sought retribution for the injustices suffered by her offspring, the Titans, at the hands of the Olympians.^[85]

Mystic Encounters[]

Over the years, Gaea continues to grant power to many who call on her.

Gaea witnessed the inner torment of a valiant park ranger, forsaken and battered in his struggle to defend the wilderness from encroaching developers. Moved by his unwavering spirit, she bestowed upon him the mantle of nature's staunch defender, anointed asBrother Nature.^[86]

Trapped within the form of a female rat by the sinister Dormammu, Doctor Strange urgently beseeched Gaea for aid. However, Gaea, still reeling from the tumultuous events ofInferno, found herself too depleted to intervene directly. Instead, she dispatched the enigmatic mystic known asTopaz to assist the Sorcerer Supreme in his dire predicament.^[87]

Dark Mairi, one of her devoted Celtic followers, invoked Gaea's formidable power.^[88]

Gaea disclosed to Thor that she was unable to assist him in his battle against the Elder God Set. Instead, she advised him to seek aid from her son, Atum.^[89]

While trying to cureHercules, theTitan;Prometheus invoked Gaea for power to help heal him.^[90]

AsUatu the Watcher concluded his observations on Set, Gaea approached him, expressing her belief that humanity's innate qualities of courage, idealism, and love would inevitably lead to Set's defeat at their hands.^[91]

AsMaelstrom's menacingBlack Hole loomed, casting a dire shadow over the fate of Earth, Gaea sounded the alarm, beckoning Dr. Strange to confront the imminent peril. With his guidance, a coalition of mystics rallied to the cause, pooling their arcane might to stave off catastrophe. In the end, it wasQuasar who delivered the decisive blow, banishing the threatening abyss and securing Earth's salvation.^[92] Her pain resulting from the harm humanity had done to Earth, nearly drove the mutantHumus Sapien to take the lives of all mankind.^[93]

The Defenders[]

She was captured by the extradimensional scientistYandroth and forced to place a curse on the earliestDefenders, compelling them to gather to oppose threats to Earth. She continued to perpetuate this curse herself for a time, pleased to have even unwilling protectors, but she dissolved it after the Defenders became corrupt due to Yandroth's influence. She informedNighthawk that he would have the power to summon them should the need arise.^[94]

Chaos War[]

During theChaos War, Gaea was sought to be protected by the divine pantheons of Earth at all cost with the Shinto Sun GoddessAmaterasu sealing off the throne room of the Council of Elite to do so. When theChaos King destroyed most of the divine realms of each pantheons, Gaea, with her daughter the Fire GoddessPele summoned the remaining gods to Mt. Halemaumau for the last moments of farewell. There, Gaea revealed toHercules that she is the true font of creation, the first being to form out of chaos and that she is the true power source of what the gods can do. She then instructs Hercules to embrace her daughter Pele as she teaches him to to become the God of Gods despiteAthena's words that her time draws near with the Chaos King saying that Gaea should stop dreaming of creation and return to his night. Still, despite her weakened state, Gaea managed to teach Hercules how to use the nigh-omnipotent powers within him and imbued him with her own powers allowing Hercules to destroy Athena in a single gesture.^[31]

All-Mother of Asgardia[]

Gaea was one third of theAll-Mother of Asgard playing the role as the Mother as she ruled over Asgard alongsideFreyja andIdunn in Odin's absence after the planetary attack by theSerpent.^[53] She later ruledAsgardia as a member of the All-Mother Trinity while havingLoki serve as an agent of the trinity.

During her tenure, Gaea fell ill due to an unknown aliment affecting her physical form and her mystical garden andSif took it upon herself to find a cure. While transporting Gaea and her garden to an asteroid space station for quarantine, she encounteredBeta Ray Bill who had crashed his ship alongside another into the asteroid. Gaea was found inside the other ship, which turned out to be an ancient ark that collected one of every living creature across the galaxy and was rejuvenated by the variety of life around her. However, the ship combined and reconfigured the Stark technology on the asteroid, mutating Gaea into a monstrous form and attempting to collide with Earth before being convinced by Sif to relent. The ship crashed in Asgardia while fulling rejuvenating Gaea and her garden to their original state once more.^[95]

Gaea later left the All-Mother Trinity when the group was disbanded after it was decided that Asgardia would leave Midgard because of the destruction ofBroxton. She was ordered to remain on Midgard as it befitted her role as the Earth Mother.^[96]

War of the Realms[]

As the War of the Realms ensued, Gaea took care ofLaussa, untilBalder andhis team arrived to keep the baby safe from the forces of theDark Council.^[97]

In the aftermath of the war, Gaea attended the coronation of her son into the newAll-Father.^[98]

AfterEcho's lost her connection to the Phoenix Force, Thor escorted her to Asgard with pride, presenting her to Gaea and the other All-Mothers with reverence and admiration.^[99]

Armageddon Girl[]

Gaea intervened whenLin Li became "Armageddon Girl" and grew furious and evoked all the forces of nature to hold herself against the other mutants, inadvertently killing lemur Armageddon Man in the process.^[100] Gaea told her that she looked after all her children and Li hadn't been well since she was affected by Curse's powers. Gaea offered to remove Curse's influence on her, but Lin Li declined, leading Gaia to abandon her and reveal that she had lost her approval.^[54]

Unleashing the Utgard Gods[]

Seeing that humanity kept poisoning Earth and were unwilling to change for the better, Gaea was convinced that it was time for the humans to be extinguished. She decided to release her brotherUtgard-Loki and his own pantheon from theUtgardhall and have them carry the destruction of the modern world.^[68] First of the Elder Gods to be unleashed wasToranos, but he was defeated by Thor.^[34]

Learning that Gaea had a hand in bringing these malevolent gods to Earth, Thor confronted his mother, demanding to know why she would want to harm the inhabitants of her beloved Earth. Gaea told him how humanity kept destroying all of the flora and fauna, and she was unwilling to let it keep going. Thor implored her to give the humans a chance, and Gaea responded that she already did and that Thor was that chance. She elaborated that if he wished for humanity to keep living then Thor should help them improve, starting with fighting the corrupt company known asRoxxon.^[68]

Familiars and Servants[]

• AsNeith,Egyptian goddess of war and hunting, she had cow-headed servants.^[10]
• AsAll-Mother ofAsgardia, she was usually accompanied by a baby, a pup, and a foal.^[53]

Gaea possesses great mystical powers of an undefined nature. Gaea can use any number of natural or magical effects as they pertain to the Earth itself.

• SpiritualEnergy Absorption: She can draw on the spiritual energies of all of Earth's living beings since all of these beings share part of her life essence.^[55]
• Nature Control: She can command the forces of nature on Earth, such asstorms andvolcanic activity.^[55]
• Earth Bond: Although Gaea's powers may seem similar to many of those of the living planet, Ego, Gaea and Ego are actually two very different kinds of beings. Ego is a planet that has acquired sentience, whereas Gaea is a goddess who has infused her life essence into the living beings of her planet.
• Curative Healing: Gaea is known to have great powers to heal injured living beings and to cause living beings to grow.^[55]
• Telekinesis: She has considerable telekinetic power and can even levitate Thor's hammer, which few beings can lift through non-mechanical means.^[55] During her meeting with the 4 original Defenders, she was also able to casually dispose of them with a mere hand gesture.
• Mystic Patron: Gaea can also bestow mystical power upon sorcerers who know how to call upon her for it.^[55]
• Creative Force: Gaea is the embodiment of the spirit oflife,growth, harvest, and renewal on Earth.
• Eyes of the Beholder: Gaea does have a humanoid form, but she generally manifests herself in whatever humanoid form she chooses. Usually, she appears as a young woman with long black hair and blue eyes, but as Jord, she appeared as a young woman with blond hair and blue eyes. It has been suggested that she always appears in the form of however image she was worshiped as by whatever race on earth. So if she appeared before an ethnically diverse group, she would appear in the form of an ethnic image connected to that person such as African to a person of African descent and Asian to a person of Asian descent even simultaneously.
• Power Bestowment: During Chaos War, Gaea granted Hercules some of her power in order to fight Mikaboshi. That power allowed Hercules to repair the multiversal damage done by Mikaboshi after his entrapment.

In any of her humanoid forms, she has:

• Superhuman Strength: Gaea is incalculably strong but rarely relies on her physical abilities.^[55]
• Superhuman Stamina
• Superhuman Vitality
• True Immortality: Gaea is immortal and doesn't age beyond her prime. She isimmune to all diseases and cannot be harmed or killed by conventional means.^[55]
• Superhuman Durability: Invulnerability to conventional injury and terrestrial disease.^[55] Shown most prominently when she was able to completely ignore an assault from all 4 originalDefenders at once.^[101]
• Allspeak: Thanks to the Allspeak she can communicate in all of the languages of the Nine Realms, Earth's dialects, and various alien languages.

• Gaea, with her multiple names and aspects, sometimes replace some goddesses who were established as independent deities. It is unknown if she shares the name with them, if they are aspects of her (see bellow), or if they're just other representations of her (divided in legends):
  • Olympian goddessDemeter, her alleged granddaughter,^[102] had her name used for Gaea.^[59]
  • TheAkua/Kahunas childbirth goddessHaumea^[103][32] was revealed as well to be one of Gaea's names.^[31]
• Some of her aliases are sometimes defined as aspects of her (rather than simply alternate names), such asAmatsu-KamiIzanami-No-Mikoto^[19][20] (also known asIzanami orIn).^[1]
  • Other aspects include theRed Lord (representing decay and entropy) and theGreen Man (Gaea's dark aspect, representing life and birth) of Celtic mythology. Those aspects appear to be independent, opposing each other.^[60]
  • InHinduism, while later being known asAditi, Gaea's "golden womb" was namedHiranyagarbha.^[15]
  • In some cases, Gaea merges with another deity, such as "Nana Buluku", herVodū merger withBuluku.^[29]
  • Among theAkua, Gaea has been named Rangi. That could indicate either that Gaea posed as her own mate, thatRangi spawned from Gaea as an aspect of her, or that some sources confused the male Rangi with the female Papa.^[33]
  • Among theDievas, Gaea is known as Erce,^[104][105] but asAjysyt^[1] to theYakuts (worshipers of the Tenger).^[17]Ajysyt is the niece of the DievaPerun.^[104]
• Despite not having degenerated like her fellow Elder Gods, Gaea is considered (as an Elder God) to be aDemon as well.^[62]
• Gaea proclaimed that she is the guardian of evolution of Earth based creatures, and claims to protect them from any devolution. It is unknown how her status ties to theCelestials, and their evolutionary mission with genetic manipulation and machinations fully coincide with Gaea's.^[54]

• Gaea refers to those who have a connection to the planet Earth, herself, and Gaea's own power, fondly as her children, as she did withArmageddon Girl.^[54]

• Fantasy
• Sci-fi
• Marvel