SMITE: Demigods, Deities and Gods Explained is a column dedicated to introducing prospective players of SMITE to its massive back story of lore. From the Greek to Hindu, each week we’ll look at two characters from a major pantheon and provide a quick recap of their history and in what capacity their digital incarnation will represent on the field of Hi-Rez Studios’ new MOBA.
Lore: Scylla’s history has never been agreed upon by historians or folk writers of antiquity. Those of today haven’t fared any better in all their historical readings and arguments. Her origin tales have her born of Ceto or Lamia. In another, she’s a naiad possessed by Poseidon, God of the Sea, before a jealous Amphitrite poisoned the waters were Scylla bathed turning her into the monster that haunts the seas.
In a similar, and more popular story, Scylla was born from the seed of the River God Crataeis. She fell in love with Glaucus whom already had a lover, a sorceress by the name of Circe. Ravaged by jealousy, Circe used her spells to create a potion that would make Scylla a repugnant monster. She delivered the potion in Scylla’s sea bath, transforming her into a beast with four eyes, six long necks and 12 tentacle-like likes that acted as her body. Her waist was rung with the heads of six dogs hungry for passing sailors, boats or any other kind of flotsam.
Scylla was a popular monster, featured in various epic poems and tellings, from the Odyssey to Metamorphoses. Often hunting around tight channels and straits, Scylla captured ships between herself and death on the rocks. Alternatively, some retellings gave her a partner in crime, Charybdis, lesser-known sea monster that lead to the saying “between Scylla and Charybdis.”
In-Game: Scylla plays her range mage role as you may expect someone that attacks entire sea vessels, with high area damage. Her passive offers little complexity to her character making the Horror of the Deep low on the difficulty scale. The rest of her abilities make her a typical mage, featuring cripples, high damage and slowing powers that are area effects. What sets Scylla apart is her hunting ability. Sentinel allows the former female to place a ward nearby. If she desires she can teleport to it to cause havoc to a lone or low-health enemy.
Scylla’s build is very straight forward. The magical mage must develop high magical power and penetration items to make her damaging abilities as painful as possible. Most of the benefit will fall to her ultimate, which would allow her to effectively ultimate again if she lands a kill shot. Secondarily, cooldown reduction will cause added frustration to enemies and enable her to scout more effectively. Builds for her will differ little and should focus on the likes of Rod of Tahuti, Chronos’ Pendant and Obsidian Shard.
Further reading:
- Scylla on Wikipedia
- Greek Mythology on Wikipedia
- Homer’s Odyssey
- Ovid’s Metamorphoses
- Keats’ Endymion
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Head over to SMITE: Demigods, Deities and Gods Explained for details on all of the playable characters.