| “ |
Thanks for freeing me, but you should leave. This place is dangerous for landwalkers. |
” |
| —Princess Althea, The Little Mermaid and the Purple Tide | ||
Princess Althea is a major character featured in the eighth Dark Parables game The Little Mermaid and the Purple Tide.
She is one of the five Princesses of Prasino, cursed to take the form of a mermaid.
Princess Althea, like all her sisters, is loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid.
Appearance and Personality[]
Princess Althea is a pretty young woman with long, dark red hair, pale skin, and gray eyes. As a mermaid, she is adorned with a crown made of corals, silver scales along her eyelids and her upper body clothed in pale green seaweed and net with purple sea flowers decorating her shoulders and top. Her arms fade from pale to dark purple to black near the hands and she has frilly fins along with her biceps. She has a long fish-like tail with four long purple-blue wing-like fins along the sides and ends in a large dark pink-purple tail fin outlined in black. Her scales are iridescent and change from silvery-green to different shades of blue, depending on the light.
In human form, she wears a frilly dark green dress edged with deep purple and gloves that resemble her arm fins. Her red hair is tied up in a half-ponytail held by a jewel pin and is much brighter and curlier in her human form and she wears a jeweled diadem in the ancient Cretan style. On the waistline of her dress, she wears an ornate gold belt.
Althea loves her family and will do anything for them. She searched endlessly for the Wood Orb, not just for herself but also for her father. She is torn between doing what is right and doing what her father wants her to do. She knows some of the things her father does are wrong, but she tends to support him even when doing so goes against her better nature.
History[]
Althea was born a daughter of King Alexandros of Prasino, a seaside kingdom near Crete in the Mediterranean sea. At birth she had an older sister named Naida and was later joined by three younger sisters: Princess Calliope, Princess Theresa, and Princess Daphne. Sadly her mother died after a long battle with a wasting illness. For many years, Althea's kingdom was at war with the Kingdom of Kokkino - a rival seaside kingdom that was jealous of Prasino's favor with the Sea Goddess. The battles between the two kingdoms would ultimately bring an end to Althea's life on land.
Due to her father's betrayal and imprisonment of the Sea Goddess, the Kingdom of Prasino was sunken to the sea floor and the entire royal family was turned into sea creatures. Althea and her sisters took on the forms of mermaids, while King Alexandros took on the form of a monstrous crab beast. The only cure for the curse that fell upon the Princesses were for them to each find an elemental orb belonging to a great machine within the Prasino palace. For the King to reverse his curse, he needed his daughters to find the orbs, and then use those orbs to power on the machine itself. Doing so would ultimately release the imprisoned Goddess and reverse the curse on the King.
The Princesses searched for centuries and, in time, all found their orbs and continued on with their human lives, except for Althea. As much as she wanted to find her orb, Althea also feared what would happen when she did so; each time an orb had been found, the sea had become more polluted and more fish had died. She feared what might happen when her father powered on the machine, but she also wanted to be human again, and see her father freed from the curse that had turned him into a bitter, cruel man.
Unbeknownst to Althea, the Wood Orb she was searching for was in the chest of a young puppet-turned-human named Pinocchio. It was only when Pinocchio's orb began to weaken and he began to revert back to his puppet-self that the young man set out to find the legendary Kingdom of Prasino in order to charge it once again. Althea hadn't expected the Wood Orb to come to her, but once it did, she set her father's Eel Monster to capture Pinocchio. Unfortunately, the Eel Monster was hungry and ate Pinocchio whole instead of just taking him for Althea. She complained to her father about this, only to be told to get the orb out of the eel, no matter what it took.
The Fairytale Detective got the orb first and even charged it, but Althea easily stole it from her and Pinocchio. Once the orb was in her hands, Althea transformed back into a mortal human and ran off to bring the orb to her father. He activated the machine and was transformed back into a mortal man, but was quickly overcome by the strength of the power coursing through him. He pushed Althea away in time to keep her from being affected by it.
The Fairytale Detective used the Staff of the Ancients to save the King, which released the Sea Goddess from her imprisonment. The vengeful Goddess flooded Prasino again, leaving Althea and her father to the mercy of the sea. Thankfully, they managed to make it to shore. With the Detective's help, her father removed the blood bond he'd put the Sea Goddess under. Now placated, she calmed the seas.
Now freed from their curses and free to live out the rest of their human lives, Althea and her father happily promised to find a way to restore Pinocchio.
Powers and Abilities[]
As a Mermaid:
- Immortality: Althea can live forever without aging and she cannot die naturally. She is also immune to the poison of the the purple tide.
- Eel Monster: Althea can control the eel and make it do what she wants.
- Swimming: With her powerful fish tail, Althea can dart through the water as fast as a fish. Her fins can propel her into the air like a dolphin. When she is within the air bubble around Prasino, she can fly (levitate) or rather swim through the air.
- Underwater Breathing: As well as being able to breathe air like a land walker, Althea can breathe underwater like a fish.
Althea lost these powers after being returned to her human form.
As a Human:
- Artistic Skills: Althea is known for her painting, her room is an art studio.
Relationships[]
- King Alexandros (father)
- Queen of Prasino (mother, deceased)
- Princess Naida (elder sister, deceased)
- Princess Calliope (younger sister, deceased)
- Princess Theresa (second younger sister, deceased)
- Princess Daphne (youngest sister, fate unknown)
- Prince James (brother-in-law, deceased)
- Thalassa (enemy)
- Eel Monster (servant, fate unknown)
Trivia[]
- Althea is a Greek name and is derived from the word άλθος (althos) which means "healing" in Greek.
- Like her sister Naida, Althea's appearance might have been inspired by Ariel from Disney's The Little Mermaid.
- Althea is represented by emerald, a birthstone of May and a symbol of youth in the age of man, hope, future, revival and growth. The gemstone could refer to the princess' future of becoming human again as well as her future and growth.
Quotes[]
Quotes by Princess Althea[]
- "You should leave. This place is too dangerous for landwalkers."
- "You must leave before my father comes! He hates landwalkers."
- "Father, that boy had the orb, but your eel swallowed him whole!"
- "You may be our last hope."
Quotes about Princess Althea[]
- "It's as if the Princess was ready to sacrifice anything for the sake of her father."
- "She looks weary of everything."
- "The Princess ended up being quite helpful."
Galleries[]
