Elysium, from the moment she found out about her siring of Death, found it amusing. Her uncle's name was Thanatos and her incredible mind told her that he was believed to be the personification of death and her father's name was, amusingly, called Hades; The God of the Dead and Riches but more commonly, the king of the Underworld. Her own name had a connection with Death. Elysium or the Elysian Fields is a conception of the Afterlife that was developed over time. It was initially seperate from the Realm of Hades, admission was reserved for mortals related to the Gods and other heroes. Later, it expanded to include those chosen by the gods, the righteous, and the heroic, where they would remain after death, to live a blessed and happy life. Another amusing fact; residents of such a place did include Hades and Thanatos, along with a cousin that she knew was called Hecate and her older brother Charon. Their family, though British with hints of Irish, were obsessed with the wonderful land of Greece and the history/mythology of the Greek Gods.
Elysium is described as a paradise. 'To the Elysium plain...where life is easiest for men. No snow is there, nor heavy storm, nor ever rain, but ever does Ocean send up blasts of the shrill- blowing West Wind that they may give cooling to men.' Words spoken by Homer from the Odyssey. Elysium, the cunning and incredibly intelligent, loved her name for its irony. She was the opposite. Never did she have a calm wind, she made people's sadness rain upon her to bring her joy, her words were a heavy storm hoping to blow them over with a weight like snow once compact. She wanted to make things hard for people. It was as if the meaning mocked her, so she laughed to throw it off, to show she was determined not to submit to be such a thing. A paradise. How dreadful, she would tell herself.
Instead of being the paradise, Elysium Dara Kade became the soul collector, the ferryman, the God of the Dead and Riches and the Underworld all in one. She killed those who stepped in her way to achieve her own paradise. She'd never become it for someone else. She became the child of Death like the deep red stain on her back represented.
