Real Name: Avilayoq

Occupation: Queen of Adlivun, goddess of the sea and the dead, patron deity of the Eskimo people

Legal Status: Citizen of Adlivun

Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of the existence of Sedna except as a figure from Native American folklore. She is well known to her worshippers.

Other Aliases: Arnaknagsak (Greenland name), Arnarkusuagsak ("Old Woman") Nuliajoq (Inuit name), Ai-willi-ay-o, Immap Ukua ("Mother Goddess), Great Sea Goddess of the Inuit

Place of Birth: Unknown

Marital Status: Single

Known Relatives: Anguta (father), Nerrivik (mother), Negafok, Kaiti, (presumed brothers), Pinga (presumed sister), Manabozho, Coyote, Wabasso, Chibiabos (possible nephews), Gitche Manitou (grandfather), Gaea (mother), 

Group Affiliation: The Innua (Gods of the Eskimos)

Base of Operations: Adlivun

First Appearances: Thor II #3

History: Sedna is a member of an extra-dimensional race of beings known as the Anasazi who were worshipped by the tribes of North America. Unlike several of the pantheons of Earth, the Anasazi was made up of several tribes of gods separated by the areas of their worshippers although several of members of the pantheon, most notably Manabozho, Coyote and Raven, had worshippers that overlapped the mortal boundaries of their worshippers. Sedna was primarily revered as one of the Innua or Gods of the Eskimos who were worshipped almost exclusively by the native Inuits (Eskimos) in the lands now known as Alaska and Western Canada.

Sedna was born as Avilayoq, the daughter of the giant Anguta, Chief of the Innua, and his wife, Nerrivik, a sea-goddess. According to ancient stories passed down through the Tlingit tribes of Earth, Sedna was born with an insatiable appetite. In ancient times, a number of the Native American gods lived on Earth with their worshippers, and the Innua hunted and caught food alongside their mortal followers. As her parents were figuring out how to meet Sedna’s needs, she was supposedly kidnapped by the trickster, Raven, trying to make her his wife. As her parents tried to rescue her from being taken from her native land, Raven stirred up a storm, and the terrified Anguta and tossed Sedna out of his boat. She sank to the ocean bottom where she merged her life-force with the biosphere of the seas, transforming her into a goddess. In some versions of this tale, when she clung to her father's canoe, her father cut off her fingers to free her grasp of it, and her fingers reportedly then became living things such as sea serpents and dragons under her control. In the depths of the ocean, Sedna became one with the life essences of all the creatures of the ocean, and became more powerful than her father. Considered the Great Sea Goddess of the Inuit as well as a Eskimo mother-goddess, she also became a goddess of the dead by claiming the souls of mortal men who lost their lives at sea. When her taboos were not observed by her worshippers, she could call up great storms. The only way to contact her was by an Eskimo angakok (shaman) to visit Adlivun, her undersea world, in spirit form.

Over the years, Sedna became a very distant and isolated goddess who desired a mate, preferably another god, for companionship, At some point in her existence, she encountered Namor the Submariner, Ruler of Atlantis, in seeking him as a mate to combine her realm with Atlantis, but he refused her and they departed as erstwhile foes. In recent years while wandering the North Atlantic, Sedna discovered a war ship lost by the Asgardian Gods. Impressed by it, she used its ruby gems to guide her to Thor who she chose to make a potential mate. During a brief clash with her dragon, Thor reverted to his then mortal guise of Jake Olson when it swallowed his hammer and had to be rescued by Namor who was unaware that Olson was Thor. The distraction gave Thor time to recover his hammer and help Namor force Sedna into retreat.

Sedna's current activities are unrevealed.

Height: Variable, 6’0” to 20’
Weight: Indeterminate
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black

Unusual Physical Features: Sedna sometimes appears as green-haired and green-skinned humanoid as well as a giantess.

Strength Level: Sedna possesses superhuman strength enabling her to lift (press) in excess of 100 tons under optimal conditions.

Known Superhuman Powers: Sedna possesses the conventional attributes of the Innua gods; she is extremely long-lived, but she is not immortal like the Gods of Olympus. Due to her innate connection to the sea, she ages very slowly and has the appearance of a young woman despite her centuries long existence. She cannot die by any conventional means; she is immune to all Earthly diseases and is resistant to conventional injury. If she were somehow wounded, her godly life force would enable her to recover with superhuman speed. It would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of her bodily molecules to cause her a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for a god of significant power, such as Anguta, Manabozho or for a number of Anasazi gods of equal power working together to revive her. Sedna also possesses superhuman strength and her Innua metabolism provides her with far greater than human endurance in all physical activities. (Innua flesh and bone is about three times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the superhuman strength and weight of the Eskimo gods.)

Sedna also has incredible mystical prowess to control and manipulate the ocean and its life forms, such as creating incredible tidal waves and whirlpools for sucking down ships and boats. She has several mystical adaptations that enable her to swim under the sea, survive in the seas crushing depths and see in zero-light conditions. She can cast spells and hexes and even change her form from her normal form to a condition more adapted to living underwater. She can appear as a normal woman, a humanoid mermaid or a giantess of incredible size. She also has a hypnotic siren calling for enthralling mortal men although it is believed that other gods whether they are natives of her race or not may be immune to its effects. Sedna also uses it to summon and control sea serpents to follow her bidding. Disdaining personal combat, she uses it in all her confrontations.

It is believed that the source of Sedna’s powers are derived from her linked her life force to the bio-energies of life in the ocean in the same manner that Gaea is linked to the biosphere of the planet itself. These energies sustain her on a level that she does not need to eat or sleep except for brief tenures of time. She has a clairvoyant perception of everything that occurs around her, and she can feel sick when the balance of the ocean is tainted, such as from industrial chemicals dumped into the sea or when negative energies are used against her. She is possibly one of the most powerful sea-deities known on earth.

Limitations: There are some indications that Sedna is far stronger in the frozen north of the Arctic Circle near the home of her worshippers than in the Atlantic around NYC.

Comments: This entry deals with Sedna’s appearances in the Marvel Universe; it is unrevealed if she has appeared in the DC Universe or anywhere else.

Collectively, the Anasazi ("Old Ones") or Native American Gods appear to be made up of a collection of inter-connected families with certain gods overlapping the regions of the Native Americans. These families include the Innua (gods of the North West - Inuit, Eskimo, Athapascan...), Manitou (North East gods - Algonquin, Menominee...), Orenda (South East gods - Iroquois...) and the Kachina (South West Gods - Pueblo, Apache...). A similar parallel can be found in the Asgardian Aesir and Vanir, Celtic Danaans and Fomore, Egyptian Ogdoad and Ennead and the Greek Olympians and Titans, although in some of these cases, the differences are generational rather than geographical.

Other Inuit gods in the MU include Snowbird, Nelvanna, Hodiak, Ranaq, Kolomaq, Kariooq, Somon, Tanaraq and Tolomaq who have appeared in various issues of Alpha Flight. Of these, only Tanaraq seems to have any basis in myth. It has yet to be revealed if these beings are on the order of the other gods on earth such as Thor, Hercules or Tawa. Given Snowbird's past in the Marvel Universe and level of power, it is possible these beings are not on the same level as the previously observed gods of earth, but this has yet to be substantiated.

The name of the deity that abducts Sedna has yet to be identified; he is only identified as taking the form of a petrel, a sea-faring bird. Raven is the Trickster-spirit of the Tlingit Indians of the Northwest, who as a bird-deity is a logical conclusion.

Local image courtesy of Worth1000.com and used with permission.