Elanna (Earth-616)

Elanna
Name	Elanna
Aliases	Queen Elanna
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Atlantean Royal Family; Atlanteans; Tribe of the Western Sea
Relatives	Spouses: Tanas (husband, deceased) Children: Zartra (daughter) Descendants: Harran (grandson); Kalen (great-grandson); Atlantean Royal Family (descendants) Family-in-Law: Kamuu (son-in-law)
Marital Status	Widowed
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Female
Eyes	Irises: Blue
Hair	Red
Skin	Blue
Unusual Features	Pointed ears
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Atlantean
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	Western Sea
Personal Information
Identity	No Dual
Citizenship	Western Sea Tribe, Atlantis (Homo mermani)
Occupation	Queen of the Western Sea
Base of Operations	Atlantis, Atlantis, Atlantic Ocean Formerly Western Sea
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Steve Gerber, Howard Chaykin, Joe Sinnott
First	Sub-Mariner #64 (May, 1973)
First	Sub-Mariner #64 (May, 1973)

History

Circa 6000 BC, about 12,000 years after the Great Cataclysm, Queen Elanna was a member of a nomadic tribe of Homo mermani who inhabited the Western Sea. She was the wife of her tribe's ruler, King Tanas, and the mother of their daughter, Princess Zartra. Her tribe and their rivals from the Eastern Sea both sought to claim the ruins of Atlantis and its hidden treasure, and both tribes of barbarians were willing to fight to the death to get what they wanted. Queen Elanna accompanied her husband when he led their army to the sunken ruins of Atlantis where the decisive battle with the army from the Eastern Sea was to be fought.

As was their custom, a joust of kings was held before the battle. However, before that duel began, the voices that spoke to Queen Elanna from within informed her that her husband would be killed. Thus, when a messenger raced to the royal barge to tell the queen that Tanas had been slain by Stegor, Elanna was ready to take command. Stating that she would personally lead the charge against Stegor's hordes and that Stegor himself would perish by her hand, Queen Elanna ordered that the clarion call be sounded so that that tide they would take what was theirs!

As the battle began, Elanna led her forces from astride her manta mount and was the first to engage the enemy. As the fighting continued, Elanna's standard-bearer was mortally wounded by a thrown spear, and the queen told him to pass the standard to her and that she would avenge him. Upon discovering that it was Stegor who had slain the color guard, Elanna ordered her men to stand aside because that foe was hers! For the "brave one" who had just died and for Tanas, Queen Elanna hurled herself at Stegor with enough force to knock him off his dolphin. As they fought with their swords on the seafloor, Elanna rejected Stegor`s claim that she would die and stated that the Fates had decreed otherwise and that she would found a city there, a city of golden spires reaching as high as the sea itself, and built on the ruins of the island that men had called Atlantis. Elanna`s swordsmanship proved to be superior and she soon overcame Stegor, driving her sword sideways through his body. Then, as Stegor fell to the ocean floor, Elanna took her standard and drove its spear end through his lifeless heart and into the earth to let men known that a nation had been born, declaring, "Ìn the name of Tanas and love - - Elanna rules the seas!"

At some point, Elanna's powers enabled her to learn the destiny of Stegor's son and heir, the boy named Kamuu. Knowing that Kamuu would be scouting the ruins alone, Queen Elanna sent her daughter Zartra to him with her sword sheathed to tell him that Elanna knew of his destiny. Although the queen also knew that Kamuu would feel forced to kill the daughter of his sworn enemy, she hoped that he would do otherwise and allow Zartra to make peace with him. And, to his own surprise, Kamuu found that the idea of a truce with the slayer of his father was not as unthinkable as he might have supposed.

At some later point, after their tribes had been united into one people, Zartra and Kamuu stood side-by-side, both of them holding up their swords to salute their subjects as they worked to rebuild Atlantis.

Zartra married Kamuu and became the first empress of undersea Atlantis.

Attributes

Powers

• Atlantean Abilities: Elanna possessed the conventional attributes of Atlanteans (Homo mermanus): gills that extracted oxygen from water, superhuman physiology that could withstand extreme pressures and temperatures, and acute vision. She could swim at approximately 30 miles per hour. She could remain out of water for approximately nine minutes before beginning to suffocate.

Abilities

• Queen Elanna was a seeress who could know of events and destinies before they happened. She was able to obtain this foreknowledge because she was a medium who could hear voices (presumably of spirits) that spoke to her from within.

Paraphernalia

Transportation

• In battle, Queen Elanna rode astride a menacing manta mount. At other times, she rode within her husband's royal barge that was pulled by dolphins.

Notes

• Although her enemies called her a "witch-woman," Queen Elanna was not actually a witch since her mystic abilities only enabled her to function as a seeress and a medium.
• Since little has been revealed about her abilities as a seeress, it's impossible to know exactly when Queen Elanna learned that her husband was doomed to be slain by Stegor. Accordingly, Elanna might have learned that Tanas was going to die only minutes before the fatal joust began. Alternatively, she might have known how he was going to die days or even years before his death occurred. Similarly, Elanna might have known of Kamuu's destiny before the war began or she might have learned of it later, after she slew Stegor. The fact that she claimed that she would found a city on the ruins of Atlantis while she was battling Stegor suggests that she may not have known that it was Kamuu's destiny to found that city until afterwards.
• According to the only chapter of the Tales of Atlantis storyline in which Queen Elanna appeared, the war between the two nomadic tribes took place in the sunken ruins of Atlantis which had been on the ocean's floor for the 5,000 years that had passed since the Great Cataclysm. This would place the founding of undersea Atlantis at c. 13000 B.C. However, other stories (like Saga of the Sub-Mariner #1) and various Official Handbook entries give different dates that are more recent.
• On maps of the Hyborian Age, the body of water to the west of the main continent of Hyboria is called the "Western Sea" or the "Western Ocean." However, the Western Sea that Elanna's husband ruled was only the westernmost portion of that Western Ocean, the entirety of which is now known as the Atlantic Ocean.

See Also

• 1 appearance(s) of Elanna (Earth-616)
• 2 mention(s) of Elanna (Earth-616)
• 2 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Elanna (Earth-616)
• 2 image(s) of Elanna (Earth-616)
• 1 victim(s) killed by Elanna (Earth-616)