Born to parents in a small tribe on the western lands of the Russian steppes south of the Ural Mountains, Minerva was born 30 thousand years ago. She was a beautiful child with bright blue eyes and long golden hair that seemed to shimmer. She is not your typical human. Her spirit is actually that of an ancient race of star people known in galactic society by a name we cannot pronounce. The few modern humans who know of them call them the Olympians and their leaders, the Elders. The Elders preside over a population of beings that are primarily in a state of light energy. The Elders are heard but not seen and their "citizens", whom we call the Olympians are sent across the universe to interact and observe primitive pre space faring beings and help those worthy to achieve elevation to that of a star faring race. Being entities primarily of light, the citizens of the Elders enter an alien race at the time a child is conceived. The spirit then merges with the physical and is born and grows to the age of adulthood of the species, in this case, an Earth human. Minerva was born a woman, but she was not alone on Earth. Several others of her kind were also assigned to Earth. The Elders' agenda would look strange and even contradictory from our perspective, but they claim it is a tried and true method to build a balanced civilization worthy to join the greater universal society that exists across all time and space. Minerva was born to good, intelligent and responsible parents. She even had one "normal" human brother. It was not long before her parents realized there was something different about Minerva. She never seemed bothered by the frigid weather they lived in, migrating, following animal herds and finding edible flora. She was much stronger than any boy and her intelligence and knowledge was other worldly. These traits made it tough for her parents, sibling and herself living among their tribe and interacting with other tribes. Superstition and belief in magic was high and science and understanding were very low. Upon reaching adulthood, she did not move to another tribe to mate and produce children. She stayed with her tribe and parents and soon was educating them in the ways of agriculture, building permanent structures and animal husbandry. Her tribe moved further south settling closer to what is now the Caspian Sea. There they established a more permanent village that attracted other tribes and began to grow in population over time. It soon became apparent that Minerva was not what she appeared. By the time she reached her 27th years she appeared to no longer age and after another ten years people wondered about her as suspicion and superstition grew and presented a danger to her parents as well as her brother who now appeared older than her, though he was younger by two years. Minerva herself was not sure of who or what she was. She had strange dreams of others that were like her and voices in her dreams occasionally guiding her. But beyond that she had no explanation for her superhuman attributes. A voice came to her, not in a dream, but in her head in broad daylight. It told her she needed to leave the village and make a quest back to the Urals and find a certain cave. The path was imprinted in her mind. She said farewell to her parents and brother and left in the night. Ten years came and went and she returned under the cover of night not looking a day older, but her legendary golden locks were now cut to stubble. She really looked no less beautiful. Her brother, now nearing fifty years and both parents in their seventies, rejoiced at her return. They had many questions and Minerva answered what she could that night and explained her goal moving forward. She kept it simple. She explained she was a celestial spirit born to her Earthly parents to help humans and this celestial origin is where her attributes and powers come from and why she does not age. She said her purpose was to bring knowledge to people, encourage peace and to provide strategic defense when needed. She also wanted to encourage arts in culture, communication and trade with other tribes and eventually other cultures as they encounter them. It was her mission to create law and order. Especially because she learned there are others of her kind out there with their own agendas as appointed by the Elders, her true people. Certain ones among her kind wanted to sow discord and chaos. War being a main tool in creating chaos, another of Minerva's kind, Maris, has risen among tribes in the east and they are making their way westward, conquering and plundering tribes and the very few small villages that have popped up since Minerva's village was first established. The Elders believe the struggle between the perceptions of good and evil and law and order over a long time can eventually produce the stability and cooperation needed to be a member of the galactic alliance and eventually the Universal Federation. Minerva left out these details using terms like gods, demigods, the celestial lands and star people. For now time moved on. Minerva's parents passed and she took over leading the village. It wasn't long before tales of her celestial origins got around. Her brother, proud and well meaning, liked to brag about his "older" sister. People began to look upon her as more than just a leader but as something more. A celestial protector. People began to come to the village as word gets around. Some want to move there and others want to see the golden goddess. The more people arrive swelling the village and expanding the housing and the more that come to gaze upon its leader the more Minerva felt her own power and abilities grow. The Elders warned her of the power gained from the admiration of others. How she handled this would be part of her own struggle and journey through time. She'd heard of others of her kind on other worlds that let this power control them and corrupt them, making them godlike tyrants oppressing the very people they were supposed to help. Some had to be taken away, banished or even slain so to be stripped of their powers. Some would start over again in humble surroundings or their light and energy be fractured and dispersed as energy for the universe to recycle. This reminded her of her past. She had helped others on a distant world a long, long time ago in a galaxy far away from here. It was a race very human like and she had been a man. She rose in power and turned to the dark side, but in the end one showed the true inner strength she, or rather he at the time, held and was able to turn back and not let the power of worship overwhelm. Now, in form of a woman, on a new world, Minerva faces new challenges. There are others around Earth that share her view and others that share the view of the one called Maris and still others that observe and choose to stay above the fray. Her first real challenge finally came about one hundred years after her birth. Her village had become a large and complex settlement. This inspired other settlements to appear and grow. Trade developed and primitive roadways evolved. It also got the attention of Maris and his followers. Maris used the power gained from worship and admiration to spread chaos. He felt chaos, war and hard times were the true mothers of invention inspiring technology and creativity. Villages and homesteads were okay for a while, but they must be purged every once in a while to inspire people to not be complacent. Minerva felt nature offered enough hardship to inspire people to be inventive without humans turning on one another. This would be her goal moving forward. Trying to convince Maris and the others to see things her way has become an ongoing journey that all began one day when Maris and a group of his raiders had finally arrived without warning and attacked her prime settlement. It was a day of blood and fire. About the images: Minerva is Annie Genesis 9 rendered in DAZ. There are a number of images to this series looking at Minerva as she makes her way through the ages to modern times. I put her in various outfits to represent a time period and a number of poses. In this series, all the background images are done with Midjourney. I've done a bunch by using Vue as well. I'll post the Vue images separate from the Midjourney. This is definitely an experiment in using AI imagery with DAZ png renders. Strangely I think resizing the figures to the proper size to fit the image is the hard part for me and making sure the angle and perspective are correct. Not to mention getting the prompt right to get a usable image. For every one image here I used, I probably made 8 others. Plus a fair share of Photoshop work with color, light, depth and blur. The first two mammoth images were made with stable diffusion by a friend. I borrowed them to start off this series. Also, FYI Minerva is the Roman equivalent to Athena.