Namma, whose true name is Mother Salt, is the primordial sea goddess in Mesopotamian mythology. She alongside her husband Father Sea created the World; however, she seeks to destroy her creation so she can begin anew. She often serves as an opponent to Aquaman.
History
Origin
In the beginning there was Father Sea and Mother Salt, who united to make the ocean. From their coupling came the first Gods: Fire, Earth, Wind and Sky. Before long the new gods created newer gods and the Earth became a bustling place, and soon enough there were new Ocean gods swimming in Father Sea and Mother Salt's waters. Father Sea grew upset; believing the world had forgotten its creators, and soon planned to destroy the World and begin anew. Concerned with her husband's state of mind, Mother Salt confided in her children, who killed their father in his sleep while in a fit of paranoia.[1]
Mother Salt was heartbroken at the loss of her husband, crying the very first tears. Her grief soon turned to rage, and her anger tore her apart, her body transforming into seven monsters. Her new children tried to take vengeance on her old; however, Fire gave a part of herself to the Sky, and in that moment they birthed the Sun. The Sun turned Mother Salt's new children into salt, allowing the God of Wind to blow them away.[1]
Guilt-ridden by their actions, the four children of Salt created the humans, whose blood contained the ocean as an everlasting tribute to Sea and Salt, the parents they betrayed. However, Mother Salt had not been blown away like her monstrous kin; she merely rested, pondering her fate and of her family. Eventually she came to the realization that her husband had been right: the World and all of her children would have to be destroyed in order to remake it into a better one.[1]
First Salt would have to become whole, so over time she gathered the scattered remains of her seven beastly children and refashioned her body; all except one of them. One of the Seven called the Cailleach was found on a secret isle called Unspoken Water populated by lesser ocean deities. The Cailleach remnant was too weak to be harvested so she instead instilled herself into the body of a newborn baby, where it could grow strong. Mother Salt disguised herself as another being with a whole new identity and pretended the child was her own, coming into their household and staying as one of them for the time being until she could regain her full strength.[2]
Unspoken Water
Mother Salt would quickly establish herself as a wild and spiteful creature both towards the ocean and her fellow gods. Life for her within this region of long forgotten deities was a constant reminder of how her own family let her down, as did the world that had forgotten her and her husband after she indirectly helped create it.[2] Trashing and raging all out of spite towards the very waters which came upon their shores, she would often demolishing any monument crafted by the other tenants to appease mother ocean.
This anger frightened the other Old Gods, and so they voted to cast their irate divine sibling out of Unspoken Water while exiling her to another shore about a mile away from their home. Namma left willingly however, whilst leaving her daughter in the care of these lesser Gods to raise.[1]
The reason why she left was that when the child grew strong enough she would call the resting Cailleach within back to her, and Mother Salt, reborn as the vengeful goddess called Namma, would become whole once more and would take her vengeance out on the world and mankind for her kids' act of patricide.[1] A couple years would pass and the haggard ocean deities would continue to toil under Namma's bile as her fury would often poison the waters which would kill all the fish around their island with an overload of brine in the ocean.[2]
As an amnesiac visitor made his way to Unspoken Water, the residents opted to restore his memory and have him lead Namma's daughter Caille back to her in order to appease her temperament.
Having expected their arrival, the vindictive Namma would strike out at the two as they approached her own sodium fabricated island out in the middle of the forgotten oceans. She would bear witness to the awakening of her monster child as Arthur, going by the alias Arusio or Andy, did his best to subdue his bestial acquaintance. She soon moved to interrupt the two as she noticed how the stranger in her midst somehow survived being ripped in half by her creature despite thinking him a baseline human.[3] Arusio prostrated himself before the primordial entity seeking to offer his condolences and the return of her daughter as a peace offering between Namma and the other islanders from her old home. But she dryly scoffed at such a notion, as she was still intent on reabsorbing her scion in order to salt the Human world as vengeance against both mortalkind and the divine for taking her husband from her and casting Namma aside.
Arthur stated that her re-assimilation of her wayward spawn would most likely fry Caille but Namma cared not either way. Though lacking memory of who he was, Andy stood opposed to her genocidal plans. A battle broke out between the two as Caille and the Cailleach fused into a singular entity, temporarily stymieing Namma's re-assimilation of her missing power.
Changing tactics, Namma chose to change her form into that of a ferocious beast to better do battle with the pair of godlings. When Arusio climbed atop of the beast's back, she quickly dove into the water and began poisoning it again.[3] While still battling Arthur as he sent out a Life Force tinged call to the oceans, the fallen sea gods entered the battle in the nick of time to help their charge.[4] Enraged at the audacity of her familial reminder, Namma morphs her appearance to remind her wayward grandchildren of who she is and why she rages at them with such ferocity.
Seeing no real means of abetting their errant forebearer's fury, the Sea Gods of the World all relent to being subsumed by their shared progenitor, thereby completing her form and re-powering Namma enough to brine the whole of the Earth.[4] Quick thinking on Arusio's part would preempt her genocidal plans as he would use his link to the sea in order to restore the gods whom would then be ripped out of their glutenous maternal sire.
To prevent the wicked primordial from reforming herself again, Andy used his Marine Telepathy on some surrounding Krill so as to further scatter her essence across the ocean floor, which would therefore preempt her apocalyptic intentions for a while longer.[4]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Godly Physiology: Namma belongs to a race of ancient and inconceivably powerful beings known as Old Gods. Because of this heritage Namma possesses almost unlimited power.[5]
- Bio-Fission: Namma was able to split herself into seven new beings of immense power indefinitely.[1]
- Bio-Fusion: Mother Salt can regain her strength by accumulating the essence begotten from spawing her kids back into herself.[4] As what she'd attempted to accomplish before making her way to Unspoken Water, like what she'd done and/or tried to do with the mortal host of the Cailleach.[1][3]
- Cosmic Awareness: Namma, like all Old Gods, is aware of the multiverse and the realms that lie beyond. This knowledge gives her an understanding of the universe and all life that transcends the capabilities of normal mortals.[5]
- Immortality: Namma, with the help of her husband, supposedly created planet Earth. This puts Namma at over 4.543 billion years old, considering that's how old the Earth is.[1]
- Metamorphosis: Namma can change her physical shape at will, taking the appearance of both Mother Salt and Namma.[1] Or take the form of a massive sea dragon as well.[3]
- Granulation: Mother Salt/Namma can transform herself into salt particles in order to avoid physical assault and reform herself in a different shape or form at will.[3]
- Molecular Reconstruction: Namma was able to transform water molecules into salt molecules within an ocean, increasing the amount of salt present in the waters. She was able to increase the salt level so much that all the sea life died.[2]
- Salt Generation: By transmuting any type of molecule (including oxygen molecules) into a salt molecule, Namma can effectively create salt out of thin air. She displayed this ability when conjuring salt spikes out of the ocean to sink a boat.[1] She can also use this offensively
- Bio-Fission: Namma was able to split herself into seven new beings of immense power indefinitely.[1]
Notes
- This character or object is an adaptation of Namma, a character or object in traditional stories. These include, but may not be limited to religious texts, myth, and/or folk lore. More information on the original can be found at Wikipedia.org.
Trivia
- While in her natural form, Mother Salt is a being made up nearly entirely of salt, including her skin and hair, however she had black eyes. While in her Namma form she had bright yellow eyes and a head of hair made up of green leaves.[1]
Related
- 4 Appearances of Namma (Prime Earth)
- 4 Images featuring Namma (Prime Earth)
- 1 Quotations by or about Namma (Prime Earth)
- Character Gallery: Namma (Prime Earth)
Footnotes
  This character, team or organization, is or was primarily an enemy of Aquaman, or members of the Aquaman Family. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Aquaman Villains." |