Eerkala – Ereshkigal, ruler of Irkalla, the Mesopotamian underworld.
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Eerkala
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ereshkigal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Mesopotamian_underworld
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Dream_of_Jeannie
https://i-dream-of-jeannie.fandom.com/wiki/Jeannie’s_sister
Thank you to Ben A. for helping me make this connection.
Eerkala, the Dark Djinni, is the leader of all the Djinn of Mirage.
She has struck a deal with Grandfather Spider to steal the Chronoshards in exchange for the liberation of all Djinn. To late she realized that Grandfather Spider’s real agenda will result in the destruction of the entire Spiral.
In Mesopotamian mythology, Ereshkigal (Sumerian: “Queen of the Great Earth”) was the goddess of the land of the dead or underworld in Sumerian mythology. In later myths, she was said to rule Irkalla alongside her husband Nergal. Sometimes her name is given as Irkalla, similar to the way the name Hades was used in Greek mythology for both the underworld and its ruler.
The ancient Mesopotamian underworld, most often known in Sumerian as Kur, Irkalla, Kukku, Arali, or Kigal and in Akkadian as Erṣetu, although it had many names in both languages, was a dark, dreary cavern located deep below the ground, where inhabitants were believed to continue “a transpositional version of life on earth”. The only food or drink was dry dust, but family members of the deceased would pour sacred mineral libations from the earth for them to drink. In the Sumerian underworld, it was initially believed that there was no final judgement of the deceased and the dead were neither punished nor rewarded for their deeds in life.
Dakota P. noted a connection to Jeanie’s sister Jeanie from I Dream of Jeanie.
I Dream of Jeannie is an American fantasy sitcom television series, created by Sidney Sheldon that starred Barbara Eden as a sultry, 2,000-year-old genie and Larry Hagman, as an astronaut with whom she falls in love and eventually marries. Produced by Screen Gems, the show originally aired for 139 episodes over five seasons, from September 18, 1965, to May 26, 1970, on NBC.
Jeannie’s sister is a character in I Dream of Jeannie. She was played by Barbara Eden. She is Jeannie’s jealous older sister, also named Jeannie. She is very wicked and is determined to have Anthony Nelson to herself, no matter what lengths she must go to. She has dark hair and wears a green genie outfit instead of a pink one like Jeannie. Her master is the polar opposite of Major Nelson and instead confines her to her bottle rather than giving her free reign like Tony gives Jeannie, possibly because of her malicious behavior.
Jeannie’s sister is first introduced in the third season. She shows up after Jeannie invites her, as Jeannie has not seen her sister in a while and misses her. However, this proves to be a nearly fatal mistake for Jeannie when her sister traps her in her bottle and attempts to steal Major Nelson. Although Jeannie’s sister has a different accent, Tony usually fails to notice that he is with the wrong genie, although he does notice that “Jeannie”‘s behavior has changed.
The current list of all the (known) Mirage references can be found here.
Although I am well versed in Pop Culture references but I do not claim to have caught them all. Let me know your favorites in the comments and if I’ve missed one you caught, let me know so I can add it to the list.
Text for this article is excerpted from the linked wiki pages
Eerkala image is from Wizard101, and is copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment
Dumuzid torture cylinder image is borrowed from Wikipedia. It is in the public domain.
Queen of Night image is borrowed from Wikipedia. It is copyright Gennadii Saus i Segura and is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 Creative Commons license
I Dream of Jeanie photo is copyright Screen Gems
Image usage qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.
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