![[Anansi]](x_anansi.gif)
Gender: Male
First Appearance: "Mark Of The Panther"
Other Appearances: "The Gathering" Part I
Anansi is an immortal Child of Oberon. His exact age and origins are unknown. He was a mythological trickster figure to the African Ashanti tribe that resided in present-day Ghana. In 995, he, along with the rest of the Children of Oberon, was banished from Avalon for 1000 years.
At some point in the past, according to myths, Anansi punished the Panther Queen for her arrogance and her mockery of the trickster by transforming her into a human female. She was shocked by her new form, and begged Anansi to change her back. When he refused, she then threatened to kill the spider, to which he simply laughed, saying that one such as he cannot die. He agreed to make a deal with her, however, and told her that if she built a city in the shape of a giant spider web for him in the jungle.
The Panther Queen knew that she would need help, so she married the Oba of the Houka tribe, and with him, had many strong sons and wise daughters. Eventually, the Houka built the city, which they named Karadigi. Anansi was very pleased, so he abided by his half of the bargain, and transformed the Panther Queen back into her true shape.
However, the Panther Queen soon learned that Anansi had tricked her again, for now she missed her human family. She went to Anansi, and asked him to change her children into panthers, so that they could live together in the jungle. He agreed, on one condition- that she would hunt for the spider's food. Then, she could mark one, and only one, of her children to be changed into a panther and be with her. The Queen hunted for Anansi, and he soon grew fat and happy. She left her mark on her oldest son, who was the strongest, bravest, and most handsome member of the Houka tribe. However, Anansi wasn't too fond of the idea of losing his source of meals, so he told her oldest son of her plans for him, which made him angry. He asked Anansi what he should do, and he told her to kill the Panther Queen.
Her son very nearly did, until he beheld the Panther Queen, and saw his loving mother within the Panther Queen. He could not kill her, and Anansi was forced to change the Queen's son into a panther. Furious, he banished all the humans from Karadigi, but as a result, there was no one to tend to his needs. Thus, he went hungry.
In the intervening time, it seems that he resided in the empty city of Karadigi. Eventually, however, he was sought out and found by a man named Fara Maku. He made a bargain with Anansi whereby he and his love Tea would both become werepanthers, so that they could live together in the jungle. In exchange, Fara, as a panther, would hunt for him. Anansi agreed, and both Fara Maku and Tea became werepanthers.
Later, Tea, who sought to kill Fara Maku for making her into a werepanther, pursued him into Karadigi, and they, in turn, were followed by the Avalon travelers and Diane Maza. The group encountered Anansi, who was huge and grossly fat from Fara's plentiful hunting. Anansi intended to make all seven of them his werepanther hunters, but he fought them and was seemingly killed by being knocked out of his web, for he was too large too move off of it, and being stabbed in his soft underbelly by a spear.
Anansi, of course, was not truly dead, for he attended the Gathering of Oberon's Children in 1996. At present, he presumably resides on Avalon.
Anansi is a Child of Oberon, and as such, has many powers. He can cast a number of spells, and especially likes spells of transformation. He may also be able to shapeshift and possibly levitate, although he never demonstrated that he could do so. In his preferred form, that of a giant spider, he possesses great strength and can spin strong webs, just like a true spider. However, at least as of 1996, he was so huge from the meals Fara Maku had provided for him that it was difficult, if not impossible, to move outside his spider's web. He also has a weak and highly vulnerable underbelly in this form. Presumably, like all of the Third Race, he possesses a vulnerability to iron, which can bind, harm, or kill him.