- For the post-scratch version of this character, see The Dolorosa.
Porrim Maryam is the Maid of Space and Kanaya's dancestor. Not much is known about her, aside from anything revealed in Act 6 Intermission 3.
Etymology
Porrim is one of the few A1 trolls whose name was not suggested in the name suggestion box for their descendant. It could have been derived from Poryam, suggested by CasMat. Her name comes from Porrima, the traditional name of the star system Gamma Virginis, which resides in the Virgo constellation. It is also the alternate name for Antevorta (one of the Carmentae, who are Roman goddesses of childbirth and prophecy, and patrons of midwives).
Coincidentally, it sounds like the Jewish holiday of Purim, which celebrates the the deliverance of Persian Jewish people from destruction, and is often accompanied with masquerading in costume, perhaps a link to her predilection for fashion and why she was one of the first to attend the MINISTRIFE!!! Costume Party. In addition, "porraceous" is a word meaning a light green color.
Biography
From various bits of dialogue, one can glean that she has an interest in fashion, has had a fair bit of experience in the more concupiscent aspects of troll romance, and has better mastery of her abilities as a rainbow drinker than Kanaya. Additionally, she is a feminist, as she is concerned with female oppression and gender equality. This ties in to her associated zodiac sign Virgo, the maiden.
A bit more about her personality can be gleaned from Aranea's expository remarks (In Openbound):
- “The Maid of Space was of course our all-important Space player and Stoker of the Forge, 8ut as you know, we never made much progress on the frog 8reeding front, or really any aspect of the game 8efore the reckoning. Way too disorganized, way too much teen drama. Much of that drama of course centered around Kankri, and Porrim tended to 8e the one to keep him out of trou8le. This relationship persisted in their lives on Alternia, which... unfortunately didn't work out too well for her in the end.
On 8eforus, well 8efore her drinker a8ilities had awakened, she grew up in the caste almost solely devoted to tending to the mother gru8, hatching the young and proliferating the 8rood. The jade 8loods were also an almost exclusively female caste, and she 8egan to resent the roles she was hatched into, designated for 8oth her classes and gender. She challenged these roles wherever they existed in 8eforan society, as well as where she found them woven into our session, in kingdoms, class assignments, consort culture and the like.
8ut over the sweeps in our failed session, she found within herself a renewed interest in the duty that came with her 8loodline, which was of course the persistence of our people, a 8urden her descendant now must 8ear.”
Once their session was determined to be Null, Porrim helped Aranea research how to scratch, and therefore reboot the session.
Personality and Traits
Porrim has sort of a motherly personality, though she seems to believe in "tough love". She is also flirtatious (Kankri refers to her “tireless 9mnidirecti9nal s9licitati9ns”), promiscuous and eager to gossip. Much like how Kankri is a parody of Tumblr's social justice bloggers, and Meulin is a parody of Tumblr fandom bloggers, her character is a parody of libertine "alternative fashion" enthusiasts and sex-positive feminists on Tumblr. Her concerns about gender equality in Beforan society are presented at a lot more reasonable and honest than Kankri's self-congratulatory societal concerns.
Relationships
Her romantic relationships with her fellow players have generally been frequent, numerous and brief. Porrim refers to trolls “passing thro+ugh the well-greased revo+lving do+o+rs” to her quadrants, and Kankri refers to her “innumera6le flushed 9r caligin9us flings”. In a conversation between Aranea and Meenah, it is revealed that she had a flushed (and possibly, as it is hinted, sexual) relationship with Aranea, lasting about half a sweep. Her fast avoidance of explaining a possible innuendo about Latula causes Meenah to ask if she has also been in a relationship with her. This, however, has neither been confirmed nor denied.
Kankri Vantas
Porrim is fond of Kankri, but is infuriated by his willingness to consider every form of persecution as an issue except her own. She seems to act as a sort of mother or protective older sibling toward him, trying to coddle him and keep him out of trouble, much to his annoyance.
Damara Megido
Unlike some of the A1 trolls, Porrim seems to hold some affection for Damara. She treats Damara as one might treat a nagging child, saying to her "We'll talk later," when the player approaches her and Kanaya as Damara in the third part of Openbound. Although seeming somewhat annoyed by Damara's intrusion, Porrim's comment implies that she cares enough about Damara to maintain some semblance of a friendship or at least an amicable relationship with her, which is more than can be said for some of her fellow A1 trolls.
Latula Pyrope
Porrim clearly has a very close relationship with Latula. When playing as Porrim and talking to Latula, Porrim will tell Latula to calm her rad girl routine down, "it's me." The implication is that they have a close enough relationship for Latula to let her emotional guard down when around Porrim, which she refuses to do around any of the other characters the reader sees Latula interact with. This could be attributed in part to Porrim's motherly demeanor.
Kanaya Maryam
Porrim and Kanaya appear to have a friendly relationship despite the reader only having witnessed them directly interact once. Following their discussion Kanaya acts happier than usual and refers to a "Silly Biological Parlor Trick" that Porrim taught her as a way to temporarily turn off her natural rainbow drinker bioluminescence. Porrim is happy to talk to her dancestor, enjoying the conversation and expressing interest in talking to Kanaya again. Porrim views Kanaya as a younger sibling of sorts, causing her to speak to her on more of a friendly level and less motherly than she does others, rather she speaks to Kanaya more on the level of a role model, much like an older sister with more life experience speaking to her unsure younger sister.
Aranea Serket
Porrim and Aranea had a brief flushed relationship that lasted 'barely half a sweep.' This may have developed while the two of them were seeking out how to reboot the session.
Trivia
- Just like Kanaya, Porrim seems to have an interest in fashion, as shown by her conversation with Meenah about Kankri. Another similarity is that Porrim makes her own clothes, which is shown when she admits that she created Kankri's sweater.
- Interestingly, while Kanaya is referred to as “the vvillage twwo wwheel devvice wwhen it comes to auspisticing” by Eridan, it seems as if Porrim is the village two wheel device for more concupiscent endeavors.
- Porrim is the character who canonically coined the term "dancestor" in her hashtags after rejecting other combinations of "ancestor" and "descendant" during a conversation with Meenah in [S]A6A6I3.
- In Latin, one translation of the word "Virgo" is Maid, which might have associated with her title as Maid of Space.
- Her quirk resembles the venus sign, which is associated with feminism and females. The former is likely a reference to her views, while the latter could be an allusion towards Kanaya Maryam, her post-scratch descendant.
- It could also be read as "o positive", the blood type, alluding to her nature as a rainbow drinker.
- Finally, it may also be looked at as an ankh, an Egyptian symbol for life and, in modern culture, is often associated with goths and vampires.
- According to a conversation between her and Meenah, she did not achieve god tier before her death in the pre-scratch session.
- Her title, as the Maid of Space, is part of a progression. Whereas the pre-scratch titles are Witch of Time, Maid of Space, Sylph of Light, and Thief of Life, the post-scratch titles are Maid of Time, Sylph of Space, Thief of Light, and Witch of Life.
- The character Eliza from the videogame Skullgirls has a color pallete swap based on her.