I went through the Doors of Death today.

Okay, I didn’t really. So don’t worry, I’m not dead. Nor am I using the free Wifi in the Underworld (Thanatos hogs it with his fancy iPad...meanie) thanks to...my extremely obnoxious friends.

But I’m not here to talk about my weird friends with lots of issues. I came to intertwine series. And give some new ideas to the Doors of Death.

Let’s start very beginningly-ish with The Lost Hero. Well, I’ll start with the END of the Lost Hero actually. The part where Jason died? Oh yeah. He died. Like, really actually dead. But why is he still alive? :O The Doors of Death were still open. Meaning, if The Lost Hero happened after The Son of Neptune (Haha, but that would be in the wrong order hhahaha) then Jason would have remained dead and Hera’s plan to unite would have gone null. Thanatos would have collected poor Jason’s young soul and we all would have watched the world end. :D (Why a smiley face? He is coming to take your children o_o RUUUNNNN!!!)

Zero. Zip. Nada. NOTHEENG. Everyone’s dead. Maybe having the Doors open isn’t such a bad thing...for now. But moving onto the next book, The Son of Neptune, after Thanatos has been freed and blah blah something about meeting Frank again in a less cheerful situation (sounds delightful and ominous) which I take to mean someone important dies. Which sucks. (Well not just for the fact they’re dead, but then one of the Seven would be gone and Hera’s plan will collapse. And then we all die. Fantastic! I can’t wait for death! (Extreme sarcasm. *Bursts into song* ONLLYYY TEEHH GOODDD DIEE YOUNNGGGG BILLYYY JOEEELLLL :DDD)

Okay, that leaves the Mark of Athena. According to some stalking on Rick’s twitter (MWAHAHA) and checking blogs, blah, updates, etc, I uncovered....the Doors are closed in the Mark of Athena. :O Perhaps the evil cliffhanger Ricky is warning us about is that they close the doors and then one of the seven dies? :O That would be cruel, so I hope not. (I really, REALLY hope not ._. but Mr. Rick Troller is a cruel, cruel, heartless man who- no just kidding, we love you, but really, WHHYYYYY??)

Anyways, while touring museums today in jolly good England (LOL THAT SOUNDS FUNNY JUST SAY IT) we went to a mummy/ Egyptian exhibit. Yes, I saw Carter and Sadie there. -_- Very funny.

But there, while looking past the sarcophaguses, and looking at tons of dead people (YAYY :D) I found it. The real thing.

The Doors of Death.
(Cue dramatic drum roll.)

Ole! Well not the REAL one, because if I did I wouldn’t be able to tell you guys. ._. But this one is the Egyptian mythology version. It’s called a False Doors.

True or False time! The Doors of Death only exist in Greek and Roman mythology.

FAALLSEEE ;D Yes, horrible pun, excuse my lameness (._. I need a hug now). In all types of Mythology and myths, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Norse (yes, Norse too), Cherokee legends (OMG! Piper has a purpose! :O) and even Mexican Holidays (Woo Leo’s people! XD), they all have something in common. They all celebrate this one specific thing- the dead passing through the veil of the afterlife and coming back into the mortal world. (And by that I mean the living, because I’m pretty sure to the poor mortals it wouldn’t be: “Hey look! Grandma is back!” But more along the lines of “OH MY GOD ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!!! RUN!!!” Which would be absolute chaos. o.o)

So yes. For Greek and Roman, the Doors of Death, which I have yet to find for truth and take a picture (and then die probably) to show you guys, but oh, well. Norse mythology was Valhalla, a Warrior’s paradise, or the icy cauldron of Hel (ironic, I thought hell to be fiery and like lava. Apparently not.) or even the afterlife of the Sea which I am for some reason blanking on, but if I remember what it is called, I will inform you for sure. (Probably not, if you’ve noticed, I am too lazy to update articles ahaha)

The real thing I was intrigued about is The False Doors. According to Egyptian Myths, the False Doors were a passageway between the Afterlife, the realm of the gods to enter a sanctuary, or where the dead could pass through this solidified door that if a mortal tried to pass through, would result in a concussion or a broken nose. :D The False Doors were mostly used by Anubis when he was doing stuff (I think he is like the Egyptian Thanatos, in my own way :3). Occasionally the dead Pharaohs would pass through and take the given food in their burial chambers to the afterlife. Like anything, the body was nothing more than a doorway itself to these people. The soul was the actual person that was hosted inside the body blah blah asfsdasjfbafafasflakswiuhglawehglawes.
(^ Me spazzing from total Mine = blown = KABOOM the mine exploded LOL)

So back to the very beginning of this Jazzy style rant (She will live on! I will make sure of that! >:D) I also talked about Mayan and Mexican and Cherokee myths. I’ll start with the Mayan myths, where they believed these giant sinkholes were the portals to the Underworld. They did all sorts of rituals to please the vengeful Mayan Underworld gods, which involved poking barbed wire through a ladies’ tongue, and putting a barbed prickly plant in...well a place a man shouldn’t stick a barbed plant. They thought the blood of their kings and whatever royalty or whatever they called the rulers to be the ultimate sacrifice of giving your “body” back to the Heavenly gods. Yes, Mayan myths are disturbing. Anywho....so they thought if the dead were to come back, it would be through those giant sinkholes I forget the name of which they called them but aaahhhh....

In Norse mythology you were never truly killed, but the Norse beliefs are also somewhat mixed with the Christian beliefs and religions somewhere down the line. According to Norse myths, a person who died in battle would get to live a countless eternity of fighting until the day of impending Doom, where they would fight from the grave in the end of the world. See, even the crazy Mayans knew the Doomsday theme wasn’t totally nuts haaha.

The tree of life, or Yggdrasil (Yes, I had to Google Check the spelling because when I attempted it asked if I was trying to spell “Grapes.” -_- You have such a cunning sense of humor Mr. D.) was a portal between the nine worlds. (Yes, people who watched the Avengers, Thor is a real god here ._. but I am going to be perfectly honest and say he's not that hot in his real form -_-) When the tree was destroyed, the balance, or if you want to go Egyptian, ma’at, would cause chaos and the end would come. Ragnarok, which literally means the End of All Ages, or just to be simple, the fading of the Gods. According to this, the gods and Odin would fade and then all his brave warriors who were brutally killed in their past life would be allowed to fight and die again to attempt to prevent world destruction. What a cheerful thing to look forward too.

Continuing, they also had this thing called the Land of Silver Apples, which is basically a place inside the center of the earth above hel, but between the mortal world above them. This was a land of Elves, hobgoblins and hinkypunks (lol I have no idea what the bloody hell that is) where nothing ever aged. You could live for centuries here happily, as long as you didn’t become susceptible to the glamour of the place. The sun always rises and sets in the same place, and the moon is always full. Paradise without having to die. Sounds nice, right? Wrong. Even here, the Gods of the forest and the moon took vengeance, whhiicchhh might lead to major destruction or total annihilation. Oh, don’t you just love Norse myths!

Back to the Lost Hero, when Piper was dreaming about her dad telling her the story of the Ghost Country, and for that legend, if you went far enough away from the world and passed over to the other side you would be able to see the dead. I’m not going to explain too much of that mostly because I don’t really know the legends themselves very well, and you can just go reread the Lost Hero if you are really dying for information. -_-

So now I move onto the Mexican Holiday (Yayy!), which would be...The Day of the Dead.
The Mexican tradition is that on this day, the veil between life and death are EXTREMELY weak, meaning the dead can come back to see their family. On that day they celebrate their lost families and friends, and leave out food for the deceased to feast upon. (I had a flashback to Harry Potter, excuse me, with Sir Nicholas and his Deathday party o_o) Anywaayysss, the living family members dance and party blah blah random typing akfaks while the dead dance on the borders of life and death and “taste” and “smell” the food laid out for them. How sweet. I still find it incredibly disturbing o_o How would you feel if you suddenly saw your deceased uncle who died from a heart attack and laid McDonalds on his grave!? Only you Nico, ONLY YOU.

With that, I end my spiel on the Doors of Death....for now and mostly. Don’t worry, this is probably just me connecting mythologies, but they do all have one thing in common. They all thought they had a way for the dead to come back and be among the living. It’s not hard. Look at any greek myths like Sisyphus, or even when Orpheus.

Now I’m going to temporarily switch focus...to the Kane Chronicles. From what we understand, Rick Trollmasta might be planning a crossover mythology series in the near future. It happened in the past, didn’t it? Rome controlled Egypt for a while, and Greek and Latin influences spread too, that was one of the reasons the understanding of hieroglyphics were lost until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.

So yes, the Serpent’s Shadow. I didn’t really see anything else interesting in the other two books so I’m just gonna start at the end. (Yes I’m lazy lol)

In less than the first five chapters, Sadie managed to restore ma’at and kill herself in the process. Carter going: you were dead for TWO MINUTES. Ohhahha didn’t something similiar happen to Jason in The Lost Hero? He didn’t seem to be breathing or even alive. Then BAM Doors of Death he lives long live the king aksifgkasdkxdf....

Interesting--which makes me wonder, if while the Kanes are battling Apophis (OMG EPIC WIN I ACTUALLY SPELLED HIS NAME RIGHT!! - fist pump -) the giant evil snake, that the Demigods of Rome and Greece are battling Gaea? O-o So it would make sense, because then in the Kane Chronicles Sadie came back because the Doors of Death would have been open....or in their case the Door of Falseness. (Oi I just switched the wording around...Like a boss.)

Crossover series? Probably. Doors of Death through the myths and legends? Absolutely. Look at any mythology really. The “Doors of Death” are literally everywhere....as to what they actually are? :D Rick Riordan, Mark of Athena. <---- My answer.

I am hoping he does a crossover series.....and on a totally random note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY PERCY! :D

Keep reading, reviewing, any other D.o.D ideas? Comment! Fave! Like! Wait, was this Facebook? I forgot. Facepooooop.

~ Universal

* Bonus;

Liz’s Super Short Summary of Mythologies:

Greek: Hey! Let’s battle monsters and piss off the Gods! :D
Roman: DISCIPLINE.
Egyptian: MAAGIICCCKKKK :3
Norse: Let’s kill people and chop off their heads in gruesome ways! Won’t that be fun! 8D (Slightly crazy bloodthirsty people, yeah let’s totally introduce them to our Heroes.)
Mayan: HIHBErfdbheRDFHBAERgbvekrgfd BAD UNDERWORLD GODS
Mexican: La Dia de los muertos! :D Ole! Fiesta!

And one last thing in Spanish....ADIOS! :D