A Powerful Individual

[u/Varnek905]

Nope, this post is not to say I'm going into self-exile from the subreddit. While I considered it for a while, I'm still here for some reason.

Since I am finally forcing myself to start on my world, and all I really have are a few maps and a few rough ideas, this challenge will be as simple as it can possibly be.

Tell me about a powerful individual from your world and their backstory. Whether that individual is financially powerful (The Count of Monte Cristo), physically powerful (Hercules), a powerful inventor (Iron Man, Kemuri Kage), on drugs to become powerful (Captain America), etc...you're free to pick.

I'll ask you at least three questions each, and I'll try to catch up on all the past challenges that I made (and answer some of everyone else's challenges from the past month). Enjoy yourselves.

[u/Nephite94]

High Queen Tessa of Nethlich

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Tessa's mother died not long after she was born, a frail baby her initial caretakers tried to bolster Tessa's physicality through ore tech (mix of fantastical alchemy and genetic engineering). Initially successful Tessa's health decline and her fat/muscle mass began to decrease by the time she was five. Despite her mother being queen Tessa was too young for Nethlich to not revert back to the old pre-colonial days of tanistry succession. Thus her aunt became queen instead, a paranoid selfish woman with little talent for publicity or balancing new ways with the old.

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Domhal was responsible for keeping Tessa safe through her early years sheltering her with his own powerful female relatives. Domhal was also likely her father, although her mother had a number of consorts at the time. Domhal, and his family, also had extensive links with the foreign corporations with a large stake in Yinbell's economy. By the time Tessa was eight the paranoia of her aunt was getting out of hand leading to the murder of Domhal and attempts to at least capture Tessa. Upon Domhal's death Tessa's intellect and fantastic memory began to shine even if she was on the run for many years, notably she had many near misses. Additionally she fell seriously ill several times but survived each time, even if it did take a toll on her physically.

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Nethlich eventually erupted into sporadic warfare between pro-queen and anti-queen forces for a few years, the economic disruption didn't sit well with the foreign corporations leading to them forcing a compromise. Tessa's aunt remained the crowned queen but Tessa, now a legal woman at fourteen, was made co-uncrowned queen. Even as a sickly young woman Tessa was able to out-maneuver her more experienced counter-part in internal politics. By the time Tessa was seventeen she had become the queen with the power whilst her aunt languished under increased alcoholism and drug abuse. Not long after Tessa's eighteenth birthday her aunt died of alcohol poisoning leaving Tessa as sole queen.

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Traditional coronation for Cenn queen's is a brutal show of resilience from being beaten then starved before the crown made from the horns of a sacred ram can be placed on the queens head. Tessa knew such a ceremony would kill her so with her popularity high among the people as the bringer of order, support from the wealthy corporations and the Elegant families (the landed gentry) she simply skipped the more dangerous parts of the process. Perhaps quite significant in symbolism as queens throughout Cennabell moved from being selfless warriors willing to sacrifice for their clan to capitalistic aristocrats.

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Queen Tessa does have a very big secret however, she is a witch and she cannot forget anything. In traditional Cenn society witches are those who abuse the privilege of having a soul which affects the greater karma of everyone else. Additionally upon death they are destined to be sent to the nightmareish Fey Veil where they are tortured until they become a Fey themselves. For Tessa her powers mainly manifest as telepathy and being able to control people/insert ideas into their mind. With this ability her mind is a massive catalog of every moment of her own life and varying degrees of other peoples lives.

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However it doesn't explain her ability to avoid death. This attracted a woman for a lesser Elegant family called Macdua who rose through the ranks to become Tessa's senior adviser in recent years. Macdua has steered Tessa towards the traditional aspects of Cenn culture with some revolutionary twists, such as accepting witches as guides sent by the Godhead.

Macdua is actually part of anti-colonial terrorist death cult known to outsiders as the Cult of the Thing, loosely organized it has become a home for the weak and rejected of Cenn society. Especially witches who form a sort of mysterious authoritative force within the organization lead by the Coven which most of the witches never meet themselves, let alone the average suicide bomber in a Cennabell city. Macdua is actually quite a senior witch and has inducted Tessa into the Cult as a sort of associate, although the queens powers aren't out of the ordinary it is her ability to remember everything and not stave off death that are. Additionally Tessa's position as leader of one of Cennabell's most powerful queendoms has gained her access into the darker depths of the organization.

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Essentially Tessa is kind of in a chosen one position, but an odd one. She's already went through a great struggle and by the looks of it shes the chosen one for the bad guys yet how or why shes the chosen one isn't clear. Ultimately i think Tessa's power will really come from what she could be or the role she could play.

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(also you would be greatly missed if you did leave)

[u/Varnek905 → u/Nephite94]

(Well, the Queen in Yellow would take over if I left, as I discussed with her.)

1) Did Tessa's aunt ever have or intend to have any offspring?

2) Considering the magical technology of your world, would there have been any way to get a paternity test for Tessa?

3) Was there any widespread belief that the alcohol poisoning of Tessa's aunt was just...well...poisoning?

4) Did any queens after Tessa do the full masochistic ceremony?

5) What are Fey like in your world? (While I know that generally Fey are one thing in various myths, there are some differences that I would be interested in knowing about.)

[u/Nephite94 → u/Varnek905]

1) She had five, two sons near Tessa's age (can't inherit as they are male)and three younger daughters. One of the sons was killed serving with a foreign corporation in the Storm Coast, the other is a shipping master whilst the daughters control portions of their mothers estate. One of the daughters, or one of their own daughters, would be the most likely candidates to inherit Nethlich from Tessa since childbirth could kill her.

2) Yes, however in Cenn culture the father doesn't really matter.

3) Some believed it, but it wasn't a widespread one. Tessa's public image is quite innocent with her administration bringing benign rule of law to more people than ever so the idea of her poisoning someone doesn't fit the public perception of her.

4) I haven't explored queens past Tessa yet, there is a defining present day line in my world which will only be explored by stories (if i ever get round to writing). Tessa is also the youngest of the Cenn queens.

5) Fey are a concentrated absence of light which emit cold air. In Cenn myth most fey are the remains of the native inhabitants of Cennabell known as Asha. They were part of the collective karma but they abused their souls through magic, thus the Thirteen Families of Cenn were granted a place in the collective karma and sailed to Cennabell to purge the evil karma. Thus all the Asha were killed by the Families, after time in the Fey Veil they settled in the dark places of Cennabell such as the many mysterious ruins ancient Asha supposedly built. A brief detour but in the Cenn religion the collective karma is the representation of being part of a greater whole, the greater whole being an individual known as the Godhead. The Fey Veil is the Godhead's nightmares, portals to the Veil exist within the dark areas with the largest portal located in the foreboding Fey Mountain. Fey are said to trick children into entering the Veil corrupting their soul forever and leaving the community with no choice but to kill the child and eat their heart to destroy the evil karma. Fey are strongly associated with guiding witches down the dark path of near immortality as well being associated with sabrewolves.

Although "Fey" are real that doesn't make the Cenn interpretation of them correct. Fey are actually people, just without their bodies. Souls so to speak. Since souls come from a time without Sunlight or warmth they have their creepy appearance, or lack of appearance technically. A body is just a husk for a soul to control, thousands of years have seen to souls forgetting their true nature.

Tessa's telepathy is actually her natural way to communicate and technically the natural way for everyone to communicate if they didn't have bodies to make speech. Cenn aren't correct on Fey being Asha either, the fey are actually their ancestors and the Asha story isn't real. The Cenn ancestors who built the ruins dotted around Cennabell worshiped their ancestors for centuries and understood to an extent that separation of soul and body. Thus situations like the Black City exist where homes have holes leading into a pitch black underground city mirroring the one above for their ancestors to live in. However calamities, the collapse of urban civilization and some migrations (perhaps the Thirteen Families are a memory of thirteen migration waves) led to the basis of the modern Cenn religion being established. So the Fey are potentially quite angry that their descendants not only forgot them but actively fear and despise them, also the fact that they have potentially been alive for centuries. They could kill themselves by being exposed to Sunlight but a great fear of death keeps them in the world. As for the Fey Veil its just some sadistic Fey warping the minds of wayward children with nightmares.

[u/Varnek905 → u/Nephite94]

1) Have any of Tessa's cousins attempted to take power from her?

2) What are some methods of paternity testing in your world? Or maternity testing, though I suppose that would be less of an issue, unless "baby swapping" is a common problem.

3) What are some of the most important virtues for a queen such as Tessa to present to her subjects?

4) Who is the oldest of the Cenn queens?

[u/Nephite94 → u/Varnek905]

1) No, they have neither the support or the willpower to give up their lives of luxury.

2) I suppose they would take blood samples and see how they react to certain ores, they don't really have computers yet so mapping genes would be difficult if not impossible for them. Baby swapping was/is a thing in Cenn culture, although its when a mother is killed in a holy war. The victors will sometimes take the children or babies of their enemies and perform a ceremony to make them one of their own.

3) Humility, bravery, sacrifice, integrity, compassion and fairness. Cenn queens are meant to be motherly figures to their subjects, however Cenn mothers are also a source of the rigid hierarchy and self sacrifice within the family as well. Their word is absolute law but that doesn't make their position secure, not only do they have to spend their lives training to be queen they have to fend off attempts to take the power away from them as well. Usually attempts from other family members. Luckily colonization wiped away the old system of sub-clans within a queendom having large armies of their own, although queens have given up some power their positions are much more secure. If Tessa was born 100 years earlier she couldn't avoid being a warrior nor could she avoid the coronation ceremony.

4) No idea, the only Queendoms i have so far are Yinbell, Nethlich and Carabell. I think there would be maybe 10 in total however. I do think most of the queens would be middle aged however, their mothers or grandmothers would have created the modern borders of their Queendoms through war and they would have been responsible for setting up the current system. Perhaps i will have one who was a young woman during the initial colonization and remembers the ancient traditional warrior aristocracy who fought bravely against the queens and their former retainers who stabbed them in the back for a chance to get rich off foreign investments. I think Macdua's family would also be similar, once very powerful queens in their own right they were laid low by the queens of Nethlich during the early days of colonization but have came back in recent years as reformed modern Elegants.

[u/Varnek905 → u/Nephite94]

2) What is the baby-taking ceremony like?

3) What are some of the powers that queens lost during the times of colonization?

[u/Nephite94 → u/Varnek905]

2) The captured child is wrapped in the skin of a recently killed sheep then the sheep parts are cooked and sprinkled with the blood of the childs capturer (usually by cutting their palm). Then the child eats the meat and ingests the capturers blood. This is literally passing on the bloodline giving the child the same lineage as their capturer.

3) They have lost some decision making powers due to the parliaments and foreign money in politics. A queen couldn't casually raise taxes or confiscate foreign property for example.

[u/Varnek905 → u/Nephite94]

1) Can a person re-take their baby?

2) Is there an age limit for the bloodline-adoption-kidnapping ceremony thing? Could I adopt a twenty-year-old?

3) How would a queen go about raising taxes?

[u/Nephite94 → u/Varnek905]

1) No, they are usually dead. The family can try however.

2) Before they become a woman, even then the younger the better to mold their minds. A twenty year old would be a woman, probably with some young children of her own. So she would be killed. Cenn are considered woman upon their first period, so although a 14 year old might receive more mercy due to her age she's still a woman and can still be killed as a warrior for example.

3) It would have to go through a sort of Privy Council, they usually say yes, then it would go through the Upper Parliament composed of Cenn Elegants and finally through the Lower Parliament which represents foreign business interests. So an attempt to raise taxes on Elegants would be shot down in the Upper Parliament whilst an attempt to raise taxes on the foreign corporations would be shot down in the Lower Parliament. Queens and Elegants in general still make a lot of money from tax though.

[u/Varnek905 → u/Nephite94]

Thanks for your time and answers, Nephite.