It's Good To Be Queen

The next in my line up of character introductions are the two most powerful Queens of Embra, The Queen of the East and the Queen of the West.

I decided to change out my Resinsoul Mi's eyes to a more solid colour and I really like how it changes her look a little. With her former eyes, she looked kind I think but now she looks more regal, more in control and more resolute. More powerful.

This is Queen Mahalia, originally of the wandering nomads who roam the desert plains. She was a shaman's daughter, able to use magic and locate the best place for water in the desert. Her magic was said to not come from the Gods but from somewhere else. Her magic when she used it was often a combination of black and red rather than the blue and white hues of divine magic. She was also often regarded as a little strange among her own people, often speaking with someone unseen. 

When King Andros of the East kingdom came to forge an alliance with the desert people, he met and fell in love with Mahalia. Many people believe she bewitched him as he married her quite quickly and made her his new Queen against the counsel of his advisors. When the Queen was pregnant with her first and only child, King Andros was involved in a hunting accident that took his life. The rulership of the East kingdom fell to the Queen until such time that the heir was old enough to take the throne.

When the Queen gave birth, it's said the moon disappeared from the sky for a time and returned as a red moon for the rest of that night. The baby boy was named Ydros.

 Amaryll is the Queen of the West kingdom. In this land, rulership fell always to the Queen, the female line. The people believe the Queen is the embodiment of the land, as she prospers and grows, so too does the land. And like the land, she nurtures and protects her people.

Her husband, King Ban, is a man from the human tribes. The two are very much in love and support each other and make decisions on the welfare of the kingdom together. Amaryll is also the High Priestess of Inanya, the Goddess of the West and its people. When the Queen was with child, she dreamed Inanya visited and spoke with her telling her the child in her womb carried the light of the Gods for a great darkness would come and the child would be needed to defeat it. Fearing what the agents of darkness would do to her child, when the birthing time came, she declared her child stillborn and sent the baby girl away with a trusted childhood friend.

"Take my daughter, find her a loving home where she can grow, hidden from the eyes of those who would harm her. Watch over her, protect her." she told the woman. "One day, she will be called by Inanya to stand against the dark."

 Amaryll made the ultimate sacrifice for her daughter and let her go trusting that the Gods who created her would protect her and hide her. Not a day went by that she did not think of her daughter and wonder how she had grown up.

The Queen went on to have three more children, all boys who took after their father. She loved each of them as any mother  would love her children but her heart still longed and mourned for the daughter she would never hold in her arms. The years following the separation was a test of her faith in Inanya and the Gods of Embra but she stood strong in her belief that her daughter belonged not just to her now but to the world and its people.

The two Queens, side by side. Light and dark, ying and yang. Two Queens who have never met but whose children will decide the fate of Embra and its people.

I'm really loving how my fantasy story is shaping up. Sometimes the story wants to go in a direction I hadn't planned so I let it. I've learned the story sometimes tells itself whether you're there to supervise or not!