Pharaoh’s Queendom’s Side

Zahra I (The First), The Risen Pharaoh and Eternal God-Queen of the Solusand Dominion

Description: Zahra I was, like some others in this new world, the result of Vaile deciding to steal a Raid Boss out from under the actual Raid Party’s noses. Coming from the Second Expansion, known as The Sea of Glass, Zahra I was supposed to be the big bad antagonist of the expansion. Her backstory was that she was a just and noble Pharaoh, however after realizing her own mortality she became desperate to find a way to live forever so that she could support her people beyond the limits of her lifespan.

Regrettably, she was fooled by a dark sorcerer into drinking what she thought was an elixir of immortality and died on the spot, only to rise again as the undead Pharaoh under the control of the evil mage that had killed her. It seems that when Vaile ‘Tamed’ her and took her from the Raid, she must have lost her connection with the evil wizard who was the secret final boss of said Raid. Notably, she and said sorcerer were both ‘Tamed’ by Vaile, however the sorcerer is nowhere to be seen or heard from in the New World and it is not a stretch of the imagination to believe that the once-puppet Pharaoh had not forgotten the deceit and humiliation she had experienced and exacted her vengeance upon her former controller.

Now free of the dark mage’s control, she has once again led her nation and its people to greatness, however her sense of mercy and compassion hides the traces of the mind-control that made her into a ruthless and cruel tyrant. She still struggles with that to this day, and even as the Desert/ Sand Elves push her people further and further away from their old borders, she tries desperately to keep herself from lashing out and reverting to the monster she became after her rise into undeath. The arrival and subsequent mistreatment of the only man she truly has romantic feelings for may well be what tips the scales and forces the Pacifist Pharaoh to unleash her darker side against those that seek to run her and her people out of their ancestral homeland.

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Ratams, The General Whose Loyalty Surpassed Both Death and Undeath

Description: Ratams is a man born from common stock who, under the reign of his Pharaoh, Zahra I, rose through the ranks to become her greatest General. Although in life his Pharaoh desired naught but peace for her people, she also knew that to have peace there must be preparations made in the event of war. Ratams was the answer to that, and as he rose through the ranks, he saw firsthand how much his Pharaoh cared for her people. Eventually, he was the one who led her armies, sweeping bandits and other threats from her lands with the ruthless force that his ruler was loathe to use. He effectively became both her right and left hand, a person responsible for being both the acts committed in the light and those done in the dark.

He was, unfortunately, unable to stop his Pharaoh from falling to the evil wizard who then used her as an undead puppet, and even as he tried to fight for his Pharaoh’s freedom, he found that more and more of his men were being slain and raised into undeath. Eventually, he was alone, surrounded by a nation ruled by fear and pain where the living envied the dead who held power over them. Deciding that he could not face his ancestors if he let this stand, he led a one-man assault on Zahra I’s palace, only to fall before his Pharaoh’s overwhelming power.

He next awoke as an undead, but his will was too strong for the evil mage to control, and the bastard was forced to choose between controlling him and the undead legions or his Pharaoh and the same. Free of his shackles, he ran and sought help from others to put his beloved monarch out of her misery and free his homeland.

In the New World, he once again serves his glorious God-Queen as he had done in life, but her unwillingness to set him lose upon the invading Desert/ Sand Elves has given him pause. He is fully aware of the struggle inside his Pharaoh regarding her hatred of who she had been forced to become, and knows fully that unless something is done quickly his monarch will have her mind shatter like glass. The arrival of Vaile may yet give him the ability to act on the threats that encroach upon the Dominion, and hopefully give his Pharaoh some relief from her inner battle.

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Desert/ Sand Elves’ Side

Melark the Cruel/ Great, The Monster with Two Faces; One for Friends and One for Foes

Description: Melark is, without a doubt, the epitome of his kind. Even though Desert/ Sand Elves are known for being overly xenophobic at the best of times and slavers at the worst, Melark seems to take the distain for all non-Desert/ Sand Elves to a whole new level. Any sapient that is not a member of his own Sub-Race will not escape his wrath once he learns of their act of trespassing into what he considers his kind’s ‘rightful territory’. This means that the Solusand Dominion and all within, including the buildings, are targets for him to destroy and despoil.

To his people, he seems a godsend. To those who stand outside his people, he is a sadist, a merciless monster and a man hell-bent on eradicating any and all traces of them ever having even a single foothold in his ‘destined territory’. Ever since he managed to unite the various tribes of his people under his banner (using no small amount of brutality and merciless violence), he has imposed nothing but malice and evil upon any unfortunate enough to cross him, even if they only did so in his own mind.

It is unclear where his views, which are extreme even for Desert/ Sand Elves, came from, but they seem to have arrived in their current state just a year or so ago, about the time when a massive pulse of power rippled through the world, coming from a single human Kingdom. While he had always been violent and heartless before, pushing the Pharaoh’s people out of their homes with fire and sword, now he is seemingly intent on not only taking their land but also butchering their people and destroying every single trace of their civilization.

Some claim he has had a vision of what could be if he does not do what he intends to, and this was what tipped him over the edge. Regardless of where his new heightened capacity for malice comes from, he may well find that the Dominion that once was easy to bowl over will fight back now that his people have wronged the Dominion in a way that was not expected. The appearance and casual disregard of a man buried up to his head in the sand could be what leads to his vison coming true and his people being forced to permanently give up on their deeply rooted ambitions.