Night Queen Krixia

Even before she became the Night Queen, Krixia was a powerful and influential noblewoman. Her husband was a ruling council member – and close advisor to the duke – of the incredibly rich Free City of Jaglon, located on the western coast of Anhelt, which plays host to trade fleets from Yakai, the Mistwood, and the Skyiron Dominion. In all the ways that mattered, Krixia had everything that a person might desire. But she wanted nothing less than an eternity of dominance. Her family crest was a bound woman, held upside down, surrounded with penitent supplicants. She vowed from the day she came of age she would never be bound, never be a penitent, only bowed to and praised. Outwardly, Krixia was a woman of great charm and spirit. Wielding an elaborate sword-staff and large shield she battled pirates and bandits. She was a patron of the Church of Lumaya, and a benefactor of the poor. She led efforts to improve the lot of Jaglon’s underclasses and was often consulted by her husband and the duke on matters of social importance. But beneath this noble mask, the truth festered. In private, Krixia felt herself superior to her peers and subjects. She saw no good reason that a woman of her beauty and intelligence should wither and fade. Worse, she feared that her influence would wane with her looks over time, including her hold over her husband. She eagerly consulted with sages and sorcerers in a secretive and increasingly desperate search for the secret of immortality. Krixia took every effort to maintain her outward façade of respectability, knowing that her husband would more than frown on her practice of certain rituals designed to preserve youth, including bathing in the blood of young women and inhaling strange concoctions. It was during this time that she attracted the attention of the Cult of K’Leth. One of the sages she consulted was a member of the cult and he was quick to offer her the object of her desire. Despite her pragmatism, Krixia cast all wisdom aside in her desperation to be immortal. The Cult promised her the eternity she wanted; in return she simply had to help them acquire more highly-placed members, as well as the resources those members could provide. Krixia readily agreed. As charming as ever, she oversaw the induction of many of her fellow nobles into the Cult. But while she wasn’t the only aristocrat in Jaglon who desired more than their allotted span, she believed herself to be the only one truly worthy of it. Even so, she identified those among her peers who might be susceptible to the Cult’s message as well as those who might become troublesome in the future. She was quick to aim her new allies at old rivals, further cementing her own position. But not every new member was as discreet as Krixia and, in time, their activities attracted the attention of the Sacred Order. Rumors of missing people and dark magic haunted the streets of Jaglon as the Cult’s power waxed. The duke, concerned, invited the Order to investigate and commanded Krixia’s husband to act as his official liaison. For a time Krixia avoided the eye of the inquisitors, and kept the Cult informed about what the Sacred Order was doing and who they planned to do it to. Yet Krixia knew that she could not stay one step ahead forever; if she wished to have any chance to claim the reward the Cult had promised her, she had to ensure the success of their operations in Jaglon. Thus Krixia, as cunning as she was pragmatic, betrayed her husband for the good of the Cult of K’Leth. She accused him before the representatives of the Sacred Order, blaming him for her crimes she had committed and providing falsified evidence to prove it. Stunned, her husband could mount no defense, and soon burned on an execution pyre, along with a dozen others, all less influential members of the Cult whose loss would mean little to its overall goals. Visibly grieved and repentant, Krixia was soon more popular than ever with the citizens of Jaglon and thus it only made sense that, once a suitable amount of time had passed, the duke would take her as his wife. As a wedding gift and a sign of her new husband’s trust, she was given the keys to the city and its treasure vaults. Moreover, with the Cult’s support, Krixia began to study magic for herself and found that she had a talent for it and learned how to twist her mortal form into something beautiful and terrible. This winged, angelic form could be manifested with but a word, and it allowed Krixia to spread the faith among the lower classes without worry of being identified as their new duchess. Instead, they spoke only of the ‘terrible angel’, ‘the Night Queen’ or ‘the Lady of the Boneyards’... a holy spirit who came among them to find those worthy of escaping the chill clutch of death forever. She also found that she inspired fear in those who set themselves against the Cult. They saw her as a harbinger of terrible things; a nightmare made flesh, a physical manifestation of its evil. In this guise, Krixia has continued to preach to the poor and downtrodden, expanding the Cult’s reach throughout the lower quarters of the city and beyond. Word of the Night Queen has even reached Yakai, and her fame grows with every passing night as more souls are bound to her by faith and desperation. Her angelic form has further allowed her the freedom to dispatch her enemies in suitably grand fashion, swooping down on them in the dark of the night and striking without mercy, further cementing her reputation as a saint of the Cult of K’Leth. But as Krixia’s power grows, some in the Cult grow fearful of her spreading influence; it is even rumored that K’Leth himself is concerned about her growing popularity among the rank and file. For her part, Krixia wonders whether the Cult will ever make good on its promise. If they do not, she may well take the secret of immortality for herself…