Queen Hatsutiti

Summary/Background
Likely the cruelest and most malevolent ruler from the long-vanished Talderian Empire of southern Coznakk, Queen Hatsutiti ruled through sheer terror and brutality during the Shadow Era, ascending to the throne circa -13,000 DY. While almost nothing of the Talderian Empire remains except for buried ruins, the legend of Queen Hatsutiti still echoes across the southern third of the continent. Reportedly a commanding noblewoman who rose to prominence through guile and seduction, when her lover Pharaoh Atsutep died under questionable circumstances Hatsutiti made an illegitimate claim to the throne. In some stories, Hatsutiti poisoned the Pharaoh, while in others he died from natural causes, albeit at a young age. By rights, Atsutep's then-9-year-old brother Prince Osarithet was next in line for the throne, but Hatsutiti claimed he was unfit to rule due to his youth, and demanded that as Atsutep's beloved she should rule instead. The Talderian Empire's magisters, the enigmatic Council of the Wizened, reluctantly agreed to allow Hatsutiti's challenge in ritual combat against a champion of Prince Osarithet's choosing.

Hatsutiti not only defeated Osarithet's champion, but immediately killed the young prince himself with a single blow to his head in the same frenzied assault that killed his chosen. Having proven herself against Osarithet and his champion both, Hatsutiti demanded to know if any among the Council of the Wizened still questioned her right to rule. Several among the Council were incensed by Hatsutiti's blatant and unjustified murder of Osarithet and rose to denounce her. Before they could reach their feet, Hatsutiti crossed the room and killed the first to dare rise against her. The second died as he opened his mouth to protest. The third and last drowned in his own blood as Hatsutiti stood on his throat and surveyed the surviving Council as they submitted to her reign of terror.

In the twenty years that followed, Queen Hatsutiti was the unquestioned and unchallenged ruler of the Talderian Empire. The details of her reign are hazy at best, but in legends she brokered deals with the Shadow Dragons, fought wars of conquest against the Qirjans, enslaved Elven envoys, and sought anything and everything that would increase her personal power. Enraged at the prospect of succumbing to something so humble as time, at the end of Queen Hatsutiti's reign, the queen declared she would follow in the steps of the Scarlet Queen and rule the Talderians forever, and commanded all the Empire's resources to find a way for her to cheat death. Undergoing a profane rite of human sacrifices, alchemical embalming, and necromantic mummification, Queen Hatsutiti ended her life with a mixture of poison and an elixir of youth, intending to awaken shortly after as an undying eternal ruler of unmatched beauty.

Here, the legends diverge. In some tales, Queen Hatsutiti's loyal vassals carried out her wishes, but her final return was thwarted by the many she terrorized in life, burying her unfinished corpse in the Tomb of Queen Hatsutiti before the reanimation was complete. In others, Queen Hatsutiti did indeed return, but her tomb was destroyed with her and her vassals buried within, and all trace of her tomb's location was stricken from historical records and the tomb entry itself erased from the earth. A final variant of the tale claims that the Scarlet Queen herself saw in Queen Hatsutiti one who dared to think of herself as her rival, and in her anger she personally intervened in stopping Hatsutiti's reanimation.