Girl Genius
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Girl Genius

History[]

In the extremely distant past, a collection of Sparky and very long-lived women ruled various kingdoms scattered across the surface of the Earth; the name Ancient God-Queen comes from Trelawney Thorpe when talking to Gil in Londinium, while in the same conversation they are collectively called the "Great Society of Queens" by Hippocrates Brunel. They are implied to have arisen at a time when there was a land bridge between England and continental Europe, and their decline began about 5000 years ago , which in our world was during the early Bronze Age. They used to communicate via the Queen's Mirrors, until the system "went dark". (Note that they did not create the Mirrors, which are/were the product of an even older extinct civilization.)

It has not yet been made clear how formal their association was, or if the original Queens all sprang from the same source. However, it is known that at least one of them (Queen Albia) was recruited into their ranks after the Queens had already established themselves near the various mirrors. Furthermore, they are known to have strategized with one another when they felt threatened. This occurred when Lucrezia Mongfish hunted the Queens using the mirror network, eventually leading to the destruction of both the network and the society of Queens. (More specifically, the mirrors appear to have gone dark during a fight between Queen Sianna and Lucrezia Mongfish, so it is likely that one of those two is responsible.)

As the centuries have passed, many of these women have met their end, and their kingdoms are now ruled by relatively ordinary mortals, or have fallen into forgotten ruins, but a handful still survive.

Albia tells Agatha that the god-queens are not as omniscient as they let their subjects believe, although some came close such as Ninisianaa, Ivaki and Bonatakinon. However, they were all killed by Lucrezia Mongfish.

(Potential) God-Queens[]

Most of the Queens sport a "halo" consisting of a particular symbol drifting about their heads, and some have demonstrated a particular "style" of seemingly-magical combat. Queens who have been named and/or have had symbols shown follow:

  • Queen Albia of England (alive, five-pointed star symbol, uses lightning as a weapon)
  • Queen Calamisia (owner of a huge library of even-more-ancient documents, symbol was paired shapes which made a rough yin-yang configuration of heavily stylised Ri kana glyph, presumed deceased, details unknown)
  • Queen Ishtar-Re of Ubar (alive, details unknown)
  • Queen Luheia of Skifander (killed fighting the Grey Witch (presumably another alias of Lucrezia), details unknown)
  • Queen Sianna (missing after the attack by Lucrezia, presumed dead, no visible symbol, had a third eye on the forehead instead, weapon appears as runes)
  • Queen Nyx of Nammah (killed by Lucrezia, oval symbol, had a temple still operational at the time of the first Storm King )
  • Queen Amare (killed by Lucrezia, diamond symbol, weapon appears as a magic circle)
  • A humanoid skeleton under Big Rat Island with a triangular symbol (bottom side curved concave) still present
  • Queen Ninisinaa (dashed line with diamonds in the gaps, creator of the device that later became Prende's Chronometric Lantern and expert on time, presumed to be killed by Lucrezia).
  • Queens Ivaki and Bonatakinon (mentioned in passing, details unknown, apparently killed by Lucrezia)

Additional characters achieving a second breakthrough:

  • Agatha: she drank the water from The Dyne and was electrified, and then took after her ancestor Igneous Heterodyne. No halo around the head, instead her toolbelt enlarges and suspends around her body. She dumped most of excessive energy to save Gil and Tarvek from expiring and herself from exploding and became apparently normal Spark again, although the experience left some lasting traces.
  • Lucrezia/Agatha reaches breakthrough merely through mental effort, but this required some pre-existent conditions of Agatha's body acquired after above experience with Dyne water. Unstable halo, with symbols made of curves inside a circle, changing form constantly but resembling stylized yin-yang/Pisces at their most stable.[1] Was forced to return to ordinary Spark condition by combined efforts of the gang and Tweedle and the exorcising machine.
  • Quintillius Harmon, Lord Snackleford, ascends to Godhood after summoning an extradimensional creature and siphoning power from it. Halo of vertical rectangles. But almost immediately he is banished to that higher dimension. So far it's not known whether he'll eventually return.
  • Francisia Monahan, once she infers from Lucrezia previously missing information . She is initially accompanied by diamond shapes (as vertically elongated octahedrons) and strings like strings of pearls or stars, but later acquires a halo of asymmetrical hexagons and triangles that alternate in orientation.
  • Lucrezia/Anevka Immediately displaces Monahan . Her entire chassis takes on a ghostly appearance, with a crown (of the antique or "eastern" style) on her head with similar diamond shapes as accompanied Monahan now floating between the points.

According to the novelization, Embi made his sacred vow to see the world to The Great Devil Goddess, to whom he was to return and give a report. Possible candidate for that role is You Know, Her, who's currently referenced in the card deck The Works.

Colette Voltaire apparently ascended, based on her appearance and power. If it were true, the second breakthrough occurred almost immediately following the first; she is connected to Paris. But that's only what she wants everyone (excepting her friends) to think — she built a clank body imitating most attributes of Queens to intimidate potential adversaries.

The spring that existed before the The Dyne was created, was sacred to the local battle goddess . One of the Queen's Mirrors is in Mechanicsburg. The abilities of the battle goddess are unknown, but presumably the title of goddess was not bestowed lightly and at least some of the effects of the spring were known.

Possibly Relevant Outside Information[]

Ayesha (or She-who-must-be-obeyed from H. Rider Haggard's novel She: A History of Adventure) is a God-Queen with the following attributes (taken directly from the Wikipedia synopsis):

  • White, ruling over an African tribe
  • Lives lies near the ruins of the lost city of Kôr, a once mighty civilization that predated the Egyptian
  • Actually dwells (with her retinue) under a dormant volcano in a series of catacombs built as tombs for the people of Kôr
  • Beauty so great that it enchants any man who beholds it
  • Thousands of years old
  • Apparently immortal, though not absolutely so
  • The ability to read the minds of others
  • A form of clairvoyance
  • The ability to heal wounds and cure illness
  • A tremendous knowledge of chemistry
  • Unable to see into the future
  • Possibly some degree of power to reanimate the dead
  • The ability to strike another dead with magic


References

  1. This is probably a reference to the Mongfish family crest, which features two fish arranged in a similar configuration.


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