Sedge

__NOEDITSECTION__
__TOC__
Third place winner of the Historical Ruler Character Contest.
Queen Sedge was an adult female MudWing who ruled the tribe about 100 years prior to the events of The Dragonet Prophecy. During her reign, she orchestrated a series of invasions against the SkyWings and RainWings and later became known as the Warmonger Queen. She was known for her heavily isolationist policies and militant rule.
== Appearance ==
By most standards, Sedge was considered rather plain-looking. She stood at an average height for her tribe and was muscular from years of combat training as a dragonet. Despite this, her body held no visible scars—a stark contrast to the years of bloodshed she inflicted. When interacting with her court and subjects, she maintained excellent posture to emanate a poised, regal aura, although this facade quickly disappeared once she was around her brothers. Towards the end of her reign, this veneer of perfection began to slip entirely—her eyes appeared dull and bloodshot, and she walked with an unsteady gait, dragging her thick tail behind her.
Her scales were in various shades of muted green, and it's said that she bore a striking resemblance to her late grandmother Olive. Sedge's doe-like eyes were large and downturned, holding a pensive brown gaze. Under her eyes were deep bags from numerous nights of too little sleep, and her brow was permanently furrowed, as if she was constantly lost in thought.
Sedge rarely wore the MudWing crown unless it was for ceremonies or public appearances, opting to instead wear a simple crown of lily of the valley flowers. She occasionally wore gold jewelry in the form of ornate leaf-shaped earrings or rings on her horns and claws.
== Personality ==
As a dragonet, Sedge was a gentle soul who preferred to spend her time reading scrolls instead of sparring with her brothers. In fact, many of the queendom's citizens were shocked to hear that Queen Coypu's obedient, reserved daughter had challenged her for the throne—and won. During her studies, she excelled in history and politics, gaining a sharp intellect and a talent for strategy. However, Sedge's sheltered upbringing resulted in her developing a rather naive outlook on the world. It was this overly trusting nature that made her the prime target for Bramble's manipulation.
Despite their differences, Sedge cared deeply about her brothers and did everything within her power to keep them safe and happy. Like the rest of her sibs, she was deeply shaken by Salamander's death. In her grief-stricken state, she believed that the only way to avenge her brother's death and protect her tribe was by becoming queen. After ascending the throne, Sedge became increasingly cold and withdrawn, closing herself off to everyone except Bramble, who convinced her that he was the only person she could truly trust.
Sedge was an isolationist who believed that the ends justified the means—the overall strength of the tribe was more important than the lives of a few individuals. In her mind, her mother's folly was that her openness towards other tribes allowed them to take advantage of her, and Salamander's death was proof of this. She convinced herself that she was acting in the best interests of her tribe and was unaware of how much suffering she was truly causing them.
Due to the lies Bramble fed her, Sedge became highly paranoid and constantly questioned the loyalty of the dragons around her. She would dismiss or even execute members of her court and the palace staff at the slightest provocation. Her suspicions were eventually confirmed when she unearthed a plot by Clover to assassinate her, and she began to turn against the rest of her brothers.
After she discovered Bramble's betrayal, she fell into a deep depression, realizing that she'd failed her tribe and her siblings. Sedge later allowed Heron to defeat her in a royal challenge, dying honorably with the knowledge that her daughter would secure a peaceful future for their tribe.
== History ==
Queen Coypu's first and only clutch of eggs hatched within the Royal Hatchery during a particularly bitter winter in the year 4895 AS. Much to her surprise, all six of the dragonets that emerged were male. Fortunately, Coypu had sisters and nieces of her own—she was not keen to repeat the succession crisis that had spiraled the tribe into chaos several years prior.
Sedge was the last-hatched of her clutch, preceded by her brothers Mire, Clover, Toad, Salamander, and their bigwings Bramble. Although Bramble was a caring brother, he was often stubborn and refused to compromise his beliefs, leading to occasional friction within their troop.
At the age of five, Sedge and her brothers were sent to study within different queendoms as a way of broadening their education and exposing them to different cultures (and also partially because the Mud Queendom had little use for six young princes). She was assigned to stay at the SkyWing palace and befriended Princess Wren, the niece of the queen.
Around this time, she came to the realization that she was not a prince at all. With Wren's help, she selected her name—Sedge, after the hardy plant that reminded her of the home she missed dearly.
Sedge began to develop feelings for Wren, but her time in the SkyWing capital came to an abrupt end when she and her brothers were summoned back to the Mud Queendom at age seven. The two promised to keep in touch, bidding each other a tearful goodbye.
After arriving back at the MudWing palace, Sedge noticed that there was something different about Bramble, who had been sent to stay at the IceWing palace. He had become a little crueler, a little quicker to anger. 
Despite learning that she now had a daughter, Coypu remained utterly unfazed. Sedge had never planned to challenge her mother—in fact, everyone assumed that the queen would live to old age, with one of her sisters or nieces inheriting the throne after her death.
But one day, Bramble approached Sedge with a proposition—that she challenge Coypu for the throne. He explained that his time in the Ice Queendom had made him realize how weak the other tribes perceived the MudWings to be. Coypu ruled with a gentle talon, and as a result, their tribe was not feared or respected—especially not after their recent succession crisis. She posed a danger to the MudWings by devoting time and energy to other tribes who would turn on them the instant they were no longer useful. Bramble believed that the MudWings should use their strength in numbers to their advantage, first by reclaiming territory that had been conquered by the SkyWings.
However, Sedge still remained skeptical. Besides, she was barely an adult and had none of the knowledge or expertise required of a queen. Bramble assured her that he would assist her when the time came and asked her to at least keep the plan in mind. Reluctantly, she agreed.
Over the next three years, MudWing-SkyWing relations began to steadily decline due to border disputes. Despite this, Sedge and Wren still continued to exchange letters with each other. Wren had been appointed as the commander of a battalion within the SkyWing queen's army, but promised she would find a way to maintain peace.
After a few weeks, however, Wren's letters stopped arriving altogether. Bramble attempted to convince Sedge that her friend was now conspiring against the MudWings. Of course, she immediately protested the idea—the sweet, generous SkyWing she knew would never do such a thing. Would she?
The final straw came when Sedge's brother Salamander was killed by SkyWing soldiers during a skirmish. Coypu refused to retaliate out of fear of causing a war, enraging Sedge and her brothers.
Now consumed by grief and anger, Sedge finally agreed to challenge her mother for the throne. But there was one problem—Coypu was a formidable opponent in battle, and although Sedge had been trained in combat, she was nowhere near powerful enough to defeat her.
Her brothers' solution was to use a specially concocted RainWing poison. During the week leading up to the challenge, they laced her food and drink with the poison, leaving the queen weak and disoriented.
When Sedge formally challenged her mother, the queen decided they would duel beside the lake at the edge of the palace the next day. That night, Coypu summoned Sedge to her quarters to speak with her. To her surprise, her mother revealed that she had been aware of the poison and that she knew she was to lose the duel. She warned Sedge about the dangers of pursuing the throne for the sake of revenge. While Sedge and her brothers might think her soft and weak-willed, she had always kept her subjects' best interests in mind and protected them to the best of her ability. A fearsome tribe, after all, was not always a happy one.
It would be years until Sedge truly took her mother's words to heart.
Their duel began at sunrise. The poison had taken a clear toll on Coypu's body, but she still put up a fierce fight. Although exhausted, Sedge managed to deliver the killing blow and was crowned the new queen at age ten.
Her first acts as queen were to appoint Bramble as her advisor and mobilize the MudWing army for an attack on the SkyWings, as he had wished. Sedge's only condition was that the troops avoid harming Wren, whom she still harbored feelings for.
The battle over the disputed territory raged on for several weeks. Unbeknownst to Sedge, Bramble had been withholding Wren's letters from her and had ordered the princess's death, as he viewed Sedge's affection towards her as an obstacle to their tribe's progress. She was killed during one of the final attacks and her body was thrown into the Diamond Spray River so that it could never be discovered. Her death was reported as a freak accident, and Sedge remained distraught for months afterwards.
Due to Bramble's influence, Sedge's rulership became heavily isolationist. Bramble planted seeds of doubt in her mind, making her increasingly paranoid to the point where she refused to consult with anyone but him.
Over the next few years, she ordered additional attacks on the SkyWings so that they would never attempt to encroach on MudWing territory again. As the number of MudWing soldiers dwindled, she installed a draft program that required all dragons between the ages of seven and fourteen to enlist in the military. And when her tribe's population continued to rapidly grow, she pushed their territory into the Rainforest Queendom, forcing out the pacifist RainWings that lived there.
The rest of Sedge's sib group quickly splintered. When Sedge discovered that Clover had been conspiring with her aunts to overthrow her, she ordered them all to be publicly executed. Soon afterwards, Mire slipped away in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. Only Toad was clever enough to realize that if he wanted to stay alive, he needed to keep out of Sedge's way.
By the age of 30, Sedge had established the MudWings as a force to be reckoned with, ruling over her tribe with an iron fist. The MudWings had effectively been sequestered from the rest of the continent, who had grown to fear the name of the Warmonger Queen. Any dissent or rebellion was swiftly quashed by her now formidable army. She'd also begetted her first and only clutch of eggs, which bore her a daughter and two sons.
Her daughter, Heron, was an outspoken and headstrong dragonet who asked far too many questions. Sedge rarely interacted with her but kept an eye on her progress from afar.
One day, Sedge was searching through Bramble's study when she discovered Wren's letters tucked away in one of his meticulously organized files. Furious, she confronted him, and he calmly admitted that he had intercepted the letters before she could receive them. After all, Wren had been a distraction—one that he'd had to remove so that Sedge could reach her full potential as queen, and she had! The MudWings were now the most feared tribe in Pyrrhia, and no other tribe dared to set foot on their territory. Surely she understood why he had to dispose of her.
She did not. In a fit of rage, she ordered her guards to seize and execute him, ignoring his pleas for mercy.
The next several months passed by in a blur. Shaken by her brother's betrayal, Sedge confined herself to her quarters, refusing to eat or speak to anyone else. How many lies had Bramble fed her? How many dragons had died as a result of her actions? All the things she'd done as queen to “protect” the tribe—had they all been for nothing?
Sedge had never been worthy of wearing the crown. Perhaps she'd known that all along. Now she could only stare numbly at Wren's final letters to her, memorizing each individual letter until they bored into her skull.
On Heron's seventh hatching-day, she was abruptly accosted by her daughter and a small army that had managed to break through the palace gates. Throughout the past few years, she'd been sneaking out of the palace and amassing supporters among the commonfolk, most of whom had loved ones who were killed as a result of Sedge's rulership.
Heron met her mother's eyes with a steady gaze and declared that she was challenging her for the MudWing throne. With no other option, Sedge agreed, and the two prepared to duel by the lakeside—the same place where she'd defeated Coypu.
Sedge was a strong dragon, but weeks of malnourishment and little sleep had left her a husk of her former self. Although she was still capable of defending her place on the throne, she allowed her daughter to overpower her, realizing that the tribe would be in safe talons under Heron's rulership. However, Heron had the kindness to grant her mother one last request before she died, and her final moments were spent watching the sun set over the lake where she'd spent much of her dragonethood. At last, the reign of the Warmonger Queen was no more.
== Relationships ==
=== Bramble ===
The bigwings of Sedge's troop, a hulking dragon with purplish-brown scales. Despite his formidable size, his strength lay in strategy rather than combat. He had an urge to keep track of and control everything and would often hoard seemingly insignificant objects. He'd always harbored an ambition to become ruler but was never able to because he was not a princess. When Sedge revealed that she was a dragoness and therefore an heir to the throne, he began to manipulate her into sharing his goals. Sedge trusted him deeply and was devastated when she learned of his treachery.
=== Clover ===
Sedge's fourth-eldest brother. He resembled her the most in appearance and personality. Although he originally supported her bid for the throne, he quickly realized how ruinous her leadership would be and hatched a plot with his aunts to assassinate her so that one of them could rule instead. When Sedge caught wind of this plan, she was hesitant to execute him, but Bramble convinced her that he was too dangerous to be left alive.
=== Coypu ===
As is customary for most MudWings, Sedge was never particularly close with her mother and had few qualms about challenging her. Although she held some respect for her, this was eventually overpowered by her fury towards her apparent inaction and passivity. Years later, Sedge finally recalled her mother's words to her and began to regret her actions.
=== Heron ===
Sedge's daughter and eventual successor, a willowy dragoness with blue-gray scales and piercing yellow eyes. Sedge made a point of interacting with her as little as possible, and the two were practically strangers. After learning of the suffering and destruction her mother had caused, Heron began to amass supporters among the queendom's commoners, eventually challenging Sedge for the throne at the age of seven. Much of her reign was spent dismantling the policies her mother had implemented and atoning for her wrongdoings towards other tribes.
=== Mire ===
The second-youngest of Sedge's sibling troop. He was a rather nervous and flighty dragon with green-brown scales. After witnessing the execution of Clover and his aunts, he fled to the Rainforest Queendom in the middle of the night, hoping to seek asylum there. It is unknown whether or not he survived the journey.
=== Olive ===
Sedge never met her grandmother, who died soon after she and her siblings hatched, but held a deep respect for her and the measures she took to ensure the survival of the royal lineage.
=== Salamander ===
Sedge's second-eldest brother. In stark comparison to Bramble's stubbornness, he displayed a level of compassion and patience that is seldom found in dragons. After joining the military as a medic during his mother's reign, he was killed in a border skirmish with a SkyWing patrol. His death deeply shook the rest of his siblings.
=== Sawgrass ===
Sedge's grandfather, an awkward and reserved dragon who preferred to keep to himself and his scrolls. She viewed him with disdain because of his thoroughly unassertive demeanor. Sawgrass was horrified by Sedge's vicious reign but did little to stop her, fearing for his own life. After Heron ascended the throne, she appointed him as her advisor.
=== Toad ===
Toad was the third-eldest of his sibs, a dark brown dragon with odd humps on his back. Throughout his life, he had honed the skill of going virtually unnoticed—a skill he used to his advantage when Sedge began to turn on her brothers one by one. She considered him unremarkable and therefore not a threat to her leadership. After her death, he lived out the rest of his life peacefully in the MudWing palace.
=== Wren ===
A SkyWing princess who was Sedge's close friend and the object of her unrequited love. She was smaller than the average dragon, with red-brown scales and deep brown eyes. Sedge thought of her as a fiercely loyal and courageous dragon. The two frequently corresponded via letter until her death. Her aunt, Queen Buzzard, appointed her as the commander of a battalion despite her lack of military experience, intending for her to die in battle to eliminate any possible challengers to the throne.
== Trivia ==
* Sedge was inspired by this event, during which Tui mentioned that the MudWings “haven't had a queen who has been interested in conquering other tribes in a while.”
* Her voice claim is Ellen Thomas.
* As a dragonet, her posture was rather poor and took years to correct.
* She disliked wearing the MudWing crown because she found it cumbersome.
* Her favorite dish was egusi stew with fufu.
== Gallery ==
Sedge Reference.png|Base by Joy Ang and K9Pestilence
Sedge Mayuri.png|Mayuri
Category:Characters
Category:Females
Category:MudWings
Category:Occupation (Government)
Category:LGBT+
Category:Status (Royalty)
Category:Deceased
Category:Content (TheSeafoam)