Dread Empress Atrocious

"*In studying our histories I have cast aside old mistakes, instead embracing fresh and interesting ones.*"
―Dread Empress Atrocious, later devoured by man-eating tapirs

## General information

### Faction

Praes,
Villains

### Status

Deceased

**Atrocious** was a former Dread Empress who ruled Praes sometime after Dread Emperor Sorcerous. She’s best known for comprehensive tax reform and having been eaten by man-eating tapirs.

Little is known about her or her reign. It seems as though her demise sparked a lengthy legal trial as to the status of claiming Tower by right of usurpation and its relation to sentient animals known as the Trial of Unexpected Teeth.

## Epigraphs

*“In conclusion, the court recognizes the desertion of the sentient tiger army raised by Dread Emperor Sorcerous as sufficient precedent to rule that tapirs can, in fact, commit treason but that lack of sentience bars them from laying claim to the Tower by right of usurpation.”*

– Official transcript from the Trial of Unexpected Teeth, which resulted in the execution of the man-eating tapirs that devoured Dread Empress Atrocious

*“When using tigers you don’t have enough time to gloat, when using rats you risk awkwardly running out of gloat before the end: true equilibrium is found in a pit of humble man-eating tapirs, beasts that have never once failed me.”*

– Dread Empress Atrocious, later devoured by man-eating tapirs

*“Maybe I won’t go to Heaven but you’ve never owned a pit full of man-eating tapirs so who’s the real loser here?”*

– Dread Empress Atrocious, best known for comprehensive tax reform and having been eaten by man-eating tapirs. They were later executed by her successor for treason after a lengthy trial.

*“Negotiation with your ruler, my lord, is like treading the edge of a hidden pit filled with man-eating tapirs. Unrelated, but before we further discuss taxation would you take a single step to the left?”*

– Dread Empress Atrocious

*“In studying our histories I have cast aside old mistakes, instead embracing fresh and interesting ones.”*

– Dread Empress Atrocious, later devoured by man-eating tapirs

*“I speak today not for humble man-eating tapirs but instead for the most ambitious specimens their kind has ever known. Is it not the sacred duty of all Creation to seek to claim the Tower? How, then, could it have been a crime for these tapirs to follow this same dictate by devouring our late Emperor?”*

– From official transcript from the Trial of Unexpected Teeth, opening speech of the defence

## Trivia

Rogue Sorcerer was once trapped into attending a fake auction of secret tomes of the Wizard of the West held in Liesse. This was a ruse of the Black Knight Amadeus, instead he obtained a transcript of the Trial of Unexpected Teeth which was magically tracked by Wekesa.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2019/10/07/interlude-all-ye-villains/
2. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/04/16/chapter-2-alarm/
3. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2020/05/12/chapter-27-nigh/
4. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2016/10/05/chapter-39-countdown/
5. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2019/07/05/chapter-52-recovery/
6. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/12/05/chapter-80-so-below/
7. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2019/05/03/chapter-35-colloquy/