Atlantean Characters

*"Oyo Non"*

*"Yshar Emaa"*

- Truncated version of the "battle prayer", translating to "Be strong, be brave, slay the night."; recited before any military action overseen by Ellastraza

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When one hears the words "fifty nine year old emrpess", one would scarcely think of a knife eared woman with hair as blue as the sea and long enough to reach her legs and eyes of intense purple who dresses more like an exotic dancer than European or Asian royalty who doesn't seem to be out of her early twenties possessing the build of a professional gymnast. But it is her word that Atlanteans ultimately heed to even if the Uzarinas and Hiszary are on paper the secular heads of the Ascendancy. Unlike some other Ascendants, Ellastraza fully exercises the authority invested in her rather than pass it onto her Shogun esque Uzarinas or her Chancellor (Hiszary); using them in a more advisory role. Having ruled for some forty four years, she is easily one of the most experienced heads of state and though she has only been known to the politics of the surface world for a year's time; she has already become widely known as an extremely accomplished ruler and a razor witted diplomat (when she can stand the person speaking to her's presence) as well as a very fast learner. And as those assassins who have tried to make attempts on her life have found, her famous daughter Aqua has a long way to go to match the combat abilities of her mother; trained by the finest soldiers of her people, wielding Hyksos technology, and a well matured psychic.

But her reign is not without flaw. Stubborn and convinced of her own righteousness, she is notoriously difficult to bring to a compromise and she tends to have a low opinion of most surface humans she meets, convinced most of them can't even be trusted to speak to her without making some grievous error and is intensely critical of the slightest perceived flaw in other people. Intensely devout to her faith and devoted to the prosperity of her people, she is difficult to please and intentionally acts difficult with foreigners she meets to weed out those she thinks aren't worth the time of her or her empire. With little tolerance for the disrespect of her, her family, her court, her faith, her people, and her state; an open contempt for those she believes or finds to be deceitful; a distaste for flattery from strangers; a stickler for ancient traditions of court etiquette and a tongue sharper than any blade she is difficult to stay on the good side of for foreigners. If she decides to hold negotiations in the midst of a dance, it would be a terrible idea to refuse and one had better hope they can at least try to keep up with her.

But even when one earns her acceptance, one must still put up with her fondness for her love of being a Gadfly through and through; seeming to delight in provoking reactions out of others, with famous acts such as snatching Kissinger's glasses off his face mid discussion just to see how he would react to insisting that the Japanese foreign minister meet her while she bathed (though at that point Atlantean culture did not quite understand the surface world had different ideas regarding the time and place for nudity), telling a two hour long story about an Atlantean epic about a Princess' quest to resurrect her cousin after a battle with demons and berating the Combine delegation every time they interrupted her only to reveal that she made the entire thing up on the spot and there was no such epic and she had done this just to waste some time, to challenging the Andrei Gromyko to wrestling on the spot. This eclectic behavior has made her dreaded by heads of state and diplomats the world over, but it has made her something of a celebrity elsewhere. Her comment to Queen Elizabeth during a visit that "you look miserably hot in those furs, perhaps you should undress?" which caused the Queen to choke on her drink in surprise has in particular been immortalized in endless placards, as has the Queen's expression as she did a spittake, captured by several photographers and cameramen.

Like all Ascendants, Ellastraza was raised for her job from birth and was to a rather large degree; bred for it, with the house of Ataelynaia having had its issue carefully managed to ensure each new Ascendant would be better than the last and try to recapture the glory of Ataelyn herself who directly knew the descended Gods and was remade by them into a Demi-Goddess. Out of all the Ascendants, Ellastraza is perhaps the closest to that glory. As a part of this, they are free to sire issue with whom they please most of the time; every ten years she must produce issue with a selected consort determined by the oracles of which the ascendant has the final say, but it is rare for them to overtun the choice; the first of which lead to the birth of Aqua, her first daughter. Ellastraza herself was born as a part of this process to the point that even her bodily features have been carefully groomed over generations. She doesn't allow this to bother her in public, but at times in private she wonders if she really is her own woman or if she's just to forever live in the shadow of Ataelyn. it's perhaps this that motivates her to take such a hardline stance to the "Azhra Maedrana", the scourge of fire; the prophecized end of the world as we know it foretold in the Hyksos relics when corrupting fire touches the earth, children turn on their parents, and the demons of the stars descend to scour the world with fire. To her, it has already begun and the Ascendancy must be ready for it, and so must the surface dwellers.

Having taken the position of Ascendant with the resignation of her mother, she frequently consults with her mother for guidance to deal with her own insecurities about her identity in the world and for how to deal with the peoples of other nations as she spent her reign dealing with other courts while the entirety of Ellastraza's reign until now had known no real foreigners beyond the hateful Kumun who were never much for words, the hateful Ecumene with whom it would be sacriligeous to speak, and the Zeelich who tried to avoid too much contact with her court unless necessary. Now she was regularly conducting negotiations with the Fylkirate from another earth as allies, the Conclave of the Tibetans who she found herself in an alliance with after finding the Dalai Lama to be much to her liking, the Andeans and the Inkarri who both agreed to join this secretive alliance out of mutual goals, and the Zeelich have become increasingly more open. In the open world of politics, she finds the inundation of foreigners seeking audience with her overwhelming. Recognizing the Atlanteans as a new superpower, everyone is trying to bend her pointed ears one way or the other and try to woo her with various promises while foreign media finds her endlessly fascinating and has thrusted her onto the stage of global celebrity. She did find being announced as miss universe 1969 despite not even entering to be endearing however.