Selina Osiris

*"It is the only thing written on this heavenly wall of mine—the one rule of the Godcraft…" she licked her lips and stated, "'Forever serve the King of Kings.'" ―Selina Osiris, The Osiris Contract - Chapter 6*

Selina Osiris is one of the dual protagonists of Shrouded Piety, starring in her own book, The Osiris Contract, before sharing the following books with Suri Yaktosh. In the previous, now defunct version of Shrouded Piety, Tale of Two Godcrafts, Selina was considered a recurring villain and rival to Suri, and the protagonist to the 'Flashlore' side of the story.

In ancient times, Selina—then known as SAt-Wsjr—is an immortal magician of ancient Egypt who swears perfect loyalty to the pharaoh. It is unknown to anyone exactly where Selina comes from, what purpose she serves in life, or even how old she truly is, but she has nonetheless decided for herself that she is the creation of the Egyptian god, Osiris, and that her purpose in life is to serve and protect the pharaoh. In addition to serving the pharaohs, Selina across history has taken up a number of roles, such as being an inquisitor during times of insurrection, and traditionally a ritualist during the funerals of pharaohs. Ironically, it is her loyalty to the pharaoh and role as a funeral ritualist that leads to her becoming trapped within the tomb of a freshly mummified ruler. It is not until well over a thousand years later that she would be freed by Napoleon Bonaparte during the French occupation of Egypt. Without a pharaoh to serve, Selina cautiously agrees to serve Napoleon temporarily instead under the false promise that he will liberate a Pharaonic Egypt from the Ottoman Empire. Under this agreement, SAt-Wsjr takes on the name 'Selina of Osiris' as she goes with Napoleon to France as his new immortal servant.

## Appearance

Selina is a self-proclaimed Egyptian who is presumably thousands of years old by the 19th century CE, and yet features a young and healthful body. The woman is very tall, especially compared to her ancient Egyptian peers, and has lapis colored hair of great length. It is not certain what race Selina truly is, but she considers herself to be native to Upper Egypt based on her earliest memories taking place in the region, as well as her long and mostly uninterrupted place by the thrones of pharaohs. Selina's eyes are similar in color to her lapis hair, but when glowing tend to become more saturated. A notable facial feature of Selina are her thick and serious eyebrows, along with very maintained and sometimes even designed eyelashes.

Selina's everyday appearance is constantly changing over time. During her ancient Egyptian days, she wears a shoulderless silk dress adorned with a red and blue patterned top, topped by a blue sash hanging from her upper chest. She completes her Egyptian garb with a decorative headpiece made from gold, with silk that covers everything but her face and forehead. Although she would continue to wear this traditional garb even thousands of years later when liberated by Napoleon Bonaparte, a gradual French and Christian influence over her would gradually lead to this outfit being replaced. Selina's choice of fashion is very much representative of her alignments that consist of faction, religion, and culture.

The constant featured item of Selina's everyday appearance is her golden necklace, featuring an ankh. This necklace is a source for her powers, and also contains an unearthly world that she may enter and reside in any point. For these reasons, the necklace has been on Selina's person for as long as she can remember, and the symbol itself even went on to become a common part of Egyptian symbolism for 'life.'

## Personality

Selina maintains a loyal, dutiful, and unforgiving personality throughout the ages, rarely embracing humor, play, lust, romance, or any other forms of self-service. As the trusted magician of the pharaohs of Egypt, Selina sees herself as the last line of defense to the stability of Egypt as a state, knowing well that one must first get past her before reaching the pharaoh. Due to this role, Selina's entire life revolves around serving the pharaoh, leaving her in an endless work mindset. Even when trapped for centuries, Selina's top concern would not so much be to free herself, rather it was to return to the side of the pharaoh, and after learning that the title of pharaoh no longer existed, her top concern became to restore the title.

Unlike Suri, Selina does not question her purpose in life much, simply believing that she has been gifted her Godcraft powers so to better serve her Egyptian masters. Because of Selina's demand for stability and the preservation of the status quo, she is very easy to agitate, especially when she deems the offending party is not taking their objectives seriously enough. Selina is, similarly, very loyal to the gods of Egypt, demonstrating her genuine belief in their capacity to intervene into human affairs.

Selina's very reactionary nature leaves her in a position where she condemns innovation. An example of this tendency comes in the 18th century, where Selina argues in favor of the sword while condemning the firearm, even in light of its proven effectiveness.

Outside of the Shrouded Piety canon, Selina is portrayed as being a grumpy companion to Suri, and the occasional target of Lieutenant Seppuku's lustful stares. Selina is considered the spiritual successor to Rose Flower, of F-Zero: Seppuku.

## Key Relationships

### Suri Yaktosh

*"For many years, I believed she was a god, and so I worshipped this woman even more than Osiris himself. For another long period of years, I suspected her to be the evil side of my spirit, there to haunt me, and so I hated her. But… for hundreds of years, she was neither to me. For hundreds of years, this mysterious woman became the most important part of my everyday life. I would wave, and she would wave. I would dance, and she would dance back. She became my friend." ―Selina Osiris, The Osiris Contract - Chapter 6*

Whenever Selina is in her necklace (the Hall of Godcrafts), she is occasionally greeted by the vague and mute likeness of a mysterious woman who was the Crimean Godcraft, Suri. Although Selina had been aware of this mysterious figure even during her service to the pharaohs, it was not until the centuries she spent trapped in a tomb that Selina would seriously theorize about her nature. Unlike Selina, who would idle around helplessly in the Hall of Godcrafts for hundreds of years, Suri spent most of her time outside of it, that is until she herself became similarly trapped and thus forced to reside in the Hall of Godcrafts for centuries as well. To Selina's harsh dismay, Suri would not only become trapped later than her, but also be freed sooner as well by about 550 years.

Unlike Suri, who was immediately curious about her mysterious counterpart, Selina's theorizing about Suri would only truly begin after becoming trapped in the Hall of Godcrafts. Despite all the time to think about it, Selina would take an extraordinarily long time to correctly guess that Suri is a fellow Godcraft. In the beginning, she would assume that Suri was the Egyptian god Osiris, Anubis, or Seker depending on the era, and beyond these occasions even took on the assumption that Suri was some unknown Egyptian god. No matter the deity, Selina spent many centuries worshipping Suri just as she would any god, even with Suri being unable to hear her words in this world. As time went on, Selina took on a radically different position, suddenly concluding that Suri had to be a demon, evil god, or even a dark replica of herself who existed to torment her. During these many years, Selina came to despise Suri and treat her as the ultimate evil in the universe, at times even elevating her over the likeness of the evil god, Apep. Following centuries of these false conceptions, Selina would finally arrive at the correct assumption that Suri is a second Godcraft who exists away from Egypt. Suri's insistence on making mostly calm and friendly gestures over the years would help guide Selina to this eventual conclusion, and subsequently, she would go on to consider Suri a friend, even if she knew nothing at all about her.

A major difference between the two is that while Selina would remain in the same royal garments all the way into the 19th century CE, Suri would undergo various wardrobe changes, and yet nothing that would ever clue Selina in on what culture or faction she was part of.

### Napoleon Bonaparte

*"Ah, a fine reward for a man who so selflessly defended Egypt." ―Selina Osiris, The Osiris Contract - Chapter 7*

Napoleon Bonaparte plays a significant role in Selina's life, having rescued her from the tomb she was trapped within for well over a thousand years. Although not obligated to serve Napoleon as a subject, her decision to swear fealty to him comes from the absence of a pharaoh and her belief that he has the means to revive the title of pharaoh to Egypt.

The relationship of Selina and Napoleon is one of servant and master; however, as time passes, the two begin to form something more akin to a familial relationship, so much so that Selina would become a daily guest at Josephine's dinner table. Nevertheless, the two have their own distinct perspectives of one another.

Napoleon, though an admirer of Selina's ancient culture and supernaturalism, has a tendency to treat her as a subject and will even do so in a demeaning way as he sees fit. In many ways, Selina is a living trophy to Napoleon and his key to justifying his failed occupation of Egypt, but he also comes to realize that her supernatural abilities can prove resourceful to him in his many ambitions, especially during his quest to take control of France. Napoleon is aware that Selina's loyalty to him is fragile, and so he makes sure to do just enough to placate her regularly, typically through false promises relating to Egypt's restoration of the pharaoh and ancient religion. In order to keep Selina loyal to him, Napoleon makes a special effort to keep her unaware of the Biblical story of Exodus, fearing that exposing her to this may shatter her connection to ancient Egypt and therefore eliminate her need of Napoleon.

Selina respects Napoleon's titles and accomplishments more than the man himself. While she does not see Napoleon as equal in power to any pharaoh, she does, nevertheless, acknowledge Napoleon as a powerful person with honorable intentions. She is convinced that Napoleon holds Egypt's best interests to heart and that he truly intends on restoring the title of pharaoh to an independent Egypt, and for these reasons, she rewards him with her full loyalty and support in all of his missions, even ones in France. While Napoleon does stand to provoke Selina frequently and even draws her occasional criticism, she still respects the man more than anyone in France, so much so that she is willing to share personal information with him that she would otherwise keep secret from the world.

## Concept Art + Inspiration

#### Concept Art

Selina's design concept was made April 30, 2015, and introduced the character as she would appear in Tale of Two Godcrafts.

As Tale of Two Godcrafts took place in the year 2099, Selina had a contemporary look consisting of a black and red bodysuit bearing the symbols of her personal faction—the Reaper Four.

One notable difference with Selina even within the scope of Tale of Two Godcrafts is that she was initially designed to be short, but soon after was instead made to be tall to contrast with Suri. A second difference is that since Selina was originally of the Frankish culture, she had a Caucasian skin tone; with the decision to instead make Selina an ancient Egyptian in the Shrouded Piety reboot, her skin color was darkened as a result.

#### Inspiration

* **André Linoge (Storm of the Century)** - Selina's earliest inspiration comes from the antagonist of Stephen King's Storm of the Century. During the early development of Shrouded Piety, it was decides that Suri should have a rival and equal to her. André Linoge inspired the idea of creating a Satan-like rival to Suri who shares similar chilling traits as Linoge. The desire to make Selina a Satan worshipping character directly influenced the black and red colors of her clothing, but little more would come from this inspiration, as Selina's final character would greatly deviate from the original plan for her.
* **Seto Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh!)** - In all versions of Shrouded Piety, Selina's constant state of displeasure and snarky comments is inspired by Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Seto Kaiba. Additional inspiration from Kaiba would lead to Selina becoming an arrogant and proud character to such an effect that she aspires for victory above all.

## Trivia

* **SAt-Wsjr** - The name SAt-Wsjr—roughly 'Daughter of Osiris'—was chosen as a way of justifying the surname 'Osiris' in the future when she adopted the name 'Selina.'
	+ In Tale of Two Godcrafts, Selina's initial name in the concept design stage was 'Selina O'Donnell.'
* **Race Change** - Selina is the only Siontix Realm character to have had her race changed past the point of their concept design, having gone from Caucasian to African with the release of The Osiris Contract.
* **Original Birthdate** - In Tale of Two Godcrafts, it was established that Selina had some memory of her childhood dating back to the Kingdom of Franks around the 8th century CE. Considering Suri's backstory continued to have her with the Crimean Goths, this implied that Suri was much older than Selina, whereas with the reboot, the opposite might be suggested.