Alaya of Satus

## Aspects

Rule

Connect

**Alaya of Satus** was the Tyrant of the Dread Empire at the point the Guide began, under the reigning name Dread Empress Malicia the First . In the first book of the Guide, she had been ruling for forty years, and she is later referred to as "the longest-reigning Dread Empress in the history of the Wasteland".

## Background

Throughout the first book she was referred to only by her reigning name, her personal name was eventually revealed to be Alaya (usually suffixed "of Satus", once suffixed "of the Green Stretch" in an epigraph), nicknamed "Allie" by Amadeus. She was formerly a concubine to Dread Emperor Nefarious, taken by force into his seraglio. She killed the Emperor and usurped the throne in a civil war referred to as the "Whore's Rebellion" by nobility at the time. Born in the Green Stretch, she was an innkeeper's daughter who worked as a waitress and met Amadeus, Wekesa, and Sabah before being taken to the Tower.

#### Early Days

At some point after Dread Emperor Nefarious' failed invasion of Callow, she was forcefully added to his seraglio by the Sentinels at age seventeen. Her father protested and was nailed to the floor of his own inn. While she was still a concubine she wrote a history of the War of Thirteen Tyrants and One, having gained access to the Imperial library through unknown means. She'd previously met Amadeus and saw him again when he became the Black Knight and was summoned to the Tower by the Chancellor. She later killed Nefarious, and both she and the then-Chancellor became claimants to the throne, triggering a civil war. At least two High Lords and a High Lady stood against her in that war, and presumably all of them were defeated before she took control of Praes. The Black Knight served as commander of her forces and seems to have raised her an army in the Northern Steppes, including the later-famous Marshal Grem One-Eye, Marshal Ranker, and General Istrid.

#### The Conquest

Her involvement in the Conquest itself is unknown, though the Reforms that enabled it would have needed her approval. In the wake of the annexation of Callow, Malicia quieted unrest among Praesi high nobility by creating the Imperial governorship system and awarding rich cities to members of the Truebloods.

Malicia presents herself as the metaphorical "good cop" to Amadeus' "bad cop" when interacting with the Praesi aristocracy, though she seems to hold them in little esteem.

## History

#### The Liesse rebellion, the Arcadian Campaign and Akua's Folly (Book 1-3)

During most of the Liesse rebellion and the Arcadian Campaign, Malicia spends her time in the wasteland, eventually being revealed to have schemed the end of the Trueblood faction among the highlords. During this time she occasionally functions as Cat's remote ally, mostly helping behind the scenes on Amadeus' request when needed. After naming Catherine Vicequeen of Callow during the Arcadian Campaign, she takes a more active approach, mentoring Cat while in a puppet body and helping her create a solution with the Winter and Summer fae.

During Akua's folly, it is revealed that Malicia knew about, and provided funding for Akua's doomsday weapon, and had planned to take it after killing Akua Sahelian to use it as a deterrent against the Grand Alliance. Upon realizing this, Amadeus reacted by destroying the weapon, creating a split between him and Malicia. In the process, this also alienated her to Cat, and relations were cold between Callow and Praes after this, with none of them reaching out to each other.

#### Keter (book 4)

After the destruction of Akua's weapon by Amadeus, Malicia starts negotiations with the Dead King. Months into these negotiations, the Dead King invites Catherine for negotiations with him too, and allows Malicia to observe Catherine and the Woe's preparations and plans by allowing one of her puppet bodies to impersonate a citizen of the Serenity who is host to the Woe. Both are there to negotiate acting as an ally to 'let the dead king out', and the differences in offers concerns mostly what territories the Dead King would be allowed to invade. Upon realizing that she can never outbid Malicia, Cat instead tries to assassinate Malicia in Keter, in the process managing to kill multiple of her puppet bodies, but never realizing that she was the host in disguise. As retaliation, Malicia initiates the Night of Knives in Callow, murdering a substantial part of Callow's bureaucracy, including Ratface and Anne Kendal.

#### The Salian Peace Conference and the Grand Alliance (Book 5-6)

In preparation for the peace conference, Malicia struck a deal with Penthes and Helike to use Still Water to destroy Nicea's fleet. She is in attendance at the peace conference, causing a confrontation which results in Amadeus making a claim as Dread Emperor, further deepening the rift between them.

Resulting from this, Malicia activates a dormant bit of mind control in a host of senior officers within the Legions of Terror, including Marshal Grem One-Eye, ordering them all to return to praes. The move sees multiple legions (The 2nd, under General Jainaya Seket, the 3rd under General Mok, and the 9th under General Sacker) deserting and holding out in the Green Stretch. Malicia spends the next two years with civil war in Praes, which is revealed in part to be deliberately dragged out by her as a method to avoid being directly involved in war with the Grand Alliance.

Malicia still fights the Grand Alliance through diplomacy and spies. Especially in the Free Cities and Mercantis.

#### End of her Reign

After the Dead King opened several permanent Hell Gates after the Battle for Hainaut, a campaign for Praes was in order for the Army of Callow, so that enough diabolists could be recruited to close these Hell Gates permanently. This campaign into Praes coincided with a civil war for the Tower. In the course of the campaign, the Army of Callow besieged Ater, with several plots of different actors coming to a close. With plots by the Wandering Bard, Amadeus of the Green Stretch, Catherine Foundling and Malicia herself coming to a close, Alaya/Malicia lost the power over Praes and the Name of Dread Empress. With Amadeus of the Green Stretch implementing a new form of government on the broken Praes, as well as becoming elected Chancellor and subsequently dying, Alaya is elected the new rightful leader of Praes and Catherine allows her to live for seven more years and one for the sake of Amadeus' sacrifice. At the end of those eigth years, Catherine visits Alaya for the last time, who reveals she drank poison, in order to die on her own terms.

## Appearance

Alaya is an exceptionally beautiful Soninke with dark skin and long hair. Catherine notes she is tall, with sharp cheekbones and smooth skin.

Her beauty is much commented upon and she wears clothes that display it - it is apparently unrelated to her Name, though she uses magic and Name power to make it more noticeable and distracting.

## Personality

Several characters mention her as being calculating. She's mentioned to be a lesbian though she is not above using her effect on men to her advantage, which her stated sexual preferences does not seem to hinder. While she plays up her reputation as a seductress in public, she is more modest in private and was stated by Black to have never really overcome her "very provincial views on propriety".

It was said by Tikoloshe (an Incubus with the capacity to discern people's desires) that Malicia "craves control the way a starving man craves a meal". This was said during the civil war that led to her becoming Dread Empress, and may have been a reference to her having been an unwilling member of Nefarious' seraglio until the war, having been denied control over her own life to a degree analogous to starvation. She has at several points referred to her time in the seraglio as imprisonment, and considers the degree of choice she has as empress impossibly valuable.

She is also a bit paranoid in her desire to keep control of the Tower, which has led her to take measures in case Amadeus would plot to betray her. She is aware that Amadeus is her most loyal and trustful supporter, yet she feels threatened by his influence, which causes her much internal turmoil.

## Relationships

**Catherine Foundling:** Malicia is one of the key antagonists for Catherine Foundling. And as the story evolves, Malicia realises she underestimated her opponent and grows increasingly wary of her.

**Amadeus:** Perhaps the only person she has ever truly trusted while Named, Alaya and Amadeus worked closely together for more than forty years. She considers him a part of her soul.

**Ime:** Alaya's spy-mistress whom she also at some point shared a bed with.

**Scribe** has an open dislike of her and implied Ranger felt the same.

**Wekesa:** Over the years, Malicia and Wekesa slowly build up a genuine friendship.

## Powers

Despite initially working as a waitress Alaya has taken to power in a short amount of time she has overwhelmed the status quo of Praes. By allying with Goblins and Orcs and outlawing the name of Chancellor she has upset the Truebloods. She has expanded the name of Empress to encompass the duties of Chancellor as well. Her main power lies in crafting schemes that exhaust her enemies through her indirect manipulations as seen in the constant infighting of Procer. She is also able to handle direct threats by employing the Black Knight, her closest friend.

**Rule**: Allows her to control an individual without visibly having to control them this allows her to subtly control individuals around her without arousing suspicion. With this power anyone in her presence is merely a pawn. Similar to Black she can also plant commands in others, however her power has limits and she is unable to control a large army.

**Connect**: Through the use of this aspect, Malicia was able to feel the emotions and loyalties of others.

## Epigraphs

*“Power is mostly a matter of making the right corpses at the right time.”*

– Dread Empress Malicia the First

*“Only heroes get to have the torch handed to them. Villains must take it from their predecessor’s corpse.”*

– Dread Empress Malicia, First of her Name

*“I trust people to act according to their nature. Anything more is sentimentality.”*

– Dread Empress Malicia the First

*“It is impossible for the Empire to make an appreciable gain so long as this gain is a loss to every other nation on Calernia. To remedy this, we must discard the traditional lines of allying only to Evil polities and make it so that it is in the interest of other powers for us to rise.”*

– Extract from ‘The Death of the Age of Wonders’, a treatise by Dread Empress Malicia

*“A war fought and won for the wrong reasons, under the wrong cause, can be a greater threat to the Praes than simple defeat. Maleficent the First spoke of villains raising their own gallows, but failed to add that the killing stroke in a hanging comes from the height of the drop.”*

– Extract from ‘The Death of the Age of Wonders’, a treatise by Dread Empress Malicia

*“From the example of the claimant Desolate we can learn this: no scheme is so perfect that it is invulnerable to the utter idiocy of an opponent.”*

-Extract from an untitled historical commentary on the War of Thirteen Tyrants and One, by the Imperial Concubine Alaya of the Green Stretch

*“To repudiate what lies at the heart of Praes – ambition, skill, learning – would be a mistake, yet to allow those traits to be principle rather than tool has been the mother of a great many dooms. The greatness of olden days must be put to modern purpose or see itself turn irrelevant to the lay of Creation.”*

– Extract from ‘The Death of the Age of Wonders’, a treatise by Dread Empress Malicia

## Gallery

Dread Empress Malicia by GwennafranBook 1 Praesi Names by Gwennafran
## References

1. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2019/10/07/interlude-all-ye-villains/
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/08/15/chapter-44-catherines-plan/
3. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2019/01/14/prologue-5/
4. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2015/09/02/chapter-23-moroks-plan/
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2015/08/19/chapter-21-fall/
6. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/11/05/interlude-inheritance/
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/10/29/interlude-dreadful/
8. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2016/04/27/villainous-interlude-coup-de-theatre/
9. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2016/11/23/chapter-45-corpses/
10. ↑ Book III, Chapter 34:Talks
11. ↑ Book III, Chapter 33: Promises
12. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2021/07/27/chapter-26-singer-sung/
13. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2015/08/12/chapter-20-rise/
14. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2019/08/02/seed-ii/
15. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2016/02/17/villainous-interlude-coulisse/
16. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2016/11/02/red-skies/
17. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2019/08/02/seed-ii/
18. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2021/01/01/epilogue-6/
19. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2017/12/04/chapter-49-hearsay/
20. ↑ Book 7 - Interlude: East II She sent for the files the Eyes had on them. Layan Kaisha was one of Amadeus’ veterans, it turned out. So were two of the rest, but most were not. Yet Malicia’s mind itched with intuition. This had been done in accord, she grew convinced as her Name began to swell. There was something to Connect those names even if she did not yet understand it. Her aspect had never failed her before, even though the leaps of intuition it sometimes leant her were the ficklest part of the boons it granted. She set the Eyes to digging deeper at the nobles.

...

It had taken days for the aspect to return, and even now it was weakened. She could feel it in the people around her, through the connections that Connect allowed her to instinctively understand.
21. ↑ Book 7 - Interlude: East III It was a relief when Ime came to meet with her, a distraction from her thoughts and their downwards spiral. Connect told her that her spymistress’ loyalty had weakened but not in a harmful way. The nuance was hard to read, but Malicia had learned. Ime must have thought of running, then. She had not, Malicia remined herself. For now, that was what mattered.
22. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/chapter-4-name/
23. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2016/06/01/chapter-25-wake/
24. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2016/08/17/chapter-35-spur/
25. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2017/10/18/chapter-36-malice/
26. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/06/18/chapter-22-trip/
27. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2019/07/22/chapter-59-review/