Empress Rixa I

> "*Your realm is at peace, Rixa - but that's not what you want, is it? That's never what you wanted. You never wanted a peaceful life, or an easy life. You never even wanted to rule. You wanted an interesting life that people would remember for millennia, like the heroes of old. I will give that to you, my dear Empress.*"
> ― Game Master Therad
>
>

## Empress Rixa I Capilus

### Parents

Emperor Verian I Capilus (Father), Elli Sirias (Mother)

### Occupation

Empress of Nesaria (137-199)

**Empress Rixa I**, also known as **Rixa the Dragon-Slayer**, **Rixa the Knight** and the **Empress Errant**, was Empress of Nesaria from 137 to 199, and is commonly regarded as one of the greatest Emperors, often ranked in second place behind her grandfather Emperor Athdus III.

Although she is remembered as a great Empress, Rixa actually did little ruling and spent little time in Nesaria; the majority of her reign was spent on campaign across Inecuria - almost exclusively the west - dealing with a near-continuous series of conflicts and issues, accompanied chiefly by Imperial Knights of the Brotherhood of Lady Calisa, which she created. It is for this reason that she is popularly known as the Empress Errant. She only returned to Nesaria to rule in peace in 180 AD, at the age of 63, when she grew too elderly to keep up her constant questing.

Rixa is perhaps best known to the Nesarians for her role in the Battle of Kaleek Ana before her coronation, in which she single-handedly slew a Dragon and earned the epithet of Dragon-Slayer. However, her participation in crucial conflicts across the west of Inecuria has earnt her an immortal memory there; she is known for destroying the Warpath of Warmaster Earstealer, bringing peace to Roulonne amidst the Glorious Rebellion, foiling the murderous scheme of Grand Mutator Groknit to enact the physical return of Elki the Abominable, and many other minor achievements. In the early part of her reign she was in constant conflict with the Dread Titan known as Game Master Therad, but over time he eventually became an ally.

Rixa is additionally known for holding the Congress of Onshi, which established the federal nature of the Nesarian Empire and made almost all lands outside of the Empire's control politically subservient to it. Contemporary historians all claim that this move was motivated by the birth of her firstborn child, Paravon, which gave her a sudden desire to establish long-term stability and peace across the continent. It is also widely known that Rixa found the Congress to be immensely frustrating and dull, and was almost glad when the Absurd Calamity occurred in Chalparna to provide a distraction.

Rixa is celebrated by the deaf and mute community for instituting Inecurian Sign Language as the official sign language of the Empire and ordering it to be taught in specialised schools for the deaf and mute across the Empire, an idea undoubtedly devised by her husband Eron, who was mute.

Rixa also had a hand in advancing the field of magical prosthetics, by providing funding, resources and her own body to Areia the Steelskinned, a Librarian of Feronar. Areia was the first to successfully develop a magical prosthetic that could function using an external Magestream circuit rather than requiring the wearer to have magical powers, which was attached to Rixa after she lost her left arm (the same one that had previously been burnt by Dragon-fire) in combat against the mutants of Grand Mutator Groknit.

It is very likely, and was widely believed by contemporaries, that Rixa was named after Queen Rixa the White-Eyed, the Dark Elf who sacrificed her life to kill hundreds of thousands of Cosmovores in the Battle of the Marshes.

## Quests of Rixa

Rixa's various adventures alongside her husband Eron, the Brotherhood of Lady Calisa and her eventual reluctant ally Therad are often referred to as the Quests of Rixa. The reason why Rixa had such an adventurous life and got caught up in all these issues is typically attributed to Therad, who granted Rixa the interesting life of adventure she had always desired and used his power as a Titan to seek out problems for Rixa to solve.

The Quests of Rixa are as follows, in chronological order:

* Single-handedly slaying a Dragon at Kaleek Ana
* Aiding High King Royard in winning the Glorious Rebellion and securing the fealty of Roulonne
* Halting the Warpath of Warmaster Earstealer
* Slaying Grand Mutator Groknit and ending his scheme to summon Elki the Abominable
* Defeating the Kyogoshi Rebellion and slaying Sobal the Unclean
* Ending the Absurd Calamity of Chalparna

## Early Life

Rixa, despite being older than her brother Comanos, was second in line for the succession due to being a woman, and never expected to be the monarch. However, she nonetheless took great interest in learning the art of war, training herself in combat and strategy with superhuman diligence - an education which was rarely ever given to women and was normally only reserved for those who were set to be monarchs.

Though her naturally inferior strength as a woman put her at a disadvantage against the male opponents she trained with, she learnt from combat masters from across Nesaria, read a vast number of books on the subject of combat and diligently trained almost every day to become an expert in the sword and the bow, taking particular note of techniques that utilised skill rather than raw strength, learning to use the strength of her opponents against them. In this way, she frequently embarrassed her stronger male opponents, who often underestimated her, through superior skill.

### Battle of Kaleek Ana

Her father, Verian, took note of her interest in the ways of war and so he sent her along with the Imperial force sent to put down the Goldscale rebellion in Draconica, though he expected her to merely watch from the sidelines rather than take part in the upcoming battle. Instead, Rixa convinced her brother Comanos to let her command the horse archer cohorts, and she commanded them around the battlefield with decisive aggression and quick thinking, successfully utilising their superior mobility. When a messenger told her that Comanos had been slain by Dragon-fire, Rixa immediately took command of the army and personally rode into battle herself. She soon found herself isolated from her soldiers, facing a great Dragon by the name of Kalaye Rikanax. Though official records are unclear, tradition holds that this was the same Dragon who had just slain Comanos.

In what Rixa herself described as an act of madness, rather than running away from Kalaye or seeking cover, she ran straight towards him. Kalaye let out a breath of fire and Rixa jumped out of the way, but not entirely; her left arm was caught in the blaze and badly burned. With her right, she grabbed onto Kalaye's horns. Kalaye leapt into flight and vigorously shook his head, trying to dislodge her, but she held on tightly for dear life. Rixa eventually steadied herself long enough to stab her sword into Kalaye's eye up to the hilt, making him roar in pain and begin plummeting to the ground. At the last moment, Rixa worked against Kalaye's powerful neck muscles and yanked his head downwards, making his snout smash into the ground and shattering his skull. After taking a moment to recover, Rixa picked up a spear off the ground and jammed through Kalaye's other eye, pushing it into his brain, which put a stop to his screams of agony.

As the adrenaline left Rixa's body, the pain of her burnt arm became overwhelming and she had to retreat from the battlefield, but she continued to command from afar. Her arm was saved thanks to healing magic, but she lost almost all feeling in the limb, and the hand became significantly less dexterous. This same limb was later lost entirely in combat against mutants, and was replaced with a magical prosthetic.

The Battle of Kaleek Ana turned Rixa into a heroine renowned across the continent, and the death of her brother made her the new heir to the throne. Her father Verian fell into a deep depression when he heard the news of his son's death, which came mere days before his wife Elli - Rixa's mother - perished of an unknown deadly disease (which was probably of artificial origin). Verian ceased to care for himself properly, barely eating or washing, and he soon died in 137, leading to Rixa's coronation.