The Queen - Lonely Widow

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**(Moderate Spoilers throughout)**

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**The Queen - Lonely Widow** is a boss in *Dark Devotion*. She is the final boss of the Heraldic Lily, and each of the other three bosses must be defeated before she can be fought. She resides in the Royal Peristyle, a corridor which depicts and explains part of The King's backstory. Due to the fact that the final area is the Snow-Covered Walkway, a place existing in what appears to be another world, this could be said to be the final area of the Temple. The Queen is the only boss in the game who drops nothing on defeat.

## Description

Upon entering the boss room, The Queen demands the player reveal where her sons are. She is one of only a few bosses who give dialogue during their fights. She is seated atop a large and intricate throne, which is destroyed upon entering the second phase of the fight. She is wearing black robes and a veil over her face. The fact that her hair is white may imply that she is quite old, having been trapped for an unknown period of time. This is reinforced by the fact that in her second form, she cannot stand. She simply lies on the ground and casts spells. Throughout the fight, she slashes herself with a knife in order to cast the spells, implying some form of dark or forbidden magic.

## Lore

Unlike the other bosses of the Heraldic Lily, the corridor leading to The Queen does not reveal information about her backstory. Instead, it gives a poetic portrayal of King Theodore, and his rise and fall. By taking into consideration the large, intricate doors, lack of title outside the room and direct address of the corridor's notes, it seems that everything points towards King Theodore himself being the next boss. Instead, the Queen stands in our way.

    This presents us with one of the biggest questions in the entirety of *Dark Devotion'*s lore: What happened to The King? By The Queen's title, we know that King Theodore must be dead, as the Queen is left as a widow. But no notes throughout the Temple reveal the fate of The King. The Queen is even unaware of the fate of her sons, that the elder is dead and the younger has taken a vow of silence. So whether she herself is even aware of The King's disappearance is a mystery.
A red symbol appears over the door before and after we enter, implying that the room is ordinarily sealed. It is likely that she isn't even sane, after being trapped in the darkness with only her grief for so long. But as it stands, she is the final line of defense stopping us from making contact with the Ancients. So we must put her out of her misery.
## Codex

The King's Memoirs#The Queen - Lonely Widow (spoilers)

### Phase One

* The Queen will hold her hand out, and corpses of inquisitors will drop from the ceiling. They will lie where they fall until the player runs over them, at which point, if she is not in the middle of any other attacks, The Queen will cause them to rise up again and deal damage to the player.
* When The Queen slashes at her hand, a number of blood orbs will appear around the room. When the player nears the orbs, they will disappear for a second before exploding. This explosion can be triggered manually by simply hitting them.
* When The Queen slashes at her hand and then holds it up, a line of circles will be outlined on the floor. After a delay, bloody hands will grasp out of these spots.
* She can throw her hand forward, forcing the player away from her. This attack will automatically trigger the line of hands described above.
* After stabbing herself in the stomach, The Queen will summon multiple bloody projectiles around the player. The number of these can range greatly. After a delay, they will shoot at the player in the order they were summoned.
* After reaching half health, The Queen can stab herself in the throat. Blood will begin to rain in the boss room. This will darken the room and slowly heal the Queen over time.
* The Queen can summon a shield of blood in front of her to block all damage for a short time.

### Phase Two

* The Queen will summon her shield more frequently in this phase.
* In this phase, two lines of hands can be summoned at once, and the number of hands in each line and location of each line varies greatly.
* The Queen will only ever summon one blood projectile at a time during this phase.

## Notes

* Every attack The Queen uses damages herself slightly. If the player waits long enough, she will actually reduce her own health to zero in each phase. However, she will not switch phases or be defeated without a final hit from the player themselves.
* After The Queen has been defeated, the Younger Prince can be seen kneeling in prayer behind one of the pillars of the peristyle, next to the door.