94828-2 RAA Outer Seas TEXT R1 Proof

Val Carter’s Guide to Merfolk

crimson hair and emerald scales. Under the eyes of the Collector Queen are bands of dark colored scales that appear black most of the time, but in the right light, they reflect a deep iridescent violet color. She is normally dressed in threads of precious metals twined around small coins and charms made from various precious gemstones, metals, or objects laced with magical energies. The Collector Queen is almost always armed with a large coral trident that crackles with eldritch energy.

About

The seventh child born to the royal house of Atlas’s King Nezra and Queen Athena, the Collector Queen was raised alongside her siblings to be skilled in the arts of martial combat, spell casting, and high courtliness. While she showed no aptitude for the magical arts and was often prone to outbursts that would upset those among the high ranks of nobility with delicate sensibilities, she was unparalleled when it came to the art of war and was besting her older siblings in sparring matches by her seventh year of life. By her twelfth year, she had shattered the illusions of familial loyalty, cutting down her two eldest brothers in ritual combat in what was supposed to be a mere showcase of sport. Sensing the blood on the tides, her remaining siblings fled the kingdom of Atlas leaving her the sole heir to the throne. By her thirteenth year, the Collector Queen’s mother had gone missing, rumored to have left before she fell to her daughter’s bloody machinations, and in a very public display of power, the Collector Queen blinded her aunt during a naming ceremony for one of the children of the noble court. This vicious display caused a rift between the nobles and the Collector Queen that would see the whole of Atlas erupt into a bloody class war. King Nezra attempted to quell the conflict between what were considered the lowborn and those counted amongst the royals, but it was the Collec tor Queen herself who challenged her father and bested him in a bloody melee that took his life, solidified the disruption of the class structure, and established civility that created an ordered, all be it unbalanced, structure within the kingdom of Atlas. From her father’s bones she fashioned a throne and from her new seat of power she sent her freshly appointed legions to tear down all symbols of societal station and civility, bringing all of the kingdom of Atlas to heel under the simple rule that any who could best her in combat would become the new ruler. All who opposed her would give her tribute in the form of wealth, blood, or bones. In the first decade of her rule, the Collector Queen armed and trained a vast legion of warriors who were once seen as the lowborn and working class of Atlas, elviating them to the position of celebrated warlords and warriors and sending them across the seas of Ryn to take all they could in her name. Her goal is simple: she wishes to have it all, to be seen as the prime ruler of the Outer Seas. If the day comes when one can actually best her in combat, she wishes to die with a smile on her face and blood on her hands, knowing she has disrupted the world in ways it could never have imagined.

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