Isis Asther

There are few in Incaendium who would not know Isis Asther by name, or by sight. There is a great deal about her, in fact, that is known by the average person on the streets. Mother of the Imperator! Consort of the The Red King! Even now, after the death of Gorgo, Isis remains prominent as one of her son's most trusted advisers -- it is said that her influence at court is rivaled only by Astaroth Dracothis.

A close up image of Isis Asther.

It's more than that, of course.

Even before she came to stand beside the Red King as consort, Isis had already become known throughout much of Amaya for her uncommon charisma, intelligence and beauty - each of which she possessed in great enough quantities to make her stand out even among the Cubae to whom she belonged.

No doubt it was that very fame that brought Isis, then Isis Azin, to Gorgo's attention.

When she accepted his interest, he was still a relatively well-loved sovereign.

Certainly there were some questions, but nothing that anyone had really thought too deeply into. He seemed fine.

She could never have imagined what a monster she had been bound to.

It's easy to forget this in the present, as Isis commands respect and the ear of her all-powerful son. As she shows no fear and no weakness - as she never seems to flinch.

One could almost forget that she stood at the Red King's side... or that, out of all of them who did, or tried to do so , she was the one who survived.

Born to the Azin family, an Auctor rank house, Isis was the only child of the main branch. Though they originally made their home in the Amayan city of Vizet, her parents, Berek Azin and Silsi Azin, decided to purchase a home in Ruavine and spend part of the year there with a mind toward gaining additional influence and traction, as well as securing top tier training for their daughter, who had recently been estimated to possess Vaham level potential, though she had only achieved Dumen at the time.

They arrived in the capital of Amaya in 27662Y during a week long celebration called by the Legat Regas (and acting Dominus) Gorgo Asther in celebration of the birthday shared by himself and his twin brother, Balvar Asther. At the time, Gorgo was a relatively new ruler - not yet even passed his Trial of the Throne & Crown - but had developed a reputation as an effective and fair ruler. Indeed, the recent tragic death of his firstborn son had only deepened Amaya's affection for him as he stood strong and regal despite the loss of his heir.

Attending the primary feast on her second day in Ruavine, Isis found herself enamored of the energy and extravagance of the capital at play. As was to be expected, her beauty and her name attracted attention almost immediately... but Isis herself was drawn to the twins who stood at the top of society. Soon, just as she had been infatuated by the celebration, she found herself infatuated with them, as well.

Ambition of House Azin

Isis's parents took notice of how much attention she had begun to draw. They also took notice of where her eyes rested. Seeing an opportunity, they began to spend time in the court of the acting Dominus Regas, putting her in front of the Asther twins. Initially it seemed more likely that she would catch Balvar's eye, as Gorgo was deeply involved with a Dominus Exim woman called Perswyn.

Gorgo was anything but a loyal lover, however, and he found her appealing... though it's unclear whether he was attracted to her as a person or simply drawn to the rush of having someone that many others wanted, themselves. The nature of Romance & Relationships in Incaendium meant that no one was scandalized that Gorgo took up with another woman while courting Perswyn... but it was somewhat displeasing to the Azin family, who had hoped to install her at the top of a social pyramid.

That would happen in time. But for the moment, Isis became Gorgo's second most favored, and joined his household in 27,865Y - the same year that Gorgo undertook the Trial of the Throne & Crown and raised Perswyn to the status of consort.

After the Three-Cycle War

In 27,771Y, the Three-Cycle War came to a final and conclusive end as Abrazus Zozket was able to slay the previous Imperator and take the position, himself. For the next several decades, things would be... relatively calm. Isis soon realized that Gorgo had a somewhat temperamental nature, and while she was not immediately exposed to the worst of him, she did begin to find him uncomfortable to be around.

Isis Through the Years

Isis around the time her family moved to Ruavine.

Isis upon being raised to Consort.

Isis in her final form!

She also got to know Perswyn - it wouldn't be accurate to call them friends, but they became allies of sorts; they joined forces both to support Gorgo by managing his appointments and obligations, and to support one another in the face of his increasingly erratic behavior and dangerous temper.

It wasn't until Isis became truly enmeshed in his househould, however, that she began to notice how many of his lovers -- and his children -- would disappear or fall prey to accidents. At the time that Isis and Gorgo became involved, he had a hari suum basa of around two dozen people. By 27,900Y it had shrunk by half, and no one had actually left.

Thus Isis came to be aware of the darkness inside Gorgo... the darkness that had devoured dozens of lovers, his children, even his father.

The cruelty came to Isis herself in bits and pieces - first cutting remarks, the undermining of confidence. She watched it happened to his hari suum, which seemed cruel but unsurprising. She also watched it happen to Perswyn, which was more concerning... especially when Perswyn began to show visible signs of physical abuse. For a time, Isis was unsure that she was interpreting things correctly, but it soon became impossible to mistake. Isis began making use of her natural emotional-influencing abilities - the gift of her bloodline - to try and keep his ire from turning on her or Perswyn.

For a time, at least, her attempts were successful.

In 27,788Y, Raum Asther was born. The son of Perswyn and Gorgo, Raum showed substantial potential but as he grew older it became obvious that he had no drive to power; he was not the Legat that Gorgo craved. Isis watched as Gorgo grew distant from his son even as his erratic moods worsened. In 28791Y, Gorgo's second child with Perswyn, Taladan, was born. Unlike her brother, Taladan had both power and ambition and so, for a time, Gorgo was satisfied.

The Third Child

By 28941Y, Gorgo's madness had begun to gnaw through Isis's ability to influence it. The violence and cruelty escalated... and by 28942Y, Perswyn was found bruised and lifeless beneath the balcony of Gorgo's bedchambers.

He showed no particular feeling about it or acknowledgment of it. Instead, he simply passed her status as consort on to Isis.

Once the fullness of Gorgo's attention had fallen on Isis, it was no longer possible for her to pretend that she was safe. Her empathic abilities could no longer calm his cruelty and his abuse escalated from cruel words to actual violence. She was no longer able to seek comfort or support from her family, as Gorgo had begun to refuse them access to the Palace... and he controlled everywhere she went, and everyone she saw.

In these first years as consort, Isis recreated herself internally. To survive, she shed her innocence and her softness. She taught herself to identify his moods and the moments of danger. She learned how to deescalate, if it was possible to deescalate. Even so, she was unable to fully escape Gorgo's brutality. She avoided him as best she could; it became advantageous for her to spend as much time as possible around Balvar, who still had some measure of influence over the rapidly deteriorating Dominus Regas. They grew close.

Dangerously close, though they never crossed the line into acting on temptation. They were both too familiar with Gorgo's ways to take such a risk.

In 29,954Y, Isis's priorities were immediately rerouted with the birth of her and Gorgo's son, Samael. Realizing that the child was in danger around his father, she convinced Gorgo to leave Samael entirely in her care for the first five years of his life, until he reached the Age of Unveiling.

During that time, she dedicated herself almost entirely to providing Samael's education: she handpicked his tutors, and made certain to provide a wide range of activities and skill-building lessons. Music and art went hand in hand with politics and history. Samael was a brilliant student with an endlessly deep hunger for knowledge and an equally bottomless love of creation.

He was a sweet boy. Sensitive with a wild heart, driven by his emotions and his enthusiasm for life. Isis wondered, at that time, whether his softness would prove to be dangerous - a weakness that she could not protect him from. Even so, she worked to preserve his innocence for as long as she could.

She would later wonder whether she had protected his innocence too well.

Four years after Samael's birth, Balvar got into an argument with Gorgo and "disappeared." Isis knew immediately that Gorgo had finally destroyed the one person in life he truly loved.

And she understood with perfect clarity that she and Samael were in unimaginable danger.

Once Samael reached the Age of Unveiling, Isis was no longer able to protect him as much as she would have liked. After his Unveiling, he was expected to join society, and so Isis rejoined it as well. It was her mission to make certain that Samael survived to adulthood, which meant putting every part of her considerable intellect to task watching for traitors, keeping track of dangers, and - most importantly - redirecting Gorgo's attention.

The Young Prince

For the first five years of his life, Samael was directly cared for by Isis without input from Gorgo.

 

The Royal House

As Samael aged he became the primary focus of Gorgo's attention.

 

The Final Portrait

The primary family in their final image together.

 

Right Hand of the King

Samael's rise to power afforded Isis freedom and power she had never experienced. But it did not let her rest.

Samael's obvious potential led Gorgo to increasingly focus on him, imposing his impossible standards and administering brutal punishments if he was displeased. Whenever possible, Isis would stand between them, or draw Gorgo away from the child. This meant accepting that his brutality might then turn on her, and it often did. There were long days when she could not leave her personal chambers - when eating and healing were all that she could ask of herself. In many ways, those were the worst times of all - then, she was not present to manage Gorgo's interactions with Samael... and, left defenseless against his father's madness, Samael soon came to be familiar with Gorgo's cruelty as well.

For the next two years, Isis watched as her open-hearted son turned moody and angry. For a time, she saw far too much of Gorgo's rage in him, and she worried about that as much as she had about his softness.

This improved when the powerful House of Dracothis sent their 7 year old son Astaroth to court. Astaroth was able to draw Samael back out of his shell and instill some of his own excitement into them. He took Samael away from the palace often as they grew older, as well - and while they were gone, Isis was able to breathe easier. Whatever creatures they might encounter in the wild, Isis knew Samael was safer in the forests than at home.

While Samael was away, Isis had room to pursue her own goals, as well - and for her, the most important goal she could accomplish was escape. After centuries with Gorgo, she knew that if he were given the chance, he would eventually kill her as he had Perswyn, and Samael as he had most of his other children. She began to "befriend" the help and the powerful players in Amaya; it was her hope that if they were forced to flee, she could go to them for assistance in getting out of Amaya.

She also began to learn how to use and produce poisons... in case she were forced to seek freedom another way.

Ultimately, she would not need to.

Fall of the Red King

Ultimately, Gorgo brought about his own end; destroyed by his own cruelty rebounding back upon himself.

Some time earlier, Gorgo had ordered two loyal members of the Crimson Legion murdered so that he could take possession of their son, Ilan - a boy who had displayed a rare and unique ability to create roads, bridges and doors from nothing. Ilan became Samael's handler early on - when Samael and Astaroth went on their adventures, Ilan went with them.

Eventually, however, Ilan learned the fate of his parents, and who had ordered them killed. Seeking revenge, he nearly killed Raum before fleeing the Palace. Gorgo sent Samael and Astaroth to collect Ilan, which they did... and then Gorgo had Ilan's mind wiped clean. His self, his memories, his life, gone in an instant.

This was the breaking point for Samael, who began physically resisting Gorgo... a struggle that culminated in Samael cutting Gorgo's throat and taking the throne, himself.

One might think Isis could calm herself then... and she did. But she had long since lost the ability to let down her guard. Soon she had established a network of informers spread throughout Amaya, bringing her information that she could weaponize against power players when needed - if they began to threaten Samael's reign, or Samael himself.

Isis became Samael's closest adviser, as well - giving her a measure of power she had never known before. She grabbed it with both hands and joined her son in reshaping the Domain in their image - funding arts and dismantling the grey militarism that had marked Gorgo's rule. Instead, it would be the vibrant city full of art and feasts and life that she had first thought it to be for when she arrived during a festival by chance.

Time moved in the Crimson Court. Samael gathered a trio of friends who came the Pillars of Amaya, and another war began. This one would rage for thousands of years as Samael and his companions laid waste to their foes and reshaped the Realm. Isis remained, for the most part, in the heart of the newly forming Empire - in Ruavine, where she managed day to day tasks in her son's absence, and made sure the world kept turning without faltering for the absence of its sun.

Towards the end of the Endless War, a new face arrived at court - Samael's acknowledged but never before seen son. Eamon Vaerick Asther, sometimes called "The White Raven," was Samael's child with one of his Hari Suum; when she learned she was with child she had requested freedom from her contract so that the child could be away from the violence and darkness of Ruavine. Perhaps he remembered his early days, cloistered away from Gorgo's wrath, learning at Isis's side - he granted the request, and Eamon was raised in Atria, the most populous city-state in Gaean. There he stayed with little contact beyond a handful of letters from time to time... until he turned up at the gate of the Crimson Palace.

Immediately, Isis was struck by Earmon's similarity to Samael - his physical similarity, yes, but also his temperament, his interests - he seemed to her the image of what Samael might have been, had he not been subjected to his father's madness.

This was a conflicting thought. His presence filled her with the bittersweet ache of regret. He also made her remember things she had long since shut away in her heart - broken bones and broken hearts. A despair so complete that she had considered regicide.

He also worried her. As Samael's only child, he was the presumptive heir to the rapidly expanding Amaya... and his heart was too soft to survive that position.

She sent word to Samael that Eamon had arrived, and he returned to court to acquaint himself with his heir. Before returning to war, he gave Eamon the right to act in his name, and asked that Isis guide his hand.

She did guide his hand, though not always for the best. Isis had determined that he needed to face adversity to grow strong, and so she led him at times into foolish decisions that stoked the rage of the people, and - ultimately - Samael's rage as well. The argument between the two raged for a full night, when Samael returned to court again. Eamon, with no real understanding of Incaendian culture, grew frustrated and enraged, and left Amaya to return to Atria.

That was not Isis's intention, exactly, but she was not sorry to see him leave.

What she didn't anticipate was that Samael would leave as well.

He didn't chase after Eamon to drag him back, however. No, he traveled to Atria to meet with the city's ruling family and impress upon them how important it was that his son should live as he desired and have access to anything he desired. That was fine, but when he returned, he was not alone.

Samael brought a pet mortal back with him, Cain Amortus. At first, Isis had no concern about it... but those concerns began to make themselves known as she watched Samael grow attached to the human. That concern deepened when he chose that powerless human as a consort... and began to scream when it became clear that Samael not only loved Cain, but loved him to such an extent that he had, subconsciously, stopped Cain's aging process to prevent him from going the way of all mortals.

This, Isis could not accept.

It would be easy to write off her concerns as prejudiced or her desire to remove Cain from power as jealousy over his growing influence over Samael - an influence that had once fallen almost entirely to her, the only scrap of authority she had ever been given. That was, indeed, part of the issue.

But the bigger issue was Cain's very nature. In the culture of Incaendium, the Sura culture, any weakness was to be exploited in the pursuit of power. Cain was not only mortal, he was a mortal with no talent - no magic, no psionic abilities, not even an elemental affinity. He was, in short, a massive and easily exploitable weakness - one that could easily lead to Samael's downfall.

She began to devise a way to remove Cain from Samael's life.

She sat with her plans for some time - nearly three centuries - waiting for the exact right time... and when she found it, she struck. She told Samael that Cain had been engaged in a longterm romantic affair with another Hari Suum, Rami. The choice was deliberate - she had learned via her network of informers that Samael had brought Rami to bed with himself and Cain one night... and she knew that Samael was prone to insecurity and doubt due to his experiences with Gorgo and a more recent betrayal by Mastema Amarandos and his sister, Taladan Asther. She turned their one night of indulgence into a wedge that ultimately shattered the romance and sent Cain back to the hari tunwa in disgrace.

An unqualified success.

The Great Lady of Asther.

With Cain's fall from grace, Isis has returned to her seat at Samael's side as his primary adviser and most trusted person - perhaps in a tie with Astaroth. This suits her well, but the specter of Cain has loomed over Samael's life in ways she had not expected. From time to time, she wonders if she made the right choice.

But what is done is done. As it stands, Isis remains - through Samael - one of the two most influential people in Incaendium. She is overall satisfied with her current situation... but her complicated life and difficult past has not left her unchanged.

After Gorgo's death, Isis found that she could no longer access her empathic abilities. Additionally, she has never been able to love again, or even find companionship without love - she has been celibate since the Red King's death. The pain of her centuries with him, it seems, have locked her heart up in a vault and buried it in the metaphorical ground... six feet deep.

At times, she visits Gorgo's tome and speaks to him. It is unclear why, or what she says.

As the child of an influential noble house, Isis was given an excellent and robust education, focusing on all critical skills for survival and advancement in Incaendian Culture at the Auctor level. This includes general knowledge such as history, diplomacy, the ins and outs of binding contracts, combat skills and training with her innate abilities.

Isis's Inventions

 

 

 

 

Some of Isis's inventions.
Hover for descriptions.

As far as elective studies went, she had a love for music and theater, and so much of her historical studies focused on movements in creativity; she is also a talented musician herself, though she has not played in centuries.

As a Cubae, Isis was not inherently tied to violence in the same way as the majority of Demons - which isn't to say she was not tied to it at all. She was trained in the use of bladed weapons and bows - as a young woman she enjoyed practice. This is another area where she has subsequently fallen off.

As she aged to adulthood, Isis became focused on building social and networking skills. She studied the culture of Ruavine in the days before moving there.

And, of course, in the later years of her relationship with Gorgo, she became self-trained in more dangerous areas, most notably toxicology.

Isis's list of accomplishments and failures could likely fill a multi-volume history book, particularly if one included the things she herself regards as such.

From the perspective of the world at large, she has shaped the culture at Samael's side, bringing about beauty and exuberance where there was once only grim acceptance of oppression. Her extraordinary elegance and beauty has also influenced fashion trends - seamless and skintight, corsets, high heels, leather... these all became a greater part of the Incaendian culture because of the influence of Isis. She is also largely credited with the "creation" of Samael, a Dominus Regas who is, while still brutal from the perspective of mortals or celestials, a great relief after the reign of his father.

Aside from Samael, however, Isis does not consider these to be her greatest accomplishments.

For her, that lies in her extensive notes and gathered material on others. The building of her spy network.... and the dozens of demons she has crushed underfoot and put back in their place when she got wind that they might be planning an attempt on Samael's throne. Certainly, her greatest achievement to her mind is removing Cain from Samael's side, as she considered him by far the greatest danger to the throne, and to Samael.

Ironically, that plays into her greatest failure as well. While she has helped to create an Amaya that lives for more than just brutality, bringing culture and beauty and giving even the oppressed something to seek and live for... she has not managed to push back the darkness that grips Samael, or herself.

She has not managed to make either of them happy.

Isis has an extensive collection of destructive poisons and other liquids that have been invented by her and created through the combination of natural materials and her supranormal talent for manipulation of liquids.

Isis's personality - and the way her mind has altered and hardened - is best understood as the outcome of centuries of survival instincts and coping mechanisms finally solidifying into something that is... arguably unalterable. While she was once a fairly normal person - passionate, ambitious, charming and full of excitement and love - she has since become cold, distant and obsessively controlling.

Portrait of the Lady of Asther, Mother of the Imperator Dominus Regas

In short, she has become a master political strategist, an expert in lethal arts, and one of the most influential people in Incaendium... but it has come at the cost of her empathy, her capacity for joy, and her ability to let go. In the end, it even robbed her of the one thing her species is most associated with - intensity of experience, physical and emotional intimacy, pleasure and passion. She is a lust demon without lust, born to hedonism but with no taste for self-indulgence.

It's undeniable that Isis has done an extraordinary amount of harm both in the name of Samael's protection and to Samael himself... but it seems likely that her own self-perception, her understanding of her actions, does not match this reality.

To understand Isis fully, however, one has to understand the situation in which she was formed. The hypervigilance that arose as a result of the constant threat of abuse and, ultimately, of death for herself and her son has created a woman who is incapable of letting down her guard. The experience of essentially feeding herself to the lion that was Gorgo in order to protect her child, only to find that the resulting injuries prevented her from being able to protect him, has embedded a terror at the very concept of powerlessness - her own or Samael's.

It is the latter that fuels, for example, her sabotaging of his relationship with Cain - where Samael saw a rare haven from the tumult of his own mind and heart, Isis saw powerlessness and vulnerability. To be so enamored was to give his power away, and to do so for someone who could be easily snuffed out by even a low rank debil was to paint a target over himself that someone would inevitably attempt to strike. To defend Samael - to protect him from his own emotional shortcomings and strengthen his grip on power - anything is justifiable. This is her true North, her guiding principle.

A portrait Isis in formal dress.

Of course, she is unimaginably manipulative - like Astaroth she moves people like pawns, but for her there is no pleasure in it, only practicality. Indeed, there is a complexity to the cruelty of her behavior, because she is often not - strictly speaking - incorrect. Samael is somewhat unstable, and the culture of Incaendium in general - and particularly the culture he himself has personally cultivated alongside Astaroth - guarantees that to love the powerless is to tempt powerlessness himself. He is willing to take that risk, but she is not.

As Isis herself would say, Ga sunsulor ni, sohi-hime ve - if softness exists, cut it out.

In this, she is arguably the most ruthless person in the Crimson Court.

At base, Isis's primary motivation is "survival," but what that means has morphed over centuries as has the amount of space she will permit around herself and her son. At one time, her entire goal was to literally, physically, survive Gorgo. Now, she aims to eliminate all danger and risk, control for it, and crush it. The fact that Samael is more than capable of defending himself is not a factor - any danger let through her web has a chance of striking its target and that she will absolutely not allow.

Unlike many in the Crimson Court, Isis has no interest in personal power and no desire to indulge in hedonism.

Of course, Isis's greatest secret is a lie - that Cain was not having an affair with Rami. This poisonous lie is, to her mind, justifiable. Even so, if she has a fear, it is that Samael will one day learn the truth... because she suspects that there would be no coming back from that. Samael would emotionally shut down on her, and she might never manage to reach him again.

That said, she has a great many secrets - some hers and some belonging to the unfortunate others that she has trapped inside her web.

As a generality Cubae demons are unusually attractive - it's part of their nature as lust demons. That said, Isis is, and has always been, infamously among the most beautiful of them all. It had made her a known name even before her rise to political power, and it remains a truth to this day, though the specifics of her beauty have hardened, somewhat.

A full body shot of Isis Asther.

Like most of her kind, Isis is tall by human, standing at nearly 6'. Her general build is toned but slender, and more the latter than the former; it has been said (accurately!) that she moves with the grace of a dancer.

Facially, she strongly resembles her son (or vice versa, really). She has high cheekbones, yellow eyes with slit pupils that emit a very dim glow, and a triangular face shape. She typically wears cosmetics along the red-to-purple spectrum; this includes lip stains and eye makeup as well as a matching lipstain. Her nails are typically tinted the same color as her lips.

Her hair is actually blue, but dark enough to be casually mistaken for black. She nearly always keeps it in low twin braids. The length can vary somewhat over time - at its longest it reaches past her hips. At its shortest, it ends at around mid-chest.

More important than her physical attributes, though, is the impression she leaves with those who meet her. Isis's stare is piercing, intense - some call it unnerving. She projects majesty and authority -- and her movements, like her body language - can lean toward the sensual, but even so her presence is very cold - it's been said that she radiates warmth like a glacier, which says it all, really.

Isis's signature look consists primarily of black skintight catsuits with various necklines - sometimes plunging, sometimes high necked or anywhere in between. The bulk of the catsuit is likely to be leather, but there are often sheer lace portions as well. There will almost always be gold or black filigree style lace decorating her outfit - a standard element of the Asther family's aesthetic.

Isis also nearly always wears high heeled shoes - and more commonly even than that, high heeled boots with no clear demarcation between the boot and the catsuit. Sometimes she wears a corset, but it's typically difficult to tell that she's doing that, since it will generally blend in with the rest of her outfit. Overall, her base clothing gives the impression of being... structured.

While that is the basic building block of her wardrobe, she does vary from time to time - long coats, waist-capes, etc. Early on she switched between black and white, but in recent centuries she has migrated entirely to black.

Overall, Isis's style mixes the overt sexual appeal that Cubae typically enjoy with constrictive elements that appeal to her highly controlled personality.

Isis is a rare beast: a lust demon with no apparent interest in pleasures of the flesh.

She was not always that way, of course - as a young woman she had as much interest as anyone would. However, the trauma of her long and torturous relationship with Gorgo has seemingly blocked off her romantic and sexual responsiveness. This has caused some issues - as a succubus, she naturally feeds on desire. But thus far she seems wholly uninterested in accessing that part of herself again.

Prior to that, she was considered pansexual like most Demons, though Gorgo was her only known romantic partner, if you can call him that.

It's fair to say that Isis's life - the person she was before she came to Ruavine, has been entirely severed. She has not spoken to her birth family since shortly after her involvement with Gorgo intensified, and is not aware of where they are... if they are anywhere at all. She has, at times, wondered if Gorgo had them "removed" to prevent her from becoming distracted with other things.

Regardless of that, she does have connections, but few are what one might call warm or even especially personal.

As a member of the Asther family, Isis is considered connected to the entirety of the royal House - this includes Raum, the only surviving child of Gorgo aside from Samael. While he is not her biological son, and Isis's feelings about him are not comparable to the intensity of her feelings about Samael, she does have some affection for him. This is partially duty and partially respect for Perswyn.

Of course, her most significant relationship is with Samael himself. Since his birth, Isis has loved and protected him with everything she has. In his early years as a young child, this was what one might expect - the gentle and fierce love of a parent for her child. However, as time went on and Isis herself was progressively broken down and rebuilt by her need to weather the storm that was her king, this hardened into something far more troubling.

In essence, nearly all of her energy is dedcated to his protection and the protection of his reign. There are a number of reasons for this, one being that she does genuinely believe his reign is a "good" one - he exemplifies all those things that Incaendium most values in all his strength and sophistication and savagery. However, the stronger reason is, of course, that he is her son - the son she turned herself into a shield to protect. To this day, threatening Samael is the easiest way to guarantee that Isis will unleash all of her resources to crush the opposition up to and including turning their organs to crystal if she must.

Aside from Samael, her most genuine emotional attachment is to Eamon, Samael's son. She only knew him for a short time, and she ultimately sabotaged his reign... but in her mind this was to protect him, as he was not emotionally prepared to function well in Incaendium.

Isis has no friends and her only true confident is her own mind.

That said she has a number of convenient acquaintances who may or may not think they are her friends. One person she has friendly interactions with is Beelzebub - he does not make the mistake of thinking they are close, but they do enjoy one another's constant stream of information and gossip.

She has a cool but respectful dynamic with Astaroth. While they are rivals for influence in a sense, they are also both loyal to and protective of Samael. At least thus far.

There are several people Isis has her eye on, as she considers them the sort of person who might attempt a coup one day. Most notable among them is Troyes Vandeil, whose ambition and violent tendencies are legendary - his long alliance with Zecien Anlain also makes a two-Domain alliance fueled by two Archdemon tier powers a possibility that can't be ignored.

Her shitlist is extremely long, but the biggest problem in her mind is, of course, Cain Amortus - the human who Samael cannot seem to shake, and who represents a potentially fatal weakness that can be all too easily exploited.

Gorgo is still on her shitlist after all these centuries, and despite his being dead.

Though Isis was said to have the potential to reach a high Vaham or low Vallus rank, ultimately she did not achieve this; her effort was channeled into trying to survive, which left her with very little energy remaining to practice with magic, for example. Additionally, her strongest Magic Spheres - Internal war and Communication - has become entirely blocked, severing her from her most powerful abilities.

That said, Isis not entirely without power, even now.

A teenage Isis practicing archery

Isis at work in her personal library and workspace.

Isis's rarely seen fully demonic aspect.

As a Demon, Isis is far stronger, faster and more durable than she appears - though she is not as sturdy as, for example, a Nefilor or Archdemon. Like many Cubae demons, Isis does naturally have "access" to demonic features - specifically black wings and horns. However, unlike some Cubae (such as Astaroth Dracothis), she typically maintains a largely human-ish appearance.

Isis was born to a strong bloodline and assessed early in her life to have Lumen in line with her families' abilities. However, her Lumenti has never advanced to her full potential.

In her pre-Gorgo state, Isis had quite strong talents in Internal War, Communication/Learning and Empower/Enchant. During the worst of her time with him, her talent for emotional and mental manipulation via Internal War was her protector - with it, she was able to stave off the worst of his cruelty and protect both herself and Perswyn. However, in the wake of Gorgo's death, Isis found herself unable to access Internal War or Communication any longer. This is entirely psychological - her ability remains present in her body - but her mind and heart will no longer allow herself to access those spheres.

She retains, however, Vaham level ability in Learning magic as well as Enchantment. The latter is her most frequently used tool, as it allows her to create her Void-infused toxins with their extraordinary effects.

Isis has no known psionic abilities.

Isis does have a Dumen affinity for water and Modu affinity for Earth which, together, arrives at a Vaham affinity for poisons. This was not immediately evident - Isis learned to wrap water and earth together to create the toxic effect during her self-education on the topic. This permits her to infuse poison into her touch, transfigure other liquids into poisons. Most importantly for her use case, combining this affinity with her enchantment magical affinity allows her to create her many fantastical elixirs of horror and dread!

This is a rare demisphere to master; Isis is considered an unusually strong poison elementalist. ...or would be if her affinity were publicly known.

Special Assets

It's fair to say that Isis's most terrifying special asset is her status as the mother and adviser of the Imperator. That said, her personal network of informants and her ability to create and distribute extremely bizarre toxins are substantial additions to her arsenal as well.

Isis is not willing to engage in physical combat if she can avoid it - her abilities have not been trained toward battle, and she doesn't have the physical power to compensate for that. However, she is not wholly incapable if forced to participate in battle.

Isis engaged in "creative correspondence."

As a young woman, Isis was extensively trained in the use of bladed weapons and bows. At the time she enjoyed the practice, though she was unable to keep it up once she became involved with Gorgo. That said, while she is out of practice, she does still have access to those skills and could regain them fairly quickly if she chose to.

Of course, she also has the ability to make use of her poison affinity in conjunction with her enchantment abilities to, for example, create swords with a poisonous bite, or arrows that plunge those they hit into an endless sleep. The specifics of her abilities therefore allow her to punch somewhat above her weight class... though it would not necessarily be advisable for her to join the frontlines of a battle, even so.

It's fair to say that melee combat isn't her strong suit. She has other ways to make war.

Isis is a difficult one to assess - her strength is not in physical or combat power, though she does have some ability in those areas. Isis's true source of power - the threat she manifests, is in her mind, her imagination, and the things she can do with both. This includes both her blackmailing schemes and her creation of "creative" poisons.

As a physical force, she could not be considered more than a Modu level threat. However, when one takes into account the devastation she can - and will - unleash on a person's life, her ability to manifest and manipulate toxic substances, enchantment abilities which permit her to create powerful artifacts and her access to Samael and his resources...