Rat Queen

While publicly the philanthropic owner of Iron City Construction—having acquired the company and turned it around in the city’s last economic downturn—Natali Weston is well known in the streets as the cruel sovereign who rules Ferroburg's underworld. She earned her criminal moniker both from the run-down “rat-trap” apartments on which she made her fortune and her gift for making the city's scum dance to her tune. Weston regularly employs criminals and even supercriminals to silence critics and investigators, drive up rent prices, target rivals, and artificially maintain low wages. With her extensive knowledge of the city’s criminal community, she has also made a pet of District Attorney Billy Jones, feeding him enough information on criminal rivals that he can maintain his “tough on crime” position while ignoring her flagrant criminal activities, unsafe tenements, and dangerous factories.   Despite scurrilous rumors of her illegal operations, Weston remains a respected and even beloved figure in much of the city. Her personal fortune funds many art exhibitions, operas, and other cultural endeavors that have recaptured Ferroburgh's lost splendor—for those of means, of course—as well as many charities the rest of the population depends on. Combined with the politicians and opinion-makers she bankrolls, her influence network has ensured few accusations against Natali's good name have stuck.   Weston didn't achieve her level of success in the mean streets of Ferroburg by intellect alone. She is a scrappy, resourceful fighter who has beaten any number of would-be assassins or usurpers to death with her bare hands. Her combat style is brutal and effecient, with little grace or artistry. More than once she has bounced back from what should have been a lethal wound, leading to rumors among the city's low-lifes that she traded her soul to the devil in exchange for thirteen chances to escape death.