Queen Nike Amédée (Nigh-key Ah-meh-dey)

Queen Nike Amédée (a.k.a. The Pirate Queen)

"One meeting with her, and you'll learn three things. 1) The true strength needed to rule any number of Pirates. 2) Why Atalanta was so willing to switch leaders. And 3) Why they name all those terrible storms after women."

Nike Amédée is the ruthless Queen of Atalanta. While that title is a bit loose since she's given the Senate greater power than the monarchy, it's still one that designates her as the leader of the nation and its representative on the world stage, a job she performs with bluntness, aggression, and volume.
In her time, Atalanta has actually backed off the edge of becoming something awful, but with corruption among the Senate as well as forces around the world beginning to gather and plot, darkness still looms. She couldn't care less, though, so long as no one gets in her way when she's off to sail once more.

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Physical Description

Body Features

Nike has always been on the larger side, but years of fighting and work on the Thunderhammer turned that largeness into massiveness, with her build being broad, beefy, and built. She has more of a usable build than a show-off build, rendering her wider than her peers might expect, but the tension proves that underneath the skin is pure muscle and power.

Facial Features

Alongside her frilled fins to either side of her face, Nike's most striking feature is her yellow eyes and red pupils, which glow slightly in the dark.

Identifying Characteristics

Alongside her massive frame and intimidating presence, all of the scars across her body are Nike's most familiar feature, as they are the proof of dozens of battles won, if not hudnreds.

Special abilities

Alongside her skills as a Pirate and the power Thunder Emperor gives her, Nike also is skilled at berserker fighting, utilizing her anger and strength in precise moments. She's also somewhat trained in Bardic magic, as the crew of the Thunderhammer taught her to weave mystic things in their shanties and songs.

Apparel & Accessories

Alongside her usual clothing, preferring open silk shirts and breathable simple pants, Nike always likes something draped around her shoulders. When it isn't a cape or a cloak, it's usually an Atalantan Navy Admiral jacket that she pilfered many years ago.

Specialized Equipment

Alongside her main ship, the Thunderspear, which has seen quite the upgrade since she came to be the Queen, Nike never goes anywhere without Thunder Emperor in close proximity.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Origins

Nike and her family always lived in what is now the capital of Atalanta, Helen. Initially, however, it was a city in name only, being a sunken city for the Merfolk off of the westmost coast of the nation. When the young Nike was first born, however, it was already in the process of developing into something much more, something much greater.
The original capital of Illion, near the coast but on the surface, was waning in infrastructure and population, as other cities drew greater opportunities, and the Ascendant faith was not keeping the public interest as much as it had in earlier years. Thus, fueled by the profits of the great metropolis Paris, a new capital was created from the old sunken city on the cutting edge of magical innovation, one that existed on the surface as well as beneath the water.
Nike got to grow up amidst that creation, watching the world expand into the waters, and couldn't help but imagine the beauty of the community it would create.
Unfortunately, that community had no intention of letting her in.
As the new civilization of Parisians moved in, the merfolk community was pushed out, unless they were in accepted positions such as naval officers are city laborers. Even though the Helen they had spent generations guarding and refining was the basis for this new metropolis, they were denied their share of it.
But Nike was not going to give up. She was going to be a part of that world, and they'd know it was her, no matter what reputation she needed to have.
From the moment she could talk and run, Nike became a menace to the people of Helen. While she mostly spared other merfolk, she didn't make much distinction when privileged merfolk shamed their own people.
Ruckuses in public, prankful sabotage, vandalism, everything you can imagine a rambunctious, rebellious child getting up to, she did. But then, she grew older, and time marched on, and most influentially, War came to all of Edda.

The Border Wars dawn

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With the new capital of Helen popping off in popularity and profits, it's then King, Théodore Christian Amédée, had let every piece of that go straight to his head, and thus he made a bombastic decree.
Since he was the only nation whose capital was beneath the water, and since his people had conquered the limits of life underwater (for air-breathing mortals, of course), that Atalanta is the true ruler of all oceans of Edda. Except for the parts that were mostly landlocked, of course, they weren't *crazy*!
This went understandably poorly with just about everybody, especially the merfolk outside of Atlantan hands and the people of the 'Oki Islands, whose aquatic city, while not being mixed as Helen is, predated it by several centuries.
But nonetheless, it was a decree they took to heart, and many stuck-up nobles put together fancy words and bribed weak-spined scholars to try and make the claim even slightly legitimate. It never worked, but it called up a lot of questions about the claims of the nations and where they'd try to reach, lighting the fire that would ignite the fumes to create the Border Wars.
Nike was only 14 when the world was embroiled in war, and just two years later, she was drafted into the naval forces. While most Atalantan citizens needed to be 18 to be even considered, the Merfolk were considered "exceptional assets", which essentially translated to "justifiable sacrifices". It was here that Nike gained the surname Amédée, as Merfolk in the area did not traditionally have surnames, and so those that were drafted were named after the King, marking them as his Merfolk.
To her credit, Nike had four strong years as a naval officer. During a time when naval combat of this scale was new, and the up-and-coming style of engineering was still an infant, the Merfolk were a powerful asset to strike against other nations' ships in a quick fashion. But it didn't take long to realize that, as much as she was fighting for Atalanta, its defense, and its growth, she was still not a part of that community she craved. No, the "true" Atalantans thought of her little more than they did a blood-thirsty shark, following their ships in the wake of battles.
Thankfully, a perfect opportunity would soon present itself, as a group of Dwarven Pirates rammed themselves into the naval ship Nike was serving aside. Expecting to be slain or abandoned with the rest, she was surprised when the captain of the ship specifically ignored the merfolk, focusing on anyone else in the crew. After wrestling for so long with her place in Atalanta, and continuously being told there was none, she finally had her perfect out. While she tried to convince the other Merfolk of her battalion to run with her, they either wanted to hide from the world in general or still serve Atalanta, at the very least to avoid ostracization.
Leaving those fools behind, she chased after the pirates into the night.

The Pirate Queen

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Throughout the rest of the Border Wars, Nike joined the crew of the Thunderhammer, the pirates that had inadvertently freed her, led by Captain Deasún Thunderhammer. While the captain was reticent to allow a (former) naval officer on board, it didn't take long to learn that she held no love for Atalanta, and was more in her element sailing the sees freely while plundering.
The Thunderhammer was a mercenary ship, being paid to sabotage enemy army fleets with a large sum and any valuables on the ship as a reward. In a time where country allegiance was paramount, mercenaries without it were seen as atrocious turncoats, but the Thunderhammer and its crew cared little about that, and neither did Nike. As the remaining 16 years of war passed, the crew only grew more and more wealthy, although the missions started getting more dangerous in turn, as desperation and rage took hold.
Nike personally saw a distressing change. Where merfolk were drafted and enlisted before, she now saw them in chains more often than not, being leashed to the ships as they sailed. She also saw younger and younger faces on the front lines. While this made her already potent rage for Atalanta burn over, it also solidified her desire to be distant from the world as a whole, preferring her life at sea to any direct allegiance.
One fateful job, however, towards the end of the war would be what eventually led her back home. One of the senators of Atalanta had put out a very specific hit on a ship carrying a powerful artifact found deep in underwater ruins, the Thunder Emperor. This was noteworthy because, unlike usual, Nike actually knew what they were talking about. While she didn't know it by name, she knew it by reputation: a trident with prongs in the shape of lightning bolts, jagged and impossibly sharp, with the ability to unleash the pure destructive power of lightning to an extent not even the strongest mages could copy.
For the first and last time in her life, Nike suggested restraint, as giving this weapon to any side was going to end in disaster. While Deasún understood that, he also felt the draw of notoriety and of enough fortune to put them all into early retirement. And so, the mission to claim the Thunder Emperor for Atalanta began. It was a rough trip, with many of the crew taking grave injuries against the Hippolytan Navy that had claimed it, but after the dust settled, the Thunderhammer had claimed the artifact and made their way to one of the islands to the northwest of Atalanta, the meeting point.
Perhaps if Deasún or Nike had read more stories, they'd realize what kind of cliches surround the 'one last job' mentality.
Deasún, his first mate, and Nike were the only ones to set foot on the island, as most of the other crew members were ragged if not severely injured, and it was they who met with the senator. The trident was delivered, the chest full of gold and gems handed in return, and the few paid-off officers working for the senator began to take the bounty to the ship.
Deasún was the first to go down, shot right in the heart point-blank. The first mate and Nike were both quick enough to cut the Senator down, but not before the Senator was quick enough to hit the first mate in the stomach as well. With all the healers back on the ship, and the night getting only stormier, it was only a matter of time. However, before he went down, the first mate took the revolver from the senator and fired a shot at the officer carrying the trident back with them, getting them in the leg.
It was the opening Nike needed to close the distance and kill them both, twin blades coming down like a sheet of rain against their necks. But, as the shots were fired, the main ship had already begun to move away. At first, Nike thought they were just running away, as the first mate succumbed to his injury, but she quickly saw them turn just enough for their cannons to be aimed at the Thunderhammer.
In a moment of furious, protective instinct, Nike grabbed Thunder Emperor from its case and rushed towards the water. Perhaps this was some moment of fate, perhaps there was some test she had passed, or perhaps it was sheer luck, but with every step she took as the storm grew harder and harder, arcane knowledge flooded her mind.
Her grip on the handle tightened, she braced her legs in the sand, pointed the tip of the spear towards the Atalantan ship, and the Emperor told her what words to say.

"I am that which burns the sky. I am that which shatters the air. I am that which ignites the dark. Hear my roar, see my glory, feel my fury! Witness my power and tremble beneath me, from deepest ocean to highest shore! Witness the strength of the Thunder Emperor!"

Nike's arms were nearly torn from their sockets as the massive beam of lightning dwarfed her size and shot into the naval ship, tearing a hole right through the center of the ship. Luckily she had the wherewithal to throw her body to the left in order to avoid the recoil striking the Thunderhammer. Especially because the gunshots had already made the active parts of the crew begin to move toward the island, with the giant beam of destruction only making them redouble their efforts.
Nike, the intended gold, and the bodies were taken back to the Thunderhammer, which sailed deeper into the storm to evade the other naval ships in the area. After a week of recovery, along with funerary services for the captain and first mate, it was Nike's turn to helm the ship. After losing so many on this mission, she had finally had it with Atalanta as a whole and admitted to herself that there was never going to be any place for her there. But, there was every place for her among the sea, and among the crew.
So, the Thunderhammer became the Thunderspear, and Nike began a campaign of destruction and pillaging the likes the seas had never seen before. Naval fleet after naval fleet, brought low by the Thunder Emperor. Pirates left and right falling to her knees or falling to her spear. Even freelance sailors and Storm Skimmers were brought under heel, as the oceans of Edda truly gained a queen.
For many, it was quite the karmic outcome. No one, save the gods, can truly control the oceans, for they can swallow nations without filling up. A child from the nation who tried to do just that showed them all the sheer power of sea and storm. Alongside the pacifism movement moving through Edda, this was one of the major factors towards the end of the war, as many nations pulled back their seafaring operations.
While Nike did very little queen-ing in this time, there was no doubt that she was the most dangerous force on the seas aside from the waters themselves, and so when she told you to jump, you asked how high. She mainly occupied herself with hunting monsters, treasure, or uppity pirates who wanted to test their mettle against her. It wasn't for a while longer that she achieved the prominence she has today.

The actual Queen, but still a Pirate Queen

Ten years after the Border War's conclusion, Nike found the state of Atalanta despicable. Of course, they had gotten a lot of shit for being the overconfident asshats who sparked the first flame, but 20 years of aggression made any nation reticent to be too harsh on them, for fear of further retaliation. When news reached her of mass Merfolk "crime spikes", she knew it smelled fishy. She had been used to Helen's harsh treatment of Merfolk, but now it seemed that everywhere was bringing in as many of them as they can for charges no proper judge would even glance at, and this included former guard and naval officers as well.
When she asked what the hell the King and Senate were doing, apparently the answer was bickering incessantly among themselves, wanting to rake in mass profits over anything else and developing new super weapons to strike back against the world powers. The merfolk were just the convenient labor they could keep away from most prying eyes, a method they would've used against the Underdark communities as well if not for their diminished numbers.
This was all too much for Nike. While she still had no love or care for Atalanta, a decade as a figure of some authority had matured her a bit. She could see that this was headed for disaster and that they were all going to get countless innocents killed because they were sore losers. Nike might not have shied away from extreme violence against those that got in her way, but she wasn't the type to condemn an entire nation of people to soothe her own ego.
Luckily there were already more than enough dissenting citizens to rake up a fuss. It took Nike no effort at all to get some dock workers to feed the idea of a giant demonstration at the surface half of Helen in order to draw attention away from the Thunderspear's arrival.
Very few know the fine details of what happened but on the 18th of Drying Summer, 987, the Senate Stadium gathered, was attacked by a massive burst of energy, and only Nike Amédée walked out. Within hours, she stood in front of the people, rebels and loyalists alike, and decreed that she was going to take place as Queen, with a new Senate selected by herself personally.
Everyone, especially the wider world, waited with bated breath to see what horrors might befall the nation, as none were brave enough to face her, her crew, and the full might of Thunder Emperor.
To their surprise, however, Atalanta did not fall into chaos or disorder. The most immediate ailments of the nation were addressed, with Nike taking a brash but honest perspective on other issues to fix, and went about selecting a proper senate to take the various positions. In a very radical way, she also shifted power away from the families that benefited from the monarchy and put almost all of the power in the hands of the Senate and the specific senators of the various cities. Of course, many say she did that so she would have to do less.
While Atalanta is nowhere near perfect, and the effectiveness of her rule is often questioned (not to mention moral standing), she has kept it from teetering off the edge, and when the chips are down she has stood to defend it. Not out of love for a nation or its people, like many other rulers, but because it's hers. No one gets to take the Pirate Queen's bounty

Sexuality

Nike has been an out-and-proud lesbian since her 20s, and anyone who has tried to say a word against it has gotten at least a gut punch for their efforts.

Education

Nike never got what many would consider a modern education, but she knows enough of the basics to get by in adult life, and her years on the sea taught her a gamut of different skills. This hasn't changed in her time as Queen, as the various facets of the job she actually manages, IE keeping everyone in line and rooting out usurpers, come quite naturally to her.

Employment

Nike was first drafted into the Atalantan navy at the age of 16, where she served unwillingly for four years, until joining the crew of the Thunderhammer. She played various roles on the ship for the next 16 years, reaching the rank of Quartermaster until becoming Captain on the night Thunder Emperor became hers. Ten years afterward, she led a one-woman offensive and became the Queen of Atalanta, taking her skills in leadership and distribution from her time aboard the Thunderhammer, now the Thunderspear, and applying them to her newly created Senate.

Mental Trauma

While she'd never admit it, Nike has some pretty heavy inferiority complexes. She covers it with bravado and by proving her strength often, but she's always been told that she wasn't good enough and used as fodder until reaching the Thunderhammer, a field where she could prove that she's better by brute force alone. Even after she learned to be responsible as well as tough, and even though she's constantly telling the people looking down at her to eat shit, several decades of trial and shame still burn the mind.
She's also very explosive towards anyone who tries to reign in her actions and really doesn't take any shit from the Senate or other Atalantan nobles.

Morality & Philosophy

Morality isn't a foreign concept to Nike, but it is a quiet one. In her mind, might makes right, with the exception being when the cost isn't worth the gain. If you're going to take a life, multiple lives especially, it better be for something worth it. If it's you or them, take them out, whatever. If it's one person standing in the way of a great haul, well be sure to send some gold to the family if you can find 'em. Sacrifice an entire community to look big and tough? That's a line.

Taboos

Nike Amédée grew up a ruffian and lived as a Pirate. While there's still a general code of honor and ethics around being a pirate, especially in the Thunderhammers, there was plenty of death, theft, destruction, and chaos to go around. The only real rule all pirates share is a simple one: Never Deal in People. Trafficking, slavery, and especially sexual violence, no pirate worth any respect crosses that line. Nike herself has drowned more than a few.

(program used: Bright's Picrew Hell)

Alignment

Chaotic Neutral

Current Status

On a Storm Skimming expidition

Currently Boarded Vehicle

Royal Ship: Saint Thunderspear

Species

Merfolk

Ethnicity

Coastal Atalantan

Honorary & Occupational Titles

• Queen of Pirates
• Queen of Atalanta
• Venerable Head of the Senate
• Aquamarine Mistress
• Thunder Empress
• World Sailor
• Ultimate Storm Skimmer

Date of Birth

21st of Heating Summer

Year of Birth

940 EE 69 Years old

Pronouns

She/Her but whatever the fuck y'know?

Sex

Female

Gender

Woman but what's it matter?

Presentation

Masculine out of preference, not intention

Eyes

Red w/ Yellow sclera

Hair

Maroon, Graying, thick and messy

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Muted blue scales

Height

7' 9"

Weight

342 lbs, mostly muscle, strength built

Belief/Deity

Herself

Aligned Organization

Atalanta

Other Affiliations

• The Thunderspears