Empress Sola

Netherworlds rarely begin as loathsome places. Most begin as magic-rich and prosperous worlds. But when things slip, they slip quickly and horribly, and rarely can their denizens react in time to stop the decay. Asterim was once a beautiful world of magic and science, where the people enjoyed music and art and long lives under the measured rule of the Orrery Court. They long ago com­bined the roles of sovereign and Master Mage, training the inheritor for the role from birth in the arts of empathy and generosity. Princess Sola Gapos II was raised in this lifestyle, shielded from cruelty and violence so that her soul and her magic would remain gentle and pure. But when the dragon Nihil came to Asterim, it laid the world’s champions low and gorged itself on their bounty. Raised with mastery of the mystic arts, Princess Sola donned sword and armor and confronted Nihil, learning to find her courage and passion in the face of the terrible beast.
Though grievously injured, Sola slew the dragon and saved thousands of her people, but upon her return found herself barred from the Palace of Gold by the royal advisor, Enoch. Her courage and determination, he said, saved this day, but also stained her hands with blood and rendered her unfit to rule. Instead, her younger sister— less experienced, less sure, and far less gifted in the mystic arts—would inherit the role of sovereign, and of Master Mage. Enraged that the Court would turn on her in her moment of victory, she rallied the people and civil war ensued. More blood spilled, and after several years of combat, Sola seized the crown from her young sister and transformed the upstart Enoch into a weasel to befit her image of the man. Disillusionment and war had hardened the young princess, however, and snuffed out her pa­tience and empathy. Her rule was harsh and pitiless, and Asterim began to transform into a netherworld.
Recognizing what was happening, Enoch rallied what remained of the Orrery Court and worked a ritual to tear the essence of magic from Asterim to render it a magic-free dimension and spare it the terrible fate. Magic was too deeply ingrained in their world’s structure and people to simply be shut down, and instead they ripped out Asterim’s beating heart and well­spring of mana: the Umbra Star. Enoch fled with the artifact to another world, leaving Asterim behind with no ability for the world or its people to regenerate their mystic lifeblood.
Empress Sola has long since consolidated her power since those terrible days and become a true Dark Lord. She hoards her world’s remain­ing mana beneath Asterim’s Palace of Shadows, and dispatches her soldiers and their Dark Commanders like ravenous predators to other mystic worlds to drain their mana and sustain her life and power. Between these raids and defending her netherworld from fellow Dark Lords, Empress Sola ob­sessively hunts the Umbra Star—now on Earth—to restore the full might and majesty of Asterim. As her world’s Dark Lord and focus of its magic, she cannot leave her dimension for more than a few minutes at a time or else the void of mana within her will cause her to wither and die, dooming her people to an agonizing death of magical starvation.

Physical Description

Special abilities

Empress Sola is a Dark Lord, rendering her ageless and re­sistant to the rigors of the world, and her centuries drink­ing stolen mana have gifted her with otherworldly traits like eerie movement, massive claws, and the ability to smell magic in others. Though she is a powerful sorcerer in her own right—capable of unleashing devastating bolts of magical energy, reshaping the earth and stone around her, and teleporting herself and her minions across worlds and dimensions—she relies on artifacts such as her viewing shard, which allows her to peer into other worlds and teleport her minions to them. When pressed, Sola has demonstrated enough power to teleport the entire Palace of Shadows and its life-giving mana reserve to new dimensions for a period of days or weeks.

Mental characteristics

Intellectual Characteristics

Empress Sola is cunning, patient, and entitled, believing she has worked harder than anyone to win the throne of Asterim and seeing the theft of the Umbra Star as the ultimate insult for all she’s sacrificed. She prefers to work through proxies like her Dark Commanders, and has no stomach for failure. Despite her status as a Dark Lord, Sola remains protective of her realm and its people—those who haven’t failed her in some manner, at least. While she is normally very conservative with her use of magic—relying on artifacts and talismans rather than burning her own precious and difficult-to-replace mana—in combat she unleashes everything she has in hopes of winning a swift and decisive victory.

Social

Contacts & Relations

Asterim’s population has dwindled, and those who remain are twisted by their Empress’s corrupt magic and scavenged mana, becoming monsters of endless shape and variety. These peasants and warriors alike serve their empress without question. Collectively called Glooms, the weakest of her servants are still vicious, while more pow­erful Dark Knights and Dark Commanders are a match for many of Earth-Prime’s superheroes. Some rumors even claim the empress long ago resurrected the dread dragon Nihil in her efforts to fashion a new heart of mana for Asterim, and locked the terrible beast away deep below the palace—though what powers this half-dead abomi­nation may possess remains a mystery.
Empress Sola’s greatest enemy, the former royal advisor and destroyer of Asterim’s supernatural order, Enoch, has recently died at the hands of her Dark Commanders, but Enoch’s disciples still remain. The Starblights keep the Umbra Star hidden from Sola and have repeatedly thwart­ed her attempts to harvest mana from Earth.

THE FORCES OF ASTERIM

Empress Sola’s greatest power is the legions of loyal subjects ready to fight and die at her command. Centuries of living off mana stolen from every type of creature—from aliens to angels to demons—have “blessed” the people of Asterim with a variety of strange abilities.

GLOOMS

Glooms are the lowest inhabitants of Asterim, and serve under Shadow Knights and Dark Commanders.

SHADOW KNIGHTS

Shadow Knights are blessed with strange powers and trained to best use them in service of their empress. While they normally operate under orders from a Dark Commander, they are sometimes dispatched in small teams. Shadow Knights come in a wide variety of forms, and many possess unique powers. Many Shadow Knights also carry a Shadow Shard, a small crystal capable of draining life energy to be brought back to Asterim’s mana battery.

DARK COMMANDERS

Empress Sola’s Dark Commanders represent her five greatest warriors, who act in her stead on other worlds while she remains tethered to Asterim. Each is unique, powerful, and as merciless as their matriarch.
Commander Apus is a changeling, born without a set form of his own. He prefers to think of himself as masculine and most often appears as an androgynous man, but loves taking forms he knows make other uncomfortable. Far less power­ful than other Dark Commanders, Apus’s unparalleled skills as a spy and saboteur earned him a place at Sola’s side.
Commander Grus replaced her mother after an unfortunate failure displeased the Empress, having inherited her fluid grace and magical insight to pick out the weaknesses of others. She is reserved and quiet, fearful that she will someday join her mother imprisoned forever in amber.
Commander Pavo has power to rival his Dark Lord, and his unwavering loyalty to Sola occasionally gives rise to rumors of a secret romance between the two. Pavo makes no illusions about his true love, however—his fellow Dark Commander Apus. Though handsome and slight, he is inhumanly strong and nearly indestructible.
Commander Tucana, nicknamed the Songbird, is deceptively angelic in appearance and abilities, but wields her gifts with a reckless brutality. As vain as she is gifted, she rarely appears without a trio of Dark Knight handmaidens who share her unearthly voice, which can woo hearts and shatter stone.
Commander Vela is a swordswoman without equal and is by far the most practical of Sola’s servants. She has served as a Dark Commander the longest, having fought for her Empress in the original civil war that placed her on their throne. She is eager to gloat over the follies and missteps of younger Commanders.