Ti'Akka

Nana Ti'Akka Fon Temitayo (a.k.a. Blade of the Akala, The Blood Queen, The Butcher Under the Waterfall, The Queen of Whores, Claw of the People)

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Strong and lithe, Ti'Akka had a body of wiry muscle, honed in her youth among the Akala. She was stronger than most women, but relied on her natural quickness and agility in a fight. She never stopped training and she remained thin an athletic most of her life. This is no doubt because of the training she continued even into middle age. Even in her forties she was said to be able to beat some of the fastest men in foot races.

Body Features

Dark mahogony skin, long dreadlocked hair down past her shoulders.

Identifying Characteristics

Dozens of long, raised scars down her back in the shape of crocodile scales. Dark, sad eyes.

Special abilities

Ti'Akka was trained in the ancient and brutal ways of the Akala. Living with them since she was a child, she became a ferociously violent warrior. The griots still sing of her rage during battle.
The Akala believe that pain is an illusion. For this reason Ti'Akka was able to shrug off even serious injuries without any visible discomfort.
After years of meditation and prayer, Ti'Akka's mental discipline was said to make her almost impossible to charm. None but the most powerful southern witchmen were about to sway her with their magic.
Few could match her skill with spear, sword, and whip. Even then, no one could match her ferocity. She fought every enemy, familiar and unfamiliar alike, with black hatred. The rage with which she entered battle at times frightened even her own soldiers.

Specialized Equipment

Finger guantlets with sharp claws.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Born the daughter of a sixth wife on the blackest night of the year, Ti'Akka was considered an unlucky child and marked for a difficult and short life. Though loved by her father, his third wife convinced him that their house need not be risked by having such an unwanted presence. Ti'Akka and her mother were sent to live with a neighboring river tribe when she was six years old. It was there that she befriended a local boy, Bokassa, who became her loyal friend and confidante.
After her father died Ti'Akka's mother feared that the first wife would not suffer them to live for risk to her son's claim to the throne. In desperation, she sent Ti'Akka to live with the Akala, a xenophobic warrior tribe on the outskirts of the Nightlands. There were few who expected a pampered princess to survive the brutal training, but Ti'Akka endured. She took to the violent, spiritual culture as if it were her own. She quickly rose through the ranks, and by the age of seventeen she was named Blade of the Akala, the tribe's highest military honor.
During the war of liberation, Ti'akka led an uprising in the slave city of whores, Panṣaga, that killed most of her brother's chiefs and generals. The locals renamed the city Nyasi.
After overthrowing her brother, Ti'akka became Queen of the West Kingdom. The peace that followed was long and uneventful. So long that Ti'Akka began to grow plump, some say from the sweets and foreign trifles she was so found of. Briefly it was whispered that she was with child, though it was widely known she preferred women to men. These rumors were put to rest when she quickly regained her warrior's figure, it is said, after she took to training her army in the way of the Akala.
Whether due to boredom or foresight of future conflict, the queen threw herself into training with the vigor of one twenty years younger. She was not satisfied until every soldier was a master of sword and spear and whip. Ti'Akka suffered no cowards and had nothing but contempt for laziness. The griots sing of the punishments doled out to any warrior who was found even mildly shirking their duties.
One song contains fifteen stanzas about the two young recruits caught with theoir attention in the clouds instead of listening to commands. Ti'Akka removed their left ears with two quick swipes of her sword. Some say she made them wear the severed lobes around their necks so that they might lift them up if they needed to listen more closely.
She ruled for nearly twenty years before being betrayed by Bokassa. How she died is unknown.

Sexuality

Preferred women. Later in life she became obsessed with passing on her bloodline and slept with men to become pregnant.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Defeated the sorcerer chiefs of the south at the Battle Under the Waterfall .
Took the throne from her older brother.
Killed the river witch Kuama.
Named Blade of the Akala.

Relationships

Ethnicity

Forest Tribes

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Nana, Blade of the Akala

Life

48 NE 89 NE 41 years old

Circumstances of Birth

Born on the blackest night of the year, she was considered to be an unlucky child. Her mother was the sixth wife of an old chief.

Circumstances of Death

Unknown

Birthplace

West Kingdom

Spouses

Siblings

Gender

Female

Eyes

Dark grey

Hair

Long, coal black, dreadlocks

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Mahogany

Quotes & Catchphrases

"If you have trouble hearing, lift your ears in the air and listen closely."
"Blood is thicker than water, yes. The poison kills you faster."
"I will suffer no cowards. Each of you has a choice: step forward and face me, or die where you stand."
"Remember, sweet brother, the knife in a woman's hand cuts just as deep."

Known Languages

Spoke the grumbling tongue of the Akala as well as the Western Languages. She was said to be competant in the tongue of the southern witchmen.

Character Prototype

Hatshepsut, Shaka Zulu, Nzinga.