Vasa

And from the blood of the dragon she and her warriors rose, given new life by the gods to lead us into greatness.

— Excerpt from a telling of The Dragon Krenar

Vasa, also known as Vion or Savia, is a pseudo-historical figure in Vosti culture. She is widely credited as the mother of the Vosti people and by extension the Vosti Empire, and for her role in slaying the dragon Krenar in a time before recorded history.

History

As with other similar figures, when Vasa was born and where is not known. Various stories involving her will often make her birthplace local to the teller, which in the modern day typically constrains her to the current borders of the Vosti Empire in southern Abravost, with the regions of Shonyul and the Medura being particularly popular. Either the child of a god or of a village chief, Vasa was considered to be powerful and influential within her local area.
In the likely-fictious story of Krenar, when all of Abravost is threatened by the continent-sized beast, Vasa's home is all but destroyed by the dragon, and her people scattered. She and those who travel with her are then contacted by the Divinity of Justice, seeking warriors to defeat Krenar. Vasa volunteered, and her example encouraged many to follow. This group, then empowered by Justice through the use of divine contracts, met Krenar in battle, successfully slaying it but all being killed in the process. Justice then either revived all of the warriors, or Vasa alone.
After killing Krenar, Vasa returned to her hometown as a great hero, becoming its leader in short order. With the fame of her victory, she was able to expand her influence, becoming a queen in her own right for many years, ranging from a few decades to entire centuries. Her kingdom would later become the Vosti Empire through the expansionist conquests of Zaloren and his successors in the 600s BC.
No definitive time of death is ever given for Vasa, with contradictory evidence found in the historical record. Figures resembling her can be found at various points, particularly within the history of the Vosti, leading to the likely possibility that she is a composite of many powerful women in the pre-Imperial age, or that subsequent queens took great inspiration from her and sought to present themselves as worthy successors to her legacy.

Species

Primordial

Ethnicity

Vosti

Pronouns

she/her

Gold Crown by Hans

Queendom

Evidence for Vasa as an individual is inconsistent. What is known definitively is that pre-Imperial Vosti imagery often includes a central female figure, with details sometimes making it clear that two artifacts separated by centuries are depicting the same individual.
This makes it all the more strange that, while she is supposed to have become a Queen within her own right as a result of her slaying of Krenar, her descendants and successors would be so militantly focused on male primogeniture to the point of a war being fought over the matter.
It's very likely, then, that Vasa's rule was limited, or effected no lasting change within an otherwise patriarchal society. The supposed intervention of the divine in her greatest achievement, and her possible direct descent from that divinity, may have seen her placed as an exception, not a rule.