Empress Tamamo -No-Mae (a.k.a. The Kitsune Queen)
This article is about the Queen and Leader of the Imperium, Tamamo-No-Mae. If you are looking for the Goddess Tamamo-No-Mae, click here.
Physical Description
During her mortal life, Tamamo was well-known as a voluptuous woman whose curves were alluring enough to cause doubt to creep into the heart of even the most stalwart of warriors - although certain rumors that spoke of her as perhaps a bit too curvy as to be plump told the tale of a woman who, perhaps, enjoyed life's comforts a bit too much at times. Regardless of the veracity of these rumors, she was always described as a beautifully voluptuous and motherly woman with eyes as cold and heartless as ice itself - though often with a poor physical constitution as she favored magecraft more often than training her body.
During the latter years of her life, as she accrued divine power and slowly ascended into Godhood over centuries, such bodily concerns gradually became irrelevant - slowly garnering divine stamina and health, she rapidly became immune to disease and(Thankfully) immune to most fluctuations in weight with a metabolism that kept her body largely idealized and gorgeous enough that, combined with her supernaturally fluffy and gorgeous tails, meant that most would kill to have the privilege of touching or laying eyes upon her.
Once she attained true Godhood and ascended into the form of
Tamamo-No-Mae, The Dominator, she ascended beyond the mortal condition and could no longer be harmed, injured, killed, or hurt by any mortal means.
Her fur was the color of the freshest and purest snow, as was her hair and fox-like ears. Her skin was milky white, and she was mostly supple and without visible muscle as she preferred instead to focus on training her mind and magecraft over her body.
At time, she was described as so voluptuous as to be plump - particularly after her rather notorious spending binges across the capital in which she resided during her mortal lifetime - but those who dared to speak such things oddly rescinded their statements shortly after surprise personal visits from Tamamo or her royal guard.
Possessed of a soft, motherly face, Tamamo's face was often described as kind and caring save for her eyes - which were often described as cold, heartless, and icily vicious by most who met her. Otherwise, the gentle curves of her face and cheeks gave her quite the kind appearance, even when expressionless.
Most obvious of all her identifying features were, of course, her nine separate and beautiful tails - each with snow white fur and a beautiful sheen. Her beautiful white fur and snow-white skin were also quite recognizable and were often seen as a symbol of her rule.
Though few would dare admit it, Tamamo was said to struggle with her weight during most of her life until her ascension into divinity - though largely because her own immense wealth and lack of restraint more than anything else.
Being a Goddess of Magic, she was a mage of such power and unrivaled skill that only perhaps
Tet, The Adamantine Sage could be her match...to say nothing of
Barkhan the Eternal, whom she regularly imprisoned and captured on his lecherous escapades into her palace.
Before her ascension to Godhood, she was said to be a veritable Grandmaster of Abjuration magic, and as a Goddess is the unmatched master of defensive magic, capable of creating wards and barriers that can deflect the blows of even other deities.
She was often seen wearing a royal blue and white kimono when out in public, with little jewelry to speak of aside from some hair ornaments to keep her long white hair up in a loose bun when at excessively formal events. Her tails swished about freely, and she occasionally adorned them with ornaments and clasps to accentuate their beauty.
She could often irregularly be seen wearing various mismatched articles of clothing or jewelry upon her person when out in public - and while initially seen as little more than confusing fashion trends by her citizens, many rapidly came to realize what such irregular items truly were: the transformed bodies, minds, and souls of those who had spoken out against her and earned her personal wrath and were thus transformed into a bauble or object to be worn upon her person, trapped in an unfeeling hellscape from which they could not rest or escape.
Being a mage, she wears no armor and carries no weapons, and instead relied on her overwhelming magical power and her divine might as a Goddess. She had no need for relics or wondrous items, and only wore them for entertainment or cosmetic purposes.
Mental characteristics
During her mortal lifetime, Tamamo was believed to make little distinction between what gender a creature might be when she loved it - merely caring that it be cute, fluffy, adorable, mighty and strong, noble, or any(or all) of the above. She was known to have had relations with men and women before, and had concubines of many races and genders before her ascension into divinity.
Though information on her youth has always been incredibly scarce, Tamamo is believed to have grown up with utterly nothing.
Having rose to prominence during
The Unification War, she conquered the entire Eastern Continent and established
The Eastern Imperium, a nation bound by absolute law and her Iron Will that has stood the test of time for nearly 750 years.
In the intervening time, she has brought peace and absolute unity to the Eastern Continent, and has ascended into Godhood after she became the national religion of her own country.
Though it cannot be confirmed due to her own reticence to speak on the subject, many historians theorize that her love of material things indicates mental trauma likely associated with a childhood spent in utter and abject poverty - and even more specifically, many postulate that her love of food and drink indicates mental traumas associated with long periods of time spent during a very young age with no food or water in starvation.
While impossible to confirm due to her own disdain for the topic of her youth, such theories are commonly accepted by those who make a habit of studying the history of Tamamo-No-Mae, as they fit in with the little information that remains of the Age of Warring States - when Inara was so war-torn and wracked with strife that all civil order had broken down completely, leaving countless families to face starvation and death unless they turned to subsistence farming or, more commonly, banditry and slaughter.
Above all, Tamamo was a manipulative schemer to her core - one so beyond compare that it stands even now as a testament to her machinations and intellect that she remained in power atop the throne of her Empire for nearly a thousand years; no easy feat even for a woman with the powers of an Archmage Spellcaster. Patient and Vindictive, she was kind and caring to those who obeyed her and utterly ruthless to those who stepped out of line beneath her - so much so that many who interacted with her claimed her to be nearly two entirely seperate people depending on how one presents themselves to her, as if she had two entirely distinct personalities.
Though it would change over the course of her extremely long life, Tamamo's morality was always that of "Absolute Power" and "Absolute Law" - believing that one begets the other, she believed ardently that law is the sole binding force required to create the perfect society, and only through it can a truly perfect utopia be made...even if those laws are cruel or brutal, it is the binding of oneself to the ways of law and the following of orders that makes a civilized being, no matter what those laws might be. Change, to Tamamo, should come incrementally and through the means of law - or occasionally skirting its boundaries in careful plotting and scheming. Wanton slaughter and open warfare without scheming is the hallmark of a barbarian - and a thing to be punished.
Ever an Imperialist down to her very bones, Tamamo believed with all her might in the benefits of a strong central government - ideally, a strong and absolute monarch of sound mind and body - and despised the notion of democratic rule, seeing a vast majority of creatures as wholly unfit to lead and undeserving of any position of authority. Power, to Tamamo, should rest solely in the hands of those with the strength to claim it and the wisdom and cunning to keep it.
Additionally, she believed all her life in the distinct seperation of the common folk from a class of creature she saw as "nobility" - though not in the sense as most other Feudal Societies defined the term. Instead, she saw the difference between Common Folk and Nobility as that of deeds, ambitions, and accomplishments mixed in equal measure with one's legacy, lineage, bloodline, and inherent "uniqueness" that placed them above the more common rabble. This breed of "Nobility", she believed, was sorely lacking in societies at the time - both to provide the common folk an ideal to strive toward, and to weed out those who were sorely unfit for rule such that only the truly worthy rose into power. To Tamamo, all creatures had inherent value - and those with lesser value were best suited to and should aspire to serve those with greater value so that society can continue to function; in this way, she believed that those of lesser value could increase their own value to eventually become nobles of their own, either in this life or the next.
She believed that, through this cycle of absolute obedience and absolute command, is the soul made more pure and more noble...that after death, a creature should be reborn as a more noble soul according to how they lived their previous life and that those who obeyed their betters and expertly led their lessers even into death should be made more noble and superior, while those who disobeyed or misused their lessers be punished by being reborn into servitude.
Personality Characteristics
Even now, so shortly after her 'death' and ascension into Godhood, her motivations are an utter mystery - at times said to be stoic and brutal like a tyrant while others as wise, sagacious, and loving as a mother, Tamamo's motivations are the stuff of wild speculation. Many claim her to have been motivated by nothing but personal power and control, while others claimed she sought to give her people an empire that could last a thousand years and grant them safety and stability such that they had never known.
Now, with her ascension, the truth will likely never be known.
Extremely talented and powerful mage, excellent politician and leader, excellent tactician and warlord, said to possess the gift of future sight.
Very bad at giving creatures second chances, showing mercy or restraint, and at treating other mortals as creatures capable of handling themselves.
Likes laws, order, magic, civilization,
Kitsune, Monsters, teaching creatures to overcome their inner nature, being obeyed, helping others learn to live by the word of law, loud and heavy music, fluffy things, cute things, small things, plays and comedies, sweets, food, strong alcohol, ???
Dislikes chaos, lawbreakers, rebellion, intolerance or discrimination against inhumans and monsters, those who give in to their inner nature, being disobeyed, being insulted or criticized or mocked, ???
An utterly passionate woman, Tamamo's greatest virtue was her single-minded determination and drive that drove her to unite the warring lands of Inara nearly a thousand years ago and establish
The Inaran Imperium. Charismatic, charming, and incredibly persuasive, she is not only powerful but unfathomably patient - willing to give others the benefit of the doubt and help teach and correct mistakes so long as they were done in genuine error and not out of malice to her or her rule. To Tamamo, so long as her subjects never disobeyed her nor questioned her rule, all their sins and mistakes meant nothing to her and were easily forgiven - making her an oddly benevolent figure who was content to let her people govern themselves and self-determinate so long as she was not disrespected or her authority openly flaunted. Above all , she was a guide and shepard at heart, whose patience, mercy, and genuine belief in others made her a mother-like figure to her own people - a patient goddess who, despite her cruelties, led her people through centuries of strife and taught them the ways of civilization, law, and order.
A great ally to monsters and the inhuman, she was also well-known to be a patron of such creatures and championed many causes for their equality across her Imperium. Adding onto this, Tamamo was rather well-credited and well-liked for her egalitarian and equality-driven views - allowing any creature no matter their gender or species to be admitted into her Imperium so long as they obeyed her, never questioned her authority, and made a genuine and earnest effort to fit in and obey the laws of the land.
For all her virtues, Tamamo was legendarily brutal, and her zero-tolerance policies for dissent or opposition to her or her rule made her an unabashed tyrant - albeit one who captured the heart of her people. Dragging an entire continent down the path she deemed suitable, she ruthlessly butchered any who openly stepped out of line against her and saw her own citizens as tools for her to use as she saw fit - seeing mortals themselves as misguided sheep in need of her careful guidance and attention lest they descend back into barbarism and chaos without her iron rule.
Arrogant and haughty to the extreme, Tamamo ever saw herself as above all other beings and acted like it constantly - never speaking to another being as an equal even long before her ascent into true divinity, and insulting others who dared speak to her out of turn or who angered her with such legendary vitriol that she was rather well-known for her skill at insulting and denigrating others, able to even get the hardiest of warriors to weep openly or even take their own lives in short order.
Despite all these flaws, she was best known for her utter brutality that she wielded unto her enemies - enacting all manner of hideously cruel torments and punishments to those who defied her such that they became the stuff of legend. Most notoriously, she was especially fond of transforming those she deemed sinful into mundane, everyday objects using her own immense magical power and skills as a mage - turning them into furniture, clothing, or other objects and trapping their spirits in them to suffer for all time, unable to move or speak or sleep yet remaining aware of the world around them. Death, to Tamamo, was never an option when hideous torture was more suitable.
Supposedly, her nine tails each were said to have a different personality, and were supposedly sentient things that swirled and moved about during conversation and other activities with minds of their own.
Rather famously, she despised having her tails touched by anyone in any capacity, and often actively tortured and killed those who tried - though in the latter parts of her life this ironically had the opposite effect to many of her citizens, many of whom made games of attempting to touch the tails of their Goddess.
Though she was a recluse for much of her documented life and thus information on her hygiene was thus scarce, Tamamo always presented herself in public as an immaculate Goddess - never unhygienic or dirty in the slightest - to maintain an image of immaculate divinity to her people.
The one exception to this rule, it is said, was as usual during her countless tortures of various subjects across her centuries of life - during the rare situations where she would allow herself a level of poor hygiene to torment a subject transformed into an article of clothing, a piece of furniture, or so on.
As the founder of
The Inaran Imperium who governed the hearts and minds of an entire continent for nearly a thousand years, she is beloved by the people of Inara even now as their greatest ruler and leader - the precious "Great Mother" who guided them out of constant warfare and civilized them. While she has her lion's share of detractors due to her tyranny, her legacy is one of largely positive influence and she is worshipped and beloved in nearly every household in
The Inaran Imperium now decades after her ascension.
Social
As the founder of
The Inaran Imperium who ruled it as a God-Queen for nearly a thousand years, Tamamo's Reign was long and absolute - guiding the country for centuries as its one and only ruler until her eventual ascension into the realms of divinity. Though many attempted to challenge or depose her during her lifetime, none were successful - and all were in time made an example of by the mighty Kitsune Queen.
As the former God-Queen of
The Eastern Imperium and all its vassal nations, Tamamo commanded the fealty and obedience of every creature on the Eastern Continent of Inara, and even has limited inroads into the world of the Western Nations' politics...her contacts and relations are innumerable, and within the lands of the East she was an absolute force said to have eyes and ears on every corner, within every building, and atop every roof.
She was, in her mortal lifetime, notorious and legendary for her hatred of
Barkhan the Eternal, the Lich King of the West who once ruled the Venau Necrocracy, for his lecherous habits and his eternal pursuit for her affection which often saw him go to such extreme lengths as breaking into her divine palace and sneaking into her quarters to profess his love and admiration for her. She had killed the legendary lich more times than many could count and often kept him in her dungeons to torture him for years at a time, but has never managed to find his phylactery to end him permanently.
She also was well-known for being on extraordinarily good terms with
Asmodeus, ruler of the Nine Hells, with whom she shares many philosophical ideologies and beliefs in how mortal creatures should be governed. The two got along so well that they are said to have had children together, and were close allies in many facets of their lives.
She is known to have sired many children over the years and has had many concubines with whom she birthed said children. Her eldest daughter was a well-known half-devil birthed from her affairs with
Asmodeus, The Archfiend, with skin as red as blood and horns to complement her array of fluffy kitsune tails. Beyond her eldest daughter, she had many more children, some of whom served in her court, some of whom served in her army, and others who had abandoned her entirely to live lives of their own elsewhere.
Being a true goddess, she believed in nothing but herself and her tenets, seeing most other religions as dangerous things that breed malcontents and anarchists who would soon unravel the society they exist within. She believed that only certain religions and gods could be trusted to exist within her perfect society, while all others should be hunted down and purged.
Though she rarely entered into the social world during her mortal lifetime and prefered to stay within her divine citadel within Kitsunheim, Tamamo was said to be divinely charismatic even before her ascent to Godhood, with a passion, zeal, and drive that was so powerful that it was almost magnetic. She attracted countless followers from all walks of life on her quest to unite the formerly chaotic and anarchic Eastern lands, and her powerful charisma and tactical mind allowed her to crush her enemies beneath her heel as she forced even her enemies into servitude for her cause.
She was said to be brutal, utterly without mercy, but knew the value of restraint and when to spare her foes and when to grind them into dust...she could persuade even her staunchest foe into servitude, often spared her enemies to claim their lives in service to her and her ideals, and had such a grand vision for what the Eastern Lands could be that her staunch belief in her ideals of unity and peace inspired thousands and even millions to rally behind her and embrace her ideals in the hopes of ending the eternal wars that plagued the East in years past.
Her ideals were so powerful, her beliefs so strong, and her passion for her people so intense that they were all said to be as infectious as a disease capable of inspiring even the most hate-filled and spiteful of creatures, and convincing them into servitude to her cause...even those who once fought viciously against her soon fell victim to her infectiously powerful ideals and knelt before her in servitude, forgetting and abandoning their own ideals and aspirations in favor of serving her and working to better her ideals over their own. So powerful was her vision that many have since likened it to brainwashing and mind-control, though just as many claim it is simply the divine force of her charisma that fills those who meet her with such awe that they cannot help but kneel and abandon their ideals for her.
Just as she had always been, she was said to be regal, imposing, and spoke with a calm and imperious demeanor that instilled fear in ally and foe alike...she was said to be the 'ideal queen' in her mannerisms, and appeared to almost all who lay eyes upon her to be looking down her nose at all she sees, speaking to them as inferiors barely worth her time and whom she expects absolute obedience from, only rarely talking to others as an equal, if at all.
She stood tall, with arched back, with an often neutral expression no matter what she was doing, and was fairly well-known for being a stoic and stone-faced lady even in the most serious of circumstances...such that making her smile or even more impressively, to laugh, was a sign of her highest approval...consequently, those that made her frown or scowl are only those who had greatly angered her, enough to break her normally stern-faced and cold exterior.
For good reason, she was referred to as the 'Tyrant with a heart of Ice'.
She had only one pet, a small fox named "Ikobu" she carried with her and treated as royalty.
When she did leave her palace, she enjoyed seeing plays and stage routines done by the idols and other entertainment groups that perform in her country...she seems to prefer slapstick comedy routines, incredibly loud and booming metal music, and self-deprecating humor. Strangely, she did have a sense of humor when confronted with those who dressed up as her and performed silly acts for a play or comedic gathering, but had been known to punish those who do so out of mockery.
Her voice, when heard, instilled nothing but pure and unbridled fear in those who heard it...it was powerful, feminine, and often neutral in tone unless she had reason to speak angrily or gently. She never openly insulted those she addressed, as her expression of disdain and tone of voice were always clear enough to convey her general view of who she spoke to.
Crush and Favorite person to tease (Important)
Towards Barkhan the Eternal
Hated Annoyance (Important)
History
As one of the most legendarily lecherous men in the modern world, Barkhan the Eternal has long been known as a layabout and a hedonist who seeks physical pleasure and excitement in all sorts of places and in all sorts of ways...and to many, it came as no surprise that the chiefmost target of his lecherous attention was Tamamo-No-Mae, Queen of the Imperium.
With his overwhelming magical power, Barkhan often breaks through the wards on Tamamo's divine palace and breaks inside to seek her out and tease and torment her, eager to get a chance to get romantically involved with her...however, despite his overwhelming power, Tamamo often catches the unfortunate Lich-King and enacts countless cruel and innovative punishments upon him. She has tortured him for years on end, shrunk him and ground him into paste, detonated him with magic, and has even polymorphed him into various articles of clothing that she has burned, locked away, and even worn on occasion...yet, each time she kills him, he simply returns to life to torment her more, to her eternal fury.
Lover, Queen, and Goddess (Important)
History
One of the few men of The Eastern Imperium to catch the eye of The Kitsune Queen herself, Targutai Shao was the foremost up and coming warrior and leader in the old days of The Ursidae Dynasties...his martial might was peerless and his wisdom as well as his tactical and martial genius was so abundant that he was a genius all but unmatched in his prime.
During this prime of his life as he conquered enemy after enemy and eventually took the seat of Shogun, he soon caught the eye of Tamamo herself...and as the foremost hero of the entire Ursini people and a rapidly growing living legend, it came as a surprise to no one when Tamamo quietly called him to her Citadel in Kitsunheim.
What happened in that citadel exactly none shall ever know, but the two became close friends and even lovers shortly afterwards, siring several children together and enjoying each others company until Targutai's duties soon carried him home...but this time, with his signature shining golden fur, said to be proof of the undying love he shares with his queen and goddess, and the promise she is said to have made to him:
You shall know no mortal wound, no fatal blow, nor any sadness or ailment so long as my love for you remains...So long as your fur shines golden, symbol of my love, naught but time itself shall fell the mighty Targutai.
Goddess, Queen, and Close Friend (Vital)
Herald, Close Friend, and Leader of her Faith (Vital)
History
Chosen and uplifted by Tamamo centuries ago, Mislith was once a Rune Giant Matron who led her tribe into conquest of various portions of The Ursidae Dynasties, slowly and insidiously conquering village and city both until they were finally stopped in a notoriously bloody war which saw Mislith turn on her own tribe after Tamamo herself descended to persuade her of the error of her tribe's ways.
So persuaded, Mislith abandoned her people and saw them for what they were, embracing the truth of her new savior as she took up the mantle of Herald to her new Goddess...and in time, the two would become close friends as Mislith would rise entirely of her own enormous merit to become the Imperator and Leader of Tamamo's church, the Ninefold Tribunal. They are both close friends as two unfathomably powerful beings who almost nothing in common with most life, and Mislith serves her Tamamo faithfully and with loyalty, crushing the enemies of her faith and assisting her followers wherever she goes as she leads The Tribunal with a brutal but orderly hand in service to the being she now sees as the epitome of what her people once strove to be: Brutal Warlords with an absolute vice grip on all lesser races.
Mislith is one of the few people allowed free access to Tamamo's Citadel in Kitsune to converse with the Goddess herself, and is known to receive her orders and commands from her and her alone.
Adoptive Mother (Vital)
Towards Lucius Galdrikson
History
Though many speculate Lucius may have known Tamamo since even before The Unification War, all that is known for sure is their relationship now, which is seemingly nothing more than a son who is grateful he has finally found a home and a family who he doesn't despise. He cares for his mother and his adoptive siblings, and likewise they have grown to care for their eldest brother in turn.
He has an incredibly close relationship with his mother, one closer and more special than any other relationship his mother has with anyone, even her own children...though in what ways, none can say.
During her life, as a Goddess in the flesh and the ruling God-Queen of the entire
Eastern Imperium, Tamamo was said to be wealthy beyond imagining, though she now has little need for wealth as a Goddess. She had the entire wealth of her continent-sized nation at her disposal, and she could and often did flaunt her truly bottomless wealth by occasionally buying out the stock of entire clothing stores, shoe stores, and other fashion stores around her country and having them shipped back to her palace.
While some more haughty nobles saw this behavior as frivolous, Tamamo was notorious for brutally making an example of those who publicly spoke out against her, though she rarely ended their lives outright - instead, she was known for her cruel and unusual methods of social torture she enacts upon those foolish enough to decry her or her spending habits. She was shameless and without restraint in her purchasing, and her agents often bought exotic slaves that come into market in the country's port cities that show special promise as a mage or in any other field which she had a fancy in at the moment, having them shipped back to her palace to serve her in some capacity or another...though for what specifically, none could ever quite say...though many claimed and believed she had built herself a massive selection of concubines.
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