Ascended - Mahatma Vritri

The Dynast-Queen | The Husbander of Dragons | The Nagaraji

Viraj-Mahatma Vritri

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

The faultless Draupadi, slender-waisted like the wasp, was born of a portion of the queen of the celestials, in the line of Drupada. And she was neither low nor tall in stature. And she was of the fragrance of the blue lotus, of eyes large as lotus-petals, of thighs fair and round, of dense masses of black curly hair. And endued with every auspicious feature and of complexion like that of the emerald, she became the charmer of the hearts of five foremost of men.

— The Mahābhārata, Book I (the Kisari Mohan Ganguli translation)

The queen Vritri has warm burgundy skin-tones, but she is sometimes depicted with golden skin. A Cytherean physique, well-built and graceful. With purpose and poise, she moves. Motionless, she is statuesque and awe-striking. Black hair and rich blue eyes. A handsome woman. Practically the walking definition of Yoljanian beauty. She appears to be only in her late-thirties at most. As most Yoljanians do, she has pointed knife-shaped ears, a slightly buttoned nose, and alluring lips; then, as she hails originally from the highlands, she has slight epicanthic folds and smoother cheeks, uncommon to the rest of Yoljana. She has a beauty spot beneath left eye. Common also among well-bred Scions, two silky black horns sport her forehead, and her fingernails and toenails grow naturally dark and pointed. She is left-handed.

Special abilities

Breath, Summoning, and probably Enchanting too. A natural shaman.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Some time during the Age of Kings in the current era, it is said that Vritri was guided by divine hands as a young shaman on the Balram-Aham steppes in Yoljana. Her people were some of the only surviving Human Scions from the reclamation era; sheltered up there from most great calamities. She was supposedly granted a vision by Loke Herself, and thence made pilgrimage to the seven dragon-shrines that border those mountain-ranges. At each shine she met with one of Loke's avatars—the great Naga kings—and they gave her a quest: Yoljana is littered with ancient ruins and artefacts of forgotten power, and the soon-to-be 'Dynast-Queen' liberated many such things from the dust and took their power all for herself. She was tasked with travelling all of Yoljana to learn of the peoples in the lowlands and know their plights under constantly warring states. One task supposedly even sent her to Heaven, to requisition divine favour from the gods themselves. Her seventh task was to unify the disparate peoples of the highlands under her singular rule. Her reward for completing each task was marriage to the dragon. Thus, with the seven prime aspects of Loke as her husbands, Vritri's final task was the unify the whole of Yoljana and to re-instate an ancient naga dynasty—as prophesied by the Priestess of Bahamutbali in the Ahrishastras—thus she is also by the title 'The Husbander of Dragons'.
Vritri rose from obscurity, united the nomadic people of the steppes, and then invaded the lowlands of Yoljana. With high-quality iron tools and armour, the magic of her Great Soul, lost artefacts from the golden ages, the blessing of heaven, the guiding hand of the naga kings, and her new pure-blooded Scions, she was almost unrivalled as subjugated the old kshatriya monarchs. Each bowed to her in allegiance; agreeing that she should be their Queen. With such overwhelming favour, Vritri's conquest of Yoljana did not often involve battle, or in some cases the battles were only a formality with few casualties. Indeed, many of the earlier nomadic wars that she waged on her own people were bloodier, as many refused her claims and potentially had the power to stop her. There were some kshatriyas who tried to stop her in the lowlands too though, usually those with cities built on ruins from the mythic eras, who also had access to powerful artefacts, or who were ruled by disparate Incarnates: And so Vritri was forced to lay siege to them, and slay them if they still refused to bow to her after she annexed their towns.
Yoljana is a gigantic continent though, so in total it took her well over a hundred years to unify the entire country. Particularly since she was always careful to legally secure her victory in each locale before continuing to the next: Following the laws of the varna she'd learned in her previous travels, she would marry one or two of her children off to each of the kings or queens that she conquered, and then stay in their palaces for a a year or two, getting to know them while her armies recouped; and also giving her time to produce more offspring for future invasions. This tactic would in-turn reintroduce a pure Naga blood-line back into the kshatriya vanṣi who would remain loyal to her long after the original mortal rulers of each locale had passed on.
Towards the end of her campaign, more and more of the remaining old kshatriya clans cottoned onto Vritri's plan, and some then began to refuse her marriage proposals or ask for greater recompense. In many of these instances she would find another local popular vaṃśa who was more favourable to her, and organise with them a coup against the current rulers. Or in rare instances she would just use overwhelming force to take over the province and then give the land directly to one of her own children. These later tactics were seen by some as being more crude and dishonourable, and they occasionally still cited to this day to call into questioning the legitimacy of certain kshatriya's right to rulership.
Then she manufactures the pillars of her edicts, and in the centuries that followed saw the counties collective quality of life and standard of living dramatically raise above the rest of the world. The central continent now enjoys its greatest continuous period of peace and prosperity. Nowadays they can produce crucible steel and white jade and other metallurgies, they can harness the forces of electricity, and have even rediscovered some of the secrets of flight; they've built works of art and architecture of such grandeur that perhaps even the ancients could not have dreamed; and most importantly, they caught the trade-winds, learned to sail the sea and skies, and made accord with the nations who skirt the Urobos Sea.
Unfortunately, such great splendour may not last. At the turn of this last decade, Vritri become so powerful and so beloved that she was granted the gift of ascension. She then became the Nagaraji or 'Dragon-Empress', a true demi-god. Supposedly she is now the goddess and supreme ruler of the central empire, but she has not been seen or heard from directly for almost four years. Civil unrest is brewing on the dragon isles; and things may come to a head with a succession war that threatens to shatter the kingdoms once more.

Gender Identity

She / her

Sexuality

Bisexual (and polyamorous)

Social

Religious Views

Vritri came from an animistic religious background that taught that one should respect the souls of all things, but in-turn seek to emulate the greatest of all souls—the Nagas themselves—to be assertive in life, and to in-turn find peace of mind in death. Ahe also saw merit within the teachings of the varied pantheons and religions that she found while travelling the Yoljan lowlands. She knew that attempting to completely co-opt their way of life and especially their religious beliefs would likely cause rebellion, so she tried to emphasise the same principles through native philosophies.
Her emphasis on the virtues of ahimsa—respect to all religious teachers, equal respect for and study of each other's scriptures, and rational faith—explains why centuries later, the Yoljanian people are still very devout: Where an overall respect for the nagas and their scions has precipitated out to the top; but individual gods, beliefs, and rituals are still worshipped, shared, and practised; and so the actual ways of life have been able to evolve naturally rather than being usurped entirely. It helped that a lot of Yoljan religions have their roots tied in some form or another to the four puruṣārtha, particularly to Dharma—duty, truth, and right way of living.

Divine Classification

Heavenly Protector of Yoljana

Birthplace

The Balram-Aham steppes

Gender

Female

Eyes

Marianne Blue

Hair

Very long and black with a slight curl

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Burgundy

Height

5'10" (178 cm)

Aligned Organization

The Vritrian Dynasty