Elpida Atkinson

Queen Elpida Atkinson

I see you have found one of my greatest treasures: the diary of Elpida Atkinson, queen of Olmicum. Yes, that is her actual diary. I stole it from the home of an Incorporeal in Amaca. Don't worry, I didn't steal it from her descendants (she didn't have any.) And I wasn't trying to take her diary, I just thought it was an old text that might help me piece together the origins of magic. Of course, once I realized what I did have, I knew it to be the treasure that it is. Because no one knew what happened to her after she was overthrown. And there are so many other things no one knows.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Elpida was born to a wealthy family in Olmicum. She was the third of the family, and seeing as she was not inherit, she joined the Olmicum army at age fifteen. There, she quickly proved herself to be a fierce warrior and and adept soldier. Within five years, she was appointed to the personal guard of the king. When the old king died and his son, Ranko, succeeded him, the new king was quite taken with her. He often chose her to accompany him on important journeys, and sometimes she traveled with him undercover, disguised as a young noblewoman who he might have his eye on. The charade turned out to be prophecy, and at age twenty-nine, she became queen of Olmicum.
Their love didn't last long. After four years, Ranko was assassinated. Some suspected the queen herself, and to this day some people still do. But her diary indicates that they really did care for each other, and gives no sign that she planned to kill him. Elpida suspected the king of neighboring Tastmonteos, Vance Filipowski, who had been at war with Amaca, and wanted Olmicum as an ally. After her husband died, King Vance proposed marriage to Elpida, but she refused, always coming up with a new excuse. First, she didn't have enough time to mourn her husband. Later, she claimed that if she married him, it would upset Olmicum's delicate relationship with Urur. Finally, she flat-out told him she was too busy building schools to bother with courtship. After seven years of this nonsense, Vance got fed up with her and decided to invade. Of course, we all know that Elpida outsmarted him and the armies of Olmicum destroyed those of Tastmonteos. But it's what happened in that seven year period before that that's really interesting.
At first, Elpida insisted that she needed time to mourn her husband, and she did so. But after a year or two, this was no longer a sufficient excuse to put off marriage and a possible alliance to another country. Now, she didn't think marrying Vance would create an alliance, so much as it would allow Tastmonteos to swallow Olmicum entirely. Unfortunately, she was out of excuses... until a solution possessed her. Literally.
The solution came in the form of a young woman named Dana Minkov. Now, mostly people knew that Dana became Elpida's consort, but they don't know much more than that. That's because Dana purposely stayed out of the spotlight. Dana was born in Agrur, a region in west Olmicum, which was generally considered a backwater area. Common stereotypes of people from Agrur claimed that they did not know how to read, married their siblings, and killed and ate their elderly (a practice which, several centuries earlier had been widespread throughout Olmicum.) Dana was none of these things. She was intelligent, curious, and had come to the capital city to study. In fact, by the time she and and Elpida met, she had already been studying in the capital for twenty years, and had several degrees to prove it. But despite her years of study, people tended to ignore Dana, merely because she was from Agrur.
At the time Dana and Elpida met, she had been studying a recent murder case. Convinced that the primary suspect had a condition which would have prevented him from committing the crime, Dana tried to bring the evidence to local police, but they ignored her, saying that she only wanted them to let him go because he was also from Agrur (which he was) and making an impolite joke about him being her brother and husband (which he wasn't.) But Dana hadn't come to the capital merely to study at the university. She had also come to study private study Incorporeal magic, and she did what any young Incorporeal who was out of options would do. She decided to possess the queen.
Possession of another body is the most difficult trick an Incoporeal can learn, and according to Elpida's diary, Dana had only done it twice before... on birds. While the technique is the same, Dana had never possessed a human before, and such possessions were usually frowned upon. But Dana was desperate. So she found a stone that she thought could do the trick and carefully cut it to hold as much power as possible. Then she got as close to the queen as she could, and took her body at the right moment. Dana marched Elpida right down to the police station and told off the police that had been ignoring her, claiming that she had been following the case, and ordering them to listen to hear Dana out. Then she marched her out onto the street and left her body.
Elpida, having been aware of the entire event, had heard Dana's name. So she tracked Dana down, and without telling anyone else what she was doing, went to her possessor and held her at sword point. According to Elpida's account of the event, Dana handled herself with remarkable coolness. She admitted to her crime and told the queen she had every right to execute her, but she would prefer she be executed for a crime she did commit than let an innocent man die. This piqued Elpida's interest, and Dana told her the story of the man who had been falsely arrested. And sure enough, when someone had actually listened to her, Dana's evidence showed that the suspect was physically incapable of having committed the crime.
Elpida thought Dana's cause was noble, but she also didn't like the idea of people going around possessing each other, and especially not her. Of course, it would have been difficult to punish Dana for possession without looking crazy. Everyone knew (including Elpida, until this event) that there was not magic left after the Magic War, and such a feat was impossible. So Elpida did what any new queen stuck in a moral quandary would do. She asked Dana to possess her again.
Elpida had to meet with Vance in a couple of weeks. She knew he would propose to her, and if she outright refused him, he might invade, which her country wasn't ready for. Yet. So she told Dana that if she could possess her for this meeting and keep Vance away, she could keep her head. Dana agreed, and that first meeting went so well that Elpida gave Dana a position as negotiator. This position was off the books, of course. Because instead of serving as a representative of the queen, Dana possessed her. And she came up with enough excuses to keep Vance away for five more years--long enough for Elpida to determine how to defeat him in a war. Basically, Elpida that though she was an excellent warrior and military strategist, Dana had a better head for economics and was a superior diplomat, which meant that together, they would make an excellent queen.
They say history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme, and just as Elpida and Ranko's relationship started professionally and became romantic, so did Elpida's and Dana's. At first, people documented that Elpida frequently invited Dana over as a guest. According to Elpida's diary, they spent many hours discussing national and foriegn policies and making decisions about which meetings would require Dana's finesse. As their friendship grew stronger, they discovered a mutual affection for one another, and after a few years, Dana was practically living at Elpida's home. After Vance was defeated, Dana gave up her old apartment and became Elpida's official consort. They never married, as Elpida and Ranko had, meaning Dana had no claim on the throne, but Elpida and Dana wanted it that way. Though Elpida was raised in the public limelight, Dana found the attention unsettling. Also, they figured that the less attention the public showed toward Dana, the less likely they would be to figure out that the role of queen was already being played by two women.
You probably know the rest of the story. Though the country made great progress domestically, Elpida remained loyal to Dana and refused to marry. This frustrated first, the rulers of her neighbors, and later members of her country. Before the next seven years was up, people had begun to revolt. Elpida abdicated the throne and fled with Dana. The two were never to be seen or heard from again. At least, in Olmicum. Turns out, they went to Amaca, which was still pretty pleased about Elpida's smackdown of King Vance of Tastmonteos, and happy to have them.

Gender Identity

female/she/her/hers

Sexuality

bisexual

Life

1806 1875 69 years old

Hair

blue-black, waist length, thick

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

golden brown

Height

5'7"