Raggedy Azra
Raggedy Azra was a Hecath Queen in the Late First Age of Waking Materia. She was a famously curious and gregarious queen, the first and most lasting success in Vierix Clymenikari's un-life goal to establish diplomatic relations with the intelligent Queens and their cunning Symbiont Queensguards. The xenobiologist and the saproling demigoddess would spend decades exchanging information and gifts.
Raggedy Azra died heroically in an event known as the Hemlock Veldt Disaster, making her a member of a "pantheon" of departed Material demiods alongside Solonn, Gavvan Grimbold and others.
Though Azra related better to Meranthic humanoids than other Hecath Queens do, her personality and ethics were still deeply alien, so discussion of her moral alignment is difficult. That said, consensus places her near Lawful Neutral or Lawful Good. If she was able to grant domains to her humanoid worshippers, they likely revolved around community, plants, fungus, time and fate.Description
See also: Hecath Image Gallery (External)Like all Queens, Raggedy Azra's form was mutable. Being fond of Meranthic Peoples, she would often choose vaguely humanoid forms, though still indicative of her fungal makeup. Another common form was essentially a floating mess of dozens of filamentous, insectoid-looking wings, with no discernible body or head. In general, she preferred mobile forms (some Queens are content to be sessile, similar to some Earth gorgonians).
History
It was Vierix Clymenikari that gave the Queen the name Raggedy Azra. The undead elf-human was devoted to Raggedy Azra, perhaps the first true worshipper among what would become a series of cults of humanoids worshipping the Hecath Queens. Clymenikari feared war if the other Rozsan Lichlords were to find out just how intelligent and powerful the Hecath can be; the lies she told to protect her friends eventually turned to outright defection from the Nireauan Empire. When attempts were made on Clymenikari's life, Raggedy Azra intervened: the rogue scientist and former Lichlord had the direct protection of a saproling demigoddess.
The Nireauan Hyperion Cults
A popular and bizarre set of Hyperion Cults came late in the First Age, as the politics between New Rozsa and the Hecath intensified. News of the "secret talks" between Clymenikari and Raggedy Azra are not difficult to find despite only a few surviving Nireauan libraries, suggesting this was a popular topic. The demigodlike power of the Queens became better understood by average Nireauans, and reaction was so polarized that factions came to blows in several well-publicized skirmishes.
When merely eccentric, semi-intelligent fungus-bugs, the Hecath were a passing curiosity through much of Nireau's history. When it was revealed the fungus-bugs were lead by their own pantheon of divine monarchs, in the form of the morphic, time-bending Queens, most reacted with fear. However a notable minority viewed this new breed of god as marvelous, and worth at least respect if not veneration.
To Professor Clymenikari's abject fear, Hyperion Cults began to pop up around her and Raggedy Azra. Philosophies varied in detail, but in general these cultists sought to join the Hecath in their "Hivemind World" and there either find "Paradise" or receive insights into its creation. (This is based on a false understanding of the Hecath's scent-based communication, which is easy to mistake for telepathy.) The unwilling new Cult Gods—especially Clymenikari, who was herself a Nireauan and knew their entitled disposition—saw many bad outcomes from this partnership and few good ones.
Clymenikari asked the ruling Temporal Vanguard to find ways to discourage the cult, arguing they were a source of tension with a powerful potential enemy. A second time she experienced horror: The Vanguard agreed, but thought a more permanent solution was pragmatic. Nef and Lakodalmas personally laid waste to the three major cult Halls in a violent arcane conflagration, leaving scattered survivors to warn of what happened that night. Nonetheless, diplomatic relations with the Hecath were better for it.The Hemlock Veldt Disaster
Eventually, the war Clymenikari sought to prevent happened. One of the few Queens who understood the threat of these new, relatively hairless humanoids, Azra would come to blows with the nearby Nireauan fief of Lochthwain, the domain of the half-insane Lichlord Vierix Euphraxia. Euphraxia was the main driving force behind the war with the Hecath, and was even prepared to conduct her own campaign if the Empire was unwilling: the Lichlord was convinced the alien time magic of the Hecath was the key to the creation of the fabled Philosopher's Stone: a sort of organic gemstone that, when used as a phylactery by a Lichlord, allows them to share the combined power of all souls trapped within it. This would give Euphraxia a greatly accelerated path to Overgodhood. Since the Hecath would not share their magic voluntarily, she would take it by force.
Azra learned of Euphraxia's plan to bring a Hecath island continent to its knees by way of a virulent arcane contagion that would spread violent insanity through the local spirit population, to whom the Hecath were sensitive. The resulting chaos would distract and weaken the Saprolings enough for conquest. Azra confronted the Euphraxian Guard directly in a god-clash that features strongly in some Material mythologies to this day. Unable to kill the Lichlord or disrupt the ritual casting in time, Azra was forced to do the next best thing: she used time magic to accelerate the ritual, causing it to "detonate" locally before it could reach the Hecath lands. As it took place in the relatively empty plains of Hemlock Veldt, the damage was minimal, but nonetheless both Raggedy Azra and Euphraxia perished in the disaster. The frenzied spirits tore the Lichlord's ghost apart before it could return to her phylactery.Power
The upper limits of Raggedy Azra's power are not well understood. She was known to be a master of an enigmatic, previously unknown form of time magic, likely native to the Hecath. She also learned the Nireauan arcane arts without difficulty. She was an extremely agile flyer when pressed and was able to shred anything in an approximately 50 metre radius with a series of ultrathin, cutting filaments flung from her body.
Raggedy Azra
Godhood
Hecath Queen, now deceased (killed by Vierix Euphraxia in the Hemlock Veldt Disaster) Alignment
Unknown Domains
Unknown Favoured Weapon
Natural weapons Relic Weapon
Likely none
Profile art: Robert Venosa
Banner art: Allen Williams
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