Once upon a time, there were five Queens. They ruled across a mass of land so

huge, it seemed unfathomable that anything should lay beyond their reach.

They each had their qualities, and their flaws, and their own way of ensuring

their citizens‘ loyalty. One was known for being a strict character, sensible and

mature. Another, for being cautious, and offering security. A third, for

prosperity and productivity. Those three usually got along. The fourth Queen

was a striking character, full of righteousness and untamed energy, and her

people were wild, and ferocious. She was feared among the others, yet always

respected. The fifth Queen was an exception in every way, and so were her

subjects. The were unbound, yet deeply connected to what was around them,

free-spirited, yet peaceful and mild, flexible in their ways, yet unmoving in their

principles. They sought not to rule their land, but to be one with it. They were

neither liked nor disliked among their neighbors, and the fifth Queen’s words

were often forfeited by the others. She did not mind that too much, since she

was not interested in anyone’s business but her own, and they might have

continued to live happily that way, if they had not been subjected to a

grueling learning experience.

They had never cared for lands outside their own, and never bothered to pay

any attention to them. But they were being paid attention to. And on the first day of

the spring bloom in the 256th year of the second era, the Otherlanders arrived.

They arrived with people, and carriages and noble men and weapons no Queen

could have ever dreamed of, and they conquered the first two Queen’s territory

breezily, without any hardship at all. The third Queen had watched her sisters

fall, and she could see her own destruction as clear as day. Instead of fighting,

she struck a deal with the fourth Queen. The fourth Queen was thriving. Her

people were mobile, and the conquerors with their slow armies and long sieges

did not frighten them. They were cunning, and the unknown weapons and

strategies only served to free their mind and carry them to the heights of new

developments. And they were vicious, and brutal and no foe ever crossed them

and made it out alive. The only thing they were not was well equipped, but the

third Queens offerings changed that all too quickly. And so they fought, tooth

and nail, and pushed the Otherlanders back mile by mile, until they were not to

be seen on any of the five territories.

The war was over, but its consequences were not. The remaining lands were

highly unstable, replacements for two Queens were missing and in the throes of

the fight the fifth Queen had, unnoticed by everyone, vanished and so had her people.

Efforts were made to restore the former unity, yet despite all woes the situation

remained desperate. The third Queen had, struck by her own success,

entertained the fantasy of gaining power and as soon as the two other Queens

had been chosen she engaged them in a net of intrigues and struggles, which

their untrained minds heartily responded to. They went on for years, grappling

with each other, hiring hitmen and leading campaigns, and even as the Queens

changed with time, their attempts at surpassing each other persisted. The

fourth Queen, meanwhile, had settled on the fifth Queens territory with her

people, who adapted quickly and build up defenses, in expectation of another

war against the Otherlands. It never came.

Instead, trade between the two continents blossomed, and the closer their

relationship became, the more they were influenced by each other. The

Otherlanders had a history of regicide and revolutions, and their ideas found

willing ground among the three fighting Queens. The Queens had a knack for

diplomacy, and persuasion, and they dragged the Otherlanders into their

conflict, using them to get back at each other. The fourth Queen watched all of

this, and desperation overcame her.

However, she did not act, for she was carrying her first child, the heir to her

crown. Instead, she fortified her defenses and her troops, studied strategies

and theories from other countries and got intimately acquainted with the

cultures and the philosophies and the deepest darkest fears of all the people

around her. And when her daughter finally arrived, a small bundle of

stubbornness and uncontrolled rage, she was prepared to teach her. Her

daughter, so she promised herself, would put an end to this nonsense. She

herself had been feared, yet her impact had not been enough to stop the other

Queens from ruining their lands with their petty squabbles and to make the

Otherlanders go away permanently. But her daughter would be much more

fearsome than her. She would be made of steel and nightmares and horrify

them to the core and when she was ready to make her move, she would scare

their selfish dilly-dallying right out of them. She would administrate their lands,

and control their decisions, and, most importantly, she would find the fifth

Queen and restore balance to their people.

Now, all those events took place quite long ago, and can be looked up in every

modern textbook, so I won’t bore you, my dear readers, with any further

details. Let us just hold on to the significant information, which is that on the

day that our story begins, there were four Queens.

And one of them was on a roll.