Malissa by deadheart82 on DeviantArt
Born in 4332 ACW3, Malissa is a complex figure whose life has been marked by survival, deception, and unpredictable evolution. She is the daughter of Serviana, a Babelon witch who escaped the ancient Mavo purges and Nefrite roundups. She had taken refuge with other slaves in an abandoned mine. There, using the cruel methods typical of the Charmian cult, Serviana had established herself as queen of a new tribe of Amazons, refounding the cult of the Army of the Crimson Noose.Within her family, Malissa grew up caught between her feared older sister Khalieptra and her detested younger brother Saran. The family dynamics culminated in bloodshed when Khalieptra assassinated Serviana to usurp her throne. It was at this juncture, and to ensure her tribe's support for the Avalonian alliance, that Khalieptra forced the marriage between her younger sister and the warlord Ligenor. Her true goal was to have a pawn to manipulate the alliance's leadership and protect herself from future betrayal by keeping her sister at bay.Initially, Malissa went along with the plan. As a Babelonian spy and hierarch of the Crimson Noose, she played her part, driven both by terror for her ruthless sister and by the prospect of a power she could never have achieved otherwise. However, against all odds, she ended up truly falling in love with Ligenor. She loyally supported him throughout the war, employing his often ruthless methods and thwarting Khalieptra whenever she could.After the conflict ended, she severed all ties with her deadly family. Becoming co-ruler of the ocean world of Irtyu alongside her husband, she began to vent her old sadistic tendencies exclusively on the concubines of Ligenor's harem, of which she became the undisputed and tyrannical master.The idyll, however, was interrupted by the Kundal Inquisition, which discovered her true identity as a Babelona witch. Sentenced to death by the brutal torture of the "Steel Mare," she was saved only by the desperate intercession of Ligenor. Her pleas to the Emperor and Empress Fenissia pushed the latter to grant Malissa one last chance, provided she overcame a potentially lethal ordeal.Entrusted to the priestesses of the Great Temple of Kleopatra, Malissa survived a long and painful purification process that changed the very essence of her blood. Renouncing her very nature, she went down in history as the first and only Babelona ever to redeem herself. Today, Malissa is fully recognized as a noble Mavo. The Imperial Family has even granted her the immense privilege of privately practicing a mitigated form of the cult of the goddess Charmian. She remains a formidable matriarch, a harpy to the women of her husband's harem, and a key figure in her house, having herself educated and shaped some of Ligenor's noble princess daughters.If you want to see more, visit my gallery:https://www.deviantart.com/deadheart82/gallery/23726655/my-sci-fi-empire
