Neferu-Merywset

By --Thunder Bolt--

• September 12, 2013




Age: Canon era: 4500+ (Varies with RP setting)

Gender: Female

Species: Alicorn

Cutie Mark: An Egyptian-style winged solar disc

Personality: ANCIENT SETTING ("Gift of the Hile" RP):<br /><br />Merywset is kind, gentle and serene, but if you look closely in her eye, you might see a hint of the trauma of her past. She is highly intelligent. Though she desires to be a benevolent ruler, she can be cunning, even harsh at times. Years spent in hiding have made it hard for her to get close to anypony, and her new status as an Alicorn ruler does not seem likely to help.<br /><br />She is inexperienced in politics and governance, and has much to learn.<br /><br />CANON ERA:<br /><br />Merywset still retains her original core personality traits, but now that her kingdom is lost to the sands of time, her reign is all but forgotten, and a new Alicorn Princess governs the Sun that was once hers, there is an aura of deep melancholy about her. She has also had thousands of years to probe and ponder the questions of existence and the mysteries of magic. Few seek her out now, but to those who find her, she often speaks in koans or riddles. After such a long life, she seems strange, almost alien to the average pony.

Backstory: Merywset was born early in the age of ancient Kemare't (Equestria's ancient Egypt), under the reign of the Alicorn king Kheftiu-Re. She was the youngest daughter of a Nome lord (local ruler of a district). <br /><br />Merywset was a bright and curious young unicorn with a rebellious streak who disguised herself as a colt so she could study magic in the royal Temple. It was not long before the high priest, Shen-Ur, caught her. Instead of having her punished and expelled, he decided that anypony who wanted knowledge as much as Merywset clearly did deserved a chance to learn.<br /><br />Though she did not have much raw power in her magic, she studied the Temple Mysteries and meditative practices with patient determination. What she lacked in power, she made up for in skill and nuance. Strangely, she did not receive a cutie mark as a filly. When she was a young mare, Shen-ur trained her for initiation as a lector priest. Performing her first Invocation of Kheper-Re (the rising sun) ritual, her cutie mark appeared: a winged solar disc.<br /><br />Shen-ur reacted quickly, hiding it under his cloak before anyone could see it. The power of Kheftiu-Re was great, and his suspicion made him ever watchful. He sensed that someone in the Two Lands had weakly touched his Sun.<br /><br />He sent his agents and soldiers through the length and breadth of the Two Lands searching for anyone bearing a solar cutie mark. Shen-ur sent Merywset into hiding. As soon as she left the shelter of the Temple and her home behind, her innocence was shattered. In towns and cities, she saw the vast majority of the ponies of the Two Lands living in poverty and oppression under the heel of Kheftiu-Re and his courtiers.<br /><br />What she saw broke her heart. She became an anonymous traveling mage, plying healing and other useful arts in peasant villages. Over time, her fame grew despite her best efforts to remain inconspicuous. Though her actual level of power was modest, it grew to legendary scope in the telling. When Kheftiu-Re started hearing tales of a mysterious peasant mage whose works were without equal, he commanded that the wizard be brought to the Royal Palace to perform for him.<br /><br />From the start of her life on the run, Merywset knew that only one thing could bring lasting prosperity to all: Kheftiu-Re had to be overthrown. But how could she, a unicorn of mediocre magical strength, defeat the mighty Alicorn King who commanded the Sun, Moon, and stars? Over the years, she had studied, thought, and experimented with spells and transfigurations, but now her time was running out. <br /><br />Merywset was found and brought before the throne. She did her best to impress the king. For her final feat, she beheaded a goose, then re-attached the head and restored it to life. This pleased the king greatly, and he commanded that she perform a final feat: He had a slave brought out, and was about to have him beheaded...<br /><br />Merywset cried out to the executioner to stop. She would not do as the king demanded. Though angered by her refusal, Kheftiu-re was also intrigued. Who was this, who dared refuse him? He ordered her to remove her hooded cloak and reveal herself. Merywset had painted over her cutie mark in preparation for such a possibility, but when the king saw her, his expression turned lascivious. That, she had not prepared for.<br /><br />To Merywset's horror, he forced her to join his harem. How long could she keep her true cutie mark hidden, living under the king's muzzle, surrounded by slaves and courtiers and harem mares? Her life became one of desperate terror, punctuated by episodes of misery when Kheftiu-re called her to him.<br /><br />But then, she had an idea. One night after he had gone to sleep, she collected some of his spittle and mixed it with hers in a vial. This, she took out to the fertile farmland by the River and mixed with soil. She formed the mud into an asp and brought it to life with her magic.<br /><br />Merywset set it out near the royal Khepri Shrine before sunrise. When the king came forth with his procession of courtiers and priests to raise the Sun, the asp struck him. Neither his own magic, nor that of the court magicians, nor the healing arts of the Royal physicians could take away the pain, which grew worse with each day.<br /><br />Finally, he came to Merywset. She told him that she would heal him, but first he would have to give her his True Name, his Name of Power. He offered her wealth, the position of Great Royal Wife (queen), even half the kingdom, but she refused. He threw her in prison and had her tortured, but still she refused.<br /><br />Word of the fate of the mysterious traveling healer-magician spread among the ponies of the land, which only made her legend grow. She became revered as a kind of patron saint of the poor and downtrodden. Anger and discontent grew. And then...darkness fell over the land.<br /><br />The king's agony had grown so great that he could no longer concentrate to raise the Sun. Surely the asp's attack, and the failure of the sunrise was proof that Kheftiu-Re had strayed so far from the path of Ma'at (justice and rightful order) that the very powers of Nature had turned against him! Open rebellion spread from the villages to the cities.<br /><br />At last, the king had Merywset brought before him. "Without me, the land and all who dwell therein will perish in darkness!" he shouted. "Heal me, or you shall be the first!"<br /><br />"The land does nothing but suffer so long as you rule. In death, ponies shall at least find peace, and escape from your cruelty. Even I shall find freedom when you wring my life from this body. But you, O Immortal One, you shall not find peace, nor relief from your agony throughout endless ages. Give me your True Name, and I shall cause your pain to depart from you."<br /><br />Unable to bear the pain any longer, Kheftiu-Re gave her his Name of Power. With it, she transformed him into a mortal pegasus, then cured the magical venom, as promised.<br /><br />"Fool!" he said with a cruel laugh. "Now you and all you love shall die with me, for none can banish the chill of night!"<br /><br />Merywset turned from him, and walked to the Khepri Shrine. There, she performed the ritual, concentrating with all her might. The first ray of the new dawn struck her flank, and the magic of her true cutie mark burned away the makeup she'd covered it with. As the Sun rose into the sky, its light bathed her body, causing her to glow brighter and brighter. Then the halo faded to reveal wings that had emerged from her shoulders.<br /><br />And so it was that she became Neferu-Merywset, Princess of Kemare't, and set out to restore the peace and prosperity of the land. Upon taking the throne, she decreed that she be referred to as a Princess rather than a Queen, to make it clear that she rejected the vainglorious ways of her predecessor. Since that day, noble Alicorn rulers have followed the tradition Neferu-Merywset began, ruling as Princess or Prince, as a way to announce their own intentions to rule with justice and humility.