Bast Dikaios

[Bast Dikaios]

Avatar: Haifa Wehbe

Name: Princess Bast of Menekhet, Priestess of Sekhmet
Age: 31
Height: 5'7
Gender: Female
Race: Menekhet (Menekhetan)
Home Province: The Valley of the Kings

Appearance: To any D'Angeline she would look like any other Menekhet civilian, but to her people she is a jewel. Her eyes are softy grey that are like a pair of smoky quartz stones, her hair is black as night but has been known to pale in the deep summers when the sun is high. Her hair is a less olive and more brown almost looking Aragonian in comparison. Her form is smooth and graceful with soft lines, widening hips and a generous bust, her neck long and sleek and stately. The only flaw she has ever seen in herself is her height, a paltry 5'7 and not very impressive in the least. Though, her slender lines create an image of being taller, and she often wears a strapped sandle made of cork to make her taller. Something she learned from Serenissiman traders.

History: Bast has two faces, her public image and her private image. On the out side she is strong and upright, kind to the women and children and receptive to the mens jesting and jostling as they whisper about her preferences and lovers. Despite everything she has been revered by her people as a gem, a true princess, and most would recognize her as their Queen. Save for her gender she would make the perfect monarch. But those of Menekhet still live in darkness and a Queen, alone, is not fit for the throne.
From the moment she was born, Bast has lived in a lap of luxury as the daughter and true heir to her father's throne. Her father Pharaoh Heru the II wed the beloved daughter of another tribe and their union was smile on by the gods...At least that was what the Menekhet people believed on the couples union.

And at first it was.

Within a year the honorable Queen Na-fré became with child. It was a joyous occasion on the day of Basts birth. Despite her gender they loved their monarch and new that one day his son would take his place, but for now they had a beloved daughter of Menekhet. Since her birth Bast has been hailed as a beauty, a gem among gems, and she was the perfect child.

At least at first.

For some time, as a tradition, royal females and females of high ranking nobles were trained as priestess' to the royal house and in tribute to the gods themselves. Bast was no different, and she took to it well. Ever studious and wise, an old soul they all called her, she was the model of perfection, both Princess and Priestess. The age of courtship starts young in Menekhet for some, especially in the higher families. Daughters mostly seen as a way to create more heirs and create healthy alliances through marriages. And for decades it suited them well, a strange mix of love and duty runs through the land of the gods, and Bast was never immune to it. It was at a summer festival that she met Mhotep, the eldest son of the Pharaoh's chief guard. Bast was thirteen, Mhotep seventeen.

For many years the Queen Na-fré had worked at giving way to a son by her husband the Pharoh. After several miscarriages she gave birth to a son and was just pregnant now pregnant with another. The Pharaoh believing that his line was safe took this as a good omen and upon hearing that his daughter had fallen for Mhotep, he consented to their marriage. The summer of Bast's fourteenth she was married and only two months in she was with child. Bast life was simple, content with her military husband, her young daughter Khepri and a life of what she enjoyed. She had good prospects as head Priestess in the temple. That all changed as the years passed and her father's line began to die.
It begun with her second brother who died while in the birthing process, then two summers after Na-fré conceived only to lose that child too. When Bast turned nineteen her mother again became with child, though this time, the child only made it to three weeks old before it died. The last vestige of hope laid with their five year old son. The country mourned the lives of the lost children, soon casting a shadow over the Pharaoh and his family. Cursed they began to say. When Bast's only brother died of an ague, the nation went into a frenzy, the Pharaoh tried to belay the thoughts and worries of his people by insuring a heir would be named.
Sadly, the doctors said that the Queen's womb was ravaged by an infection and that she would never bare another child. The Pharaoh would have no male heir...of direct descent.

Like many men in their culture, as a royal, the Pharaoh had three concubines, the first of which had a son. A plot began to form around Bast's life and when she was a mere twenty one her husband was murdered.

Terrible to be sure her father agreed, that her husband would loose his life so carelessly, but now all the better to become Queen. It came out not months after that Bast's father had paid to have Mhotep murdered in order to use Bast's grief to seal the throne.

Bast was the rightful heir to the throne, despite her gender she would be recognized as the next in line, but her father and his supporters would never allow a female alone to rule as Sovereign. So it was decided that Bast would marry her half brother and together they would rule once her father was gone.

Something snapped within the girl, and one that was once kind, gentle and soft became angered, stricken by grief and maddened by despair. She changed...

Convincing her father to allow her time to mourn her husband she began to seek the underground and supporters began to emerge in her favour. A Queen, unwed, and ruler of a nation. She had the support of most of the women in the nation and even some men, and in secret she began to raise a rebellion army.To the members of parliament and the supporters of her father she was the picture of perfection as she had always been, following each rule, being the dutiful daughter in front of all. Even spending time with Akhenaton, her half brother and future husband. She bore it as well as she could despite Akhenaton being four years younger then she.

So it was for nine years that Bast has lived this way. By day being seen in the places she needs to be seen in, saying the proper things and being the proper Princess. By night she split her time between lovers bed sheets, Akhenaton included, and the supporters of her rebellion, giving them secrets and planning the future for which Bast has set much in motion for. It was in her twenty-eighth year that her father fell deadly ill and has been confined to bed since. And so it began, the last decade of planning and this was the time she had waited for. The parliament soon came to her and advised her that it was be best to announce her and Akhenaton's engagement and marriage. So she announced it and set everything she had been planning in motion.
Akhenaton for the most part is a beard. Always a slow boy, he had been too consumed by decadence to learn about his soon to be royal position and was far to aware that he would place any burdens on his Queen. He indeed cared nothing for the throne except to enjoy the splendor of what riches brings. Bast knows this and uses it to her full capacity. She keeps him enthralled in bed and made sure that any of his mistresses were of her picking, loyal handmaidens that would make sure they would not become with child from Akhenaton.

Its now that all her planning comes to a head, and Terre d'Ange may end up in the middle.