Neferata

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This article is about the character. For the novel by Josh Reynolds, see Neferata (Novel).

Neferata was the first vampire, queen of Lahmia in ancient Nehekhara and queen of mysteries of the Lahmian Sisterhood.

The World-that-Was

In Life

Neferata was born the daughter of Lamasheptra the king of the city of Lahmia as well as a priestess. Her father nearly bankrupted the city state in order to buy early blackpowder weapons from Cathay in order to dominate the war between Nagash and the other Priest Kings of Nehekhara, though which side he would fight for he wasn't sure about. Eventually deciding the join his fellow kings against Nagash, Lamasheptra's blackpowder weapons were instrumental in defeating the Usurper.

After the death of her father Neferata married her brother Lamashizzar and managed the city while he and the other Priest Kings defeated the remaining forces of Nagash, a campaign that took many years. This time gave Neferata a taste for ruling, and when her brother-husband returned, she was very reluctant to go back to being nothing more than a ceremonial religious figure and source of heirs.

She learnt that her husband had brought back more than just the usual spoils of war; he returned with the Books of Nagash and the captured Grand Vizar of Nagash, Arkhan the Black. Lamashizzar intended to use these to learn the secret of eternal life, but needed his wife's assistance as her training as a priestess gave her the knowledge required to understand the mystical nature of the tomes. She worked with Arkhan to create a watered down version of Nagash Elixir of Life that allowed herself and Lamashizzar's inner circle to gain a weak form of immortality.

Eventually she mastered Nagash's secrets to the extent that she was able, along with her ally Arkhan, to usurp her husband, buying his inner circle's loyalty with a more powerful form of the elixir. Lamashizzar was reduced to a powerless figurehead with Neferata as the true power behind the throne. This eventually ended when Lamashizzar conspired with others to assassinate his wife with the deadly venom of a sphinx. Arkhan managed to fight his way back to Neferata and used every sorcerous secret he knew to try to restore her. After days of trying he gave up and broke into Lamashizzar's section of the palace in order to kill him in revenge. He was successful, but was swiftly killed by the king's champion Abhorash.

Unbeknownst to Arkhan, Neferata survived, the elixir, venom and dark magic mixing together to restore her. She awoke as a true immortal but cursed with an insatiable thirst for the blood of the living. She had become the first vampire.

Queen of Lahmia

Over the following centuries Lahmia became the most powerful city in Nehekhara as the other cities tried to rebuild following the war with Nagash. She gifted her elixar to her cabal and soon ruled an aristocracy of vampire nobles. Neferata ruled from behind the scenes, extending her influence across whole whole of the empire. Few suspected the foul truth behind Neferata except one.

Neferata was the cousin of High Queen Khalida Neferher, ruler of Lybaras. Despite the closeness they had felt when the young woman had resided in the Lahmian court, Khalida accused her cousin of treason and attempts of assassination and announced them at a banquet. Khalida demanded a trial by combat, but without electing a champion. Neferata relunctantly agreed. Neferata and Khalida fought violently but despite her skill Khalida could not match the strength and speed of a vampire. As she lay on the floor in a pool of her own blood, Neferata sunk her sharp teeth into Khalida's neck and sucked deeply, intending to make her a vampire like herself. Then, she bit her own lip and let her cursed blood drip into Khalida's mouth. Neferata would have succeeded had the Asp Goddess, Asaph, not intervened. She drained the tainted blood from Khalida and allowed her to die a free person.

Later the Queen of Rasetra came to Neferata asking help with her difficult pregnancy. Knowing that if male the child would be the next king of Khemri Neferata gave the woman an infusion containing her blood and when the boy was born, claimed him as her own saying he would stay in Lahmia until he came of age and took his throne. This child was called Alcadizzar. Neferata grew to believe that Alcadizzar would become her partner and had him trained in every aspect of war and statehood. However when he finally discovered the truth of Neferata's undead nature, he rejected her and fled into the wild, eventually being welcomed into a bandit tribe.

While Neferata concentrated her efforts on Alcadizzar her vampiric cohorts grew restless. While researching his necromantic art W'soran discovered Nagash still existed. Along with his ally Ushoran, W'soran sought to make contact with Nagash. Neferata, discovering this, had W'soran staked and imprisoned but the damage was done and the other Priest Kings of Nehekhara learnt that not only was Nagash alive but that Lahmia was in league with him. Led by the newly returned and crowned Alcadizzar of Khemri the Priest Kings united and destroyed Lahmia, the entire city being reduced to rubble and most of it's vampiric aristocracy destroyed. Neferata barely escaped with her life.

Exile

Neferata spent time after the fall of Lahmia travelling. Due to this she avoided the final war between Nagash and Alcadizzar that saw the rest of Nehekhara join Lahmia in becoming a lifeless ruin. She did however experience it's consequences when the newly risen Tomb Kings began to hunt down vampires. In particular her cousin Khalida, returned from the dead and filled her with rage, chased her across the world.

Eventually Neferata found herself compelled to come to the capital of the Strigoi empire, Mourkain. Here she found a kingdom that was a pale reflection of her long lost Lahmia, ruled once again by a vampiric aristocracy. It's king was her former Lord of Masks Ushoran and his vizar W'soran, who together she blamed for the destruction of her home. She had been drawn by the Crown of Nagash which was buried at the heart of the capital as had most of the others of her kind.

Refusing to willingly go along with Ushoran she eventually manipulated him into going to war with a nearby Dwarf hold; The Silver Pinnacle. Leading the Strigoi army Neferata firstly conquered the hold before betraying those loyal to Ushoran. She took the army and the hold for herself.

For centuries Neferata inhabited the Silver Pinnacle, along with her following of vampiric handmaidens. This sisterhood she sent out across the lands of men, inserting them into every facet of society. Neferata had learnt that one did not have to be a ruler to rule. Instead her web gave her influence unparalleled and for centuries she became the secret queen of an unseen empire.

The End Times

During the End Times Neferata was one of the first to predict the return of Nagash. She had long resisted ever entering into the direct service of the Great Necromancer and so was nervous that when Nagash returned she may not be welcomed into his inner-circle, or worse might be considered an enemy. To avoid this she sought to find a great source of power she could gift to Nagash upon his return.

Fighting through various greenskin tribes at Skull Chasm, she led her army to the Lost Pass of the dwarfs, a long lost treasure trove of the ancestor gods. There at the Battle of Valaya's Gate her army, supported by the Wight King Krell, defeated the throng of Karak Azul leading to the deaths of both the venerable runelord Thorek Ironbrow and the mighty King Kazador. Having secured a source of power for the returned but weakened Nagash she was inducted into the ranks of his Mortarchs, becoming the Mortarch of Blood.

When Nagash led his forces south into Nehekhara Neferata was given permission to lead a force to the ruins of her long lost Lahmia. There she was once more met by Khalida and the army of Lybaras. As the two armies clashed the two undead queens dueled in the Temple of Blood in the heart of the city itself. Once more Neferata was forced to flee before her vengeful cousin. Though she failed to secure the city Neferata's expedition had performed all Nagash required of it which was to lure troops away from his main target- Khemri and his Black Pyramid there.

After Nagash's campaign in Nehekhara was concluded she returned with him to Sylvania which had become his new stronghold. There she was given regency of Sylvania in the absence of it's ruler Mannfred von Carstein (in reality, Mannfred simply saw her as the lesser of two evils, determined to keep his kingdom out of the hands of the newly resurrected Vlad von Carstein).

When Nagash finally was forced to join the other incarnates in Athel Loren after the destruction of his transplanted Black Pyramid she predictably abandoned Nagash and returned to the Silver Pinnacle for a short time. When the incarnates failed in Middenheim and the world began to end she returned once more to Sylvania where she waited for oblivion to claim the world alongside her estranged cousin and the restored Isabella von Carstein, guarding the last few refugees of the Empire.

The Mortal Realms

Neferata is a Deathlord and the Mortarch of Blood, returned once again to unlife by Nagash. Her chief rival is now Mannfred von Carstein, Mortarch of Night and they have spent much energy and time scheming and plotting against each other. She appears much as she did during the End Time in the World-that-Was and in battle bears Akmet-har, the Dagger of Jet and Aken-seth, the Staff of Pain as she rides the Dread Abyssal Nagadron.[1].

Many of her empires across the Mortal Realms have fallen to Chaos but she still maintains her extensive and loyal network of spies, assassins and contacts - her servants can be from almost any race and not just the Soulblight Vampires for which she is well known.[2]

Long ago Wight King Cortek formed an alliance with her - the Blade of the Blood Queen which destroyed the hosts of the Champion of Slaanesh Sydros. The Alliance still holds.[1].

Notes

The fall of Silver Pinnacle is described in different ways in different sources - the Novel Neferata describes the campaign to take the city in great detail, whilst the 8th Edition End Times: Nagash states that Neferata claimed it only after it had been overrun by greenskins. Previous Warhammer Armies: Vampire Counts agree with the novel's account.

Gallery

Sources