Priya

Empress Priya is the unchallenged Empress of the Sunless Lands, the Deep Elven Empire beneath the surface of Anteris. She began her career as an adventuring Guardian, taking terrible risks for pitiful treasure like any other adventurer. She was quickly chosen by the spirit of passed Shadow Hunters and began tailoring her adventures towards those goals; the eradiction of necromany and those who practice it.

By the time she reached Anteris, the Deep Elves had already been exterminated, victims of an alien adversary attacking them from below. Until that point, the Deep Elves had occupied the deepest parts of Anteris and never built for defense from below. They were slaughtered to a man before anyone noticed. Now, Anteran Deep Elves are somewhere between a ghost story and a cautionary tale; it's only been about twenty years (by local reckoning) since they were defeated but already they're fading into legend. When Priya was crowned Empress, there were less than thirty living Deep Elves in the entire world. Thirty living Deep Elves, but some uncountable number of ghostly Samurai, still serving out their oaths to their land and their new Empress.

As a result of that massacre, the Anteran Shadow Hunters were erased from the world and their absence is causing a slow resurgence in Anteran death magic. An influx of freed slaves into her lands has doubled her numbers, but doubling 30 is insignificant on the scale of an empire. She is very cautious with the lives under her charge and will spend vast sums on mercenaries and contractors to avoid exposing a single one to a single risk that can be avoided. Priya aims for effectiveness over efficiency.

The few people that knew her before her ascension all note how quiet and personable she could be until the moment death magic entered her awareness. Priya routinely volunteered to hold impossible lines against godlike power and then refused to accept credit after the fact. Her curious mix of timidity and aggression leaves visitors scratching their heads. She has very few visitors - her defenses are formidable and rabidly devoted to her safety - and in recent years has sparked a growing friendship with a new downstairs neighbor.