Bloody Mary's War: literate!

The Queen has been ruler for a very, very long time. It used to be that she was a kind a generous Queen, one who gave to the needy, took care of her people, and worked herself to the bone for them. She was the peaceful sort, one to negotiate rather than battle, but she could not stay that way forever when a neighboring kingdom declared war to take over her land. The neighboring kingdom saw her as weak, and for that her people suffered. The Queen was desperate, her measly army decimated. It drove her to take grave measures, delving into a dark magic that she did not fully understand. Deep in her dungeon?s libraries she discovered a mirror the likes of which none had seen for quite some time. It spoke to her, she listened. It told her anything she wished to know, even the future, and it told her how to prevail.

The Queen used this new knowledge to cast a spell on her fallen army, she had them resurrected. And from the ground they rose as much tougher and scarier men, they had no need for breath, nor water, nor food. With her new dark magic she produced spies so she could see everything. With this new army the Queen turned the tides and enslaved the neighboring kingdom, absorbing it and resurrecting the men her army felled, adding to her number.

But all of this magic came at a heavy price, and she found her body aged quite a number of years; in the body of an old woman at the young age of twenty five. This horrified her, and she raged at the mirror for not warning her of this. She asked it how she could gain back her lost youth, and it replied that such a thing would require the sacrifice of a young maiden. The Queen was horrified, and did not speak to the mirror again for quite some time. She worked on rebuilding the damage done to her land, and the land she had gained, wanting her people to prosper. But unrest was brewing, the citizens did not like the new army, it frightened them, and the Queen herself was dying more each day. Again she grew desperate, her work not yet done. She used that as an excuse for her first victim, and the next, and by the next she did not need an excuse, for she was Queen. You see with each maiden?s blood that she bathed in she grew more beautiful, but also grew less human. The Queen had the mirror placed in her throne room, and with its information she added two more kingdoms to her land. Her consideration towards the common people dwindled to next to nothing; those who obeyed were allowed to live, while those who disobeyed were made an example of. Her kingdom thrived however, and the nobles got to reap the rewards for this.

When one day the mirror bore news of her demise, the Queen took every measure to counter it. The mirror prophesied that a baby girl with a special birthmark was born to dethrone her, and when her troops could not find her she had each newborn baby girl in her land killed. She also sent troops to demand the newborn girl with the special birthmark of the only two free kingdoms left standing, and when they refused she went to war with them. The newborn girl turned out to be the new princess of Ebone, one of the two kingdoms left standing. The King of Ebone had his daughter sent far away by his own sorcerer so that she may be safe. These two kingdoms have held her off for quite some time; the war still goes on today, twenty years later.

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