 |
"I saw it! Ask anyone! ...except her. Don't ask her."
The following page is not properly cited as per our revamped content policy. Therefore, the article may contain information from speculative or non-canon sources. You can find out more about our citation policy here. |
"The Traitor Empress and her consort live safely in the Shuttered Palace, in the protective custody of the Bazaar. No-one is permitted to use her name anymore."[1]
The Traitor Empress is the ruler of London and all its territories.
All This Was Her Doing[]
The Empress is the sole party responsible for London's fall into the Neath, having orchestrated the Fall to save the life of her dear Consort.[2][3][4] She and her family are confined to the Shuttered Palace. There is a reason for this; they are not what they seem, anymore...[5]
The Empress is sensitive to light and noise,[6] although she is known to enjoy symphonies which attempt to imitate the Correspondence, indicating that she is more powerful than she looks.[7]
The Dawning of a New Century - Or Not[]
In the final days of 1899, to the consternation of many who were anticipating great festivities, the Empress declared that the following year would be marked on calendars as a repeat of 1899 rather than 1900.[8]
F. F. Gebrandt's Museum[]
In the summer of the second year of 1899, scientist F. F. Gebrandt opened the Museum of Prelapsarian History in Veilgarden. The quantities of sphinxstone demanded for the museum's construction caused much suspicion among Londoners who knew of the substance's true nature - it retains memories, concentrated nostalgia.[9][10] Their questions were answered when Gebrandt put on a grand spectacle of a demonstration, in which an experimental device briefly summoned an apparition of the Consort, very much alive compared to his... questionable current state.[11] The two embraced, though the Consort seemed rather confused at his predicament.[12] As the device failed and the Consort disappeared,[13] the Empress forbade Gebrandt from switching it off,[14] resulting in a massive space-time abnormality that forced pieces of the Second City into London.[15]
The Empress Freed[]
"We shan't interfere because we needn't. One sits on the Throne of Hours. Do you understand what that means? Do you think our dominion is subject to petty chronology? We are History's Empress. Reveal all you like. History is mutable. We are not."
Freed from the grip of the Masters when she launched London into space at the turn of the 20th century, Empress Victoria is now able to use her real name, as well as the title of "Her Renewed Majesty." She now presides over time itself thanks to her artificial star - the Clockwork Sun; she rules her little corner of the High Wilderness from the Throne of Hours.[16] She is so powerful that she has managed to wrangle at least one former Master into her service.[17] She is purportedly capable of ending lives on a whim and could, in theory, deal with the unraveling time in her domain, but that would be beneath her.[18] Despite this power, she is still reclusive, only allowing her subjects an audience with a body double.[19]
Unfortunately, thanks to leaving the unnatural vitality of the Neath, Prince Albert is in even worse shape than before.[20] He is interred in the Most Serene Mausoleum, along with a number of the Empress' favorite courtiers - who are alive, being provided with extra hours, and living in luxury there, but legally dead.[21]