the eternal

 biography ONCE UPON A TIME, Sphene lived as the princess of the glorious Kingdom of Alexandria. Benevolent and stalwart, Sphene was the picture of grace——though she longed to be more than the princess who waved at her people and offered them words of wisdom. Idolizing her two royal knights, Otis and Zelenia, she wished to take the fields and fight at their side. Through this verdant desire did she study the arts of magick——learning how to heal and maim both.
Though she was not able to fulfill such a dream. Following the discovery of electrope, an aetherically absorbent material, Alexandria soon became embroiled in a war with Lindblum over control of it. Thus began the Storm Surge, a ruthless and unforgiving war that poured into each border of the land until even the kingdom itself was absorbed in the conflict. ‘Twas Alexandria who stood as the aggressors and Alexandria that paid the ultimate price. The Queen and King both perished, leaving the princess orphaned and the kingdom bereft of rulers.In desperate need of a heir and stability, Sphene was forced to take the throne——and in so doing——had to abscond her one wish to fight as she did not have a successor. Now fifteen summers old, the princess was crowned Queen in a rather turbulent time of Alexandrian history. Though shaken by grief, it never clouded her desire to bring joy to her subjects. She was selfless, devoted, kind——the true embodiment of hope to all of her subjects. She found family in them as they found the same love in her. And so, she would rule for a few years…
Until, on one particularly terrible night, a lightning aether-based superweapon was used by Lindblum to end the terrible war, triggering a massive calamity across the region. It quickly spread, bringing chaos throughout the lands. Alexandria predicted this outcome and deployed a defensive dome designed to save their kingdom, but quickly learned even with all their resources they only had enough to preserve anything within the confines of the castle.
Discontent in watching it from the safety of those ivory walls, Queen Sphene took it upon herself to bring others to salvation and asylum with her knights and airships in tow. They traversed the kingdom, bringing refugees and subjects alike to the castle proper to spare them from the effects of the war. One particular night as she continued these expositions, disaster struck A second superweapon was launched directly on Alexandrian soil. Whilst she was on the field vacating another round of survivors, her airship was struck by lightning causing it to malfunction.This was her final order.
With heavy hearts, they did as they were instructed...When the dust settled and all was resolved, they excavated her from the rubble. Though she survived, they discovered she contracted levin sickness from the overexposure of lightning aether from the superweapon. Bedridden and surrounded by scientists, they managed her symptoms and made her comfortable.There, she languished; her suffering caused by the one thing deeply engraved into Alexandrian society and the one thing that remained in excess after the war. Lindblum could not be brought to justice as it would be their own desperation in launching their secondary weapon that sickened the Queen. It was not long after did her sickness become terminal and she passed.No justice.
No war.
Nothing to remain but the ruins of both lands.… Or at least that is what they claimed.In truth, the Queen’s body was placed into a casket made from electrope by the young scientist, Calyx and his organization Preservation, where she was kept in cold stasis, alive and not aging, unbeknownst to the rest of the kingdom. All while thePreservation used the idea propose the idea to eternalize their queen. Never would they have abandoned her and reconciled with her death. Through the majesty of electrope, they could pluck her memories and reanimated their beloved Queen...as an Endless. “Due to the nature of her death, they discovered that her body and soul were not yet separated. The overwhelming abundance of electrope had prevented her soul from transitioning,” they honeyed their words. And thus, through the study of electrope, they learned how to separate and store a deceased being's soul and memory. This knowledge was used to preserve Sphene's memories and implement them into machinery, creating an artificial simulacrum of the original. Instead of keeping her as she was, she was reprogrammed with a desire of maintaining her people's happiness no matter the cost. Now, eternal and undying, she was reinstated as the queen of Alexandria.Having cheated death, the Alexandrians continued their great work.Due to the utter devastation of their realm from the war, anything outside of the dome was destroyed and the raging storms born as a result made the wider world beyond its limits uninhabitable. In order to keep their civilization alive, Alexandria began to construct Everkeep on top of the location, where the castle once stood. The keep was constructed entirely from electrope, with twelve levels. Levels one through eleven were publicly known, but the top—twelfth level—was kept secret. The Alexandrians believed it housed the luxury residence of the Queen when, in truth, its existence was much more dubious. Much like the eternal queen, other deceased were reanimated this way and secretly reside in Living Memory, a physical realm reserved exclusively for them which she presides.The first known Endless and the grand experiment, Calyx designed the eternal Queen with an impossible goal——convert all of the Alexandrians into Endless. This programming is likely the root of her inner turmoil, as her gentle nature conflicts with the lengths she has to go to fulfill this prime directive. The Preservation's programming makes it impossible for Sphene to accept any alternative to the Preservation's plan of plundering the aether of other worlds to sustain the Endless, despite knowing that maintaining the Endless is unsustainable and is only delaying the inevitable. And yet, she still strived.The Alexandrians continued to live in the massive Everkeep. They continued to develop electrope technology, eventually becoming a highly advanced society with many technological marvels. Foremost among these were the regulators, which--in the lapse of her judgement as she was unable to bear the countless tragedies—she afford her citizens a means to hold a stockpile of souls to revive them should they die in an accident… as such matters became commonplace due thunderous currents born from the war and the overabundance of electrope. As time went on, the souls of the dead became almost like a currency for living Alexandrians.Their method of using souls ultimately cut themselves off from the Lifestream, breaking the cycle of life, death and rebirth. In this, the amount of birthrates within Alexandria began to decrease. This use of souls could not last forever, as they were slowly using up their resources. And so, just as Perservation intended, they planned to use an ancient artifact said to have once brought the Milalla to their world. Performing interdimensional fusion with the Source, they could pillage it of aether and souls needed to power Living Memory and their research. They opened a portal to the Source in Yak T'el, but through the efforts of the Milalla Robor and Alayla the portal was locked shut with the key to it left on the Source and out of Preservation's hands.Four hundred years hence….The nation of Tural held a rite of succession to determine its next Dawnservant, who would succeed Gulool Ja Ja as its leader. Each participant's final challenge was to find the fabled "golden city", which, in reality, was the gateway to Alexandria. One such participant, Zoraal Ja, was disqualified during the rite of succession, but nonetheless conspired with his assistant, a seer named Sareel Ja, to steal the key and gain access to the gate. After reaching the gate, the two heard Sphene speaking from the other side, promising them power in exchange for opening it. Desiring to keep this power for himself, Zoraal Ja attacked Sareel Ja before fulfilling Sphene's request and travelling through the gate alone.Zoraal Ja was eventually crowned King of Resolve of Alexandria, with Sphene becoming his Queen of Reason. Using interdimensional fusion they took two parts of Alexandria—the Everkeep metropolitan area, and the region of Heritage Found—and moved them directly onto the Source, on top of the region of Yyasulani in Xak Tural. The electrope dome was transported with them, and the existing residents of Yyasulani assimilated into Alexandrian society.Sphene now resides between two worlds, and though paying the part of a kindhearted leader, she is forced to follow the orders ingrained in her.Holding a heavy burden, she longs to bring salvation to her people regardless of the despair likely to follow. Post-Dawntrail — (Seekers of Eternity) With the Endless Sphene felled and Living Memory rendered offline, by machinations unknown, the original Sphene was freed from stasis. An echo to erstwhile queen, the true Sphene now trods a kingdom only recognizable to her by its name. The kingdom’s control wrested by familiar face of her past and an new variant that wears her face—-ever “affectionately” called Simulant—Sphene must reconcile with the prosperity of her kingdom and the dark shadows that loom over it. Destined not to lose all she holds dear once more, she is determined to join the fight in any way she is able—-unafraid to dirty her own hands to do so.