She can be hard to look at. Some say that’s the reason she became the monster that everyone feared. Others say her face is a mark of the dark pact she made with arcane forces and that she sacrificed real beauty for the powers she used to terrify and to take whatever she wanted.
Everyone called her Doom and they forgot the person she was before she became the villain who conquered an entire block of countries on the east coast of the African continent. She became more than human and the magic she mastered made her something like a god, or devil, on Earth.
She was known as a benevolent ruler to all inhabitants of her conglomerate country that was called the Martial Foundry. The inhabitants of the MF served her loyally as their queen and their fear of her wrath made the MF inhabitants fiercely protective of her. Doom’s defense of her subjects against outsiders was swift and notorious.
Doom lived in a castle that was constructed on a hill, then surrounded by a city fortified with stone walls completely surrounding it. There was a high stone wall around the castle and another at the border of MF, with two more large circular walls inside the outside border that created a total of four zones including the castle at the center. Inhabitants who lived in the zones closest to the castle, earned their spot by demonstrating unflinching fealty to the queen. The MF makes metal goods that it exports to the world, and it is also the largest manufacturer of guns and heavy artillery on the planet.
Every morning, noon, and evening, Doom patrolled the lands of MF. She was able to fly, and she moved upright through the air over the homes and businesses of the people, close enough that they could see her and she could hear them shouting praises and prayers up to her. She wore a metal mask, and a deep purple cloak with a hood that wafted behind her like a cape, exposing the indestructible armor that covered her body in bolted, metal plates. She was an intimidating sight and she loved the fear and admiration that she received from the inhabitants of MF.
Doom isn’t an outlier. Others have emerged to replicate her success and there are an even number of traditional nation states that survive for now alongside these fortified countries that were conquered by humans as powerful and power mad as Doom; some used magic like Doom, while others found power in other places.
Her greatest rival is Face the Czar, an aboriginal man who had conquered all of the islands of the Pacific ocean with the power to control the winds and the waters. He chose to be called Czar because no other villain on Doom’s scale had chosen the name, and when it came time to put his name in writing on documents that the ultra powerful respected as law, he chose to sign as Face the Czar because it was even more unique and demonstrated his difference.
Czar has not been seen wearing a shirt since he emerged in his true villain form, and he wears wraps of cloth with elaborate patterns around his waist. His hair is jet black and his face is light brown and always scowling, but he smiles when he encounters Doom.
They have an ongoing dispute over the boundaries of their domain in the water and they often clash. When Czar threatened to invade the circular walls of MF one by one, Doom was worried that her fortification couldn’t withstand the barrage of water and hurricanes that Czar could bring, and she sat in her room in a high tower of her castle, worried over how to repel him in the event of his attack.
It was in this contemplation that the three phantoms appeared.
“Satisfy us, and we can make your problem go away,” one of them said in a ghostly voice as Doom watched them all with shock and wonder that was evident in her eyes that were the only exposed parts of her face.
“Who are you?” Doom asked the ghostly apparitions that had forms made of gathered smoke that formed faces and bodies with robes like she wore. They were each a different color, one was red, another blue, and the last bright green.
“We are the ultimate power and you are our chosen warrior. Bow to us and Czar will never worry you again.”
Doom accepted their offer, and when she bent on one knee and bowed to them, they disappeared in a flash, leaving a trail of their smoke in the tri-colored rainbow that dissipated like smoke.
Meanwhile, at the throne of Face the Czar where the man sat listening to the last of the preparations for war against MF, there was an explosion of three colors and all of the Czar’s generals were killed. He was unable to launch an attack against MF.
Doom honored her pact with the tri-colored phantoms and her constant pinnace to them was her delight at cruelty.
May Doom’s reign never end.
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