Isis (Sotenpenre)

Real Name: Sotenpenre "Isis Abebe"
Villain Name: Isis
Title: The Ancient One
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Age: 4,207
Gender: Female
Race: Undead (Litch)
Hair: Bald
Eyes: Khol Black
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 85 lbs
Blood type: Sludge







Isis is consistently calm, cool, collected, and above all patient. She measures her plans in decades, if not centuries, and is profoundly cautious in her execution. She has plans within plans, backups for the backups, and never enters any situation without at least three failsafes. She can be sadistic and cruel when she feels that someone is getting in the way of her plans, and is utterly ruthless in achieving her goals.



Sotenpenre is a woman almost as old as human civilization. She was born around the beginning of the Old Kingdom in ancient Egypt, to one of the top magicians in the Pharaoh's court and his wife, and since then has found herself affiliated with high society and power in one way or another. As a young woman she had her parents poisoned for attempting to use her in a political arrangement to elevate their own position by limiting her own. She seduced, strategized, and coerced her way into learning magic and mysticism in a time when women were barred from the practice, and used her arcane abilities to suspend her soul in an Ankh and preserve her body via a series of tattoos and sigils. Thus achieving effective immortality, she spent her time learning the mechanisms of power, the delicate balance of push and pull that determine the relationships between both people and nations.

She herself was Pharaoh of Egypt twice, and used magic and illusion to wipe the minds of the right people to ensure her rule went unchallenged in those cases, and was the wife of several Pharaohs. During the time she spent in Egypt she created the Ankh of Isis, becoming the basis for many of the myths surrounding the goddess.

She continued to insert herself in the upper echelons of every great empire and society that rose and fell during the millennia that she lived, from Alexander's grand conquests to the Empire of the Latins. She spent time in Parthia and several Chinese dynasties, absorbing their culture, language and arcane practices as she accumulated wealth and connections that spread over eons. Sotenpenre lived a life of decadence, one that she had very little occasion to change unless the nation that she was currently exploiting managed to fall. The litch began to count the passing of the years in the lifespan of nations, rather than changing of the seasons.

She largely stayed out of the affairs of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire--she could not stand the abject destitution that most of the continent existed in, and the smell was far too much to bear. How those pale-skinned savages could go from Roman bathhouses to bathing in the river a few times a month, she could never quite comprehend.

She did, however, engage in politics in the large middle eastern and African empires, finding their temperment and smell far more pleasant than the rough living of the Europeans. She never did catch on to the whole monotheistic craze the region went through after the fall of the Romans, and only played the part of a faithful to maintain public image. Privately, she still worshiped the gods of her youth.

She has begun to become reinvigorated over these last four centuries, due to the amazing speed of mankind's technological progress. She moved to the Americas in the mid-1720's, living for a long time in the port city of Nouvelle Orléans and establishing herself as a free black woman of African heritage and quite some means. Even the most extremely racist members of the time's high society dared not cross her for threat of having their reputations ruined. Sotenpenre spent much of her time there extending her tendrils into every aspect of American high society and aristocracy, making sure that she was always on the right side of history and no matter what happened in local politics, she remained safe. From that point, she has spent her time expanding her influence over the globe and helping her adopted nation when and where she can... when it benefits her, of course.

She currently resides in New York City, having bought and occupied the crown of the Woolworth building when it went on sale. She operates as a dealmaker for the powerful and influential, whatever side of the law they may be on, and has established herself in the eye of the government and criminal underworld as someone whom it is better to have as an ally than an enemy. Now, with the rumblings of unrest against metahumans and those with extraordinary abilities beginning to fester, Sotenpenre has decided that it is perhaps time to seek something more than un-life. She had once been worshipped as a goddess, though she had never truly claimed godhood...

And perhaps it is time for that to change.



Un-life: Due to arcane rituals that she performed in her youth, Sotenpenre is virtually immortal. She uses a series of arcane sigils tattooed on her back to keep her body from deteriorating, but in reality she is little more than a well-preserved corpse animated by magic.

True Names: By spending time studying every aspect of a thing, Isis can learn that things true name, and gain control over it. By invoking the true name of Fire, for example, she can both generate and manipulate fire. The simpler the concept is, the less time it takes to learn its true name. For example, the true names of Fire, Water, Earth and Air were among the first learned and allow her to manipulate, generate, and alter the properties of each individual element. More complex elements have longer names, such as lightning and magnetism. By stringing together multiple true names for the basic elements, one can slowly arrive to the true names of far more complex concepts, such as electricity and wi-fi. These true names can be woven into spells to either alter the properties of a thing, abjure it from a place by incorporating the name into a written or engraved wards, or target the thing for some deleterious effect. Learning the true name of a person could, theoretically, grant you absolute control over them, however such a practice would only work once as the experience of learning their true name would change it, forcing the practicioner to learn it all over again in order to utilize it. The true name of a corpse will allow her to reanimate the body, however it would not retireve the soul. While this aspect of her magic is powerful, it has a significant drawback: a things full True Name must be spoken or etched in order to compel it. For simpler concepts this is not a problem, however the more complex the target and desired effect, the longer this process will take. Also, only one spoken effect can be activated at a time, though incorporating the words in seals will allow a consistent effect independent of her spellcasting.

True Name of Ra: Isis knows the true name of Ra, the dead god, and can use it to increase her magical power to near godly levels--a near 10 times boost to her magical power--however even limited use of that divine power can put a strain on her body and could theoretically destroy her Ankh.



A scholar, not a fighter: Sotenpenre is not a fighter, and possesses almost no ability in physical combat without magical assistance.

Soul-bound: Her body is animated by her soul, which is bound to her organs contained in canopic jars and the ankh medallion that she keeps on her person at all times. If these objects were to be destroyed, she would be killed and her soul would go to Ma'at and face Osiris, which would undoubtedly lead to the destruction of her soul.

Thin-blooded: At temperatures below 25 degrees Fahrenheit, Sotenpenre's body begins to lose its ability to move. A few minutes outside in those temperatures will cause her to lose most motor function, rendering her slow and sluggish to react, and more than ten minutes would freeze her solid until she is brought back inside and allowed to thaw out.

Euro-Avoidant: Sotenpenre is not versed in the magical schools and systems of Europe, and as such is somewhat vulnerable to european magicks. She does not know rituals or spells that come out of Europe, and has no interest in learning them as she considers them Barbarian magicks.



Ankh of Isis: An ancient, golden Ankh that hangs around Sotenpenre's neck, inscribed with innumerable lines of scrolling hyoglyphics, which subtly morph every few seconds to new shapes and words. The metal glows softly and the air around it wavers with power. This Ankh is Sotenpenre's magical focus, and allows her to cast many spells without the physical components that they would otherwise need. She has spent the last 4,000 years enchanting and enhancing the power of this artefact. This amulet is also the container for her soul, and its destruction would mean her death. The ankh is enchanted to make the gold it is made out of more durable, but it is breakable with enough force--say, a large explosion or someone with the strength to bend steel breaking it in two.

Khopesh of Horus: An enchanted, curved bronze blade, with a glowing golden Eye of Horus on the pommel. This bronze blade is extremely durable and never loses its edge. It is designed, specifically, to stand up to other enchanted weapons.

Rolls-Royce Phantom III: The only car that Sotenpenre ever purchased, and one that she keeps maintained to this day. The car is actually heavily armored, with a much more powerful engine than the standard model. It is capable of driving up to 180 mph, and withstanding a direct APHE hit from an anti-tank round.



Shabti: A human-sized artificial servant made from clay, capable of performing menial tasks and labor such as deliveries, maintenance, and upkeep of her household.





"Mr. Fairbanks, we have been friends for a long time, have we not?" Isis asked as she waved a hand, causing a book to float up from a table and into its spot in the massive, shifting library that made up the fourth floor of her abode. The space was much too large to exist within the confines of the building she was in, shelves of books and scrolls rising upwards for a good three stories as clay, human-sized shabti walked among the catwalks and stairs, carrying supplies or scrolls to be maintained. It was a labarynthine structure, with large, sweeping egyptian columns and various statues and shrines to Thoth. She had always had a soft spot in her heart for the Ibis, and they had spent many long nights discussing sciences and debating philosophy.

"Of course, Miss Abebe, you're the one who financed my first campaign for Councilman," the governer of New York responded through the phone, his voice just dripping with sincerity. The tone of a politician reassuring his campaign donors. It had taken her a few years after they'd finalized this country's "Constitution," a ill-concieved idea in her opinion then, for her to get the hang of this convoluted system of governance called democracy. She had come to appreciate the document over the years, and the way that it turned the nation's leadership into a competition for money and popularity, two things that she was a master at cultivating in people that she wanted under her thumb. It had been almost too easy to worm her way into nearly every level of government.

"Then, my friend, tell me... What has my contacts in the intelligence world so riled up? I know you had lunch with General Greene. What was the Governer of New York doing at lunch with one of the Joint Chiefs?" Isis asked, her dark eyes flashing gold for a moment as she silently cast a spell, causing her words to have a bit of the weight of magic on them. The spell couldn't force him to go against his nature, but hopefully it would be enough to shake a bit of information loose.

There was a hesitation on the other end of the line, as if the governor was giving serious thought to the idea of telling her what she needed to know, causing her to look up from the book she was holding to the phone that one of her shabti was holding out beside her.

"... I wish I could tell you, Miss Abebe," Governor Fairbanks finally said, causing the litch to roll her eyes and bring them back down to the text in her hand. It was a comparative magical study on the advances made in the magicks of a True Name between the Middle and New Kingdoms, part of her never-ending quest to pin down her full True Name.

"Oh, you disappoint me, Governor. Your campaign finances will be taking a sudden downturn after I hang up the phone. Goodbye," she utttered before cutting a hand across her neck, causing the shabti to end the call in the middle of a sputter of outrage from the soon-to-be former governor of New York. A few scandals, manufactured or otherwise, and a sudden surge in his opponent's campaign funds would see to that. The former Pharaoh sighed and snapped the tome shut, handing it off to a passing shabti as she brought up two fingers to rub the bridge of her nose.

Why was it so hard to find a loyal lackey these days?