Pharaoh Merneith

Born more than four thousand years ago, Pharaoh Merneith has one of the more complicated origins among the Modern Marvels.

Owing so much to the Modern Marvels, she takes a very dim view on traitors. Meetings with General Lowe and his Vanguard are frosty at best. Engagements with The Fly are always started with the aim of taking him down personally. And should The Revenant show his face again the Pharaoh would probably try to kill him for good.

She died four times during the invasion by the Infinite Empire, working without rest to fight back agains the Giza staging point. With Cairo so close to Giza, the sprawling city was nearly totally destroyed during the invasion in spite of the Pharaoh's best efforts. Merneith has since moved the Egyptian capital back to Alexandria, after her ascendancy as leader. Her royal garb consists of her royal sceptre, and red and white crown representing a united north and south Egypt.

As Pharaoh, Merneith is currently engaged in a diplomatic spat with the United Kingdom over their refusal to return centuries worth of plundered Egyptian artefacts. Her argument that if she had invaded Britain and carted off Stonehenge to put up in Cairo they would feel the same way has largely fallen on deaf ears.

Being the living avatar of Horus in this world, and firmly stating her divine right to rule over the Kingdom of Egypt, has raised the ire of some more hardline Coptic and Islamic Egyptians. Though herself widely tolerant of this Abrahamic monotheistic malarky, her assertion of being a God on Earth has not gone over well with everybody. Consequently she has been the target of assassination because of this, though The Pharaoh herself was quick to point out the utter futility of the attempt.

Though not nearly to the levels they were at in her native time, Egyptian polytheism has made a comeback among world religions with an estimated more than four hundred thousand followers worldwide. Though to Merneith's distaste it has taken the form more of a personality cult around her, and Horus by association, than true worship of the Gods. She still thinks this is better than nothing.

She has had three men in her life. Her husband, Pharaoh Djet, she murdered. Her consort, the immortal sorcerer Shabaka, she was curse into unlife by. Her lover, Percival Ashcroft, she has been with in a stable if intermittent relationship since the forties.

Every year, Merneith takes up to a week to remember those she has lost. She travels to pray they are safe wherever they were, including the monument dedicated to Queen Atlanta where the Eiffel Tower used to stand, and the Hisakawa family butsudan.