Queen Neferata

"A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water."

Eleanor Roosevelt

The very first fucking vampire in a setting where vampires are still cool. A militant feminist leading a network of spies and medieval Shadowrunners, and the head of one of the Vampire Count bloodlines. She's been in a lot of positions of leadership (pun not intended) then found she preferred to run things behind the scenes.

Despite being a rare case of a female major character in the setting, her character and personality include many negative stereotype about women (man-hating militant feminist; check. crazy cat lady; partially. Alpha bitch; check. Vamp; figuratively and literally so that's a big check. Materialistic; check... you see what I'm getting at). Geedubs also seems to forget that she would be the strongest Vampire, as they get stronger with age and she's the first. Fortunately, they gave the novels about her to a guy called Josh Reynolds and he DOES do the GOOD Warhammer justice.

Although in Warhammer 40k she'd be a planetary governor with a skin condition, in Warhammer Fantasy she's one of the most powerful and evil beings outside the Warp.

The Legend

During the war against Nagash, there was a young princess of Lahmia in the Egypt analogue of the Warhammer setting, Nehekhara. While her cousin wore pants, rode horses, shot arrows, and prayed to the penis snake god, Neferata spent her time doing all of jack shit while her father lead the forces of good Order against Nagash. After her pappy died, she was put in charge of the kingdom causing her to get a ladyboner for ordering random servants to make out for her amusement while her brother took command of the forces of Nehekhara and made a deal with Arkhan The Black to become necromancer bros by looting Nagash's house (they both kept their fingers crossed of course, palming a dagger with the other hand). Her brother Lamashizzar (thank copy/paste commands for that making it to this page spelled correctly) won the backstabbing competition and took Nagash's books home with a crippled and (re)dying Arkhan to give cliffnotes along the way. Since Neferata was already a fucking level 2 Wizard, he threw the books at her and told her to get to work as he took over the job of ordering cooks to suck face with stablehands.

Now it's well known that in order to be based on Egypt, you have to be obsessed with immortality. But she took that to new levels. Instead of taking notes and translating shit for Lahmia to gain an army of Level 1 Mages she started experimenting, and actually managed to improve on Nagash's techniques. She swapped Nagash's ability to become a self-sufficient lich for eternal youth powered with fresh blood (post-retcon she had a little help on that from an imprisoned Arkhan and the two bonded over how The Man (or all men in Nef's case) were keeping them down...'Never a Self-Made Woman' eh, GW? At least we have Khalida).

After the people around her used the rare skill of common sense and realized she wasn't aging and was going through more servants than most, she realized she'd need some meatshields that weren't Strength 3 spearmen. She picked the captain of the guard and all around badass Abhorash (future leader of the Blood Dragon bloodline), her high priest W'soran (first Necrarch), her younger brother Ushoran (who started the Strigoi bloodline), and eight others. According to Vlad von Carstein her husband Vashanesh was one of them, and it was hinted that he himself is Vashanesh, but all other Bloodlines said such a person never existed. Later when Games Workshop finally made up their fucking minds it turned out they were full of it, as Vlad was revealed to really be Vashanesh. She also selected another seven who were never elaborated on. Feel free to make up OC's, that's what they're there for.

Each of them was given some of Nef's home brew, and she filled them in on their new strengths and one minor recurring habit.

Everyone (except Abhorash, who was a NOFUNALLOWED kinda guy) got ultra into vampirism and swapped out the Nehekharan religion for worshiping Nagash. Neferata kept studying Nagash's books and improving her magic until she figured out how to make more (albeit weaker) vampires through a ritual rather than a potion, which saved time and kept the youngbloods (no pun intended) in their place. She became a cougar and stuck to drinking blood from shotas but pretending it was wine. The vampires mutated over time and became fucking godlike, and when they get some adrenaline in them they underwent quick transformations into a more feral state with fangs and ultra sharp fingernails and such (basically the opposite of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark).

The other Nehekharan kingdoms began to get suspicious, particularly good ol' cousin Khalida (who had became a Ranger/Paladin dedicated to the asp goddess (guess where this story is going. Just guess)). To preemptively silence her, Neferata accused HER of being a vampire (note that this was after Malekith had used a similar strategy, although arguably Neferata's way was a bit more successful since it didn't involve trying to use a god of justice and rulership to prove your lie is the truth).) Khalida called her out on the fact that a grave accusation of treason and heresy with no proof against an equal from an entirely different nation meant all of jack and shit where Jack was known to have left town that very morning, and challenged Neferata to a duel to the death for HONOR. Even though Khalida was a mere mortal badass fighting a fucking VAMPIRE DEMIGODDESS, Khalida put Neferata into single digit HP before she got to -1 herself. Neferata was forced to drink from Khalida on the spot...in front of the assembled nobles of Khemri and Lahmia. While restoring her hit points, Nef tried to turn Khalida into a vampire. Faced with the incestuous advances of her bisexual cousin (oh, and the minor issue of whatever unknown dark magic shit the sabertoothed mutant was doing), called out for the cock snake goddess to save her soul from damnation. Asaph (the aforementioned snake goddess) sent poison through Khalida's veins, purging the vampire heresy.

After this the Nehekharans realize things were dangerously close to becoming Twilight, so they gathered an army and laid siege to Lahmia. Some Lahmian civilians rebelled against the vampire nobility, others gathered to Abhorash and fought against the foreigners and race traitors. The city fell, despite major losses on the side of good Order.

Of Neferata's Eleven, only seven survived (so only two OC slots remain, just like in the other Warhammer). Abhorash and Neferata separately took their minions and headed north, both finding passes through the supposedly impassible mountains and reaching the Badlands, greenskin-infested no man's land.

In the absence of their supreme and military leaders the vampires were left in a panic. Nagash came back, either through his own willpower or through the vampires conducting a ritual, and Arkhan came back with him. The remaining vampires plus Nagash's undead retook Lahmia, raised the first Vampire Counts army, and fought against the living Nehekharans. They lost badly, and spent the entire third turn of the battle blaming each other and fighting like Orks. They went their own ways along the same route Nef and Ab had taken, founding different bloodlines. When Nagash cursed the vampires with weaknesses to the sun, running water (like all old people), garlic, and other random things Neferata and her minions caught the curse too despite not being there (although there's also the suggestion this was Sigmar's doing).

Then a fuckton of time passed. During that time, became a feminist (understandable, since she wanted to be in charge, and every society she lived in ranged from patriarchal to militantly misogynist) and a misandrist, espousing the belief that men are blood farms without worthwhile thoughts or emotions unless they're effeminate and enjoy Sex and the City (it's confirmed she's got a low opinion of most men in the fluff and the reason there are very few male Lahmian vampires, although GW later retconned it so she's more dismissive than hateful). When a group of Dorfs investigating the douchebaggery of the other vampire bloodlines uncovered her lesbian love den SERIOUS AND TOTALLY INOFFENSIVE TO A CONSERVATIVE CONSUMER GROUP OF VAMPIRE LADIES DOING NOTHING WRONG, she had her minions slaughter the Dawi and turn them into zombies before gathering an invasion force and making their Dwarf Fortress her new love-den MANLY BASTION OF BADASSERY. The undead Dwarfs rebuilt the mines, crafted with Granite and menacing with spikes of Onyx, into an Egyptian-style palace. Because Dwarfs are racist fucks who can't tell any group of a race apart from any other group, this means all Dwarfs put all vampires in the Book of Grudges for that. Nowadays the zombies are soaked in perfume and drum while skeletons do the skeleton dance (2spooky!) to entertain her court. Eventually Ghouls showed up to serve her, which she spent several generations trying to exterminate before being confined to the sewers when she realized they would be great for garbage disposal. She bathes in blood (because nobody has ever made vampires do that before!) of young men, then heads off to the war room (same as the other rooms, but this one has maps!) an organizes her femvamps and shotavamps (all vouched for by femvamps as their subordinates) to spy on the civilizations of the world (every single one of them) and manipulate them into getting into wars with each other (Skaven also do this, but more capably), or rooting out rival bloodlines and wiping them out (the VonCarsteins also do this, but less capably).

Queen Neferata had one goal: make the world into Lahmian vampires and their mortal cattle or pampered pets. Meanwhile, her cousin Khalida (who's such a badass not even Settra wants to fuck with her) was a Tomb King Queen and wanted to purge the world of vampires and their homoerotic heresy.

Neferata's cat is a sexy Chinese Cathayan concubine shape shifter who's in love with her.

In End Times, Neferata was recruited to rejoin Arkhan (who was still in love with her) and Mannfred von Carstein in their plans to resurrect Nagash. Nef followed the plan, sending one of her minions to Balthazar Gelt to manipulate him into building an anti-Chaos wall protecting the humans of the Old World, then working with Krell to invade the Dwarfs and capture one of their gods called Valaya. Once everything was set up, Nagash returned and Neferata was promoted to a new position beneath the now-demigod Nagash called "Mortarch" as the Mortarch of Blood. Nagash had consumed the gods of Nehekhara, and gave the old death god's guardians of the underworld Dread Abyssals (giant skeleton dog...things, except Mannfred's which is a bat or something, filled with guts and muscle tissue made of tiny skulls...it's a thing that runs on rule of cool, best not overthought).

The assembled Mortarchs then waged war on the Tomb Kings, finally defeating the Nehekharans and bringing their skulls under the vampiric boot. In a spectacular twist of irony, Neferata and Khalida were charged to work together. As a result, they basically dropped out of End Times until the very end when Mannfred managed to completely fuck up the last chance at stopping Chaos and the world was slowly drawn into the Warp as a third Warpgate was activated in the Empire despite every non-Chaos group from Orcs to Wood Elves all working together (yeah, ET was a complete fucking mess). Neferata and Arkhan were involved in the final battle, with the latter promising to fight to the last to give the former a chance to outrun the encroaching wall of solid Daemonic blackness despite her Abyssal being injured (they also showed that Nef isn't a lesbian afterall, she actually loved Arkhan all along. Still doesn't rule out being bisexual). She barely made it back to the fortress in the Moot that she and Khalida had established offscreen. The Halflings and remaining humans of the Empire fled there for protection, and the undead under Khalida's command allowed them in. Neferata arrived and immediately shouted to make preparations to repel Chaos, before Khalida told her there was no point; Chaos won. Neferata instead convinced her to fight together, as Nehekharan Queens, and their assembled forces readied their weapons as the Warp overtook them.

The end.

...then Age of Sigmar happened. Nagash is an immortal god of the afterlife and gets all souls Chaos doesn't, barring the Stormcast Eternals. Since Games Workhop undid their complete reboot with identical factions reappearing, Vampires came back too. Neferata was shown alongside the other Mortarchs meaning that the entire End Times story meant jack. But since Khalida hasn't been shown, Nef at least outlived her.

Lahmians

The bloodline of Neferata, most of them are female and all of them are found in the upper stations of society. While the wandering necromancer is a Necrarch, the homeless beggar or bandit is a Strigoi, the noble knights and warriors of the world being murderhobos getting into fights and doing awesome shit are Blood Dragons, and while the Von Carsteins are nouveau riche pricks in crumbling manors surrounded by stinking corpses and emaciated thralls, Lahmians are a cut above. They've got style. Skilled middle class priests and merchants, aristocrats of fantastic breeding living in the city and attending every party, hookers, and artists.

One of Neferata's favorite tricks is to turn a woman into a cat, get a merchant or a nobleman to take her in, then have her turn back into a woman and fuck his brains out like it's an erotic manga so he'll establish her as his wife and thus put one more Lahmian spy in the world. As a result of Neferata's manipulations most of the Sisters of Sigmar organization that survived Mordheim are now Lahmian vampires. The poets and playwrights of the world are often Lahmian vampires. Brothel owners are often Lahmian vampires. Upper class escorts are often Lahmian vampires. Noblewoman are often Lahmian vampires. Nuns are often Lahmian vampires. That gay guy who does your wife's hair is a Lahmian vampire. Your wife is a Lahmian vampire. As long as you do what they say, everything will be alright. We promise.

On the Tabletop

Queen Neferata used to have a model in the game, but she suffered from Alarielle the Everqueen syndrome and had a badass model you wanted to use for fluff reasons, but it was pretty crap on the field and thus was unlikely to ever be used. So GW removed it, leaving the von Carsteins as the only models in Vampire Counts until the latter part of 8th edition. The original model came with a cat, referencing the aforementioned story about felinid vampires.

With the addition of Nagash's campaign, Neferata makes a triumphant return to the field as a mounted model with an on-foot option (although GW makes her share a kit with Mannfred von Carstein and Arkhan the Black, the thrill of her return far outshines the insult).

Since bloodlines are gone, Lahmians are represented by gearing out your Lord and Hero vampires with Beguile and similar abilities as well as ample spellcasting. Use skeletons, ghosts, and similar minions that can be handwaved as unwanted hauntings or the bones of ancestors when the Witch Hunters come calling. Feel free to use proxies of living models from any faction you want as servants to a mortal lover/manipulated army but statted as zombies, ghouls, skeletons, or whatever. Finally, Coven Thrones. The only two bloodlines that should be using Coven Thrones are von Carsteins and Lahmians, and you better not let those lower class fuckers put more on the tabletop then you or Neferata will want to have a private chat with you...

Lahmian armies will do very well against low LD armies, and poorly against armies like High Elves with 9's across the board in Leadership.

As for the Queen of Mysteries herself, her latest incarnation hits hard and can debuff the enemy ten ways from town. She has eight Strength 5 attacks that Always Strike First at Inititative 9. Eight Strength 5 attacks are rough but always striking first takes it to another level, then you have Thunderstomp. With a combined profile with her mount, that's D6 Strength 5 hits at Initiative 9 since ASF and ASL cancel each other out. As for the Debuffs, Neferata can debuff to a level that even her boss can't. Her Dagger of Jetl minuses 1- to the Strength, Initiative and Attack of a model that suffers an unsaved wound for the rest of the game. There's also Twilight Allure making all shooting and close combat attacks are at -1 to hit, so even a Chaos Lord will be hitting her on 5's. She also has a fun little trick of being able to, once per game, turn a character she slays in a challenge into a Vampire. If they get to keep all their gear (come on FAQ!) imagine turning Korhil or, even better, Kurt Helborg, into a Vampire.

Gallery

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  Neferata's original model.

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  Neferata's new model.

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  This is what she looks like while casting.

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  This is what she looks like a minute later in melee.

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  What Neferata wears on weekends.