Queen Neferata

This page is in need of cleanup. Srsly. It's a fucking mess.

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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.

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

– Eleanor Roosevelt

"Behind every great man, there is a great woman. Behind those great women, there is me!"

– Neferata

The very first fucking vampire in a setting where vampires are still cool, which is a product of her own creation rather than a Biblical curse or demonic possession. She's something of a Cleopatra expy who's been in a lot of positions of leadership-no pun intended-then found she preferred to run things behind the scenes.

Warhammer Fantasy

Early History

Neferata, originally Neferatem (Neferata was the name she went by outside of Nehekhara, although later writers forgot about it and had her always called Neferata), was born a princess of the city of Lahmia in Nehekhara during the war of the Seven Kings against Nagash. She grew up with her cousin Khalida. But when they became adults, Khalida preferred to wear pants, ride horses, shoot arrows, and pray to the snake goddess, Neferata enjoyed dresses, learning about potion-making, getting drunk on black lotus wine and forcing her servants to act out softcore porn.

This is because of unintended parental neglect; her father King Lamasheptra was too busy waging war against Nagash and the writers never bothered to elaborate on her mother. When Neferata's father died, her brother Lamashizzar took command of his forces and she ended in charge of Lahmia. But Lamashizzar made a secret deal with Arkhan the Black to become necromancer bros by looting Nagash's house. After a string of betrayals, Lamashizzar won and took Nagash's books home plus an incapciated Arkhan to give cliffnotes. As soon as Lamashizzar got back to Lahmia, he took over from Neferata and put her to work on the elixir while taking over her pasttime of ordering cooks to suck face with stablehands.

While Lamashizzar studied Nagash's power to become immortal, Neferata was tasked with looking after the running of the city. Then ony day the Celestial Emperor's son, ambassador Prince Xian Ha Feng, from Cathay arrived to discuss the terms of a trade agreement with her father. Lamasheptra had, out of desperation because his sister Neferem was held hostage by Nagash, signed a trade agreement to pay Cathay a bunch of gold every year in exchange for dragon staffs (cutting-edge Cathayan guns) and dragon powder (gun powder with some Cathyan secret ingredient) and if he missed a payment, Lahmia would belong to Cathay. Prince Xian announced that they'd found a new gold mine in Cathay and were altering the deal to require more gold, putting Lahmia in deep shit with Neferata being expected to fix the problem.

Fed up and desperate, Neferata secretly turned to Arkhan for help. She wanted Arkhan to teach her the secrets of necromancy and immortality, and tried hard to persuade him with charm. To her surprise, Neferata ended up sympathizing with Arkhan, the two bonding and potentially starting to love each other. Instead of taking notes and preparing a wizard army for her brother, Neferata experimented and actually improved Nagash's techniques.

Creation of Vampires

When Lamashizzar and his cabal members (Ushoran, W'soran, Ankhat, Abhorash, Zhuras, Adio, Khenti, Ubaid) found out Nefereta's plans, she convinced them to join her using knowledge Arkhan had shared on each cabal member, her charisma and a demonstration what her elixir could do (using her superhuman strength to throw her brother with a slight shove). Most of the cabal immediately jumped ship and followed Nefereta, except for the king's vizier Ubaid as well as Adio and Khenti; your typical spoiled young nobles that do nothing but drink and gamble. As reward, Arkhan was set free at Neferata's command.

In revenge for the usurping, Lamashizzar arranged for Ubaid to assassinate Neferata with the magical sphinx venom and Adio and Khenti to kill Arkhan. Arkhan slew his would-be killers, and despite his efforts found Neferata already poisoned. He quickly carried Neferata to the female palace seeking help to save her, but only a servant girl named Aiyah was willing to help. Aiyah guided Arkhan to the queen's room, and was strong-armed into assisting Arkhan's attempts to save Neferata with Nagash's rituals and magic. After five days, Neferata seemed to die, and a distraught Arkhan killed Lamashizzar. Blinded by his grief, Arkhan had left Aiyah as a loose end, and she fled to Lybaras after Neferata's apparent death.

However, the ritual had saved Neferata and made her the first vampire. When she returned, she learned that in her absence Arkhan had killed her brother and Abhorash had killed Arkhan. This also meant that since her brother died childless she was in charge of Lahmia, which was the most important Nehekharan city given how Nagash had ruined Khemri. Lamashizzar hadn't been well-loved, and most of the people at his funeral were just there to discuss politics... except or Khalida, who Neferata hadn't seen in years.

Neferata hoped to use the opportunity to reconcile with her cousin Khalida, who she dearly loved (possibly to obsessive and incestuous levels). After a feast of Cathayan seafood Malatang (seafood boiled using various chili spices from Cathay, so close enough) at the Lahmian garden, Neferata tried to solidify her rule with the promise to rebuild their destroyed cities and temples by offering 10000 gold for them each year. She also offered the Rasetran King Shepret the ruined city of Khemri because their bloodline has connection to Amenophis - a son of Settra whom was disowned by the later - plus the gold needed to rebuilt it.

While every other ruler was busy drooling over Neferata's wonderful promises, Khalida suddenly called her out for her bullshit and for embracing Nagash's dark power. Aiyah had made it back to Khalida and spilled the beans. Neferata of course rejected the accusation as outrageous and went "no, you", so an incensed Khalida challenged her to an honor duel. Neferata ended up killing Khalida with her surprising vampire strength during the duel, and tried to Khalida into a vampire using the blood on her lips, but Khalida was either too far gone to be turned into one or was saved from that fate by the goddess Asaph.

As time went on, people around Neferata started to notice she wasn't aging and was going through more servants than most. Neferata realized she'd need some meatshields that weren't mooks. She picked the captain of the guard and all around badass Abhorash (whom Neferata tricked to becoming a vampire because he was too honorbound and stubborn to accept it; he self exiled in shame after a killing spree brought on by his transformation), former vizier Ubaid (whom is now royal to Neferata after she had "tamed" him with her new found vampire seduction power) her high priest W'soran, her younger brother Ushoran, Maatmeses (unknown, went to Ind or retcon?), Naamia (a former Cathay noble courtesan given to her by Ha Feng), Prince Xian Ha Feng himself and Ankhat (Neferata's husband Vashanesh or her political assistant). She educated them on their new strengths and dietary requirement. She also planted puppet rulers in the Lahmia court named King Sothis and Queen Ammanura in order to rule behind the scene.

Prince Xian Ha Feng took some vials of the Elixir to Cathay as payment (then rebelled against his dragon father and probably died). The vampire bloodline in Cathay remain alive still.

Neferata later founded the Lahmian cult under W'soran's suggestion, as a clever way to acquire more blood unnoticed and recruiting more vampire underlings (especially female), indoctrinated to believe Neferata is the incarnation of the goddess Asaph. The cult even serves a good purpose as a political tool that made the Lahmia ruler look divine, in an age where the Nehekhara kings are no longer protect by the god's blessing.

Rise of Alcadizzar and the Fall of Lahmia

Such a cult attracted the attention of Queen of Rasetra, who came to the temple to pray for her difficult pregnancy. Neferata agreed to save the queen's child, to the shock of her vampire cabal. Her plan was giving the queen a vial of elixir distilled from her own blood, saving the child and letting every priest kings know the greatness of Nefereta's miracle that is totally unlike Nagash's dark magic. By using her fame and some taxation deductions as a bribe, she opened an academy in Lahmia for all the priest king's children (think of it as junior Harvard or Yale in Egypt) and having them staying there (aka kept as political hostage) until adulthood.

Such an outrageous plan made the cabal believe Neferata lost her mind after Khalida died, but they had no power to oppose her. The other kings initially disapproved, but they were under heavy taxation by Lahmia at that time and would to do anything to decrease their tax, especially after they heard how the Lahmian cult saved the Queen of Rasetra's child.

When the child turned out to be male, knowing he will be the next king of Khemri, Neferata claimed him as her own saying he would stay in Lahmia until he came of age and took his throne. This child was named Alcadizaar.

Because of Khalida's death, Neferata grew to believe that Alcadizaar would become her partner, eventually becoming a vampire and joining with her to rule all Nehekahra from Khemri, so she started practicing wife husbandry on him (some hardcore vampire pedophilia action here...), training him in every aspect of war and statehood (while also making sure he didn't get with any other woman). Even though Alcadizaar was sick of doing the preparation past the age of 18 years old (his other classmate/prince friend had already left Lahmia and began their ruling), Neferata insisted him to stay for further training at the Lahmian cult.

By the time Alcadizzar is 30 years old (at -1320 Imperial Reckoning), his uncle Khenti, a powerful yet pissed off Rasetran noble came to Lahmia and demanded Neferata to hand over Alcadizzar.

According to Ushoran's spies, Neferata's action to hold back Alcadizzar's release ticked off the Rasetran King. The king had been sending letters to other priest kings not only for this matter, but also because the amount of tax they had to pay Lahmia every year. Zandri has begun testing Lahmia's resolve by not paying them. If things got worse, a coalition army of priest kings could form and destroy Lahmia, and Lahmia's military was still weak with inexperienced soldiers, not to mention they no longer had their famed dragon staff force since the dragon powder had been all used up and the bluff of its existence was the only thing keeping the the priest kings from attacking Lahmia.

Despite objections from many powerful rulers, Neferata didn't give a shit and simply lied, saying Alcadizzar was not ready yet and suggested another DECADE of training session at her temple to truly unite Lahmia and Khemri in spirit (in other words, vampirize Alcadizzar and claim his vampiric D for herself). Brilliant and wicked, Neferata had Alcadizzar decide if he wanted follow this insane suggestion or go fuck off rule his Khemri just as he always wanted.

Despite Khenti's suggestion for Alcadizzar to leave, he remained clueless to the schemes Neferata had up her sleeves and accept her training course, believing it was ultimately for the good of Khemri and that the city can survive another decade without him.

And so for the next 25 fucking years, Alcadizzar became the high priest of the blood temple and unknowingly drank more of Neferata's elixir (making him incredibly strong and youthful) and playing with live snakes in fake devotion services to Asaph AKA show Neferata his devotion.

During a romantic stroll through the garden of the temple's inner sanctum, Naaima appeared out of the blue and delivered a dreadful message to Alcadizzar; his father, the king of Rasetra, had died (yes, Neferata kept Alcadizzar for 55 fucking years and father and son never got to meet... seriously).

Angered by Naaima's sudden interruption from her sweet time with Alcadizzar (as well as for Naaima's many years of absence since her transformation), Neferata told Alcadizzar to go pray at the snek goddess shrine for his father's passing. When he was gone, Neferata angrily snarled at Naaima, calling her a "eastern slut" (actual quote). Even though Naaima was trying to help Neferata's plans, get her through the trauma of losing Khalida and even playing matchmaker for Neferata and Alcadizzar despite Naamia herself falling in love with Neferata, all Naamia got back was Neferata's seething and cursing, telling her to fuck off.

5 years later, Alcadizzar met with the final trial where he had to endure the pain of whips and survive a stab in the heart (which only rendered him unconscious). When Alcadizaar woke up, Neferata was waiting for him without her mask on, revealing her vampiric nature, then tried to force feed the terrified Alcadizaar her final elixir to become a vampire. But Ubaid, the former vizier (whom Neferata has entrusted to assist Alcadizzar many years ago) sacrificed himself to save Alcadizzar, allowing him to flee into the wild, where he hid in the desert and was welcomed into a nomadic desert tribe after performing a heroic action to win their trust.

After Alcadizaar's escape, Neferata turned towards vengeance and finding her would-be boy toy. She sent Ushoran and his spies to find him and filled her court with torturers that were used to interrogate civilians to spit out Alcadizzar's location. Lahmia suffered greatly under her wrath. Kidnappings became common, everyone who used to party in Lahmia's nightlife decided to stay at home, traders came in less often, the street and building went uncared for longer, armies weren't properly trained, equipped or motivated (for an army captain, having their men dying to the enemies is punishable) and Lahmia was now truly the shadow of its former self.

Her Cabal members got sick of her behavior, of course, and started to do their own thing. W'soran tried to summon Nagash and found out he is still alive, but got staked and locked in a barrel for it so Naggy couldn't steal Neffy't thunder. Ushoran planned to defect to Nagash after W'soran revealed bone daddy's location. Zhuras had been living in depression since he couldn't prove useful for Lamashizzar when he was alive, but was encouraged by Ushoran to form an alliance with him and Nagash. Aborhash was still nowhere to be found since his exile, wandering the desert to prey on nomads and hone his combat skills. Every vampire in the cabal wanted to jump out of the sinking ship... all but Ankhat who was still loyal.

Alcadizzar's tribe eventually killed Zhuras on one of his trips as an envoy to Nagashizzar. His head and his letter was bought as proof to the other kings (note: the god damned twin tailed comet was there when Alcadizzar killed the vampire, so even Tzeentch knew what's up). After this, the Nehekharans realized how dangerously close things were to becoming Twilight, so they gathered their forces into a vast army and laid siege to Lahmia.

Despite being outnumbered, Neferata did her best of defend her city. She gathered every vampire she knew: from the loyal Lord Ankhat, the treacherous Ushoran (whom Neferata and Ankhat had caught right just before he was about to escape), W'soran (whom Neferata had freed to serve them with his undead summoning in battle) and her female vampire cultists including her returned lovelorn Naamia.

In battle, Neferata and her cultists demonstrated their ability of seduction upon the Nekheharan invaders, charming them with their beauty and gazes to the point of all but paralyzing them, then slew them. Every Nekheharan who met with their gaze were controlled instantly, turning them into meat shield who would take arrows for them or fight their closest comrades in fits of false jealousy. Despite facing such a supernatural enemy, Alcadizzar's tribal desert horse archers were able to down some cultists with arrow shots (since vampire can't move if staked in the heart, shooting a mass number of arrows will surely have high chances for them to stuck in their heart, and at that distance their seduction powers don't work). Neferata then faced Alcadizaar in a duel. Alcadizaar, despite being strong and well trained was none the less effected by Neferata's seduction, and she was able to regenerate every wound he struck. Eventually Neferata struck him down with her inhuman strength, then proceed to suck the blood from his neck as a way to recover every "gift" she has given to Alcadizzar. Unfortunately for her, Alcadizaar had hidden a dagger which he used to stab Neferata's heart.

As soon as Neferata fell, Ankhat desperately went to her rescue, ordering the royal guards to her aid. Despite doing everything he could, the Nekheharan's cavalry and soldiers kept pouring into Neferata's position. Just as they are about to catch up, Abhorash appeared, wielding a pair of huge, dripping khopeshes and wearing nothing but ragged clothing while slaughtering the shit out of any enemy Nekheharan who stood in his way.

After every vampire escaped to the palace, with Abhorash and four loyal vampire warrior sired by him acting as a rearguard, Neferata resolved to die with Lahmia until Ankhat reminded her that they are fucking immortals and should've started taking over the entire world instead of wasting time in Lahmia. Interested in Ankhat's suggestion, Neferata had a change of mind and decided to board the ship at the harbor where Naamia awaited, and sailed to the east.

The entire city fell, reduced to rubble, and most of its vampiric aristocracy were destroyed despite major losses on the side of Nekeharans.

Exile

Of Neferata's Eleven, only seven survived. 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. Due to this she avoided the final war between Nagash and Alcadizaar that saw the rest of Nehekhara join Lahmia in becoming a lifeless ruin. She did however experience it's consequences when the newly risen Tomb Kings began to hunt down vampires. In particular her cousin Khalida, returned from the dead and filled with rage, chased her across the world.

In the absence of their leaders the vampires were left in a panic. 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 while Neferata traveled the world. During that time she became a misandrist, espousing the belief that men are blood farms without worthwhile thoughts or emotions unless they kowtow to women (being effeminate, watching Sex and the City, be unthinking Sugar Daddies, that sort of thing). Eventually Neferata found herself compelled to come to the capital of the Strigoi empire, Mourkain. Here she found a kingdom that was a pale reflection of her long lost Lahmia, ruled once again by a vampiric aristocracy. It's king was her former Lord of Masks Ushoran and his vizier W'soran, who together she blamed for the destruction of her home. She had been drawn by the Crown of Nagash which was buried at the heart of the capital as had most of the others of her kind.

Queen of Mysteries

A group of Dorfs investigating the douchebaggery of the other vampire bloodlines eventually uncovered her lesbian love den SERIOUS GROUP OF VAMPIRE LADIES DOING NOTHING WRONG. In response 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.

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 confining them 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 an organizes her femvamps and shotavamps (all vouched for by femvamps as their subordinates) to spy on the civilizations of the world 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 women worthy mortals of the world into Lahmian vampires and the men unworthy mortals 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, with Neferata at the top of her list.

Neferata's cat is her Cathayan concubine shape shifter Naamia who is in love with her (at least in the novel Neferata by Josh Reynolds, in all other sources the cat is simply an undead ghost cat named Bastet).

End times

Neferata was recruited to rejoin Arkhan the Black (who was still in love with her after thousands of years) and Mannfred von Carstein in their plans to resurrect Nagash. Nef followed the plan, sending one of her minions (who may be fan favourite the Vampire Genevieve) to Balthazar Gelt to manipulate him into building an anti-Chaos wall protecting the humans of the Old World (in theory so Nagash could have them all to himself). Realizing that Nagash's return meant either her servitude or destruction, Neferata sent no further aid at first. However, Neferata grew concerned that if she didn't have something to offer Nagash might destroy her out of spite. She was also antsy due to lack of knowledge about Nagash's other servants, because her spies on them were dead or trapped in Sylvania and Arkhan rarely called.

After daemons attacked her fortress Neferata decided to try and get shit done, massing the forces of the Silver Pinnacle to get a re-birthday present for Nagash; the magic power of the Dwarf gods themselves (which Neferata had accidentally discovered while backpacking across the world). Fighting her way through various greenskin tribes at Skull Chasm, she led her army to the Lost Pass of the dwarfs, a long lost treasure trove of the ancestor gods. There at the Battle of Valaya's Gate her army, supported by the Wight King Krell (who had been sent by Arkhan as a precaution), their forces defeated the throng of Karak Azul leading to the deaths of both the venerable runelord Thorek Ironbrow and the mighty King Kazador. Having secured a source of power for the returned but weakened Nagash she was inducted into the ranks of his Mortarchs, becoming the Mortarch of Blood.

Once Nagash fed on Valaya's magic, he used the power to shroud Nehekhara in darkness so the vampires wouldn't burn in the sun (no such thing as sunblock in the Warhammer world). The assembled Mortarchs then waged war on the Tomb Kings. When Nagash led his forces south into Nehekhara Neferata was given permission to lead a force to the ruins of her long lost Lahmia. There she was once more met by Khalida and the army of Lybaras. As the two armies clashed the two undead queens dueled in the Temple of Blood in the heart of the city itself. Once more Neferata was forced to flee before her vengeful cousin. Though she failed to secure the city Neferata's expedition had performed all Nagash required of it which was to lure troops away from his main target- Khemri and his Black Pyramid there. In the end defeated the Nehekharans, bringing their skulls under Nagash's 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 present at the end of 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. After a parting kiss with Arkhan (who she still had some feelings for) Neferata only just 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.

Age of Sigmar

... 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 and the Tomb Kings were revealed to have been Squatted, Nef at least outlived her. Neferata got her own part of the realm of death and "creatively" named it Nulahmia while also basing it's fashion and architecture off of Nehekhara's. She built an even bigger spy network and ensured that she was the top vampire. Mannfred, Ushoran, and possibly Vhordai (and definitely Abhorash if he is still alive or "alive" at any rate), are the only ones who don't pay homage to her, and Neferata and Mannfred have clashed several times. She's also gotten over her misandry, as she employs male and female vampires depending on their abilities.

Later, Nulahmia came under attack from an army of mortal followers of Chaos of Slaanesh, because a Slaaneshi Chaos Lord wants her for himself, not caring that she's undead. Quite a thing to sneak past the kiddies, Geedubs! (In the novel Lords of Death, the same lord kills a beastman who tried to stop him raping it). Her forces are aided by the Stormcast Eternals and together they defeat the forces of Slaanesh. Neferata later tries to make a secret alliance with the Stormcast right under Nagash's nasal bones. After the battle (where Neferata's obsessed fan Chaos Lord falls into a pit of skeletons), Neferata is disappointed that Nagash was just dicking with the Stormcast but had to go along with it. During Malign Portents, Neferata used her manipulations and spy network to keep Tzeentch's forces occupied, undermine Sigmar's forces and spread Nagash's influence across the realms.

Not too long after, Neferata's double dealing causes Nagash to punish her by putting half her city under Arkhan's rulership; Arkhan himself doesn't really want the city, but "when Nagash says 'jump'..." so Arkhan left a vampiric vassal of his to rule in his stead. She also has to contend with rebellious nobles who want to kill her rallying under a noble she turned into a vampire and an invading Khornate army led by the Chaos Lord Ruhok. Neferata uses her powers and schemes to play them all against each other, and ends up destroying the Khornates, rebels and much of her realm by temporarily releasing the black hole in the center of Shyish (and a clever ploy involving said noble being a Manchurian Agent). As a result Nagash gives full rule of Nulahmia back to Neferata and she rebuilds it.

Fast forward a few centuries and Neferata begins to wage war against the Khornate forces of Angaria (a name that rivals Angron in creativity) and its daemon prince ruler Graunos. The prince is oddly cunning for a daemon of Khorne, and is aided by the nearly-as-cunning deathbringer Kathag - one of the few survivors from Lord Ruhok's forces. They refuse to play Neferata’s game of manipulations and spying, unknowingly playing right into the Mortarch of Blood’s hands. Through a series of infiltrations and convoluted schemes that’d make Tzeentch orgasm with joy, she managed to wipe out the entirety of Angaria by dropping an entire underworld on top of the city, wiping them out just like the Skaven did to the Lizardmen. She followed up by duelling Graunos, and defeated the Daemon Prince by slashing his eyes, triggering the scotomaphobia (fear of blindness) Graunos still had from his mortal origins, which made him destroy himself when he desperately tried to use purging fire be brought from Hysh to restore his sight.

One interesting part of her character hasn't been extrapolated upon yet; whether or not she still has a thing for Arkhan the Black. Some parts hints that Arkhan isn't the same as he was in the World-That-Was and may not remember Nef at all, but we don't know how Nef herself feels about this - if she cares at all, that is. They clearly have a thing in the Josh Reynolds novels, but that's it. Maybe the coming apocalypse brought her inner sweetheart out for a short while.

Lahmians

Main article: Lahmian.

Neferata's Bloodline, mostly female and in varying degrees of control of most of the factions of the world.

Nagadron The Adevore

The Dread Abyssal given to Neferata by Nagash in End Times. In the times of the Nehekharan gods, Nagadron resided with the other Dread Abyssals in the afterlife of men. Nagadron's job was to punish the gluttonous, ambushing selfish souls and chewing on them for all eternity. In Neferata's service, Nagadron now consumes the souls he eats, vomiting them up in smaller and smaller chunks as he gorges himself on flesh and spirit alike and eating them again (so yeah, Neferata's giant undead dragon demon is predictably a giant cat on the inside).

According to the team that produced the model, the hooded eyes are supposed to resemble a predatory snek.

Nagadron was last seen in End Times re-dying from mortal wounds with its last act being carrying Neferata and the unconscious Isabella back to the fortress of Nef and Khalida, but was resurrected alongside his (apparently its a he despite always being an undead skeleton monster) master in Age of Sigmar.

On the Tabletop

Old Editions

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, who was originally a ghost cat named Bastet, referencing the aforementioned story about felinid vampires.

The End Times

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.

Age Of Sigmar

As with the rest of the Mortarchs with fancy new models, Neferata was also reincarnated in the Mortal Realms, complete with her giant ghost-thingy mount. This leads her to a total of 11 wounds with a 4+ save and a respectable 16" flying move, though this decays as she suffers damage. She's very much at home in close combat, as all of her attacks are in 1" range. First off is Akmet-har, the Dagger of Jet, a fairly unremarkable but fast weapon that has the chance to outright murder her opponent if she deals damage (but not enough to kill them) and you roll a d6 higher than their remaining wounds. Second is Aken-Seth, a staff with considerably fewer attacks, but each one deals 2 damage with -2 Rend. Her steed can lash out with its own melee attacks, each as dangerous as the staff and with a good quantity (declining as she suffers wounds). The last weapon to be displayed is the weaponry of the various ghosts surrounding Neffy, all piddly compared to the rest, but if they roll a 6+ to hit, they deal a Mortal Wound.The rest of her rules all supplement this preference in melee - the ability to heal 2 wounds when she kills a model with her weapons, a command ability that forces enemies to rake a penalty to hit her, and a spell that lets its target ignore the rend of any weapons that hit them. As a bonus, if she kills a hero, she can also raise them as a Vampire Lord and then make them eat their former associates.

Gallery

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  Neferata's original model, looking like Elvira.

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  Neferata's new model. Note that the Hat principle is still in effect.

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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. (and when with Arkhan)

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  Even after an apocalypse she's still got it.

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  And Iiiiii will always love youuuuuuu...

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