Nephys

Pharaoh Nephys is the current reigning Pharaoh of the Church of Aquias. She resides within the Citadel of Surket, where she acts as a figurehead for the Aquian faith as a whole and as the titular Empress of Aquias. She is fairly new, having only ascended to the role two years ago. She has generated a lot of controversy since ascending, mainly due to her young age and aggressive diplomatic tactics toward the Council of Surket.

Early Life
Nephys was born in 1471 AA in Slum City with the name Siya. She grew up an orphan, an urchin in the slum, stealing to survive and scraping by on what she could scrounge. When she was 8 years old, she was caught trying to pick the pocket of Disda Teth, a Handmaiden. Instead of turning the young girl into the authorities, she took her in and made her an acolyte within her service.

Siya spent the next 2 years serving Disda, who cared for her like a daughter. When she was 10, she was introduced to Pharaoh Aliya, who made Siya her personal handservant. Aliya was the longest reigning Pharaoh, being 74 at the time Siya began serving her and living to the impressive age of 91 by the time she died in 1498. Despite not being an official Handmaiden at the time, Siya became one of Aliya's most trusted confidants, rarely leaving the Pharaoh's side over the next 6 years.

Life as a Handmaiden and the Shadow War
In 1487, Siya officially became one of the Handmaidens. While little is known of her activities as a Handmaiden, she is known to have been a healer and midwife for a time with the newly formed SENA. She was also possibly a barmaid for the Siren's Song between the years 1489 and 1492, though this is unconfirmed and might simply be slander. Regardless of exactly what she was doing while she was a Handmaiden, she became one of the most elite operatives by 1496 and, when Aliya's health began to fail over the last two years of her life, Siya was one of the ones who was always in the Pharaoh's chambers tending her.

As Aliya's condition worsened in the winter of 1497, Siya was named the next Pharaoh. While typically this declaration is made on the deathbed of the Pharaoh to her most trusted Handmaidens, Aliya lived for another 6 months slipping in and out of consciousness and straying close to death repeatedly. During these 6 months, the Handmaidens began a campaign of ruthless power games, even resorting to violence in the streets. These Handmaidens, all trained in the art of shadow, subterfuge, and the silencing of enemies, were now actively fighting one another. This became known as the Shadow War, and lasted until near midyear of 1498 when Aliya died and Siya ascended as Pharaoh Nephys.

The Rule of Pharaoh Nephys
During the Shadow War, the Handmaidens had fractured into factions and was completely broken upon the ascension of Nephys. As the new Pharaoh, Nephys called for the unification of the Handmaidens. She publicly announced that she would welcome any Handmaidens who opposed her back as long as they swore to serve her. She hosted a grand feast for them all, but she was the only one to leave the dining hall alive when it ended. 13 dead Handmaidens were collected from the hall and placed on spikes atop the Citadel. While nobody is exactly certain what happened, the event was referred to as the Vulture's Feast and was adapted into one of the most popular plays in modern Surket.

With her reputation firmly cemented among the Handmaidens who still served her, she turned to winning over the people. The general population of Surket didn't know much about Pharaoh Nephys, but the Vulture's Feast was sensationalized among them. To try to combat this view of her being completely ruthless, she began holding weekly sermons atop the Temple of the Sun in the Palace District, and also began spreading the stories of how she used to be a midwife and healer and how she was originally an orphan from Slum City. She has become much more involved in the happenings of the city than her predecessor, who had a very hands-off approach to her role.

Politics and Public Perception
Her rapid movement in the political spheres of Surket has provoked the ire of many of the other important figures in the city, including most of the Council. It is obvious that she is trying to increase her power and influence to be more in line with the way her title was viewed over a thousand years ago when the Aquian Empire still existed. She is something of a radical, using the Handmaidens as a sort of secret police instead of just as a monitoring network. She is very active in city policy, much to the chagrin of the Council of Surket, and is even pushing to build a central standing army, which is something Surket has not had since the Aquian Empire.

She has been incredibly successful at winning the love of the people. In just over 2 years, Nephys has managed to reinvigorate worship in the Church of Aquias and the Cult of the Pharaoh, giving her considerable power due to her sway over the common man. Among the people, she is seen as something of a rallying cry. She started with absolutely nothing and has ascended to godhood due to diligence and hard work, or at least that is the image she presents. She always asserts herself as a champion of the people, often painting herself as the enemy of the elite of the city, sowing dissent within the districts and weakening the Council while simultaneously strengthening herself.

Among the nobility and elite, she is viewed in a different light. She is seen as something of an imposter, as many of the Great Families backed other Handmaidens. Her ruthless execution of the Handmaidens who opposed her and her anti-Council rhetoric paints a clear picture for them. The Pharaoh is trying to usurp their position.