Before the bards sang tales of Boudica, Hua Mulan, and Joan of Arc, the great halls rang with the legend of Queen Alexandria and her Amazons. A nation that had thrived since the dawn of time, the noble women of Themyscira prided themselves on a society built on peace and sustained with strength.
Over millennia, the Queens of Themyscira ruled the Amazons with iron grace and complete devotion to her people. Through lineage or blessing, the line of Amazon Queens bestowed upon her people the core principles of truth, honor, and strength. The Amazons flourished under their Queens' maternal gaze. Most followed tradition and dedicated themselves to becoming the fiercest warriors known in lore. Several kept their sacred island afloat by perfecting the medicinal arts, agriculture, and engineering. A select few were tasked to be the keepers of Amazonian history. It is only through their meticulous scripts that the legend of Queen Alexandria, the Queen who led the Amazons to a new era, came to pass.
The ascension of Lexa arrived as the new age of man began. Queen Becca had served the Amazons into old age with quiet humility and grace, and she was eager to watch her ward bring new vitality to her people. The first few years under Lexa revealed a Queen who placed her people before all else. Lexa was special, and there were rumors that the gods had invested in her through divine gifts - intelligence, beauty, strength, and preserverence. In spite of her young age, Lexa possessed a wisdom and vision that few others, even past Amazonian Queens, could claim.
She was adored by the masses, but none loved her more than her childhood companion Costia. They grew up together, trained together, made mistakes together. While her people were always at the top of Lexa's priority, some could argue that Costia came a close second. There was an innocence and freedom in Lexa's love for Costia that came from youth and idealism. And because Lexa loved with all her heart, she possessed all the elements that sustain such genuine love – forgiveness, vulnerability, and trust.
When news came that Hercules, champion of men and the gods, wished to visit the sacred island and pay his respects to Queen Alexandria, Lexa had granted permission with optimistic curiosity. She had long been seeking an opportunity to learn more about man and their world. Themyscira had been isolated for too long. What better way to learn the best man had to offer than from their blessed champion? Lexa trusted Hercules' flourishing words and exuding praises. She trusted that the gods could only have placed so many favors on a man that was honorable.
She was wrong.
A fortnight after Hercules and his loyal men set foot on the island, Themyscira was in ruins. Homes were sacked, sacred temples were desecrated, armories were ransacked and turned against their owners. The men fought cruelly and without honor. Amazons who had offered their homes were stabbed in the back. Healers were sought out and slaughtered to prevent them from aiding their friends and lovers wounded in battle. It had all been a game for Hercules, a selfish and devious ploy to fulfill a superficial list of labors that would prove his masculinity and divinity. The surviving few Amazons were chained and paraded like slaves amongst the crowd of jeering men. Even their beloved Queen was shackled and forced to kneel before Hercules in submission. In horror, Lexa was forced to watch as Hercules dragged Costia in front of her and slowly slit her throat from ear to ear.
Lexa never experienced a pain as great as the moment she saw the life fade from Costia's hazel eyes. Her soul tore itself to pieces inside her chest, the blood in her ears pounding so hard she nearly missed the cruel laughter of her oppressor. Somewhere deep inside her mind, Lexa wailed and screamed until her voice was hoarse. But she remained stone-faced and silent as Costia's blood bled and stained the dirty clothes of her ruined garb. Lexa only had one thing on her mind.
With a strength unknown to Hercules, Lexa launched her chained body at the champion of man. With a howl escaping her lips, she sank her teeth into his sweaty neck and ripped his throat out.
The Queen of the Amazons rose above the gurgling husk of Hercules, her eyes feral and mouth stained with the warm blood of her enemy. With a ferocious cry, she snapped her chains apart, the shackles still bound around her wrists. Her Amazons, revitalized by the sight of their victorious queen standing over the body of her enemy, began to rip their chains off one by one. Soon, every Amazon still standing stood tall and angry, their shackles hanging loose around their wrists as fury rolled off their shoulders like steam in cold air. The men who had carried themselves with hubris now shook with fear before the vengeful warriors. Lexa was the first to move. She stalked up to the crowd of men, the sword of a fallen Amazon clenched in her fist. Her demeanor was frighteningly calm as she approached closer and closer to the murderers of her people.
"P-please," stuttered a man in the front, his eyes comically wide with fear. "Please, f-forgive us."
Lexa halted, her eyes landing on the man who looked on the brink of passing out.
"Forgive you?" Lexa's voice was soft, so soft that the entire crowd before her fell silent in anticipation.
"Forgive. You." She repeated, her rage swelling like an angry ocean.
"This," Lexa snarled as she pointed her sword to the body of Hercules, "is your champion. This is whom you choose to represent mankind. A barbarian, who came to my land under the guise of an ally, who deceived his hosts in their own homes, who burned and raped and slaughtered my people, who slit my lover's neck like a pig!"
Lexa seethed as the men cowered before her. She reveled in their fear. "You have shown me the horror that is mankind. You are cruel, dishonorable, and full of hate. I was mistaken to have ever placed faith in you. Our blood has been spilt on our own land by your hands. And now, blood must have blood."
Lexa's green eyes went cold and dead as she stared at her cowering enemy. She tasted the copper of the champion's blood on her tongue. She felt the weight of her shackles on her bruised wrists.
"You are not worth forgiving," Lexa growled, bringing the tip of her sword under the man's quivering jaw. "You are not worth saving."
With a savage war cry, Lexa plunged her sword through his neck up to the hilt. She stood back, unmoving, as her warriors decimated the remaining men with cruel precision. The blood of her enemy ran over her bare feet. Lexa felt nothing but emptiness.
The aftermath of the massacre brought forth the greatest change to Themyscira. The gods, as atonement for their lack of intervention and the mistake they had made with Hercules, granted the Amazons the gift of eternal life and peace. They shielded Themyscira from man's world by making it virtually undetectable by any man. Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera claimed the Amazons as their champions and granted them divine favors of wisdom, beauty, and companionship. And while Lexa was grateful for the happiness the gods gave her people, she harbored a residual anger towards her patrons.
Why had the gods refused to aid them before all was lost? Why, when Lexa had prayed and begged and cried for the gods to save her people, to save Costia, had her words fallen on deaf ears? Why would they grant her eternal life if only so she can mourn the loss of Costia forever?
Lexa had resigned herself to spending eternity forever in guilt, and she devoted herself entirely to the serving her people. Her naivety and her weakness had led her to blindly trust, and it had brought death to all she loved. Love is weakness, she would not let it cause harm to her people ever again. Even if that barred Lexa from her own happiness.
For the next hundred years, Lexa ruled over the Amazons. She dedicated herself to teaching, fighting, and leading with a fair hand. She kept the manacles on her wrists to serve as a reminder of her failure and of the hatred of man, and many of the Amazons emulated their Queen and retained their shackles. They became so integrated into their culture that soon, Amazon cuffs made of impenetrable metal were incorporated into their unique fighting style. Lexa watched her people move on and find joy in the simplicity of life. Yet her heart remained weary with the burden of the past and of her eternal duty, and her soul still ached from the love that was so cruelly taken from her.
Surprisingly, the gods kept their words. They left the Amazons in peace, calling upon Lexa and her warriors only upon the most dire of mythological circumstances. Centuries past, and never once did man appear on the horizon beyond the shore. But what did appear, on an not so special day nearly two hundred years since their promise, was most certainly not a man.