The Golden Queen has spent hours and hours wandering through an endless desert. After months of travelling and avoiding getting caught, the villainess thought that she had finally reached her home. However, she soon came to the realization that it was just a random desert without a single palace in sight.
"Curse this no name desert! I should have never gotten onto that ship that brought me here." The queen mumbled to herself as she continued to stomp through the yellow sand.
The sun was burning, unbearable for any regular creature. Luckily, goldlings were not as sensitive to the heat and could easily withstand such high temperatures and the lack of hydration.
"There is absolutely nothing useful in this desert!" The woman once again talked to herself and began to regret her choice of abandoning the Doom Raiders and going her own path.
Golden Queen squinted her eyes when saw something shimmer in the distance. Filled with new hope, she quickly ran over to the object. With greed in her eyes she reached a sphere made out of pure gold which was sticking out of the sand. She leaned down and was about to grab the valuable treasure, but it was stuck. At first, she thought it must be too heavy, but even after using her powers without any success the desperate queen knew that something was off. Then she suddenly had an idea. Golden Queen took a couple of steps back and focused on the golden ball. She raised her hands slowly and the entire ground started to shake. It was like an earthquake, the grains of sand were thrown up into the air and spiraled like a cloud of dust. The goldling smiled as the object started to move upwards, revealing that it was part of an entire palace buried underneath the sand. After a few more moments of the queen moving the entire building up, it stood in its full glory again.
"Finally, something I can work with!" The queen smiled sinisterly as she ascended onto the steps leading to the entrance of the palace. This could be the beginning of her new reign.
The Golden Queen's reign over her home, the Golden Desert, has lasted for many years. She was the youngest member of the royal goldling family who ruled over the land for as long as anyone can remember. The king and queen were just and wise rulers, treating their subjects with respect and generosity. Gold was their most prized possession, but the rulers were not greedy since it was common in their land. Instead, they distributed their gift to the rest of the world. Legends even say that they were the source for all gold in Skylands. But their daughter, at the time named Golden Princess, was not as benevolent as her parents. Even though they wanted to raise her to be a good-hearted person, her greed always got the best of her, until there was nothing left that they could do.
The royal guards in front of the Golden Princess' room stood there patiently, but neither of them could hide their fear. The goldling spawn was stomping through her room as if she was trying to break through the very floor. It was her 16th birthday and the princess was outraged by the gift her parents have given her.
"A book!?" She yelled for the fourth time in less than a minute. "What in Skylands am I supposed to do with a book!?"
The bratty teenager threw the piece of literature against the wall before it dropped down to the ground, falling open on a certain page. After scoffing some more about the ridiculous gift, the Golden Princess wanted to pick the book back up and throw it into the nearest pit. However, as soon as she laid eyes on the open page, the princess became interested. It was a book about her family's ancestors and the page documented the reign of the mysterious King Midas, who was assumed to be the first goldling. She held the book in her hands and read through the many words and sentences. The princess reached a part which said that the ancient king possessed never before seen powers that could turn anything he touched to pure gold. The girl's red jewel eyes sparkled in an eager light.
Golden Princess slammed the door to her room open, causing the guards outside to jump up in surprise. She made her way through the dark halls of the Golden Palace until she reached the outside, strolling to one of many small brick walls surrounding the building where she would be at peace. One more time, the princess read through the paragraph about the former king turning objects and even living beings into gold, before putting the book aside and focusing on the structure in front of her.
She closed her eyes and stretched her hand out, thinking of nothing but gold. The girl attempted to activate her powers by shaking her hand, but without any success. She opened her eyes just to see the wall still in its plain dusty state, without any hint of gold. The goldling punched the air with frustration before her entire skin started to glow in the sunlight. Finally, a beam of golden energy bolted out of her hands and hit the wall. It instantly turned into solid gold and the princess interrupted her tantrum to smile with pure joy after seeing the result. The Golden Princess grabbed the book and hurried back to the palace, she wanted to prove to her parents that she is the only one truly worthy of the throne.
It didn't take the Golden Princess long to reach the throne room where her mother and father, the current rulers of the Golden Desert, have spent most of their day. With the book tightly in her greedy hand, the princess walked up to them and caught everyone's attention.
"Mother, father, I want the throne!" The Golden Princess said without any hesitation and full confidence in herself.
The parents looked at each other blankly before looking back at their daughter and laughing. "Sweetie, we've talked about this." The humored father responded. "You are to wait in line to take seat on the throne. You are the youngest of your siblings, so you will be the last to inherit it."
"That doesn't matter!" The princess stomped her foot so heavily that an echo travelled through the entire area. "I am the most deserving of the throne, and I will prove it to you!"
The goldling looked over to one of the guards, who returned a rather frightened look. She held her hand up and closed her eyes to focus. In a few short moments, the princess shot a golden ray straight at the guard which turned him into a golden statue. She smiled upon that transformation.
The king and queen were shocked. They just witnessed their daughter wielding powers which haven't been seen since King Midas. "Who taught you that?" The mother asked completely bewildered.
"He did!" The Golden Princess opened the page in the book about the first king Midas and presented it to her parents. "I am the chosen descendant to possess his powers!"
The rulers were at a lack for words and could only look at each other baffled. "We gave you the book to learn about your ancestors, not to revive his legacy!" The king said in a stern voice.
"But he was the first king and I have his powers!" The princess immediately argued against her father. "I should be-"
"Enough!" The king silenced his stubborn child and stood up from the throne. "Go to your room! We need to have a talk about this in private."
The Golden Princess inhaled furiously and twirled around to run back into her room. Meanwhile the other guards observed their frozen companion and tried to reverse the mysterious transformation.
The king stepped into his daughter's room and sat onto the large bed, which was covered with all kinds of jewels and other valuable accessories.
"Goldy." The king addressed his daughter with her nickname that only the parents knew of. "I am glad you took the time to read through the book we gave you, but there is something you must know about King Midas."
The princess was in her bed rolling her eyes at her father's words. She just wanted the conversation to be done with so she could continue to argue about her heritage of the throne.
"King Midas was a very… ruthless king." The worried king began and remembered the dark tales his own parents told him about their ancestor. "He was gifted with the power to turn anything he touched to gold, but he decided to abuse them. He started to turn the food and water into gold whenever he was in a bad mood, and it got to the point where he turned his subjects into statues as well." The father was very concerned and scared about his daughter repeating that mistake. "I don't want you to go down that path as well. I know that you're frustrated you won't get the chance to be queen because you're the youngest, but being a princess also grants you a lot of power and-"
"Who said I will never be queen?" The Golden Princess finally spoke up and looked her father in the eyes.
The king sighed and wanted his spawn to understand that she can't have everything. "Goldy, it's highly unlikely that you will outlive your youngest brother before you get onto the throne-"
"I don't care about that!" The princess raised her voice and a glowing light emitted from her body. "I have those powers for a reason. They were lost for centuries, but I discovered them again, that's why I should be queen next!"
"Goldy, enough of this nonsense!" The king lost his soft attitude and felt it was time to use other measures to put the princess in her place. "You will follow the rules just like everyone else and wait on your time, with or without powers!"
"I will not!" The young goldling yelled and glowed even brighter. "I will become the next ruler!"
"You will not!" The father countered. He raised himself from the bed and had enough of his daughter's tantrum. "You are to stay in your room until I tell you otherwise, understood?"
"No!" The princess clenched her teeth and denied her father even further. "If I won't be the next queen… then I will be the queen right now!"
She stretched out both of her arms and shot a powerful golden ray at the king, turning him into a statue immediately. Instead of panicking or feeling remorse, the sinister goldling smiled and stepped out of her room to finally take what she believes is rightfully hers.
The young princess arrived at the throne room where her mother was patiently waiting on the king to return.
"Where's your father?" The queen asked slightly concerned after seeing her daughter's satisfied gleam in her eyes.
"He won't be coming back." The Golden Princess answered, leaving her mother without words.
"What have you done?" The queen rose from her chair and approached the princess. "Tell me!"
The Golden Princess grabbed her mother's wrist as soon as she got close enough and slowly started to turn her into gold. "The same thing I will do to you." She started to glow, and before the queen could react, she ended up as a golden statue as well. The merciless teenager then looked up and saw the crown on top of her mother's head. She reached up to grab it and put it on her own head, symbolizing that she was the new queen.
The Golden Princess went on and froze the guards, allowing her to walk up the stairs to the throne and sit on it. The princess smiled as she was now the highest ranked member of the family, and no one could take that away from her.
The subjects of the kingdom were summoned to the throne room to witness the chilling sight of the frozen queen and guards and the greedy princess sitting on top of the king's throne.
"Where is the king?" One of the citizens asked.
"He's gone." Golden Princess answered while one of the remaining guards carried the king's golden body into the throne room, leaving everyone in utter shock.
"You are speaking to your new superior, peasants!" The Golden Princess didn't hesitate to make her position clear and already set the tone for her reign. "You may address me as the Golden Queen."
The following years have been the darkest the kingdom has known since King Midas' reign of terror. The Golden Queen was ruthless and couldn't care less for her subjects. She denied them any privileges that her parents allowed them before and only cared about the gold they brought her. Everyday, all of the citizens would have to pay the queen with all of the gold they could find in the desert, otherwise they would end up as one of her golden statues that she proudly set up around her palace. Her older siblings were banished from the desert and never seen again, leaving the Golden Queen as the last sole ruler of the kingdom. Her reign has reached the point where her subjects starved to death and their lifeless bodies could be found in the hot sand of the Golden Desert. However, the queen knew that she couldn't do everything on her own, so she used ancient magic to revive the citizens as undead soldiers, leaving them no choice but to serve her.
The Golden Queen's reign went on for many decades, centuries even. With undead soldiers guarding the entire desert and keeping intruders from getting too close to the palace. It wasn't until one day, the former pharaoh and ruler of the Golden Desert, Grave Clobber, returned from the dead just to find his kingdom in the clutches of the goldling queen. He and his brothers ruled long before the line of goldlings, but due to their dysfunctional relationship they ruined each other and left the kingdom without any ruler, allowing Midas to take over all those years ago.
Grave Clobber arrived at the Golden Palace, where he was able to get past all the guards, mostly by beating them to dust. When he reached the throne room, the Golden Queen was outraged to see a stranger who dared to face her.
"What is the meaning of this!?" The queen stood up and started to glow in her rage. "I will not tolerate any intruders! Guards!"
The few remaining soldiers who were meant to protect their queen hurried to the throne room, but they were all intimated by the mummy's presence. "What are you doing in my palace?" He finally asked the goldling.
"Excuse me?" Golden Queen spit the words out to express her outrage. "I am the Golden Queen, ruler of the Golden Desert. I don't know, nor do I care who you are, but you will obey me!"
"I am Grave Clobber, pharaoh and ruler of the Golden Desert." The hefty being didn't even think about giving up his kingdom just because his brothers buried him alive and he couldn't escape for hundreds of years. "And you will give me my kingdom back."
The Golden Queen laughed. A hollow, wicked laugh that echoed through the entire building. "You must have taken a wrong turn looking for your tomb." The queen teased the emotionless mummy. "Bad Juju! Take care of this!"
Upon those words, the spirit emerged from the sand which was present throughout the entire palace. With a staff in her skeletal hand and a swift movement, she teleported herself right next to the queen. "How may I be of service, your highness?"
"Use your magic on this imbecile so that he follows my orders without hesitation." Golden Queen didn't want to waste any more of her time and turned around while her servant fulfilled her demand.
"Gladly, my queen." Bad Juju was about to cast a spell on the mummy that would turn him into one of Golden Queen's slaves.
"Wait!" Grave Clobber interrupted the process and caused the Golden Queen to stop from walking away. He realized that he stood no chance against the queen and her minions, so he bargained. "I can make you an offer."
The goldling slightly turned her head so that she could see the mummy from the corner of her eye. "I'm listening."
"I know the desert. I know all of its secrets and hidden treasures. If you let me rule by your side, we could expand our kingdom and conquer all of Skylands!" While he would prefer to rule the Golden Desert on his own again, he was willing to share it with Golden Queen rather than being one of her mindless servants.
"Why would I want to share what belongs to me?" The queen turned around again to look Grave Clobber into his hollow yellow eyes. "Then you would take all of my gold! I did not collect gold for all those years just so someone could take it away from me!" The queen stomped her foot with such force that a small crack appeared underneath her. The insatiable greed for the mineral was all that was on the goldling's mind. She didn't care about the benefits of another experienced ruler, all she wanted was gold.
"Gold?" Grave Clobber was confused about the queen's absurd obsession. "Gold will have no use to you when your kingdom falls apart and gets taken over."
"Nonsense!" The goldling yelled furiously, stomping once more and spreading the crack. "Gold is the most powerful weapon anyone can have!" While gold has always been of great value in the kingdom, the queen's parents were never as greedy as their daughter and always tried to keep her from becoming like this. "We all live because of gold. You need gold to eat, you need gold to sleep, you even need gold for love!" A toxic mindset that was natural to the goldling was that you could buy anyone's love with enough gold. The fact that her parents used the gold found in the desert to help others and thus gain respect and a certain position in society gave her the impression that it was the ultimate form of power. "There is nothing I desire more than gold! It is the purest of all minerals and the most wanted product in all of Skylands!" The goldling smiled with greed as she looked around herself and saw all the gold surrounding her. She wanted to have as much of it as possible, even going as far as to create a golden river running through the throne room underneath her. "I don't need the power of ruling over the Skylands! I already have the greatest power! Gold is power!"
With her final sentence the Golden Queen raised her foot once again, just to let it sink to the ground with such power that the floor underneath her gave in. Before Bad Juju or the queen could react, she fell through the stone floor and landed in the river of liquid gold. Bad Juju gazed through the hole with shock. She could see a few air bubbles rise to the surface until they disappeared. There was no sign of the queen.
Grave Clobber felt no sympathy and instead of looking for the queen, he approached the throne.
"Where do you think you're going?" Bad Juju held her staff tightly and hovered in front of the chair.
"I'm taking back what's mine." Grave Clobber wasn't in the mood to argue and simply pushed the spirit aside. Before he could take seat on the throne however, Bad Juju cast her spell on the mummy, causing him to stop and turn around.
"You will not do anything as long as the queen doesn't tell you to." Those were the words the mummy would live by from that moment onward. Just another one of Golden Queen's loyal subjects.
Even though Golden Queen possessed the rare golden powers, the goldling wasn't able to free herself from the shimmering substance she fell into and turned into a golden statue herself. Her servants didn't know how to help her, so they decided to create a pedestal on top of her throne and put her onto it, serving as nothing more than a glorified decoration.
Many years after that, due to a mysterious event, the queen was set free and more powerful than ever before. She searched for more villainous creatures that would help her conquer the Skylands to reclaim all the gold that has been stolen from her home. They were later known as the Doom Raiders.
Now the Golden Queen has finally found another place she could claim for herself. After the temple emerged from the sand and she entered it, the goldling recognized it right away. It was one of the royal family's former domains. Under King Midas' reign the people of the desert lived here and followed his every order. Legends have it that it used to be one of the mighty Arkeyan's temples.
The Golden Queen was delighted and soon found the throne in the heart of the building. It was even more glorious and intimidating than the one at home. She knew that if she wanted to rule the Skylands and claim all the gold for herself, she would have to build an army. She sat down on the throne, as that was the place where she came up with the best ideas. She then noticed something shimmering in one of the corners of the hall. It looked mechanical, almost robotic. Her jewel eyes opened wide when she realized exactly what that was. The legends were true after all. The queen started to laugh. It echoed throughout the entire palace and got louder with each passing moment. The wicked sound could be heard beyond the thick walls and far into the deserted land. The villainess finally found a way to win.
