Interlude: Unforgiving Cold- The Throne Warden of Snezhnaya
In other words...
Turning Elsa from Frozen into a badass science fantasy space opera character!
Watch me remold a character to fit into a different setting! If you've watched the awesome videos on the Popcross Studios Youtube channel, you'll know what I'm doing here!
I chose to give Elsa a new Russian-inspired feel for Starhammer 50k. In addition, I dubbed her homeworld as Snezhnaya, which is the name of one of the nations from Genshin Impact (but this time, it's VERY DIFFERENT.)
Oh, and to make things more interesting, I'm gonna be pulling details and storytelling data from the Wingfeather Saga books to build Elsa's backstory.
The characters from the Wingfeather Saga, very much changed from the original source, will show up in a future episode featuring Battletech content and Mechwarriors.
One powerful Princess... or should I say Baroness? Meh, that's not what her title will be at all.
NOTE: This is an Encyclopedia Chapter, which means it is dedicated to describing the mixed lore of the Starhammer 50k Multiverse.
I'm still planning the next chapter in the anthology, which will take place on Hoth.
LORE STARTS HERE
Born as the eldest daughter of Count Igor and Countess Irina, in the frozen kingdom of Snezhnaya, Elsa Volkoff grew up with tremendous responsibility upon her shoulders, not just because she was part of a royal family with significant diplomatic ties to the greater Galactic Republic, but because of her unique political position.
You see, Snezhnaya, as a planet and an enclave of the Republic, located in the Sirius star system, along with its fellow worlds Vostroya, Khador and Valhalla, had suffered from many terrible civil wars and invasions from foreign enemies (which the Republic often paid for.)
Due to this volatility and instability, Snezhnaya, and the Sirius system as a whole, came together to completely reconstruct its government.
The royal family's children would inherit positions specifically designed to prevent corruption, and instead of one individual having all the power, the responsibility was shared between siblings and relatives.
In the Sirius system, kingship was not to be given to the eldest child. Instead, the second born, the Wolf King, (or Wolf Queen,) would wear the crown.
And the position of highest distinction would be that of protector, because too many kingdoms have fallen to greed, envy and lust for power.
Thus, the eldest sibling, the Throne Warden, would become the bodyguard of the king, and handle any military matters that the government may run into.
They would would be trained in all forms of combat, mastering every fighting style, and hone themselves to physical and mental perfection, learning a staggering variety of skills and topics along the way, anything that would make their body and mind stronger.
A Throne Warden had to be ready for anything, the bane of any foe to threaten the Tsardom or the free galaxy, and held a spot as one of the greatest assets the Galactic Republic could count on.
So when Elsa became the first woman to inherit this role in the history of the Sirius system... she pushed herself even harder than anyone else who had taken the job, trying to prove herself at every opportunity.
This certainly wasn't always the case, though.
At first, Elsa felt envious of her younger brother, Alexei, for getting to be the Wolf King. She had been reminded her whole life that it was her duty to protect her three siblings, including Alexei as well as Anton and Anna.
It had always felt so stifling, and now she imagined herself as a wrinkly old woman, chained to her two brothers and one sister forever, unable to do anything for herself, while Alexei reigned as Wolf King, Anna managed diplomatic assignments as Song Maiden, and Anton gave advice to the king as Lore Master.
But her mother, Irina, reminded her that being a Throne Warden of Snezhnaya was a great honor. It was no small thing, and it wasn't as bad as it sounded.
The Throne Wardens had been sung about by bards and musicians across the Galactic Republic and beyond for 5 whole centuries, and are accorded a place of respect and merit like no other leader in the whole Milky Way, not because they were lords, but because they were servants.
Many times had Alexei wished that he was a Throne Warden, running the military, instead of the Wolf King, who had to handle all the pressuring political problems plaguing the Tsardom.
However, Elsa's training and studying had an unexpected side effect, that drastically changed her life in more ways than one.
While preparing to take on the responsibilities of her mantle, more specifically practicing with a power sword, she swung her blade at an imaginary target... and was shocked and speechless after a torrent of hoarfrost shot out of the edge.
Just so you know, this happened when she was still a teenager, along with her siblings.
Testing this newfound ability more, Elsa realized she somehow had innate talents for cryokinesis, or frost magic, control over frozen water, liquid oxygen and carbon dioxide, as well as nitrogen, methane and ammonia.
The Force had blessed her, but she saw it as a curse.
Which meant that initially, the apprentice Throne Warden hid her new powers from her tutors and relatives, fearing it might attract prejudice, since anti-wizard sentiment was strong in Snezhnaya and her neighboring astral territories.
In fact, the Jedi never even came near the Sirius system to recruit, and avoided it like the plague, because of how much hate there was for channelers of magic.
But one day, she was forced into a situation where she had no choice but to reveal her powers- when her dearest brother Alexei's life was in danger, because terrifying demonic assassins from the Nine Hells had infiltrated the Volkoff Palace!
Elsa used a blast of water ice to extinguish the flames of the speedy demons, and eviscerated them with a barrage of icicles made of frozen nitrogen and solid carbon dioxide.
Her family was watching all of this... and they had very mixed feelings. Alexei was thankful for his big sister watching out for him and saving his life, and Anna very much agreed with his stance, while Anton, and Elsa's father, Igor, were completely disgusted and appalled that the eldest child of the Volkoff family was a magic-user.
They wouldn't stop bickering!
But then, Irina, trying her best to be a good mother, put a stop to the argument with her wisdom and logic.
She said that any bigotry people had towards wizards, mages and psykers was inherently wrong, because these people had talents that they could use to help society as a whole, and they should be appreciated, instead of feared, and that included Elsa, who should probably incorporate her new supernatural skills into her career as Throne Warden.
With that, the Volkoff family agreed to accept Elsa for who she truly was, and let her make her own decisions.
Then Anna, Alexei and Anton, as Song Maiden, Wolf King and Lore Master of Snezhnaya, began devising plans to enact laws protecting the basic rights of magic users, meant to encourage people to be more tolerant of supernatural folks, those who had a strong connection to the Force.
Maybe the Jedi would change their minds about Snezhnaya one day.
Years passed, and Elsa became fully involved in her role as Throne Warden. She led her armies across thousands of battlefields on hundreds of worlds, serving the Republic's will and interests and using the military might of Sirius to do it in a very efficient manner.
Taking a lot of risks, her siblings always accompanied her on her journeys, and Alexei was never far away from his big sister.
Over the years that the Republic had fought against tyranny and authoritarian powers in the known universe, Elsa had served besides more sentient species than she could name, witnessed the deployment of weaponry that could melt the biggest hive cities, housing billions, into molten slag, and heard rumors of an eldritch spider God "waiting behind the wall" who represented chaos, evil and corruption itself, as well as his polar opposite, a celestial turtle whose shell contained all the kindness, compassion, and hope of countless civilizations throughout the eons.
Needless to say, it was nothing a Throne Warden of Snezhnaya couldn't handle.
Then again, Elsa's most recent assignment was to visit an ice planet called Hoth, while taking Alexei with her. As for what was happening, the Republic forces under Jedi General Anakin Skywalker had built a city-sized army base around a stash of primordial technology, apparently belonging by the Time Lords who may or may not have had a connection to the eldritch spider god and his cosmic turtle rival.
Anakin and his Padawan apparently wanted an examination and survey of Hoth's defenses. He wanted them to be absolutely impenetrable.
Guess it was time to check this Jedi's ego.