User blog:G-Monster/Pure Evil Proposal: Queen Nashandra

Okay here's someone from the Dark Souls series that worth discussing from the 2nd game Dark Souls 2.

What's The Work
Its the sequel to the original Dark Souls where a great King named Vendrick built a kingdom known as Drangleic where they hoped to mend the minds of those suffering Hollowing under the Darksign the Undead eventually seek Drangleic out, where Vendrick has tried to find some solution that isn't just the nightmarish decision between "Let's keep up with this fire with more and more sacrifices and hope things get better" and "Okay, new age but the Abyss might mess your soul up."

Now, a new Undead stands before Drangleic and finds the kingdom is a broken, hollow ruin of what it once was...forced to investigate and restore it. And the one guiding you...the one behind Drangelic's fall? Nashandra.

Who Is She? What has she Done?
The Queen of Drangleic, Nashandra is in truth a shard of Manus himself. The smallest fragment and the first to gain sentience, Nashandra began to crave power. Roaming the land, Nashandra came to Drangleic where she seduced King Vendrick. As a 'Child of the Dark,' Nashandra had great power but there was something in Drangleic she hungered for a secret room, created from four great souls: The Throne of Want, that held the power of the First Flame itself.

Manipulating Vendrick flawlessly, Nashandra tricked him into sparking a war with the giants from across the sea, resulting in mass loss of life, the death of the giants' lord and giant prisoners experimented on horrifically to create monstrous golems, with the giants more or less being wiped out and as Nashandrahad planned? Drangleic was reduced to rubble, the Curse running rampant and an undead plague spreading all through. Vendrick realized too late what Nashandra was and what she truly desired. He sealed the Throne of Want to her before she could get the power to take it. He left massive seals and sealed himself away, even as he went Hollow himself. Nashandra was SOL.

Until the Bearer of the Curse (IE: You) arrive Nashandra manipulates them into hunting down and destroying those who hold the lord souls to open the path to the throne, and probably finishing Vendrick, merrily massacring all the undead horrors and other bosses still in Drangleic all to give her access to the throne itself whereupon Nashandra reveals herself for the final battle, and the Bearer of the Curse slays her for good before facing a choice: to take the throne of want and to Link the Fire or usher in the age of darkness or simply walk away and hunt for another way to end the curse of undeath. Whatever they choose, the world is well rid of Nashandra for good and for all.

Heinousness
Giant genocide, the horrific experiments that turned them into golems, the really callous manipulations, the undead plague that caused the ruin of Drangleic and the ultimate destruction of the kingdom? Nashandra. Like, the giant thing alone is a solid feather in the black cap. So, yeah, is she heinous enough? Yep. It helps that while a lot of other people in this series do evil things out of good intentions (like Gwyn) Nashandra is out of a base hunger for power.

militating factors
So, that whole "I am a fragment of the father of the Abyss" thing? Not actually as disqualifying as you might think. Nashandra has siblings, many other fragments of Manus who are Children of the Dark and have their own identities and sentience, and have full moral agency. Her sister Alsanna is a good person, and others vary, but Nashandra? She craved power, and isn't evil by nature, so we have that.

Besides that, Nashandra's politesse is superficial. She's manipulative and willing to stop at nothing to gain the Throne of Want, with no care for anyone or anything.

Conclusion
I think she's a keeper