High Priestess (Samurai Jack)

"Ashi. These frivolous distractions are poisonous for your mission. They are not part of Aku's order."

- The High Priestess to Ashi during her flashback.

The High Priestess is the secondary antagonist of the 5th and final season of Samurai Jack. She is the unnamed and masked leader of the Cult of Aku as well as the mother and master of the Daughters of Aku and lives to serve her god Aku.

She was voiced by Grey DeLisle who voiced other characters such as Vicky from the Fairy Odd Parents, Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Asajj Ventress in Genndy Tartakovsky's Star Wars: Clone Wars.

Appearance
The appearance of the High Priestess is never fully seen, but a silhouette can be discerned when she is giving birth to her daughters during a ceremony. She was briefly seen in the back when she's getting dressed into her outfit - she appears to be slim and has long black hair. Like the other cult members, she wears a long black robe, with a pink female mask and a head covering with 6 Aku-like horns -- unlike the usual four that regular cult members have (this could possibly signify her role as the leader of the cult).

It is never revealed what the High Priestess really looks like, but judging from silhouettes and taking into consideration how Ashi and her sisters do not resemble Aku (who's revealed to be their biological father in the second-to-last episode of the final season), the High Priestess seems to resemble her daughters (albeit with longer hair).

Personality
The High Priestess is an unfeeling, merciless, and pitiless woman who punishes those who make mistakes in a violent manner, even including her own daughters. She puts her children through intense and harsh training, even at a young age, and breeds them into becoming assassins and servants for the demon Aku. She has no genuine concern for her children, and the closest thing to affection that she ever displays is to Ashi, whom she refers to as "My sweet little Ashi" during training. She only shows true love towards her husband Aku, who is worshiped as a god by both the High Priestess and her followers in the Cult of Aku. She lives to serve Aku and puts her daughters through assassin training as a result, explaining how the weak have no place with Aku.

History
The High Priestess first appears in the first episode of Season 5, where she shows up during a ceremony conducted by the Cult of Aku, an all-female cult of devout worshipers of Aku. There, she gives birth to seven girls and puts them through years of hard and intense training to make them into strong ninja assassins who will hopefully track down and kill Samurai Jack, Aku's long-time rival and enemy. After training them, she gives them white female masks and weapons and sends them out into the world to kill the samurai.

When Ashi joins Samurai Jack, the High Priestess confronts the samurai herself along with an army of soldiers while he's distracted with meditating on a mountaintop. Ashi manages to defeat all the soldiers, but the High Priestess manages to reach the top and fire arrows at the samurai--however, Ashi stops them in time. Enraged, the High Priestess battles her final child, accusing her of betraying her deceased sisters by letting the samurai live. However, Ashi denies this and claims the high priestess was responsible for their deaths, by feeding them lies and making their only purpose in life to kill Samurai Jack. When Ashi is dazed by crumbling debris, the High Priestess makes one final attempt to kill the samurai, though when Ashi throws one of her arrows at the priestess at the last second, it impales her through the spine and causes her to fall off the mountaintop to her (presumable) death.

In "Episode C", The High Priestess is shown in a flashback in which she and her cult are visited by Aku. Aku notices the statue they constructed in his likeness and was impressed by the display. As a reward, he gifted them with a small fragment of himself within a chalice, to which the High Priestess drank shortly afterwards. Afterwards, the small bit of Aku caused her to become pregnant with Aku's children, thus giving birth to the Daughters of Aku.

Trivia

 * The High Priestess is one of the most depraved villains in the Samurai Jack series due to her remorseless and inhumane treatment of her children as well as having them beaten for things such as looking outside and showing compassion for each other. She is also easily one of the darkest characters in the show. She shares this distinction with Aku and the Dominator.
 * Her fate after Jack destroyed Aku in the past is unknown, given the fact it was Aku who influenced her to become the terrible and abusive leader she was in Aku's future, and that she died during her fight with Ashi, it's presumed that she never became evil in the new timeline created by Jack without Aku's influence or that she actually didn't exist like some of the other antagonists from Aku's timeline.
 * She is very similar to Zira:
 * Both are leading a cult-like following dedicated to the main antagonist (Scar in Zira's case; Aku in the High Priestess's case).
 * Both raised their children from birth to kill the protagonist (Kovu in Zira's case; Daughters of Aku in the High Priestess's case).
 * Both are formidable fighters.
 * Both fell to their deaths.
 * Both gave their children a harsh education. However, unlike the High Priestess, who merely saw her daughters as tools to kill Samurai Jack, Zira actually cared for her offsprings and truely believed she is doing what was best for them.
 * She also has similarities to Adria:
 * Both are fanatical worshipers of a demon (Diablo in the case of Adria; Aku in the High Priestess's case)
 * Both father daughters with the demons they worship (Leah for Adria; The Daughters of Aku for the High Priestess).
 * Both use their daughters to fulfill their demonic husband's evil plans.