Cirkesce
"All will be well! All is well!"[1]
Queen Cirkesce was the monarch of the world of Absyrtus which was subject to Exterminatus by the Death Guard under the command of Mortarion.[Needs Citation]
History
As the Death Guard commenced their attack on the capital city Temnis, Cirkesce sent a message for a ceasefire and immediate surrender to the legion after only a short amount of time. Mortarion, with his mind still focused on Galaspar and the scorn he received from both his brothers and the Emperor concerning his actions there, defied his instinct to continue the battle and issued a ceasefire.[Needs Citation]
Queen Cirkesce received him in front of her palace, offering it fully to the Primarch. She guided him through the building, showing him the council chamber as well as a chapel whose dimensions seemed to defy normal construction, twisting and curving at the edge of the eye. As per the demands of the compliance, ritual and religious places were to be destroyed and Cirkesce agreed after a small amount of hesitation.[Needs Citation]
As the final act of the tour, she led Mortarion to a balcony overlooking the people of Absyrtus, which greeted her gratefully before inviting Mortarion to step forward.[Needs Citation]
In the evening, a banquet was held by Cirkesce and her government officials to celebrate the compliance with speaker after speaker assuring their newfound loyalty to Mortarion.[Needs Citation]
She is last seen as a silhouette in her throne room and presumably perished in the exterminatus of her planet.[1]
Appearance and Character
She was an older woman, with white hair and green eyes. Despite her high status, her clothing was simple - dark and sigils embroidered with gold thread - although worn at the hems and sleeves.[Needs Citation]
She seems to have cared for her people, offering the surrender while pleading for their lives and reassuring her servants gently, that everything would be alright. Her people seemed to have loved her, with such intensity, that even Mortarion contrasts her almost favorably at first with the regimes of Barbarus and Galaspar despite her commanding sorcerers. Mortarion notes that she seems to not experience the instinctual awe a primarch usually commands, “as if there were something else that had already claimed her capacity for wonder”[1].
She had a cunning streak, as she only agreed to the compliance and its terms as a front, intending to carry on the sorcerous arts in secret.[1]
Trivia
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- Her name seems to be a reference to the Greek sorceress Circe (or Kirke), who, most famously, turned the crew of Odysseus into pigs and prevented them from sailing on.
