Unmistakably, the greatest wielder of Magecraft that has lived in planet Earth. Born already a gifted genius, she offered her soul to the most terrible being and became an existence of absurdity. Monster, tyrant, deviant—all that, at the same time. Insane Princess, Bride of the Crimson Moon.
She was born the daughter of the Akkadian emperor Sargon the Great and his Sumerian wife Tashlultum in Akkad during the 23rd century BCE. Born the princess of an empire, the daughter of a man beloved by the gods, she was raised in grandeur and educated to love herself and to revel in her own greatness and the worship of the exuberant masses. Thrice blessed by three gods—An, Inanna and Nanna—, she was a naturally born genius of immaculate beauty; perfection given form. The most pompous, beautiful, powerful and gifted princess thus became a symbol of the glory of the Akkadian Empire; a symbol her father used most intelligently. To earn the acceptance of the Sumerians he had subjugated and legitimize his claims over the lands, Sargon respected their religious traditions and sent his precious daughter to the temple of Nanna in Ur—the daughter of the king as the en-priestess in charge of the giparu, a dynastic marriage between princess and god, and thus the High Priestess becomes the living incarnation of Ningal, wife of Nanna. She became Enheduanna, “High Priestess, Ornament of Heaven.” Her symbol thus became the full moon, the symbol of Ningal walking the earth—that is the “Ornament of Heaven”. Thus the High Priestess is two times princess: daughter of the king and daughter of An, father of all gods. She was not the first High Priestess, but she was the greatest: Moon Princess Enheduanna.
Her work was extensive, yet simple: restoration of the giparu, the residence of the en-priestress; purification of temple areas and exorcism of disrupting spirits; literary composition to praise her king and the gods and management of offerings. That peace ended when the ruler of Ur, who she refers to with the generic name ‘Lugal-ane’ in her compositions, aimed to separate himself from Sargon’s rule. Lugal-ane seized control of the temples, profaning them with uncouth and wanton destruction. Unable to unleash harmful magic within the hallowed walls of the moon god, Enheduanna was humiliated, beaten until her diaphanous beauty was permanently marred, stripped of her priestly garments and deprived of her purity by the terrible usurper. To add insult to humiliation, she was thrown out of the walls of Uruk with no other possession but a plain bronze dagger, an obvious hint as to what she should do, having had everything taken from her—no longer pure, it was obvious she would not be favored by the gods anymore.
She had lost much indeed: her beauty, her purity, her position, her pride, her riches and her connection to the gods. Even after all hope departed her, there were two things left: powerful magic and terrible hate.
She wandered the lands of Sumer for many moons, naked and dirty, defiled to the point nobody moved to her aid, disturbed by her scarred visage and her deranged, blasphemous mutterings. She mocked the moon god, Nanna, for abandoning her after her dedicated service. She lashed at Inanna, demanding proof of her supposedly awesome might in the form of vengeance delivered to her enemies. She cursed and cried incoherently, unleashing reckless sorceries in her passing, until the moon indeed answered.
Its name was Crimson Moon Brunestud. Having recently reached an agreement with Gaia, the Ultimate One of the moon had just manifested in the planet to begin its plans. It looked at the greatest civilization of magic of the time, the mighty land blessed by Divine Spirits and riddled with powerful wielders of the magical arts, and saw only the taint their arcane forces caused in the world that embraced them. And the direst, most powerful of them all was a reckless, wandering beast constantly calling his name, the name of the moon.
They fought, and it was glorious. Beautiful destruction, orchestral anarchy, and two monsters that would just not die. She sliced a mountain at its base and flung it; its Knight Arm restored the mountain to its rightful place. It rose the waters of the Persian Gulf as a massive tidal wave; she pushed them back with a swipe of her arm. She called upon the wrath of lightning, the roar of thunder and the raging flames; its impossible existence restored itself faster than she could harm him. It attacked at speed that defied the speed of gods; she countered it with the greatest gift of precognition. She unleashed the most terrible wind magic, a pillar of raging currents stretching from the earth to the gods’ heavenly realm; it was not touched by its fury. It retaliated with an even more powerful vortex, making the earth shatter and the sky cry and howl in agony; even as her body fell apart, her hatred and scorn held it together once more.
It could not love her, nor could it hate her; things such as love or hate are alien to Type-Moon. It could, however, acknowledge her and her incomprehensible, beautiful fury. The Counter Force it intended to create for Gaia could not be made entirely in its image—after all, it was not a thing of this world. As they fought, they touched, they embraced, they merged, until her skin was his and her skin and his were one and the same, the unfathomable body replaced-reformed-reconstructed-reimagined in a form like hers but his and only his. His eyes her hers as well, but they were also reflected in hers, madness merging into madness and never adding up because the result was nonsensical and inconsequential. It became he, she became it.
Female True Ancestors were uncommon, but the very first of True Ancestors was a female, built in the image of beautiful, insane Enheduanna. The name of this first of earthbound vampires has been lost to history. Enheduanna called her Inanna, her daughter.
Be it known that you are lofty as the heavens!
Be it known that you are broad as the earth!
Be it known that you destroy the rebel lands!
Be it known that you roar at the foreign lands!
Be it known that you crush heads!
Be it known that you devour corpses like a dog!
Be it known that your gaze is terrible!
Be it known that you lift your terrible gaze!
Be it known that you have flashing eyes!
Be it known that you are unshakeable and unyielding!
Be it known that you always stand triumphant!
Two monsters in the guise of women, calling themselves priestess and goddess, reclaimed the lands of Sumer for Sargon and the temple of Nanna for their own. Enheduanna and her personal goddess, Inanna, were immortalized by the priestess’ own anthems; her work a baleful, profane gift to humankind; an ominous record of the birth of Crimson Moon’s progeny.
The Heroic Spirit, Enheduanna, could have been the glorious priestess of pristine beauty who reclaimed her rightful place with the favor of the gods, had she lived a normal human lifespan. But she was no longer truly human, nor was she a True Ancestor, yet something above a “mere” Dead Apostle. After faking her death she took to roaming the lands with her “daughter”, lurking behind all moon cults in the following 3500 years. Enheduanna even outlived her Inanna, who eventually succumbed to her blood thirst and departed to a slumber eternal around the end of the Age of Gods. The foremost priestess of Sumer died in the Late Middle Age at the hands of the other one given the title of Moon Princess. It was not Arcueid Brunestud’s superior might that defeated Enheduanna, however, for it could not have been possible for the fledging shinso to overpower the supreme wielder of magic.
It was nostalgia. Nostalgia killed Enheduanna.
Arcueid looked too much like her cherished daughter.