"She was beautiful no doubt, in the nameless beauty that wins, no less than in the lofty beauty that compels. Her form was matchless in symmetry, so that her every gesture, in the saddle or on the throne, was womanly, dignified, and graceful, while each dress she wore, from royal robe and jeweled tiara to steel breast-plate and golden headpiece, seemed that in which she looked her best. With a man's strength of body, she possessed more than a man's power of mind and force of will.
A shrewd observer would have detected in those bright eyes, despite their thick lashes and loving glance, the genius that can command an army and found an empire; in that delicate, exquisitely chiseled face, the lines that tell of tameless pride and unbending resolution; in the full curves of that rosy mouth, in the clean-cut jaw and prominence of the beautifully molded chin, a cold recklessness that could harden on occasion to pitiless cruelty - stern, impracticable, immovable as fate."
—G.J. Whyfe-Melville, “Sarchedon: A Legend of the Great Queen”.
A legendary queen that never existed. Everything about her—her appearance, her skills and her legend—is a human fabrication born of the collective wishes of mankind in the old era at the end of the Age of Gods. Historians, philosophers and storytellers gathered the tales of a certain queen of Assyria and combined them with episodes of the lives of great figures such as Alexander the Great and Darius I, together with the traditions of ancient kings and goddesses, to create a composite being; an exalted queen of incomparable features that would become a symbol of the glorious imperial rule of ancient times. She represents a longing for better times, for civilizations of magic and gold before they were suppressed by the expansion of Abrahamic religions. A hedonistic queen who regardless possesses the skill to make her empire flourish. The most beautiful, the most powerful, the most intelligent, the most voluptuous, the most alluring, the most fascinating. All constructions and treasures whose origins had been lost in time were thus attributed to her. She has been interpreted in many ways, both virtuous and vile. Regardless of her nature as attributed to whatever tradition that chooses to praise her, she remains undoubtedly great, a true Heroic Spirit given birth by the adoration of mankind.
Thus, as a composite legendary soul, she is each and every single depiction of her in legend and pseudo-history. She is the daughter of Derceto, the fish goddess of Ascalon. She is herself Astarté, most revered Syrian goddess, and Anaitis whom even Ahuramazda worships. She is the brilliant warrior whose charisma, tactics and incredible beauty charmed king Ninus, who took her as his bride. She is the ruthless murderer who either by poison or deceit claimed the throne of Assyria from her husband’s stiff corpse. She is the ambitious conqueror who brought Bactria to its knees. She is the insatiable lover who started a war for the sake of making a Georgian prince hers, and the cruel man-eater who slept with a different man every night and afterwards buried them alive. She is the tamer of lions and panthers, the great builder to whom every stupendous work in Persia was eventually ascribed to. She is the ambitious engineer who devised wondrous war machines in her attempt to conquer India, and the wondrous sorceress who once sealed a demon by engulfing it in salt water. As the ideal ruler of the ancient age of mankind, she loves humanity just as much as she loves herself. Her attempts at unifying all lands under her rule were the manifestation of that unbridled affection, as passionate as her legendary sensual exploits.
Semiramis is an intensely emotional and dedicated woman whose unpredictability does not match her established alignment. She is definitely a hopeless hedonist, constantly seeking the next source of pleasure and entertainment. However, her skills as a ruler are certainly top-class. Her dedication is frightening, both when she has something she must do and when she has something she truly wishes to do. When she wants something, she will stop at nothing to have it. She can be considered the ideal ruler of antiquity, for that was exactly what she was conceived to represent. However, her capabilities as a ruler aside, she is still a person most people would find hard to deal with. She revels in bringing out both the best and the worst out of people. The same mouth that praised you a minute ago may quickly resort to scathing remarks and subtle mockery, just to enjoy your reactions to both things. She cannot be said to be incapable of love, but her perception of love is different of that of normal people. She is mercurial—according to the situation, she can become whatever kind of person she needs to be: innocent or lascivious, charming or cold, the kindest or the cruelest. It was this skill to portray herself in the most suitable manner according to the circumstances that carried her to the throne of Asia in her legend.
Of course, her awe-inspiring beauty and the voluptuousness of her body always helped matters a lot.