The First Queen
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Overview
Caedra (Feyspeak \ˈkiədrə\ for first, initial), the First Queen, also called Arcaidh (Feyspeak \ˈarki\ for untamed), is the Fey Goddess of Cantors and the ruler of The Eleventh Court, a of the Midnight Courts of Arcadia formed after The War of Erasure. Her Court explores a Bright inflection of the Strange Essence of Quantity, seeking meaning through the right sequence of events. She does not believe Time is relevant for meaning, but rather the mathematical structure of causation.
She was originally the founding member of The Court of Four, before leaving to fill the Bright vacancy of Quantity exploration. However, The Keening Women deny that she was ever in their ranks, and even irrationally deny that they were ever called The Court of Four. Mentioning The First Queen is a reliable way to anger the Keening Women.
Among mortal scholars, widely known, but not well understood. She is primarily regarded as a patron of musical arts. Most accurate lore comes from her Orisons, who often travel Arcadia and The Integrum seeking perfection in composition.
History
Origin
Very little is known of Caedra's origins, though it is widely believed she was an Elf who originated in the timeless Zero Year of The Shattering in Pelithos. She is reported to have been an early master of magic, a relentlessly perceptive investigator into cosmology, and a polymath genius.
She formed one of the first coven of witches in Pelithos, and these women began to investigate the Origin of Strange. Her followers claim that she was the fabled explorer Arcaidh, who discovered and settled Arcadia, giving its name.
Ascension
Her followers claim that Caedra was the first to transform into Sidhe and the first Fey to master the secrets of Strange Essence philosophy, becoming the first Fey God. Whether this is true, it is true that she was among The Keening Women who ascended to rule the first Fey Court, The Court of Three. Their primary interest was in the mathematical nature of the universe, believing its meaning lie within understanding its quantities.
The Keening Women, and by extension Caedra, lured many other philosophically curious Elves to Arcadia over the Shattered Age, most notably Lolth, who quickly became their most promising apprentice.
War of Erasure
Caedra did not participate directly in The War of Erasure, other than the whispered implication that the Keening Women were the secret architects of Denial warfare.
Caedra was extremely involved in the aftermath of the War, however. When the Bright and Bleak vacancies emerged from the War’s aftermath, Caedra recognized a unique opportunity. The Bright vacancy of Quantity gave her an opportunity to leave her coven of The Keening Women, though it is not clear why she did. She departed the Court of Three and founded the Eleventh Court, leaving behind a rift that has never healed. The change in number shaped the future philosophy of The Court of Three (and their obsession with cardinality).
Concordance
Caedra was not a collaborator in the Concordance, but neither did she oppose it. She viewed the Philosophical Concordance as a flawed but inevitable experiment—one whose outcome could be predicted once its premises were known.
After the Concordance, the Cantors quietly adjusted their compositions. Certain sequences were no longer played. Others were introduced with great care. Scholars note that Caedra’s music became more restrained, as though she were accounting for new variables.
Description
In her anthropomorphic form, Caedra appears as a pale, willowy elven woman with elongated arms, legs, neck, and fingers. Her skin is covered in arcane tattoos, signifying equations and mathematical expressions too complex for any comprehensible symbol. She has anywhere between two and eight arms, depending on her task. Indeed, she is able to grow additional limbs at will to satisfy the needs of her attention. Her fingers, palms, and forearms are stained with ink from endless composition. She prefers to wear gossamer gowns of blue and gold, and her hair is sometimes pale white, other times raven black.
In her surreal form, called The Measure, Caedra loses all substance and becomes a creature of light and sound. Patterns of fractal light swirl with mathematical precision while sound permeates the space, vibrating the light with ripples of pressure. Where the curves of light, lines of color, and bands of pressure intersect and align can be seen the faintest hint of a giant feminine form. This surreal form is the largest of all Fey Gods, having been described as lighting up an entire night sky above a large city.