Iron Queen

Origin

Regina Ferrum was born into a cult of technomancers in the city of Mega Central several years prior to The Great War between the Mobians and Overlanders. As a little girl, the leaders of the cult taught her how to control electronic impulses, as her skills grew she found that she was able to control robots from afar and bind them to her will, a feat that took other technomancers years to achieve mastery over.

Just before the Great War broke out, Magitek use was made illegal and the cult was utterly annihilated by the High Chancellor's forces, except for Regina, whom he took pity upon and decided to exile instead of execute. With no knowledge of any other technomancy cults, Regina wandered Mobius alone for years and after a close encounter with Jules Hedgehog and his brother Sir Charles in the Badlands, she came to the realization that she was the last technomancer on Mobius but pledged that the near-lost art of technomancy would live on through her.

She would use her Magitek skills to consume and dominate the world but first needed to find a government that not only would find her talents useful but allow her to rise to a position of power, of high authority. This lead her to The Dragon Kingdom, where she pledged to use her skills in service to a local Warlord named Jun Kun, for it was through him that she would achieve her goals. With her abilities she was able to awaken dormant machines hidden within the land and aid him in conquering The Dragon Kingdom as his co-Warlord.

But they quickly found themselves biting off more than they could chew and were swept aside like ants in the midst of a massive war between the four major Clans or "Houses" (Raiju, Shinobi, Gossamer and Yagyu) residing in the Kingdom. The war made it impossible for the two to gain a foothold anywhere within the Kingdom until Robotnik Prime came to expand his tyranny beyond the boundaries of Mobotropolis. Regina established a line of communication with Robotnik and arranged to meet with him at their base of operations.

Using her natural whits and charm, Regina was able to convince Robotnik to use her and Jun Kun as Sub-Bosses so they could help him gain a foothold in the region. The mad doctor supplied the two with weapons and technology that enabled them to conquer the free peoples of the Dragon Kingdom with ease but not the warring Clans, who began fighting even harder against them in order to maintain their freedom.

Regina later married Jun Kun out of benefit to both themselves and the stability of their new Iron Dominion. After the death of Robotnik, the Iron Dominion became an independent dictatorship and, despite facing many challenges, managed to stay afloat even without Robotnik's resources to back them up.

The only time they ever truly found themselves in danger of losing everything was when Sonic the Hedgehog and his friend Tails freed Ken "Monkey" Khan from Regina's control and released the Dominion's hold on Stormtop Village, but it was a short lived victory. For around the same time, in another universe, Robo-Robotnik or "Doctor Eggman" as he would come to be known, had destroyed all life on his version of Mobius and decided to travel to Mobius Prime to pick up where his counterpart had left off.

The events set in motion by Doctor Eggman's arrival on Mobius Prime eventually lead to the founding of The Eggman Empire, which The Iron Dominion became an extension of after Regina and Jun Kun pledged their support to the dimension-hopping dictator and thus resumed their roles as Sub-Bosses. They also resumed their fight against the four clans, Monkey Khan and the Dragon Kingdom Freedom Fighters. When Regina later regained her hold over Khan, she used him to destroy the Dragon Kingdom Freedom Fighters, a small victory that would become a stepping stone for her greatest endeavor yet.

Story Arcs

Iron Dominion

Regina came into contact with Snively, the original Robotnik's nephew, when he was performing a routine progress check on the rest of the Eggman Empire and the two hit it off, fell in love and became co-conspirators of a plot to overthrow Eggman and restore order to the crumbling Empire by placing Regina on Eggman's throne. While Snively began working out the details and started setting everything into motion on his end, Regina appeared before The Bride of Rich Nights, who ruled over the Yagyu Clan, and attempted to bribe her into joining forces with The Iron Dominion.

When Rich Nights refused the bribe, Regina had Jun Kun slaughter her in cold blood, though Regina took the credit in order to become the new Bride of the Yagyu Clan and began randomly sending out her Yagyu minions to aid other clans during the Clan Wars while spreading rumors that the clans were joining forces with The Iron Dominion to gain the upper hand on their foes. The rumors troubled the other clan brides and they soon began swearing their allegiances to The Iron Dominion, which ended the Clan Wars and eliminated all opposition.

With the title of "Bride of the Four Houses" added to her resume and word that Doctor Eggman's mental health was deteriorating, Regina began expressing her desire to expand the Dominion's influence beyond The Dragon Kingdom. Jun Kun, however, was opposed to the idea and wanted to consolidate power before even thinking of expansion but when Regina received word that Doctor Eggman was on the verge of collapse she took Jun Kun, Bride of the Conquering Storm and the Yagyu Clan ninjas on a dirigible with her to New Megaopolis where she was greeted by Snively and The Dark Egg Legion, who aided them in setting up base in the Eggdome.

With Doctor Eggman already locked away in a cell, the process of transferring control of the Empire to Regina went rather smoothly, she immediately laid out her plans for the Empire, though with the Eggdome being the only functional building in New Megaopolis, Jun Kun still had to wonder why they took control of the Empire in the first place. Regina and Snively were later approached by Dimitri, the Grandmaster of the Dark Egg Legion, who appealed his case of removing the explosives Eggman had placed in their cybernetics. Unfortunately for Dimitri, Regina claimed that not even her Magitek powers were capable of removing the explosives and had Snively give him a briefcase containing microchips that would neutralize them.

Dimitri was skeptical but seeing as he had no other choice took the microchips and had them distributed amongst the Dark Egg Legionnaires. In a rather romantic moment with Snively, Regina revealed her plans to destroy the Freedom Fighters in New Mobotropolis, kill Jun Kun and rule the Empire with Snively at her side. Later that same night, while Sonic and Monkey Khan were trying to drive The Iron Dominion out of New Megaopolis, Regina revealed some of her past to Snively while they were in her quarters.

The next day, Regina and Snively launched an attack on New Mobotropolis to demonstrate her power. She quickly thwarted NICOLE's attempts at raising the shield that protected the city from bombardments by tampering with her nanites and then used her Magitek powers to take control of Bunnie D'Coolette and forced her to fight against her own teammates. Thanks to Monkey Khan, however, Bunnie was soon freed from her control. Regina engaged Khan in battle while Snively snuck up behind him and removed his power ring crown, making him susceptible to Regina's powers.

After taking control of Khan, she used him as a weapon against the Freedom Fighters and the Chaotix and had also ordered him to burn the entire city to the ground. Sonic returned to the city shortly afterward and fought Khan while Regina explained to him that her control was absolute and revealed that Khan was responsible for the destruction of the Dragon Kingdom Freedom Fighters. Knowing that Sonic would try to retrieve the power ring crown from him, Snively broke it in half so that it could not be used to free Khan from her spell.

Sonic was able to free Khan, however, by substituting his crown with a different power ring. But Regina was pleased nonetheless by believing that she had broken their resolve and that all faith in Khan had been lost, Regina and her forces then pulled back and returned to New Megaopolis. The next day Dr. Eggman broke out of confinement and went on a rampage, Regina sent Conquering Storm to keep the other clans in line while she set out with Snively, Jun Kun, the Dark Egg Legion and the Yagyu Clan to recapture Eggman. But by the time they reached him, Eggman had already fallen into Sonic and Tails' custody, whom she ordered to surrender and hand Eggman over to the Dominion.

Sonic engaged the Dominion in battle instead while Tails dragged the unconscious mad despot back to New Mobotropolis. But the fight did not end in Sonic's favor and he was taken hostage after being beaten by Jun Kun. Regina attempted to use Sonic as a bargaining chip to get Eggman back but her forces suddenly found themselves under siege by the Freedom Fighters, who not only saved Sonic but disgraced Jun Kun on the battlefield after his armor was heavily damaged and destroyed both of Regina and Snivley's egg mobiles before retreating to New Mobotropolis.

Regina and the Dominion's forces pursued them but were unable to stop NICOLE from activating the force field. Within the force field, Bunnie and Khan taunted Regina, saying that her victory had literally blown up in her face. Regina swore revenge before pulling her forces back to New Megaopolis, later that night Snively entered her quarters and attempted to comfort her, but instead she snapped at him and told him that if he ever wanted to be allowed in her bedchambers again he would have to find her a way to bypass the shield surrounding New Mobotropolis. She then pushed him out of her room and slammed the door in his face.

When Regina later learned that Dimitri had deserted them, she promoted Lien-Da to the position of Grandmaster of The Dark Egg Legion. Regina later sent Jun Kun and Snively to restore the power generator in Robotropolis back to full power, but when they returned with news that their mission had been a complete failure, she lashed out at the two of them and stormed off to her bedchambers but allowed Snively to enter while he proposed a solution to their difficulties in shutting down the shield surrounding New Mobotropolis. Snively had learned that it was made entirely of nanites and was under NICOLE's control, if Regina could take control of NICOLE then she would be able to remove the barrier and successfully conquer the city.

Delighted by this new revelation, Regina and her military forces descended upon New Mobotropolis, where she immediately took control of NICOLE and shut down the barrier that had pestered them for so long. Regina and the Dominion swept all opposition aside and conquered New Mobotropolis with minimum casualties but she quickly learned that Sonic and Princess Sally Acorn had used a Particle-to-Light Organizer and Transporter Device to enter NICOLE's system and find a way to undo the damage Regina had caused.

Regina used her staff to enter the system as well and took on the form of a gigantic version of herself. Sonic engaged her in battle while Sally managed to free NICOLE from Regina's spell, but in order for her to maintain that freedom NICOLE would have to continue pretending to be Regina's slave. After saying her goodbyes to Sally, NICOLE assumed her disguise and "purged" Sonic and Sally from the system, which put Regina's mind at ease as she returned to Jun Kun's side to oversee a public Legionization in New Mobotropolis' coliseum in a bid to draw any remaining Freedom Fighters operating in the city out into the open.

When Amy Rose, Antoine D'Coolette and Geoffrey St. John busted onto the scene and were quickly defeated, Regina assumed that her plan had succeeded that is until Sonic, Sally, Tails and Monkey Khan returned from their journey to The Dragon Kingdom and initiated their final battle against Regina. When Regina tried using NICOLE against the heroes, the A.I. revealed that she was no longer under her control and encased her in a bubble made of nanites. Regina was shocked but quickly regained her senses and used her Magitek powers to create a gigantic Dragon mech in order to battle NICOLE and the others on equal footing.

During the fight, the Yagyu suddenly abandoned her after learning they were no longer tied to the Dominion which prompted Lien-Da and the Dark Egg Legion to turn against her and aid the heroes in stopping her. When Regina found that she was unable to control the Legion, she detonated the explosives in Lien-Da's body, injuring her greatly. The Dark Egg Legion then fell back to New Megaopolis with Lien-Da's remains in tow, leaving Regina to face the Freedom Fighters alone.

After Sonic destroyed her mech, Regina shouted out her hatred for him, and then crashed into the coliseum floor where she was cuffed in irons by Antoine and Geoffrey. A week later, she was sent back to the Dragon Kingdom and imprisoned at the bottom of a dry well in Stormtop Village where she would be unable to use her powers to escape.

Scrambled

Regina was later reunited with Snively after he abandoned Eggman and ventured across Mobius to save her, but their reunion was not as sweet as he had hoped. Regina was furious at Snively for running back to Eggman and abandoning her in New Mobotropolis. Snively tried to explain but Regina was having none of it and then went on to say that she wanted no part in whatever scheme he had cooked up to get back at Eggman and that she would rather continue to rot at the bottom of the well then go with him and end up having her heart broken by him again.

After Snively left, Eggman and his henchbots: Cubot and Orbot showed up, Eggman cracked off a joke about Regina looking "well" and then admitted that out of all his Sub-Bosses, she was only one he could ever tolerate taking his throne, seeing as how they were both Overlanders and they both had an interest in machines, though he frowned upon her use of technomancy. Eggman then proceeded to interrogate Regina about Snively, though she refused to answer any of his questions, he knew that he had been there.

However, the lack of Snively's presence perplexed Eggman and made him question whether Snively ever truly loved her. The answer to Eggman's questions came in the form of the Iron Oni, an ancient mech Snively acquired from Conquering Storm, which he used to free Regina from the well. After Snively proclaimed that he truly loved Regina and that he would never leave her again, they teamed up and tried to kill Eggman but were unsuccessful and easily defeated by Robotnik's own "Regina-proof" mech made of ceramics and other materials that she could not manipulate with technomancy.

Regina later found herself waking up on the floor of Grandmaster Hugo Brass's office in the Eurish Dark Egg Legion chapter base near Central City at the mercy of Doctor Eggman. Regina had initially assumed that he was going to kill her but instead he decided to "punish" her in a different manner. Regina was quickly reunited with Snively, while Eggman claimed that having to live with Snively would be a far greater punishment than death for Regina. Eggman also promoted her to Grandmaster of the Eurish Dark Egg Legion chapter so he could keep a closer eye on her from now on, before leaving he strictly demanded that she follow his orders to the letter from this point on and to also take a page out of Lien-Da's book and learn how to play "The Game" better.

After he left Regina danced around in celebration, proclaiming that she was going to renew her technomancy cult within the Federation and start plotting Eggman's downfall, completely unaware that the Snively standing by her side was actually an Auto Automaton and that her real boyfriend had been imprisoned inside a large metal capsule that was once used for capturing Mobians for the rest of his life.