Your army may be led by Neferata, the Queen of Mysteries. If you include her in your army, she will be its General. Neferata can be taken as a Lord choice, but she will use up two of your Hero choices as well. Taking Neferata counts as taking a Lord and two Heroes. She must be fielded exactly as presented here and no extra equipment or magic items can be bought for her.

Legends tell of an ancient Vampire Queen who resides high in the Worlds Edge Mountains. Most believe it to be merely an old wives' tale, but a few scholars know better. The Vampire Queen of Mysteries does indeed exist, and those who know call her Neferata, which means 'she who is beautiful in death' in the ancient tongue of Nehekhara, the land of the Dead.

It is claimed that she is the same decadent Vampire Queen who fled the sack of Lahmia. If this is true, she is very ancient indeed, for the great River Mortis has flowed for three thousand years since those events. Legends say that she created a Vampiric Lahmian Sisterhood to serve her and that all the Vampiresses of this cult have been corrupted by her own blood.

Physically, Neferata is said to be divinely beautiful. Her plaited black tresses flow around her lovely face and she is as enchanting now as she was in her youth, though her skin is as white as alabaster, and the long years of evil have washed all trace of pity and compassion from her face. She has the appearance of a young maiden and only in her yellow eyes can one read her ageless and corrupt wisdom and cruelty, for her memories reach back to ancient times when Zandri and Numas were still sprawling metropolises and the people of the Great River still built pyramids.

The haven of Neferata is situated on the highest peak of the Worlds Edge Mountains, and is called the Silver Pinnacle. From here she controls her Undead servants and ventures out to hunt for blood. Her mountain lair is honeycombed with passageways, tunnels and chambers, creating a titanic maze. Traps for the unwary and a host of Undead creatures make it one of the most dangerous places in the known world.

At the heart of the maze of the Silver Pinnacle are situated the quarters of Neferata. Her opulent chambers are an echo of the splendour of her royal palace in Lahmia. Forgotten treasures of old, golden masks and rare gemstones glitter in the dark, illuminated only by the dim light of the silver-coated skulls that serve as her lamps. Here Neferata lies on a divan, drinking the blood of handsome youths from golden cups and listening as her Undead courtiers play harps, pipes and lutes to amuse her. Vampires of the Lahmian Sisterhood are her eyes and ears in the outside world and using the information from their reports she plots and weaves a web of intrigue. For the Queen dreams of enslaving all the Vampires of the known world and returning to ancient Lahmia at the head of an Undead army, reclaiming her throne and rebuilding the great Temple of Blood.

Neferata delights in seducing mortal men of pure heart and causing their fall from grace. She is especially fond of Bretonnian knights, for she finds their code of chivalry easy to exploit. Some of her victims Neferata keeps as her lovers, while others she simply drains of their blood. The most favoured of them she transforms into Undead servants, though few amuse her for long enough that she will consider granting them the Blood Kiss. Sometimes Witch Hunters or Bretonnian knights muster troops to cleanse the Silver Pinnacle. When their armies come, she is roused from her hedonistic idleness and issues terrible commands to her Undead lackeys. At such times Neferata can muster an army of thousands of Zombies, Wights and other dark, evil things. None who have attacked the Silver Pinnacle have returned - except as the unliving servants of Neferata. Neferata finds few equals in combat, for she is the Queen of Mysteries of old and is terrible in her wrath. She holds much of the magical knowledge that was lost during the destruction of Lahmia, ancient rituals and mysteries that only she will ever know.

Weapons: Dagger of Jetl.

Armour: None.

Spells: She is a level 3 wizard and can use Necromantic spells or the Lore of Death.

Bloodline Powers. Neferata has all the powers of the Lahmia family.

Heavenly creature. Enemy models in base contact with Neferata suffer a -2 to their Leadership score instead of the normal -1 of the other Lahmia Vampires.

Blood Kiss. If Neferata kills a character in hand-to-hand combat, she can grant the Blood Kiss to this single lucky individual. This turns the slain character into a Vampire Thrall (use the standard Vampire Thrall statistics) who is now under the control of the Undead player. He retains any magic items and any steed he is riding turns into a Nightmare. The character immediately joins Neferata or the unit she is leading. If the character was riding a monster, the two are separated. The monster will behave exactly as if its rider had been killed.

Neferata may grant the Blood Kiss only once per battle.

Shadowblood. Neferata is a level three wizard and has three spells, but she also always has the Shadowblood spell. This spell is in addition to her normal spells. Note that this spell is unique to Neferata and only she may use it.

The Vampire Queen opens wounds on her palms and while uttering an ancient incantation, her blood bursts from the wounds. It is a more potent poison than that of any serpent and bursts into flames upon contact with anything. If the spell is cast successfully, Neferata must declare how many wounds she is using to boost the effects of the spell. The spell is a magic missile that causes D6 Strength 5 hits plus an extra D6 for each wound Neferata expends. In addition, a unit suffering one or more wounds from this spell must immediately take a Panic test. The blood causes double wounds against any flammable target.

Dagger of Jetl. This dagger took countless lives on the altars of Lahmia when Neferata was the high priestess of death. It was used to cut the throats of those who were condemned to feed the Vampire aristocracy of that cursed city. Attacks made with the Dagger are at +1 Strength and count as Poisoned Attacks.

Ruby of Lahmia. The mark of her dominion over the City of Vampires, Neferata's diadem is a golden snake which rests over her cruel and beautiful face, and carries a huge ruby in its jaw. This unique jewel pulses with the power of eternal life and feeds Neferata with almost unlimited energy. At the end of each turn of the game the Ruby of Lahmia automatically regenerates a Wound that Neferata has suffered in that turn (own or enemy). The Jewel stops working if Neferata is killed.

Bastet. Bastet is Neferata's familiar, a slender black Khemrian cat who was entombed with her beloved Queen. Now she is just a feline shadow that follows Neferata and protects her from danger. In the Old World it is said that black cats presage bad luck, and maybe in this case it could be true… At the beginning of each of her turns Neferata can send Bastet to any enemy unit on the battlefield, regardless of distance. Place the model of Bastet next to the affected unit. Bastet looks just like an ordinary black cat and therefore will be ignored by the enemy (the model can be moved through, it doesn't stop the enemy from marching, etc.). The target unit will be afflicted by miserable bad luck and everything that can go wrong will. To represent this, the unit must re-roll any successful armour save it takes while under Bastet's influence.