"No wonder Crow Queen Triss is smitten."
"She must remain chaste for the goddess... Platonic love is so boring..."
"Better to make her my lover... heh..."
Words of a married woman seasoned with desire.
This flamboyant witch was bolder still, seeing Duncan in a deep sleep, she first touched his face, then his chest, and finally glanced downwards before sneaking out like a thief.
The Romans of the era were quite open-minded, upholding the old empire’s traditions.
The early empire saw quite a few indulgent tyrants, the most representative being Nero and Caligula of Rome’s lurid history; this emperor was ultimately assassinated by the Imperial Guard, setting a precedent for emperor assassination by them. (Note: Caligula was Nero’s uncle, both tyrants of the same lineage.)
Spartacus also fit well with the historical backdrop of that time.
Anya comes from a very old but declining noble family; her ancestors were said to have close ties to Little Agrippina—the tyrant Nero’s mother, rumored to have secretly poisoned two husbands, one being the emperor himself.
In some tales, Anya’s ancestor was the priest who assisted with the poisoning, thus earning a noble status.
Anya’s family line is very complex; during late imperial civil wars, they even married into Barbarian leaders for survival. They resurfaced in the Roman court during the Heretic Julian’s era and fell into decline again after Julian’s assassination, until she married her later husband.
Sadly, her husband soon died in the Barbarian invasions, but Anya, being quite shrewd, legally inherited her husband’s family estate despite having no offspring.
Thus, she became a wealthy widow within the noble class.
The Roman church had already begun purging heretical witches, forcing her to covertly sponsor Triss’s witches’ assembly to seek protection and possibly escape church territories in the future.
Without these connections, with Anya’s modest capabilities, it would be nearly impossible to become one of the founders of the witches’ assembly.
Strictly speaking, she was like the first angel investor.
This Roman noblewoman’s background was quite complex; she even once had a trading fleet between Europe, Karthage and Alexandria in Egypt, and North Africa—were it not for recent North African unrest, which caused the Western Roman Empire to nearly lose all its grain territories in Africa, her wealth would have been even greater.
The dying camel is larger than a horse, and seeing her recruit retired Forbidden Guard knights and place a bag of gold on him, it is clear she’s very wealthy.
Wealthy, but without the means to protect herself.
Witch Anya was evidently interested in Duncan, or rather, she urgently needed someone powerful to ensure her escape from the church’s purge.
Clearly, the empire’s downfall was visible to anyone with foresight.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, all noble family women became playthings for Barbarian leaders, with some high-born noblewomen being reduced to lowly slaves. Anya, with her hidden witch identity, had to find ways to protect herself or her fate would be even more tragic.
If she hadn’t been forced into a corner, how could a noblewoman who had long lived in comfort, dare to act with Triss?
She was unwilling to abandon her lavish lifestyle, yet feared being burned at the stake.
After leaving Duncan’s room, Anya took a look at the unconscious Severus, and whispered to the Druid, "Don’t die."
There was some connection between the two.
Severus’s ancestor was a general under Heretic Julian, who once helped quell rebellion for the emperor, achieving great success in wars against the Alamanni. Later, when Emperor Julian died suddenly, Severus’s family quickly declined, until his generation was almost indistinguishable from Barbarians.
All these people, including Crow Queen Triss, were essentially ’remnants of the past dynasty’, and Triss’s sect was a strong supporter of Heretic Julian.
Crow Queen Triss was already over a hundred years old.
Unlike other witches, she was born with incredible powers, and when the Trivya sect found her young, they immediately selected her as the sect’s High Priest, then secretly further to become the High Priest of Polytheism, a title previously exclusive to the Roman Emperor.
After the complete defeat of Polytheism, Crow Queen Triss was forced to go into exile, constantly in hiding, changing her identity, and after the comprehensive eradication of her sect, she clandestinely united with other priestesses to form the initial witches’ assembly.
Though Anya was not a priestess, her family and even the little Agrippina of early Rome—Nero’s mother—secretly worshiped Venus, also the Greek God of Love and Beauty, Aphrodite.
This amalgamated divine spirit oversaw love, beauty, desire, and fertility.
Anya secretly worshiped an idol of the goddess of sex and desire.
Many of the historically noted beautiful women renowned for their seductive allure were secretly linked to this sect. Aphrodite’s secret sect imparted a peculiar sexual tension, and women serving the sect aged slowly, another similar sect was said to reside in Egypt, connected to the tales of Cleopatra.
All of this was swept into the dustbin of history after the complete failure of Polytheism.