Say more about Valax and the Ash Enpress 👁️👁️
ah okay holy shit this has been sitting in my askbox for a significantly long time, so hopefully... uh it is not too late..?
cw for like, incestrous implications
the ash empress is a woman villified and a woman victimised, yet make no mistake, for she claims to be none. she is vali at the time of her birth and death, but a tyrannical empress in her reign. she is called the mother of grey, a name given to her presumably early into her godhood. i'm not sure if it is just my memory since it has been a while since i played blades 3, but i don't recall any particular origin story for vali, or how she came to be (if it is in that valentine book with the villains, i will not know since i'm not vip - i'm just going by screenshots and lore tablet stuff posted to the wiki) apart from the fact that there are the six old gods that spawned out of nature.
i do think nifara has some involvement in bringing about the mother of grey to her fullest potential. after all nifara creates a womb for vali, the way she splits the light and shadow into realms and banishes vali to rule over the shadow. vali is a conduit of sorts, for nifara's magic to take on different shapes and forms. it is even said in a lore tablet that vali is nifara, but in a different form (though the notion is dismissed as heresy, i still consider it) in a way, nifara being the mediator, the high queen of sorts, the matriarch over all matriarchs, will have had a part to play. thus, creation is seen as a form of love between the mothers. to have a goddess of light split a realm in half to suppress a rebellion and its usurper; to create a new realm with new worlds and new laws and throw one in it, is still seen as an act of mercy and love. the gods are capable of mercy as they are also capable of death. nifara shows vali a certain mercy and thus, pledges a love through a creation.
in order to understand the dynamic between vali & valax, i looked into what started it all -
nifara and vali. they are a mother and daughter in a way - the pure, holy mother against her rebellious daughter borne out of her own skin, the mercy she shows her and the acceptance she does not give her. when nifara seeks to split the realms to ensure she does not decline, an action i see it as a mother coming to terms with her daughter's adolescence; a desire to be a mother whilst a cruel desire to live in a time where she is perpetually young. she casts vali away into a womb she had created for her, ensuring vali is constantly mothered by an entity to fear, while nifara herself enjoys a time when she could be forever youthful, not aged by motherhood as she dons on glittery pearls and keeps herself as young as possible.
vali is a part of nifara and yet an opposite. she is difficult to love, but nifara does anyway for now she has nothing to lose. by splitting the realms and ensuring her longevity, nifara has ensured her motherhood is one without pains. that she is revered for the blood she sheds, the tears she cries and not have to experience any of it in a living, breathing form in vali. nifara is what vali could have been had she chose to accept the splitting and vali is all nifara would have been, if she chose the motherhood.
this penchant for preservation is a motivating factor for the ash empress who dislikes all things light. it is akin to a scorned lover discarding their ex's materials in a cardboard box, refusing to accept it. it is also a daughter dressing in garbs so unlike her mother, afraid she will become her. yet, she does not escape it. much like nifara, vali is also afraid. she becomes the ash empress, disconnected and decides she must bear a child of her own. a well-bred daughter, a daughter created much like her, who will be no man's daughter and pledge fealty to her. whose body she will know so vali may never fall into the trap nifara did, to never repeat her mother's mistakes.
valax's creation story has always intrigued me because she is really created for one purpose alone - to be her mother's sword as she conquers the realm of light. she can transform into a dragon, she is a sexless virginal being, she does not hunger for food or pleasure. her mother knows her body so well, enough to put an end to all her desires so valax may never rebel. she is the perfect daughter to the ash empress's flawed past. there is a part in vali that thinks, maybe nifara would have forgiven her if she had behaved well. there is a part that usurps that, that thinks nifara is a fool. this nifara as a mother versus nifara as a lover is a theme, i feel is crucial to valax's creation. valax can neither feel "love" nor feel pain. so she will never have affections. she will only know loyalty.
her body is not "hers" but a tool for mother alone. (this could also reflect the way nifara may have taken advantage of vali, through seduction and forced submission and coaxing with affectionate words. vali's ownership of her body ended in a failed rebellion and a splitting of realms. if she were to take ownership of her daughter's body, its powers and magic, its functions and control, she will not run into a similar problem where valax may betray her). she is a sword and vali is the swordmaker who is the only person who can wield her. this sentiment leads to valax's body of course, being physically abused and her mother's forcing of her to exhibit powers beyond her knowledge a way to use her body as a vessel.
in a way, valax is created as a perfect lover HAD vali been in nifara's position. in a way valax is also a daughter bearing both vali and nifara's wounds, a fruit of the splitting of the realms, a fruit of the light/shadow divide in of itself. in a way the marriage between vali and nifara is a duel of motherhoods and the ideologies they birth. in a way it is also the fucked-up mother/daughter dynamics nifara shares with vali, and hence, vali shares with valax and later, what vali regrets.
i do tend to read valax's creation story as the end of a wretched cycle of abuse and the start of a new one. motherhood offers nifara a certain sanctity, while motherhood is a sacrifice of one's own child when it comes to vali; so much so she creates a daughter. to valax, it is something i choose to read as sexual abuse. valax is something much more than the ash empress and her identity is one to be controlled. her mother pushes her breasts into tight-fitting armour, poisons her blood to run purple, plunges her fingers in to her to remove her of her innocence, to become a wrought-iron sword. melt her from within and temper her again. tame that temper as her anger grows and then, cultivate her resentment for the lightwalkers.
though blades does not depict misogyny all that much, i still think it would have been a valuable addition to vali and valax's story. the daughter (vali) of a failed mother (nifara); the lover (vali) who resents her former flame (nifara) values masculinity now since motherhood had failed her every bit. her own mother, in her lavish garbs and womanly shape, the goddess that birthed the world she lived in, had failed her in every way and now she must force herself a son. a sexless son of sorts, she wishes and instead gets a daughter whose womb is more difficult to tame. having demonised the very concept of motherhood, its attachment to the Divine Feminine, vali sees valax more as a son to be castrated into a sword than a reflection of her with all of her mother's faults. vali enjoys a sexless daughter, a murderous princess whose maidenhood is her mother's to keep and her womb filled with what vali desired for her daughter.
in the end, it is not the daughter that kills her, it is the son. the son in valax with a disregard for his masculinity, decides to ally with those that end the ash empress's reign once and for all. the daughter is the valax that betrays; the hopeful daughter waiting and waiting with a bleeding stomach, prepared to do all for vali's love. it is not to say the son is the bringer of light, the daughter is the meek one. no. the son is born not of vali's womb, but as a consequence of vali's wishes. the son does not recall the mother's love, but the daughter carries it and the mother's wounds as well.
man i wish blades explored gender roles as much as they did with queer themes, but most of it was very surface-level and i understand in a book about mc and the party, valax's story is more palatable as a traumatised virgin murder princess whom mc teaches sex to.
tyyy for the ask!!!
