Change of Rule
Legend says Anastasia used to be a person, a human, the daughter to a minor count whose name has been lost to history. Some of the count's subjects grew tired of his rule, and his court began to conspire against him. Only his royal seer, a witch of deceptive power. The witch tried to divine ways to prevent harm from coming to the count and his family, but the conspiracy grew too powerful too quickly.The witch had a great snake, a magical familiar through which she channeled her power, and from which she drew her life, and her secrets. Through the snake, she saw the conspirators were planning to use venom, one which would paralyze the count's body, and the bodies of his family, so they would asphyxiate in their sleep. By the time she saw this, the act was already being done. The count and his wife were dead when she arrived, the culprits having fled long before. Anastasia, though, she still breathed, albeit slowly. The witch did the only thing she could think to do, and used all of her power to merge the girl with her snake.
When Anastasia awoke, she was an orphan, and a monster. Neither human nor serpent, but somewhere in between, huge and terrible, with the witch's power still coursing through her veins. She had fallen asleep a young woman, and woken up an ageless beast.
Countess Anastasia
Still claiming her rightful rule, the witch's last few memories available to her mind, she dispatched the disloyal courtiers (stories disagree on whether she ate them or merely banished them from her domain) and scoured her lands for an entirely new staff. She chose those who were smart, who could do their jobs, and who harbored no petty ambitions. "Those who rule," she declared, "should serve the ruled first and foremost."As she roamed the land, she saw how poor the peasants were, in comparison to the nobles, and aristocrats. This was an enlightened age, and the disparity worried her. She opened her home, her manor, to everyone, bringing in droves of new servants and setting up teachers and trainers. As they served in the manor, they were taught useful skills, how to cook, and clean, and weave and sew and fight. How to read and right, how to debate. They were taught how to lead, and how to follow. They were taught useful things, things that would help them when she released them from her service. And she always released them.
As the county consisted of many people, and many species, Anastasia saw a problem: some predators could only be content by killing the prey. She studied the problem from all angles until she found a solution. She expanded her latent magical abilities and cast a blanket reformation spell on her entire domain. No longer would one of her citizens die due to the hunger of another. This also allowed her to "release" her servants in a rather unique way: by eating them whole and alive. Each one of her servants was treated to an in-depth tour of her innards as their final lesson, their final service being to be her calories, before they became citizens of the county.
Her County
Anastasia's unique meritocratic rule, her care for the common people, and her dedicated training regime, made her subject quite loyal to their snake ruler. Other counts looked longingly at her domain, but with her magic, and with her population willing to fight to the death to keep her on the throne, she has managed to stay independent of other rulers.She has reigned ever since, through countless generations, until she has become as common as the stone. She is the Countess, the only one that ever was in the minds of many, as natural as the sunrise.