History
Zartra was a human woman who lived and died about 20,000 years ago.[1] She was born in the Lemurian Isles[2][3] and spent her girlhood in battle, surrounded by death.[4]
At some point, Zartra lost her left eye,[1] presumably in combat. At some point, Zartra acquired a gem that had been created by an ancient sorcery[5] which she secretly kept with her, within her empty eye socket, hidden behind her eyepatch.[4]
Zartra eventually became the warrior queen of the Lemurian Isles and ruled there until the Deviants who ruled the continent of Lemuria attacked and conquered those islands, forcing Zartra to flee from her homeland[3] and travel to Atlantis as a refugee.[2] Once there, Zartra met the young ruler, Emperor Kamuu, and the two of them fell in love. Once married, Zartra became Kamuu's queen, and the two of them lived together in the domed capital city of Atlantis.[1]
When the sorceress Zhered-Na began to prophesy that the continent of Atlantis would soon sink beneath the ocean, the emperor twice warned her to cease her "mad" preachings or face exile. Zhered-Na refused and so was brought to trial before Kamuu for the crime of blasphemy. Zartra advised her to recant so that her husband would spare his wrath but Zhered-Na insisted that her words were true so the enraged Kamuu banished her from Atlantis.[6]
Sometime later, three strangers (Son of Satan, Katherine Reynolds and Byron Hyatt) who had appeared from out of nowhere on the deck of an Atlantean fishing boat were brought before Emperor Kamuu and his court. When one of them revealed that they were seekers from a faraway land who had come to ask the counsel of the seeress Zhered-Na, Kamuu informed him that Zhered-Na was a traitor whom he had banished for her blasphemous prediction. Zartra stated her opinion that the strangers were as mad as Zhered-Na and suggested that they should be immediately banished since the Atlanteans could not afford such people among them during their war with Lemuria. Kamuu agreed and ordered them to be set adrift in a boat without provisions but, when he attempted to retain possession of the trident that had been taken from one of the prisoners, Hellstrom reclaimed his trident and used it to create a wall of flames that enabled he and his companions to escape from the Atlantean guards and the domed city of Atlantis.[7]
Only hours later, the capital city was attacked by Deviant airships manned by human mercenaries from the Lemurian Isles while the Muvian navy waited outside the city's harbor. As Kamuu spoke of how the attackers gave them no rest, Zartra assured him that her sword and her heart would ever be as one with his. Just then, a Lemurian airship carrying a small group of mercenaries entered the tower, shattering a window as it did. Most of the mercenaries engaged Kamuu and Zartra in battle and were quickly slain but then the philosopher Ocar drew their attention to a weirdling machine that another team of invaders had set up that was meant to shatter the city's great dome. Realizing that the destruction of the dome would ensure that the realm fell, Kamuu decided to use the Serpents' Heads against them. Zartra reminded him of the danger but Kamuu insisted that they had no other choice and activated the mechanisms that redirected magma from beneath the city upwards and out through the jaws of the Serpents' Heads and onto all of the invaders on and around the dome. With all of the enemy forces swept away on a tide of hellfire, the city appeared to have been saved but then the scientist Zapal revealed that the magma had destroyed the city's sea wall and the ocean had already begun to flood their shores.[1][3] Additionally, the release of the magma had triggered a seismic upheaval within the continent of Atlantis. Earthquakes of ever-increasing strength began to shake the capital city and eruptions within the city added to the magma that flowed through the streets. When told that the city had perhaps an hour left before it was destroyed, Kamuu dismissed his council and sent them home to be with their loved ones before the end. Left alone within their tower, Kamuu and Zartra prepared to spend their final moments together, with Zartra telling her husband, "Life and death are inseparable. Even as to me...love and Kamuu are one and the same." The pair then kissed and were about to love each other but Zartra was suddenly stabbed in the back by a knife thrown by one of the mercenaries, Nolem of Lemuria, who had hidden away and waited for a chance to strike. Once Kamuu had dispatched the assassin, the dying Zartra asked him to bring his sword to her so that she could give him a final gift. Zartra then plucked the glistening jewel from behind her eyepatch and placed it on the hilt of the sword, saying, "The Eye of Zartra...evermore one with Kamuu..." Zartra then died and Kamuu gently laid her body to rest on a plush velvet cushion, with her sword at her side and roses adorning her lifeless form. Accepting his imminent death, Kamuu placed his sword in its sheath on the side of his throne, chained himself to the throne and waited for the end. That end soon came when a mammoth pyre of boiling magma surged up through the heart of the city, shattering the dome and the palace tower, and causing the island continent to sink into the sea.[4]
About 12,000 years after the Great Cataclysm that sank Atlantis, two nomadic tribes of water-breathing Homo mermani went to war over who would possess the sunken ruins of the capital city of Atlantis. After the army from the Eastern Sea won the initial battle and claimed the city, Kamuu, the boy who was the son and heir of the fallen king of the Western Sea tribe, was sent alone to scout the ruins by his ambitious uncle Orrek who secretly hoped that the boy would die there.[8] During his mission, this Kamuu encountered the living skeleton of Shabarr who chased him into the flooded throne room where he found a sword sheathed on the side of the throne.[9] Kamuu succeeded in drawing the Sword of Kamuu from its sheath, causing many-colored stars to fly from the enchanted blade's tip. As Shabarr mistook the young merman for his old monarch and ceased his attack, the stars made Kamuu feel dizzy and he collapsed into unconsciousness, only to awaken to find that everything that had been around him had vanished. The spirit of Zartra, appearing in a giant form, informed the "young one" that everything of Earth had vanished and that he was now in another place. Her companion, the similarly-large phantom of Kamuu, then directed the living Kamuu's attention to the Sphere of the Ages and proceeded to tell the "son of (his) spirit" about the realm he had once ruled and which Kamuu would inherit. The spirit Kamuu then told the living Kamuu that he was to found a city called Atlantis on the ruins of the old Atlantis and revealed that this new Atlantis would have a brave and noble destiny and would rule all the waters of Earth. As the vision concluded, Zartra told the young Kamuu that the task of rebuilding an empire was in his hands and those of his queen. Once this spiritual encounter ended, Kamuu awoke back in the throne room and prepared to fulfill his destiny. He soon met Zartra, the daughter of Queen Elanna who now ruled Eastern Sea tribe. Zartra revealed that her mother was a seeress who knew of Kamuu's destiny and had sent her there to make peace with him. Kamuu was surprised to find that the thought of a truce with the slayer of his father was not so unthinkable as he might have supposed.[10]Attributes
Abilities
- Zartra was a skilled warrior and swords-woman.
Paraphernalia
Equipment
- Zartra possessed the enchanted gemstone known as the Eye of Zartra.
Notes
- In the Tales of Atlantis stories that appeared in Sub-Mariner #62-63, all of the people, both Atlantean and Lemurian, including Zartra, were incorrectly depicted as being blue-skinned like the water-breathing Atlanteans. An editorial reply in the letters page of Sub-Mariner #66 revealed that this was a colorist's error that had not been caught in time to be fixed. Oddly, the Book of the Vishanti back-up story in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #33 that recapped the fall of Atlantis again depicted Kamuu, Zartra and even Zhered-Na as having blue skin.
- As the ruler of the Empire of Atlantis, Kamuu was an emperor and Zartra was his empress, and in several stories they are referenced as such in dialogue or in Omniscient Narratives. However, for some reason the Official Handbook prefers to refer to them as "King Kamuu" and "Queen Zartra." Why they chose to use the lesser-ranked titles has not been revealed.
- Zartra's back-story has changed somewhat over the retellings:
- In those Tales of Atlantis, Zartra had been born in Lemuria where her girlhood experiences had led to her becoming a skilled fighter. No mention was made of why she had travelled from Lemuria to Atlantis. Also, the Lemurians were as human as the people of Atlantis and there was no mention of Zartra having been a queen before her marriage to Kamuu.
- Once Jack Kirby's Eternals series was integrated into the continuity of the Marvel Universe, various entries and appendices of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe rewrote Zartra's history so that she had been born in the human-controlled Lemurian Isles instead of on the continent of Lemuria that had long been controlled by the Deviant Empire. It was the recent Deviant conquest of those isles that had caused Zartra to travel to Atlantis as a refugee.
- Chapter 4 of the Saga of the Serpent Crown featured Uatu the Watcher recounting what happened when the Second Host of the alien Celestials came to Earth. This account depicted certain events that had previously only been described in Official Handbook entries. It also added some new information, including the fact that Zartra had been the Warrior Queen of the Lemurian Isles before she had been forced to flee her homeland when it fell to the Deviants. However, this retelling also showed Zartra and Kamuu as having hair that was black instead of brown and Nolem was shown standing right behind Zartra when he stabbed her instead of having thrown a knife into her back from a distance.
See Also
- 6 appearance(s) of Zartra (Ancient Atlantis) (Earth-616)
- 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Zartra (Ancient Atlantis) (Earth-616)
- 1 minor appearance(s) of Zartra (Ancient Atlantis) (Earth-616)
- 3 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Zartra (Ancient Atlantis) (Earth-616)
- 1 image(s) of Zartra (Ancient Atlantis) (Earth-616)
- 1 item(s) used/owned by Zartra (Ancient Atlantis) (Earth-616)