Regina Ferrum

Regina Ferrum, also known as the Iron Queen and formerly known as the Bride of the Four Houses, is an Overlander who worked alongside the Iron King in the Dragon Kingdom to establish the Iron Dominion. Having been trained by a cult of magitek users at a young age, she is capable of using magic spells against her enemies. After being chased away from the Stormtop Village by Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower and Monkey Khan in 3236, the Iron Queen remained unheard of for some time. Nearly two years later she came into contact with Snively and the two began a romantic relationship together with plans to overthrow Dr. Eggman and take control of the Eggman Empire. They succeeded in this after Eggman's decline into insanity, and the Eggman Empire was officially usurped into the Iron Dominion. Her relationship with Snively continued to be a secret from the Iron King, as the two planned to eventually overthrow him too and rule Mobius together. She was finally defeated and arrested after attempting a final stand against the Freedom Fighters in their battle to reclaim New Mobotropolis from her control.

Early Life
Regina was born into a cult of technomages in the city of Mega Central many years prior to the Great War. As a child, she was taught by cult leaders how to control electronic impulses. As her skills improved, a young Regina was able to control robots from afar and move them to her will. (StH: #202)

Years later when Regina was a young adult, Magitek was made illegal in Mega Central. She along with all other members of the Technomage cult were subsequently arrested. However, because of her young age, the High Chancellor showed mercy on her and allowed her to live, though exiled her from the city. With no knowledge of any other technomage cults in the Overlander cities and with the Great War having recently begun, Regina wandered aimlessly across the planet. At one point she was chased by Jules and Sir Charles Hedgehog from the Badlands. Realizing she was the last member of her cult, she decided that Magitek would survive through her and eventually consume and dominate the world. Eventually finding her way to the Dragon Kingdom, she pledged her allegiance to a local warlord, Jun Kun, realizing through him she could rise to power. Following this, the two worked together as warlords in the region. (StH: #202)



As the partner of Jun Kun, she used her technomagic to awaken dormant machines and aid him in his conquest of the Dragon Kingdom. Unfortunately, their efforts were usually crushed by the warring Clans or the free people they wanted to control, thus, they were unable to get a foothold in the region. This changed when Dr. Ivo Robotnik came to the region, hoping to spread his tyranny beyond Mobotropolis. Regina convinced him to use herself and the Jun Kun as his Sub-Bosses in the region, and thus she and Jun Kun became the Iron Queen and Iron King respectively. Robotnik supplied them with weapons and technology, which enabled the two to gain control over the free peoples of the Dragon Kingdom. However, the four clans decided to fight them harder having learned they received aid by Dr. Robotnik. This prevented them from achieving dominance in the region. (StH: #207)

Sub-Boss in the Dragon Kingdom
Despite their inability to conquer the warring clans, the Iron Queen and Iron King managed to oppress many of the free peoples of the Dragon Kingdom. When the citizens of Stormtop Village refused to accept the them as their leaders, the Iron Queen used her magic to set Mount Stormtop ablaze, refusing to lift the spell until the villagers agreed to bow to their leadership. For over one hundred days Mt. Stormtop remained on fire, causing the villagers to have to ration their water. When the Iron Queen discovered the presence of Sonic and Tails, she used her technomagic to possess Monkey Khan and controlled him to attack the two heroes. Although she nearly succeeded in having Khan kill Sonic, her control over him ended when Tails damaged her magic staff. She then fled the scene, returning to the Iron Fortress. Sonic, Tails and Monkey Khan pursued her, and after making their way into the Iron Fortress, Sonic managed to obtain the Fan of Fen Xing, which he used to defeat the Iron King. Sonic later used the fan to put out the flames of Mt. Stormtop, at which point Regina swore revenge and flew off. (StH: #60)
 * It is unknown how the Iron Queen's technomagic could have been used to set Mt. Stormtop ablaze. When asked about this, writer Ian Flynn merely stated "That hasn't been revealed yet." (2)

When the Eggman Empire was formed, Regina and Jun Kun continued their roles as reginal Sub-Bosses though now under the rule of Dr. Eggman. They continued their fight against the four clans, along with Monkey Khan and the local Freedom Fighter cell. At some point in time, Regina used her magitek powers to take control of Monkey Khan once again, and used him to dispose of the Dragon Kingdom Freedom Fighters, apparently leaving none of its members left alive. (StH: #201, #204)


 * It is unknown to what extent the Freedom Fighters in the Dragon Kingdom were destroyed. In StH #194, Regina told Snively over the Eggnet that her forces were having trouble dealing with local uprisings. It is likely Regina was simply referring to the four clans, which continued to pose troubles for her and Jun Kun until just prior to their departure for New Megaopolis, though some Freedom Fighter elements may have survived.

Schemes with Snively and Defeat of the Clans
In 3237, Regina responded to Snively, who was doing a routine checkup on all of the Sub-Bosses around Mobius. Revealing the problems of local resistance to him, the two found a common bond. After chatting over the Eggnet for some time, the two became romantically attracted to one another and began planning to meet up and overthrow Dr. Eggman together. (StH: #194, #197)

Hoping to turn the tides in their favor and finally secure domination in the Dragon Kingdom, Regina went before the Bride of Rich Nights and attempted to bribe her with riches. After Rich Nights refused to accept any bribe, Regina had Jun Kun murder her, though she took the credit for this in order to ensure she became the new bride of the Yagyu Clan. With the Yagyu under her control, she used its ninjas to randomly aid the various clans from time to time during the Clan Wars while spreading rumors that the clans were joining the Iron Dominion. This troubled the other clan brides, and they soon swore allegiance to the Iron Dominion. With the opposition removed, Regina sought to expand the control of the Iron Dominion when she learned of the declining state of Dr. Eggman from Snively. (StH: #207)

Instead of consolidating their power in the Dragon Kingdom, which Jun Kun desired, Regina set off with him, the Bride of Conquering Storm and the Yagyu Clan to usurp the Eggman Empire, having received word from Snively that Eggman was on the verge of collapse. After Eggman lost his sanity completely following his defeat by Sonic, Regina and her forces made their move. Once the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix left the area, Regina and her Yagyu Clan forces, who had arrived via dirigible, were greeted by Snively and the Dark Egg Legion, and set up their base of operations at the Eggdome. (StH: #198, #199, #200, #207)

Queen of the Eggman Empire
Regina's plans were revealed as she learned that New Megaopolis was in ruins and only the Eggdome was operational, calming the Iron King down as he questioned the reason why they took over the Eggman Empire. Dimitri later appealed his case of requiring the removal of the explosives in the cybernetics. As Regina claimed to be unable to remove them, she had Snively give him a briefcase that she said contained microchips that would neutralize the explosives, and though he accepted them Dimitri appeared suspicious of her claims. In a somewhat romantic moment with Snively, she revealed that she planned to crush the Freedom Fighters in New Mobotropolis, dispose of the Iron King and rule the world with Snively. (StH: #201)

The night of the failed attempt by Sonic and Monkey Khan to defeat the forces of the Iron Dominion in the ruins of New Megaopolis, Regina revealed some of her past to Snively while in her bedroom chambers. (StH: #202)



The next day, Regina and Snively went to New Mobotropolis to demonstrate how powerful she was. Managing to enter the city before it's shield could be raised by NICOLE (thanks to Regina's powers tampering with the nanites), she then used her Magitek abilities to take control of Bunnie D'Coolette. Forcing her to fight her own teammates, Regina was surprised when Monkey Khan arrived on the scene after saving the drained Bunnie's life. While she distracted Khan, Snively snuck up from behind and removed his Power Ring crown, this exposing him to Regina's powers. She then used her Magitek to assume control of Monkey Khan for the second time, ordering him to "Burn the city to the ground." She then made him attack the members of the Freedom Fighters and the Chaotix. Sonic returned and, while fighting Khan, Regina told him that her "control is absolute" and that he destroyed the Dragon Kingdom Freedom Fighters while Snively broke his Power Ring crown so Sonic couldn't use it to help Khan. Sonic did, however, manage to get another Power Ring and Khan was restored to normal. Still, Regina was pleased that they knew "not to challenge her" and that "their faith in monkey fuzz was shattered". (StH: #203, #204)



The following day, upon learning of Dr. Eggman's escape from his padded cell, Regina angrily told Snively that she would not allow her plans to be foiled by his uncle. After dispatching Conquering Storm to ensure the loyalty of the other clans in the Dragon Kingdom, Regina set out with the Iron King, Dark Egg Legion and Yagyu Ninja to recapture Dr. Eggman before he fell into the hands of the Freedom Fighters. Sonic engaged the Iron Dominion while Tails dragged Dr. Eggman back to New Mobotropolis. Frustrated that she was losing, Regina ordered the Iron King to finish the fight. After the Iron King knocked Sonic down, Regina hoped that the hedgehog would prove a valuable bargaining chip in exchange for Dr. Eggman. The Freedom Fighters, however, arrived to reinforce Sonic. They managed to damage the Iron King's armor and Regina's and Snivley's Egg Mobiles before retreating to New Mobotropoils. The Iron Dominion gave chase but NICOLE activated the shield, keeping them out. Monkey Khan and Bunnie taunted that the Iron Dominion's victory blew up in their face. Regina swore revenge before taking her forces back to New Megaopolis. Later Snively visited Regina's bed chambers to comfort her. Her response was that if he ever wanted to enter her chambers again, he must find a way past the shield over New Mobotropolis and slammed the door on him. That evening she promoted Lien-Da to the position of Grandmaster after she claimed Dimitri had fled. (StH: #205, #206)



The following day, after hearing of Jun's failure to breech Robotropolis' shield, scorned him and Snively before retiring to her chambers once again. She later allowed Snively into her chambers briefly when he proposed a means to get past New Mobotropolis' shields. Delighted at the knowledge that she could possess NICOLE and the city's nanites with her technomagic, she assembled the Dark Egg Legion and Yagyu Clan to prepare for an attack on the city. When they arrived outside the city, NICOLE told them to leave, at which point Regina used her technomagic to possess her. With NICOLE under her control, Regina had her new pawn drop the city's shields and allow her armies to invade. But Sonic, Sally, Tails and Monkey Khan managed to escape despite her taking the city, and then went to Freedom HQ. There Sonic and Sally used the Particle-To-Light Organizer & Transporter Device to enter the digital world in the hopes of getting NICOLE back on their side. But the Iron Queen was aware of them in her system, and despite Snively's distracted enquiries, fought Sonic in a gigantic digital form of herself using her staff. Eventually, Iron NICOLE informed her queen that the two of them had been purged from the system. In reality, NICOLE had been brought back to the side of good and Sonic and Sally had merely been transported back to the real world. Later, she and the Iron King were in New Mobotropolis' coliseum, overseeing a public viewing of the Legionization process, whereas it was simply a trap set by the Iron Queen herself to lure the remaining Freedom Fighters out into the open. However, her plan failed due to the timely arrival of Sonic, Sally, Tails, and Monkey Khan. (StH: #207, #208, #209, #210)

Downfall and Defeat
As the heroes assembled against the queen, she attempted to order NICOLE to take them down, only for her to imprison the Iron Queen in a orb and reveal her true colors, much to the Queen's shock. However, she broke out using her Magitek, and used the nanites around her to form a mech to battle NICOLE with. Soon, after the Yagyu left the city (having been told by Khan that they were free of the Dominion), she was even more shocked when Lien-Da rallied the Legion against her, and after a failed attempt to control them, malevolently detonated the bomb in Lien-Da's cybernetics, critically injuring her. After the Dark Egg Legion retreated to the Eggdome, the queen was left alone to fight against the Freedom Fighters, who demanded her surrender. Instead, she used more nanites to encase herself within a robo-dragon mech, hoping to finish them off. However, after a short battle with Tails, Khan, and Amy, she attempted to escape. Before she could get away, Sonic destroyed her mech and she almost fell to her death though Khan caught her with his nimbus cloud. She was then then dumped unceremoniously on the ground and immediately arrested by Antoine and Geoffrey St. John. Almost a week later she had apparently been relocated to the Dragon Kingdom, as Snively expressed a desire to rescue her only to be denied by Dr. Eggman, who felt that the Iron Queen's failure made her an unworthy waste of resources. (StH: #211, #212)

Abilities
Since her early childhood, the Iron Queen has had the power to control robotic machines after being taught Magitek, which appears to also work on beings who are partially robots such as the cyborg Monkey Khan and the half-robot Bunnie. Apart from her magical abilities, she is also a skilled tactician. (StH: #60, #201, #202)

Personality
Regina is as cruel, manipulative and evil as any other villain on Mobius, but has shown a streak of humanity in her relationship with Snively. Indeed, the very fact she's capable of love makes her far more human than her former leader, Dr. Eggman, and his various incarnations. This being said, her more human side seems reserved for Snively alone. Still, she is far less cold and emotionless than villains like Mammoth Mogul or Dr. Finitevus; she has shown both easy joy and rage and doesn't make much effort to hide her feelings.

The Iron Queen is rather sadistic, taking great pleasure in tormenting her foes even to the point of abandoning a battle once she deems a sufficient amount of torture has been dealt. This is a trait she shares with the Iron King; however, in both cases shown so far these attempts at 'demoralization' have actually failed miserably despite the villains' confidence that they had succeeded. She enjoys the idea of ruining an enemy emotionally as well as physically.

This underestimation of her opponents extends even to Dimitri, whom she's confident to have tricked into some situation detrimental to him and his Dark Egg Legion when, in fact, he seems quite aware of the almost obvious betrayal. All this together shows that the Iron Queen and Iron King are quite arrogant and shortsighted. While preferring to give off the smug, mocking air of someone in control, Regina hates to lose; the moment things are no longer in her favour, she screams, rages and berates everyone around her, including the Iron King and even her supposed lover, Snively.

Romance
Regina is married to the Iron King. While she has been seen to flirt and call him her "love", their marriage was strictly out of benefit. The Iron Queen would plan with her actual lover, Snively to dispose of him years later. (StH: #60, #201)

Regina found actual love with Snively, Eggman's lieutenant and adopted nephew, while he was performing a routine surveillance check of all Eggman's Sub-Bosses. The two spoke back and forth for days over the Egg Network and became emotionally close, the two scheming together to take over the Eggman Empire. Since she usurped the Eggman Empire, Regina has been forced to conceal her relationship with Snively from everyone else, though when the two are alone together they are openly affectionate. (StH: #194, #197, #201, #202)

Regina became rather cold towards Snively when she learned of Eggman's escape and became outraged. The relationship between two appeared to become strained however when Dr. Eggman was taken into custody of the Republic of Acorn, Sonic and the Knothole Freedom Fighters foiling the Iron Dominion's efforts to recapture him as well as take Sonic as a hostage. Following this defeat, Snively was seen visiting Regina's chambers only for her to coldly tell him that if he wished to enter her chambers again he would find a way to disable the shields over New Mobotropolis, then slamming the door in his face. They eventually reconciled after Snively found a solution to conquer New Mobotropolis. When Eggman recovered, however, he told Snively that Regina is a manipulator, and is possibly only using him to achieve her goals. This was never found out, as Snively later deserted her, with some shreds of devotion to her. (StH: #205, #206, #208, #210, #211, #212)

Background Information

 * Due to her design, some fans thought she was an Overlander. It was stated in the letters page of Sonic the Hedgehog #71 that the Iron Queen was a Mobian badger. However, Writer Ian Flynn stated that he considered her an Overlander given her character design, adding that the Iron King and Iron Queen's "titles are purely honorary and not romantic. They're together out of benefit, not out of romance" and that "having a human female wed to a animal character might raise some eyebrows." (1)
 * Writer Karl Bollers listed a number of possible plot points that were meant to be post-issue #134, many of them never seeing the light of day. Among them was one where Knuckles the Echidna headed to Kar Leung for some training under Monkey Khan, during which he would be brainwashed by the Iron Queen, while Khan himself would be brainwashed by Dr. Eggman, resulting in a 4-way battle for power between Eggman, the Iron Queen, Mammoth Mogul, and Rouge the Bat.
 * It was revealed as a spoiler in FCDS #3 that "RF" is the Iron Queen. This ended the long-time fan speculation that the two were the same character.
 * Some fans speculated that the "F" in Regina's last name stands for Ferrum, which means "Iron" in Latin just as "Regina" means "Queen". It was later revealed by writer Ian Flynn that her last name was indeed Ferrum in a spoiler tease on his forum. (1) It was first officially in the comics in StH #203.
 * While her age is not stated anywhere one can assume she is somewhere in her late twenties or early thirties from the fact that she was a young girl before being exiled, appearing to be in her teens when joining forces with Jun Kun and then taking into account the ten year interval of Robotnik Prime`s rule. Between twenty five and thirty is a reasonable time frame.
 * The Iron Queen, along with the Iron King, holds the seventh longest "non-appearance gap" in the comics at 140 issues (StH: #60-200), tying them with the badnik Coconuts.
 * Oddly, despite her use of dark magic, the Iron Queen was not tracked down and eliminated by Sir Connery; possibly it is because her power is derived from magitek and not from the Chaos Force as other dark magic users' powers presumably would have been. Since she was also protected by the Iron Dominion, it was possible Sir Connery wasn't able to get through to her.
 * Her personality and appearance seems to be based on the Disney villain Maleficent, the villainess Merlina from Sonic and the Black Knight, and the Bionicle villain Roodaka personality-wise. She also created a dragon robot, another similarity to Maleficent.
 * The Iron Queen may have also been inspired by the Mandarin from the Marvel comics. While both villains have science/technology based powers, they have opposite genders.
 * In StH: #209 and #211, Regina states "I hate that hedgehog!" referencing the original Dr. Robotnik's famous line whenever he was defeated by Sonic.
 * Despite being an Overlander, Regina has five fingers instead of four,making her look human.

Appearance
Designed by writer/artist Frank Strom, the Iron Queen has pale skin, gold eyes and long, dark green hair. She wears a large golden headdress and a red dress/robe with a pattern of pointed black stripes. In her initial appearance, her face was heavily shadowed and her hair was worn down; since her reappearance, her hair is kept in a high ponytail and she gained technologically-themed cuffs on her wrists and ankles. She is often depicted with red eye makeup and green lipstick. When younger, she lacked the headdress and wore a similar hooded robe with a hexagonal clasp.