Queen Tamara

Queen Tamara (Japanese: タマラ女王; Tamara joō) is a fictional character created by the Japanese writer Ida Keiko, she is the protagonist from the 1887 novel of the same name, where she is portrayed as a queen regent, who governs her country during the absence of her husband, King Sofónias, who left for a crusade in Saxony, on the Isle of Great Britain, however, 5 years later and Sofónias has not returned, Tamara ends up being definitively crowned Queen, although she still doubts the possibility of her husband's death.

Although disagreements, there is the theory that Tamara was inspired by Cleopatra, Virgin Mary and Queen Victoria, but this was never proven by Keiko on any occasion. However, it confirmed, in a 1901 republish of the novel, that the character was distantly inspired by Catherine the Great and Ranavalona I, which is evident due to the rigorous and mad behavior that the character takes over the course of the novel.

Development
Ida Keiko was an admirer of European history, and many of her novels were historical fiction set for the most part in Medieval Europe, one of the subjects she was most attracted to were female rulers in European history, and she knew a lot about various of these female figures, there arises the main factor that contributed to the idealization of Tamara. Keiko also enjoyed reading about Nordic peoples, the Britons and the Crusades, and putting these elements together, she idealized Queen Tamara, and began writing the novel in approximately 1884. Keiko, however, did not want a "politically correct" protagonist, but someone with notable defects that any ruler of the medieval period had, such as discrimination, authoritarianism, infidelity, arrogance, lust, etc.

To compose Tamara's personality, Keiko was based on the old popular saying "to know a person, give him power", and so, it was, creating a character that in the beginning would be a being that, covertly, presented itself as a humble being, kind, with total compassion and pacifist, however, once declared effective queen for not having heard from her husband for 5 years, she puts forward who she is and what her real intentions are, becoming a cruel, arrogant, violent, paranoid, sarcastic and relentless ruler, who is unpopular with many, and "loved" only by a minority whom she innocently trusts.

Queen Tamara
Tamara is the queen consort of the fictional kingdom Alpaland, which, geographically, is located in real-life Iceland, She is married to King Sofónías, who leads the country both politically and militarily. Alpaland has friction with the Breton kingdom of Saxony, for reasons that are not very clear in the novel, since the conflict between the kingdoms is secondary in the plot, but in the little explained in the book, Saxony and Alpaland have friction since before Tamara's birth, and that this was generated by the expulsion of the Alpalens (people of Alpaland) from Great Britain in the 10th century, remembering that the plot of the novel takes place in the 14th century, but they ended up taking everything that had been developed in the fertile British land, and the Saxons claim these goods and seek to claim them for themselves, moreover, it is also mentioned that this rivalry comes from religious disagreements, since the Britons are beginning their conversion to Christianity, while the Alpalens are mostly pagans.

Tensions between Alpaland and Saxony reached a limit, and Sofónías stated, first to Tamara, that he would have to be absent from the kingdom to fight the Saxons.