Born under the Raj in Delhi, Rani Nimue had a turbulent childhood. Her English-born father worked for the diplomatic service and moved across the country to wherever Her Majesty required him, his wife and only child dutifully following. At the height of the Indian Mutiny, Rani’s mother was killed and her father was faced with the difficult task of raising his daughter alone. Seeing to it that she was educated by a succession of governesses and tutors, her father proudly saw her grow into a beautiful and fiercely intelligent woman. Rani secretly harboured a wanderlust and restlessness that, added to the stifling restrictions of Victorian society brewed within her until she was fit to either explode or run away and leave it all behind. Eventually her love for the swaggering Outlaw Broad Arrow Jack, after a chance encounter in the Port of Bombay, twisted her father’s pride to shame when, at the age of sixteen, she ran away with the pirate and was not heard from again for nearly a decade.
Now master of a crew of her own, the self-styled Captain Nimue has earned a substantial bounty on her head for the audacious theft from the Barrow Shipyards of a prototype RJ-powered submersible. Nimue rapidly built a notoriety for using the stolen submarine, which she had christened ‘The Nautilus’, to make lightning raids on European shipping. While this brought down the ire of the Crown and their allies, her exotic looks and penny-dreadful fuelled reputation made her popular with the press and the public.
In the space of three years, Nimue and her crew of highly efficient Chowkidar were reported in raids as far apart as Portsmouth and Kolkata Port in India. Agents for the Crown identified a common thread in many of these raids being linked to Nimue’s apparent obsession with collecting antiquities from across the Empire. Whether this is simple fascination or part of some greater strategy is unclear though an interrogation of a former accomplice hints that Nimue believes she is a reincarnation of the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian legend. Fanciful as this might seem, in an age where there are whispers of werewolves and mechanical monstrosities coming from the former American colonies, as well as ancient alien technologies and mega-fauna in Antarctica, it cannot be discounted.
Mythical figure or not, when repeated attempts to apprehend Captain Nimue proved futile, the Right Honourable Jonathan Peel of Her Majesty’s government brokered an alternative. Under Peel’s bargain, Nimue was gifted copies of dozens of historical documents from the archives and granted access to restricted sites of special interest across the Empire. In exchange for this consideration, as well as a generous charter, the fierce Pirate-Queen agreed to put her considerable skills in service to the Empire by targeting the enemies of the Crown and aiding the East Indian Trading Company in supporting British interests in the West.
Whether stealthily operating submerged in the Gulf of Mexico or audaciously sailing on the surface up and down the Mississippi, the newly dubbed HMS Nautilus was a constant thorn in the sides of both the Union and Outlaws operating in the area. Leading her rough but highly disciplined crew ashore in raiding parties she operated as a privateer on behalf of the British Empire, though has no real love for the Crown or the English.
Highly skilled with the blade and trident she is a formidable adversary on land or at sea, especially as her harpoon gun is never far from her side. Nimue’s love of fame and fortune is only tempered by her sense of loyalty to her crew. Beautiful, but deadly, Nimue and the Nautilus are a force of nature, and now with new orders their wheel has turned them South towards Antarctica and the Lost World...
The crew has changed many times over the years, some decide to take their share of the wealth and settle down, some fall in battle and are given up to the depths and fresh new recruits come aboard whenever the need arises. Some faces have remained the same, however, such as the solid and dependable Violet Smee who, as Nimue’s first officer, commands the Chowkidar with ruthless efficiency. Sardar Hardit Singh, The Nautilus’ Boatswain is very protective of his Captain and is never far from her side in a fight. Erasmus Darwin is the resident engineering specialist and while he rarely speaks of his colourful past his knowledge of Enlightened Technology is clear to see in the power-chair he uses to move around in. Charlotte Anning is the ship's navigator and archivist, never short of the answer to any questions, given enough time to research it in the vessel's surprisingly extensive library. Neko Mei’s role is a little harder to quantify but she has a number of skills including infiltration, stealth and close combat, this would then make her the Nautilus’ ‘acquisitions' specialist.
The Wrath of the Nautilus Detachment builds six multi-part resin miniatures;
- 1x Rani Nimue
- 1x Sarder Hardit Singh
- 1x Charlotte Anning
- 1x Neko Mei
- 1x Violet Smee
- 1x Erasmus Darwin
- 6x Bases