Elizabeth is a name that in Antiterra covers two figures the records never join: a witch-queen who ruled England for a hundred years, the “Spell Queen” or “Lich Queen”, and an aged abbess (badesa) confined in an underground laboratory, toothless and with her face gone.
| Type | Character |
| Epithets | Spell Queen, Lich Queen |
| Spanish entry | Elizabeth |
The queen
Elizabeth reigned a hundred years “instead of reigning 50” and celebrated her hundredth anniversary without the body showing it. Her reign sustained a refractory church, apart from Rome, founded on her person, “because in fact she was a witch”. “The Protectors drove her out”, and from England “she came over here”; she retired and founded an arcane society. Three explanations of her longevity circulate — lich, vampire, elven blood — none confirmed.
The abbess
The other Elizabeth, or the same one later, was once “so coquettish”; she is now “aged almost unrecognizable, almost”, keeping only “the features of the lady abbess”. She wore the equivalent of religious habits, took vows of chastity and poverty, and led the charitable work of the Calced Carmelites of the Temple. By papal dispensation, “not something common”, she lived in the Grand Master’s house, separated from her husband but under the same roof.
She “has studied strange tomes”, keeps forgotten knowledge and “has invented the ways” (las vías, undefined). Of an object no one understands, “she may know something”.
She lived 470 years on potions from a benefactor. A year ago “they were already skimping on the ingredients”, and she aged suddenly. When she withheld a potion, the Grand Master “dealt with her” and pulled her teeth as proof the matter was settled. Now confined in the laboratory: “With this form I cannot go out again.”
The two queens
She is one of two queen guardians of a place, with Jeva; her share relates “to the night, to the sky and the night”. The name Ercebet was ruled out: “Two queens… Ercebet, but it is not Ercebet. It is Elizabeth.”
Open questions
- Whether the queen and the abbess are one 470-year life or two namesakes.
- Which explanation of her longevity holds, or whether it is simply the potions.
- What “the ways” are; who the benefactor was and why supply stopped; which potion she withheld.
- Where the “land of Elizabeth” with its own church lies, and its relation to England and the place she guards.
- Whether her husband is the Grand Master (“I cannot go out again and see my husband and everyone”).
- What “Elizabeth Bilbao” is: epithet, second name or place name.