Himiko (Survivor Timeline)

Himiko (卑弥呼) is the first and last queen of Yamatai, and the main focus of the Ancient Scrolls. She is an antagonist of the 2013 Tomb Raider game.

Background
Himiko is the powerful Sun Queen of the Island of Yamatai.

She is beautiful, yet inscrutable; enigmatic but ruthless Queen who ruled Yamatai thousands of years ago with the support of her Stormguard. She surrounds herself with the Priestesses of the Sun with no men attending her. She is believed to be able to communicate with the spiritual world, and to control the sun and the rain. She is worshipped by some of the inhabitants of the island, but appears to be more than a Queen to them.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow

Himiko is the first and last queen of the island, as her soul is passed through generations. Himiko chooses to "adopt" certain females in different communities to live with her in luxury, dubbing them "Daughters of the Sun", never to want for anything again. This is considered the greatest of honours, which will raise the chosen's family to the height of Yamatai society. However, there is a sinister twist. She will choose one to participate in a ceremony, when the Sun Queen becomes old, where her soul will be transferred into the chosen priestess, therefore extending the Queen's lifespan and rule.

Trapped in a Decaying Body
The queen had chosen a girl named Hoshi to become a Daughter of the Sun, which elevated her above all others in the Sun Queen's court. She studied languages, etiquette, history and warfare. However, Hoshi felt that something was wrong; being doted on by the Queen felt false, as though participating in a performance. She then became the Sun Queen's favourite, seen as a doll by the Queen, and Hoshi found that when the Queen gazed upon her features, she looked as though she was looking at a reflection.

She was chosen to be the Sun Queen's successor. However, Hoshi had discovered what the ceremony would do to her. She found that the ritual would make her disappear, while replacing her body with the Sun Queen's soul. So, believing she would act for the sake of Yamatai and all the priestesses that would follow her, she took her own life with a dagger stolen from the Stormguard General.

With the ritual corrupted by Hoshi's death, the Sun Queen lives a half life in a decaying body. She rages in storms which will never abate while her soul is tied to this earth.

Appearance of Mathias
Mathias arrived to the island by his plane being caught in the Sun Queen's storm, causing it to crash land on the island of Yamatai. He and his men tried numerous times to escape, however, all attempts failed. Mathias, seeing that they could not escape and knowing there was something more about the storms, did not participate in the last attempt of escaping by boat, which killed his men, leaving him alone.

Knowing to unlock the power of the island, he craved to understand it and searched for the secrets around the island, avoiding any other survivors that came to the island and killing them if they got in his way. But he soon found that he may need help, so began gathering loyal followers, forming them into killers, with no intent to share what they may discover of the island. Thus was formed the Solarii Brotherhood

Believing the Sun Queen was guiding him, he searched for a descendant of the Sun Queen to complete the ritual.

Arrival of the Endurance
The Endurance was another victim of the Sun Queen's raging storm. Aboard the ship was a descendant of Yamatai, Samantha Nishimura. She was the Documentary Producer/Translator of the Endurance's expedition.

Mathias located Sam, as well as encountered Lara Croft at the same campsite. Tending to her injuries and listening to her stories of Sun Queen and the Stormguard, Mathias realized that she was a descendant of the Sun Queen and the key to her reincarnation, and his escape. As Lara fell asleep at the campsite, Mathias kidnapped Sam and took her to the Solarii base. Later, once Lara had recovered Sam, he killed Conrad Roth, Lara's mentor and father-figure. Upon the second kidnapping of Sam, he played Whitman's ego against him to distract a pair of Oni, allowing him to slip into the Monastery with Sam, and ultimately causing Whitman's death. There, he started to perform the ritual to swap her soul with the Sun Queen, believing that the ritual was the key for him to escape the island.

Death
While the Sun Queen was still in the process of "pouring" her soul into Sam's body, Lara was able to make her way through Mathias' Solarii Brotherhood, Himiko's own Stormguard, and finally to Mathias. Lara walked in-between her best friend and the Sun Queen, stabbing the latter in the heart with a torch and finally destroying Himiko.

With her death, the storms surrounding Yamatai began to disperse and disappear, which allowed the survivors of the Endurance to escape, bringing a permanent end to Himiko's reign.

Trivia

 * While she does not appear physically until the very end of the game, Himiko could be considered an antagonist of the game as she is the cause of the storms and the reason the Endurance crew is stranded on the island. Also, every inhabitant on the island (apart from the Endurance crew) revers Himiko, whether it is the Solarii Brotherhood, the Stormguard or the weather itself. Throughout the game, Mathias claims that Himiko speaks through him and that he is her loyal servant.
 * With her God like power, ancient knowledge and sleep of death, Himiko, for the game, seems to have been inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
 * Himiko means “sun child” or “sun priestess” in archaic Japanese.
 * The Sun Queen may come from Himiko or Pimiko, who was an obscure shaman queen of Yamataikoku in ancient Wa (Japan). She occupied herself with magic and sorcery, bewitching the people. Though mature in age, she remained unmarried. She had a younger brother who assisted her in ruling the country. After she became the ruler, there were few who saw her. She had one thousand women as attendants, but only one man.