Queen Grimhilde

TheQueenasWitch — Queen Grimhilde as an old peddler woman

Queen Regina Grimhilde is a major villain from the Kingdom Hearts Unlimited Saga, and a member of the Hellfire Organization. Originally appearing in "Birth By Sleep" with a very minor role, the Queen's impact on the overall story is expanded to make her a much more credible threat to the Keyblade Gang.

She first appears in her homeworld of Dwarf Woodlands as an antagonist, taking on both her Queen and Peddler forms. She is the stepmother of Snow White. After discovering that the Princess has a heart of pure light, and therefore fairer than her, Grimhilde sets out to kill Snow White in order to secure her title as "Fairest in the Land", employing Humbert the Huntsman and an unwilling Anakin Skywalker to serve as her assassins. Later on, after her attempts on Snow White fail, Grimhilde instead decides to change her tactics and recruits herself into Maleficent's Hellfire Organization in order to kidnap the Princess for her own plans...

Story[]

Before Birth of A New Era[]

Many years after the worlds had been splintered by the devastation of the Keyblade War and the breaking of time, many of those worlds had managed to recuperate from their wounds and rise again stronger than ever. One of those worlds was the Germanic kingdom of the Dwarf Woodlands, where the descendants of Empress Witch Borghilde, and later of Empress Witch Mammona, reigned as absolute, undisputed, and supreme rulers. In life, Empress Borghilde was a cult-personified witch, amassing a handful of adherents to serve her coven of worshippers of the Great Evil. Her rule was dominant on sheer force and of will and determination.

Still, what she had in power and control lacked in what others could harness and possess in comparison to her own limits: a new family to carry out her legacy and succession. As she wandered through forests and the castles, Borghilde happened upon a human mirror maker named Sigmund in a distant kingdom, bonding with him as test to get the perfect man to carry on her legacy.

As she spent her time with him, Borghilde found out that "Sigmund" was actually a fragment of the being Mercurio, the Alpha Being of Steel, in a human form, having been warped on the Dwarf Woodlands to serve as a messenger for his true benefactor: Chernabog, Alpha Being of Darkness; furthermore, Chernabog punished Mercurio for his failure at the Battle of Heaven, transforming him as an oval-styled Magic Mirror to serve his eternal torment, leaving a fraction of the former being's power to be channeled through his human form, Sigmund. Intrigued by this discovery, Borghilde began to bond more with Sigmund, who also took her to the direction of the Magic Mirror's presence, his spirit form residing within it. As time went on, she started to show a different personality, as she developed feelings of tenderness and intimacy towards Sigmund, eventually falling in love with him. Eventually, Borghilde and Sigmund married in secret to avoid any controversial scandal and news of their affiliation from Borghilde's followers.

Through their marriage, the couple borne two children: the first born son Maliss and the second born daughter Regina Grimhilde. Despite their lovely tenderness between the two, the couple wasn't interested in looking after their kids, nor tending them to their upbringing, seeing them as a means to carry on more successors to their will. This left the begrudged young children further isolated from their parents, developing feelings of hatred, loathing, and resentment for raising them in the first place.

Still, the relationship between Maliss and Grimhilde was not a healthy one either, for they had their reasons of bickering and fighting. Maliss condemned his sister and his parents over the fact that she was chosen to serve as the legitimate successor of their legacy instead of the first born son that was rightfully him. Meanwhile, Regina Grimhilde didn't give a thought of their quarrels and decided to spend her time on her daily hobby: tending on horses and riding them out in the countryside. Still, Borghilde's influence over her second born daughter allowed Regina Grimhilde to develop a feeling of superiority, with her mother declaring her as "The Fairest Maiden of Them All", a notion that she carried out later on. Still, Regina Grimhilde craved for true love, finding it in the form of a peasant in the countryside. Unfortunately, Borghilde had other plans, seizing the couple in the act and killing the peasant in retribution. Additionally, Borghilde warned her daughter not falling in love with another commoner, claiming that "love is weakness". This action left Grimhilde in a deep-sorrowed state of mind, begrudging her mother's decision to allow such atrocity to take place.

Meanwhile, other news left the intrigued Borghilde and Sigmund to conduct a new contingency plan. On the other side of the kingdom, the monarch King Leopold White was left widowed after the death of his consort, Queen Eva. This left an opportunity for the couple to use Regina Grimhilde as a means to gain access to the affairs of the mortals through their highest-ranking leaders. Securing an arrangement for the widowed king, the couple announced to their daughter to take the king's hand in marriage on purpose to become his consort. The begrudged Grimhilde refused to the forced marriage and made an attempt to escape from the kingdom, only to be caught in the act by Borghilde herself. As Grimhilde begged refusing the forced marriage offer, wanting to be free from the influence of her parents, Borghilde asserted that "power was her freedom", a freedom that must be yearned in order to acquire it. She promised that if she followed her instructions, she would be freed from her influence to act accordingly.

As they returned, Borghilde and Grimhilde happened upon Sigmund and Maliss quarreling on issues of succession and inheritance, with Borghilde joining her husband's side. The rising tensions between Maliss and his parents reached to a major impact, as the first born son unleashed his magic powers on Borghilde and Sigmund, killing them on the spot, with Mercurio's fraction being eliminated entirely, safe only for his spirit residing at the Magic Mirror. Seeing the deaths of her parents carried out by her brother's hand, Grimhilde, falling deeper into paranoia and resentment, unleashed the darkness within her heart, challenging her brother into a duel of magic. Though the fighting was intense, Grimhilde managed to wear her brother down, eventually striking him with a bolt of lightning to the ground. Humiliated, Maliss retreated, swearing vengeance on the act of betrayal against him. As he fled to self-imposing exile, he acquired magic scrolls from a Grimoire the family possessed, tearing them out of the book so that his sister would be unable to perform well in a fight of magic against him in the future. Because of that, Maliss was able to conjure up more powerful spells than Grimhilde could ever hope to manage on her own, with one example being the art of dragon transfiguration, a spell only accessible to higher-ranking sorcerers. Following the death of Borghilde, a new successor was proclaimed, as Empress Witch Mammona took her place as the leader of the witch coven that addressed the worshippers of the Great Evil.

Now a wicked monster, Regina Grimhilde followed the steps of her mother, with her influence over her claim "The Fairest Maiden of Them All" driving her new ego. Not sooner afterwards, she heard a mysterious voice, instructing her to pay a visit to the top of the Harz Mountains in Germany. There, she was greeted by a mysterious silhouette, turning to be an avatar of Chernabog, Borghilde's benefactor. Seeing her in the makings of becoming a powerful figure in the time yet to come, Chernabog tempted Grimhilde with promises of power, even granting her magic powers, should he cast her lot with him. Eager for power ever since the drastic events following Borghilde's death, no longer feeling the passion of love she once had in her heart, Grimhilde accepted his offering, giving him her body and soul to the Black God in return of bestowing her magic spells, which Maliss had stolen during his escape. Furthermore, she gained access to Borghilde's former servant, the spirit of Mercurio, learning that only those who had the potential to join forces with the Black God can consult the former Alpha Being, now trapped within the oval Magic Mirror. From now on, he would serve her as her beloved familiar demon.

Taking note of her mother's offer to marry King Leopold, Grimhilde entered the kingdom under the façade of being of noble birth from a foreign kingdom, and proposed to join the king's hand in marriage on the condition to strengthen the alliance between their two kingdoms. Having to settle for a new consort, Leopold allowed Regina Grimhilde to become his betrothed, joining her in marriage. Through their union, Grimhilde discovered Leopold's daughter, Snow White. Growing wary of the maiden's potential, she consulted the spirit of Mercurio in the form of the Magic Mirror. The spirit of the Magic Mirror informed her that she was the prettiest maiden in all kingdoms, at least for the time being. Since Snow White grew out to be a beautiful maiden throughout the years, it drove Grimhilde to the edge, wanting nothing to rival her power and beauty. It was only a matter of time until the spirit of the Magic Mirror informed her that Snow White would unleash her true potential as one of the purest and brightest maidens of the land, leaving the infuriated Grimhilde to take action against her step-daughter, wanting to eliminate her, while keeping her image of radiance, beauty, and elegance as pure as it was in the public view.

Birth of A New Era[]

Many years later, Regina Grimhilde still reigned as the Queen of Dwarf Woodlands, ruling as its supreme sovereign. Meanwhile, a new force came into being, as the distant Galactic Republic began encroaching its influence in the splintered worlds through the Trade Federation, drawing the attention of the queen. Not longer afterwards, she was visited by the Sith-Lord Darth Sidious, informing her of a ploy to undermine the Republic from within, so that they would control it according to their own wishes, seeing it as the force capable to control the vast worlds of the universe. Intrigued, Grimhilde listened to his explanation.

As various worlds seceded from the Republic, they formed a confederation to counter the threat posed by the Republic, eventually forming the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Sidious offered to partake in the Separatists as one of the prominent leaders, wanting to position Grimhilde in a good standing with the other realms in the fight against the invading Republic, who used clone troopers to suppress the Separatists, culminating in the beginning of the Clone Wars. In return, Sidious explained his ultimate goal. Using Gwydion, his latest experiment, he would create the Christ-Blade, the weapon which summoned Kingdom Hearts in the time of the Keyblade War. As the force of light would re-shape the universe according to their wishes, Sidious proposed to take part in his ultimate scheme, in exchange of serving as one of the prominent leaders in the new world order. Eager for more power, Grimhilde accepted his offering, joining the Confederacy as one of its secret leaders.

As the Clone Wars were still ongoing, Grimhilde received a visit from the Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker at her throne room, who had arrived on the Dwarf Woodlands in search for hints left behind by his master, Chancellor Palpatine. As Grimhilde consulted the Magic Mirror, asking who was the maiden deemed to be "Fairest of them All", the Mirror replied that the young maiden Snow White filled the description as the fairest maiden, seeing her great beauty and light that radiated within her heart. Infuriated, Grimhilde planned for a scheme to kill Snow White and take her place as the fairest maiden. When Anakin arrived and asked for Sidious' current whereabouts, Grimhilde responded that she knew some hints of Sidious' involvement, claiming that she would ask the Mirror for the Chancellor's sudden disappearance if he would offer his services in return, on purpose to win her favor. Tempted by her promises, Anakin agreed to provide aid for her services.

To that end, Grimhilde assigned Anakin and her loyal servant, Humbert, a noble huntsman descended from King Leopold's royal family, to kill Snow White during an expedition in the of the Dwarf Woodlands, and bring her heart. Despite being revolted by her offer, even protesting against her orders, the two were silenced after she reminded them what they would receive if they fail in their mission; death, in the case of Humbert, and banishment, in the case of Anakin from her world. As the two men brought Snow White out in the fields, Humbert drew his dagger and raised it to kill the princess on the spot. However, the conflicted Anakin stood up for the princess, not wanting to shed innocent blood for the answers he sought, beating Humbert into submission. As the weakened Humbert regained his senses, he informed Snow White of his mission to kill Snow White by orders of the queen, begging for forgiveness when he nearly performed the deed. He urged her to escape in the forests of the Woodlands to escape her fury. In her stead, Humbert and Anakin decided to use the heart of a pig to earn the favor of the queen.

However, Grimhilde learned of their plot through the reveal of the Magic Mirror, though Humbert escaped the castle before he would receive the death penalty, living a life in exile. When Anakin returned, Grimhilde scolded him for failing in his mission, to which Skywalker responded that he had seen the façade manifesting within her virtuous appearance, further spurning her offering. Angered by the turn of events, Grimhilde coerced the Magic Mirror into fighting the dissident, using her growing darkness and lethal potions to subdue him to her will, summoning Anakin to the Mirror's realm. After an intense fight, Anakin returned victorious in Grimhilde's throne room and demanded the queen to give him answers. Humiliated, Grimhilde complied by asking the Mirror for Sidious' whereabouts, to which the Mirror responded that he was presented in the Keyblade Graveyard on the planet Mustafar. Satisfied with the answer, Anakin left to seek his master, with Grimhilde stewing her anger towards the Jedi knight.

After making up for the previous failures of her assassins, Grimhilde formulated a new plan: she would murder Snow White herself. Transforming into an elder hag, Grimhilde used a magical spellbooks to brew a poison and dip an apple in it, turning it poisoned, claiming that she would use it to entice Snow White into biting it and falling into a "Sleep of Death". As she ventured outside the castle to travel to the cottage of the Seven Dwarfs, where Snow White currently resided, undetected, she was found by the runaway Gwydion, who picked up the falling poisoned apple for her. Informed of his existence by Sidious, Grimhilde put seeds of doubt in his mind, telling him that Anakin crossed paths with her and threatened her to reveal the location of his master at sword point, leaving the doubtful Gwydion to search for Anakin.

As he left, Grimhilde made her way to the cottage and tricked Snow White into biting the poisoned apple, eventually succeeding in her plan, as Snow White immediately fell unconscious. Despite her success, she was forced to retreat when the Seven Dwarfs returned, alarmed by the woodland critters that had seen the scene, and forced the queen out of the cottage. At the same time, she was informed that Padmé Amidala had infiltrated the castle in search for Anakin, clashing with the spirit of the Mirror in the process before emerging victorious. Not paying attention to the new developments, Grimhilde pushed forward in her agenda to control the Confederacy through the assignments of her loyal emissaries, who, in turn, would cast their lot with the true mastermind behind the recent attacks: Darth Sidious.

(takes on role from original game + Count Dooku circa Attack of the Clones

In Between BoANE and The Journey[]

Nonetheless, she was further angered when she learned of White's awakenment by Prince Ferdinand, a prince from a foreign kingdom of the Dwarf Woodlands, through a "True Love's Kiss". Cutting ties with the kingdom's ruling court, Grimhilde escaped to avoid persecution from her own court, allowing Ferdinand and White to be installed as the future rulers of the Dwarf Woodlands. Still, Grimhilde was eager to partake on Sidious' ultimate scheme to control the world through the shadows, drawing the attention of the Darkhearts, who had seen the immense darkness manifesting within her heart, and using them to further her goals.

After the end of the Clone Wars, the transition of the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire, and the purge of the remaining Jedis, Grimhilde paid attention to the new developments. As the Confederacy disintegrated, Grimhilde and the surviving leaders of the Separatists escaped from the wrath of the Sith to undertake a new plan in the making. As the remaining survivors regrouped, a projection of Darth Sidious appeared before them, revealing their new goal by courtesy of his dark lord, Chernabog. After they would rebuilt their former strength by re-organizing the declining Confederacy into the newly Hellfire Organization, Sidious tasked his associates to hunt the Seven Rainbow Crystals and their counterparts, the Princesses of Heart. Through their efforts, they would bring a new era where darkness would prevail and figures like Sidious and his emissaries would rise up as prominent leaders in the new world order.

As the years passed by, Grimhilde was acquainted with the fairy Maleficent, eager to take position as the Mistress of All Evil throughout the lands, casting her lot with the wicked fairy in exchange for granting her security against the forces of light. While she appeared as a loyal ally of Maleficent, in reality, she was secretly allied with Sidious' master, Chernabog, through his emissary, the Horned King, on purpose to make her master's vision a reality. Nonetheless, she was witness of the takeover of Maleficent and the Darkhearts, consuming worlds into the darkness one by one, including the Dwarf Woodlands, Grimhilde's homeland.

(Helps form Hellfire Organization as one of its leaders)

The Journey[]

(Extra to Maleficent, turns into Old Hag to manipulate Ellidyr during Traverse Town visit 2, mentions having kidnapped Snow White during the meeting after Shere Khan's defeat, killed during final battle at Forbidden Mountains)

A Year of Misery[]

(Mentioned in passing by Dominion XIII for her contribution to their technological achievements)

An Empire of Dreams[]

(Revived with other villains by Dominion XIII, takes on old peddlar disguise to aid Cruella and Oogie for BurtonLand campaign, mysteriously disappears during siege of Disney Castle to embark on her own endeavors, cameo appearance in credits where she finds a book of ancient legends in the vaults of Hollow Bastion)

Encoded Truths[]

"Drag all that you see into the deepest pits of darkness!"

Grimhilde commands the Shadow Demons to attack Emma

With the second death of Maleficent and many of the Hellfire Organization's members having either been killed or deserted during the World of Nonexistence's destruction, the remnants are left unsure of where to go from here. Thankfully for them, they don't have long to wonder before Grimhilde appears before them with the solution to all of their problems: she had just consulted with the slave of the magic mirror after reading a passage from a book of ancient legends and folklore, and it had told her of a land far beyond the mortal realm and into the very ether of creation itself, namely the Digital World. She galvanizes the villains into action by stating that if they are able to conquer the Digital World and all of its inhabitants, then they can utilize its unique properties to spread their darkness over the entire real universe, thereby avenging the death of Maleficent and getting rid of the heroes who oppose them once and for all. This sparks the Remnants' interest very easily, and Grimhilde continues her plan to reforge the Hellfire Organization by sending the Big Bad Wolf to re-recruit Pete and his new family by promising them a brighter future under her reign.

Once she has successfully gathered all of her available followers, Grimhilde thus sends Pete, Zeke, and Peg to infiltrate Disney-Land and enter the portal to the Digital World built by Kevin Flynn for the heroes so that the villains can head them off at the pass. Once the henchtrio is able to get inside the mainframe, Pete quickly alerts Grimhilde through his wrist-communicator of their status and she uses her magic to teleport herself and the other Hellfire Organization members to their location using Pete's darkness as a focal wi-fi point. Now that they are all together, Grimhilde immediately sets her generals Jafar, Hades, Captain Hook, Cruella DeVil, Queen Cora of Hearts, and Morgana the Sea Witch off to conquer the various worlds that have been connected to the Digital World by Guinevere's magic, while ordering Pete and Peg to cut the link to the Real World to ensure the heroes are trapped inside. While there, Grimhilde uses the powers of the Bug Blox created by the Lord of Darkness to create monstrous Digital Mutates that serve as back-up minions for her forces.

After some time has passed, and Emma Swan has seemingly been successful in thwarting the plans of the Hellfire Organization's generals in the Digital World's arenas, Grimhilde takes it upon herself to personally confront the Savior outside the crashed Raptor star destroyer, scolding Jafar for his failure to detect Lord Dragaunus' treachery. When Emma tries to attack Grimhilde, the wicked queen simply blocks the future heroine with a mirror guard, then snatches away her Keyblade and shatters it into shards of light energy, leaving Emma utterly defenseless against the hordes of Shadow Demons about to rip out her heart, though she is saved at the last moment by Archie Hopper, the living manifestation of Jiminy Cricket's own journal brought to life by Guinevere's magic. Seeing him as the key towards unlocking the secrets of the Digital World, Grimhilde uses her magic to restrain and subdue Archie, taking him with her and the Hellfire Organization Generals to their fortress deep within a replica of the Forbidden Mountains, while daring Emma, Mickey, and Jim Hawkins to follow after her.

Grimhilde thus orders Cora to interrogate Archie on the truth behind the Digital World's properties, while sending out her new pair of enforcers, Venom and Carnage, to attack Emma when she tries to rescue the Journal Program. Once the Queen of Hearts is able to get Archie to crack by removing his spark and forcing him under pain of termination to tell her everything he knows, Grimhilde immediately sets off to the Heart of the Digital World with the information in her possession, accompanied by Hades and the demon lord Cacodaemon, while closing the connection to keep Emma from following after her, only for the Savior to regain the ability to wield the Keyblade thanks to the strength of her heart's resolve. Before she can use her dark magic to bend the universes to her whim, Grimhilde is confronted by Emma and the two of them duke it out in a wizard's duel with Grimhilde transforming herself into a skeletal dracolich using the darkness of her magic mirror in a last ditch attempt to due the Savior in.

In the end, Grimhilde falls before Emma's keyblade, but she barely manages to survive thanks to her sheer resolve, attempting to get to the Digital World's heart core with the last of her strength, only to have it snatched away by Cacodaemon, who betrays her to side with his true master the Lord of Darkness in their own attempt to conquer the Digital World and the Real Universe with it. The demon lords mock Grimhilde for proving herself just as trusting and gullible as Maleficent was before her, too vain and foolish to realize the true demonic evil using her as a pawn in their game, and now even that role has come to an end as she will now die with the universe around her, siccing the Chaos King to finish her off once and for all. As the Digital World's datascape begins to collapse without its heart core to keep it stable, Grimhilde is rescued in the nick of time by Pete and the Big Bad Wolf, who take her back to the other Hellfire Organization generals, and they all flee out of the Datascape with their plan now in shambles thanks to the Lord of Darkness' treachery.

Sometime later, in the comfort and safety of the real Forbidden Mountains in the Mortal Realm, the villains all grumble at their lost opportunity to take over the Digital World and the Real World, all except for Grimhilde, who reads more in depth what went wrong with her plan and what more would there be to discover from the Digital World. Suddenly, the queen chances upon a page detailing where the Digital World had come from, as a computer program designed by the Ancient Jedi Order as a storage facility for files compiled from their original source of knowledge during the Age of Legend...the Tome of Prophecy. Remembering how she and Maleficent had earlier researched about the Tome before the conflict with Dominion XIII began, Grimhilde immediately calls together the other Generals to her side and tells them, with the Slave of the Magic Mirror summoned to help explain things in rhyming detail, about the legend of the Tome of Prophecy, and how anyone who read from its pages could gain the knowledge to create entirely new worlds to rule over. Regina thus begins formulating a new plan to locate the Tome by stealing any source of information as to any leads, starting with the Grid mainframe located in Space Paranoids.

The Fantasmic Dreamtime[]

(Leads Hellfire Org in bypassing Cornerstone defenses to attack Disney Castle, reveals the truth behind Palpatine's actions years before)

Return of the Keyblade[]

(Becomes part of Nehalenia fusion with Maleficent's ghost)

Appearance[]

Regina Grimhilde is a pale-skinned woman with blue eyes, red lipstick, and seemingly penciled-on eyebrows. She wears a gold crown with five spikes on the front and a jewel on the tip of the middle and tallest spike. She also wears what seems to be a black balaclava that covers her ears, neck, and hair and only leaves her face exposed. She wears a close-fitting, han blue dress with enormous hanging sleeves with white cuffs. Grimhilde's dress has a high collar that is white on the inside and she wears a red cape, much like Snow White and The Prince. She also wears a gold pendant around her neck with a ruby set in it, as well as a long, rope belt tied around her waist.

In her hag form, Regina dons a black, hooded robe that retains the hanging sleeves of her dress and grey slippers. Her physical appearance changes from that of a youthful queen to that of an ugly, old witch with long, tangled white hair. She has thick, black eyebrows, green eyes, and dark rings around her eyes. Her nose becomes long and crooked and gains a large wart and she only has one visible tooth on her bottom jaw. Her hands are gnarled and have pointed, dirty fingernails. In this form, Regina is also often seen with a basket filled with poison apples.

Personality[]

Grimhilde does not appear to be significantly involved in governing her kingdom (since she is solely focused on being the fairest in the land), though the skeletal remains of prisoners in her dungeon points to her being a cruel ruler. She wants nothing more than to be the fairest in the land. She is cold, cruel, and has an extreme vanity that made her utterly intolerant of rivals. Her vanity and jealousy of Snow White's superior beauty and the Prince's attentions eventually drove her to murderous insanity. That she transforms herself into a hideous hag and conjures a poison named 'The Sleeping Death' to achieve this end is a sign of her determination and desperation.

The Witch, being an alternate form of Regina, has some of her personality traits, most notably her vanity and unstable jealousy of Snow White, kept intact. However, due in part to the transformation, she has also become more outwardly maniacal and sadistic, constantly cackling insanely as well as once trying to play an extremely cruel joke on both the captured Prince Ferdinand and her pet raven by making it seem as though she wants either of them to eat the poisoned apple. Despite her insanity, she was also extremely intelligent and calculating, wanting to ensure that she not overlook anything in order to make her plans an absolute success. This trait was especially evident in her stopping herself while gloating about how the poisoned apple will ensure Snow White's eventual demise in order to look up whether there was a cure to the effects of the poisoned apple that would cause her plans to fail.