What's This? An antediluvian samurai.
The facts: Lady Chian (or just Chian as she was originally dubbed on covers and back-ups) premiered alongside her love interest and eventual husband Arion in Warlord #55 (March 1982), following him to his Lord of Atlantis series as part of the regular supporting cast. The idea was that 45,000 years ago, the pre-deluge world had cultures similar to the ones from much nearer in our history, hers analogous to Feudal Japan's (or perhaps Medieval China, generally). Creators Paul Kupperberg and Jan Duursema kept her around for the whole hog, but the setting made it difficult to include her in other comics (barring Crisis), and even then, normally only in flashback. She was meant to appear in Arion the Immortal (where Kupperberg would have revealed she was an example of non-magical Homo Magi), but then didn't. Power Girl vol.1 #3 implied Kara was her granddaughter, and Superboy vol.5 #10 tied her into antediluvian Smallville. More recently, in Justice League vol.4 #12, the Justice League visits Arion's tomb, proving another flashback appearance.
How you could have heard of her: It's not really her, but Young Justice viewers may recognize the name. A modern-day Chian appears in four episodes as a member of King Orin's royal guard.
Example story: Arion Lord of Atlantis #27 (January 1985) "Tradition" by Paul Kupperberg and Jan Duursema
She's just "Chian" on the cover and back-up introduction, not yet a Lady, and wedding bells are in an uncertain future because Chian currently believes Arion to be dead. That sounds like a good premise for solo Chian stories! Here we go... Seeking solitude and peace in which to grieve, Chian rides into the woods, but there's no rest for a warrior born. On the splash, we see someone draw an arrow in her direction, but it whizzes by her ear. Was she the target?
Was this barbarian guy the real target, or just the victim of a stray arrow? I like that she thinks of her horse, Plainsrunner, first. We don't see enough of that in shows and movies. Either the horses are never killed in those westerns, or there's a post-battle scene where one is put down, but rarely, if ever, a "protect the horse" moment. Anyway, the guy lunges at Chian and she finishes the job with a quick sword jab to the stomach before going after the archer.
And the archer is... a little girl? (She thinks of herself as an almost 11-year-old woman, so Chian calls her "Grandmother".) And she - Lyla - wasn't aiming at Chian, but trying to save her life from an unseen attacker, a hunter from her own nomadic tribe. Nomadic because banished from their homeland for a rebellion 8000 years before, while their oppressors took one of them hostage every 10 years and placed with a religious order, never to see sunlight again. Lyla is the current "tribute", and the hunter sought to recapture her after her escape - her own father is also on her trail. Obviously, Chian takes on the quest to right this wrong. She helps the girl in part because she sees herself in her. I might have been mistaken when I used the phrase "warrior BORN"...
It may be truer to say "warrior KIDNAPPED", because young Chian was then taken from her artisan father to be trained as a swordswoman. So she and Lyla have something in common, it's true. But the girl is still young, and asleep when a party of hunters ambushes them. Chian gets to show her martial skill...
...but that last jump ends with her falling prone and at the mercy of Lyla's father. To be continued! You'll just have to track those comics down, but I think we get a strong sense from this first part of what she's capable of and what motivates her. I like Chian probably more than I do Arion, honestly.
Who's Next? Earth-6's only survivor.
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