Lore:Katariah

, born '''Katariah  , was part of a prominent   family, and she had been Duchess of   before she was married in   to Pelagius Septim III, who was then ruler of   (though they would go on to become Emperor and Empress).   The unusual union was thought to have occurred both to cement Imperial relations with Ebonheart and because Emperor   hoped Katariah, who was known for her shrewdness, could help conceal the eccentricities of his son Pelagius.  Katariah was awarded the regency of   in  .  The Empress Regent of Tamriel was proclaimed Empress Katariah I''' upon the death of her husband in  , and her almost fifty-year reign is remembered as a happy one.  

On Her Reign
In truth, Katariah began her reign in  , as she and   made all the decisions during her husband's reign, and she formally became Empress Regent two years after her husband took the throne.  Regardless of her qualifications, some who did not mark the end of the   with the death of   considered the ascendancy of the   Katariah as the true mark. Her defenders assert that though Katariah was not descended from Tiber Septim, the son she had with Pelagius,  , restored Tiber Septim's descendants to the Ruby Throne. Katariah's forty-six year reign was remembered as one of the most glorious in Tamriel's history, and assertions to the contrary were denounced as being motivated by racism. 

Her relationship with Pelagius was not well known. It's said that she actually had to hold her fainting husband upright during his coronation, and conceived their son Cassynder after he was committed during a visit to his cell. One of the many rumors that swirled about the Empress was that the Emperor was quite sane, and she had merely connived to have him locked up, but none of them were ever substantiated.  One of  's fables,  , says Katariah, "[e]ager to make her husband happy", sent a "caravan laden with gold" to the Emperor's asylum to fund a ball he wished to hold.

Katariah's renowned champion was  . His defeat of Raphalas Eul in a duel helped the Empress prove a point and win respect among the unruly Elder Council.  One of her many acts during her rule was to appoint   as the first Imperial Battlemage since Tiber's day.   However, the Council still managed to gather greater authority under her rule.  

For whatever reason, Katariah was uncomfortable in the  , and she traveled extensively throughout the   like no Emperor had since Tiber's day. This allowed her to repair much of the damage that had been done to the Empire prior to her rule. The people of Tamriel purportedly came to love their Empress far more than the nobility ever did. Katariah's death in a minor skirmish in Black Marsh in   is a favorite source for conspiracy-minded historians. The sage   discovered in the late   that a disenfranchised branch of the Septim family's had been involved in the skirmish, which came as quite a revelation. Her son Cassynder assumed the throne upon her death. While Empress, Katariah had another son with her  /  consort,  .   became King of  , and Emperor Cassynder formally adopted him into his family; thus, upon Cassynder's death in  , Katariah's second son followed in his half-brother's footsteps and became Emperor, taking the name Uriel Septim IV.  

Notes
TES V: Skyrim featured a large galleon named after Empress Katariah.
A Brief History of the Empire says Katariah reigned for forty-six years, which would make the year of her death 3E 199, but   places her death in 3E 200.

See Also
 
 
 

References