Anessa of Otesia

Anessa Ohstalt, better known as Anessa of Otesia was a Sevician politican, senator, and general who served as the governor of Otesia for more than 30 years and participated in the brutal Anaean Wars of the 660s, where she led Sevician forces against the rebel Anaean League in a number of battles. She was known for her quiet, soft-spoken demeanour and for having a large birthmark on the right side of her face. She was also the recipient of the Grand Eagle, Sevicia's fourth highest military honour.
== Background early life ==
Anessa was born in 623 A.S in the city of Otesia, the southernmost city in the Empire of Sevicia, to parents of great wealth. Her father, a salt and spices trader who oversaw a fleet of more than a dozen trader ships, was one of the richest agents of commerce in the Sevician south, facilitating trade from as far away as the continent of Masand. Anessa grew into a love for politics through her father's friends, many of whom were important people in the city of Otesia, which served as one of Sevicia's crown jewels.
In 650, at the age of 27, Anessa was elected as governor of Otesia, a position she would remain in until 681, for more than three decades. A keen businesswoman, who had developed a sense for commerce from her father, Anessa's encouragement of trading customs and an openness to all foreign traders helped Otesia thrive in the mid-seventh century. In 652 she was elected to the Senate of Sevicia, but served only a single term, owing to her distance from the capital of Morosea, where the senate house was located. Her first military command came in 655, where she was designated command of a legion stationed in the Marshlands region, not far from Otesia.
== Anaean Wars and later life ==
She would continue in her role as both commander and governor until the outbreak of the Anaean Wars in 660, a brutal and devastating civil war that lasted almost a decade. Anessa was placed in command of southern forces numbering more than 15,000. In 664, at the Battle of Mummersville, Sevician forces led by Anessa were defeated by a rebel alliance that included the legendary mercenary company, the Iron Sons. After suffering a further defeat months later, Anessa fled east. 
Retribution for what had become a cruel war came on the 8th day of Mandera II, in 664, when the Iron Sons marched into the city of Otesia by force and slaughtered more than 30,000 people, in what would soon become known as the Otesia Massacre. In the ensuing chaos, members of Anessa's family - including three of her cousins and an uncle - were murdered. At the Battle of Yellowgrass Flats two years later, a coalition force led by Anessa and fellow general Harold Byne crushed and routed a rebel army, in what would prove to be a crucial turning point in the war.
After the war ended, Anessa returned to Otesia, where she served as governor for a further fourteen years. She passed away of illness in 684, at the age of 61, and was survived by her husband and two children.
== See also ==
Anaean Wars
Harold Byne
Category:People