Yen 'Vadum

==Summary==
Yen 'Vadum was the daughter of the famed and beloved Sangheili Emperor, Wyrda 'Vadum. Though she had an enormous figure to replace as Empress of the Sangheili Republic, she would surpass her father in time, both in fame and devotion to her Empire. Throughout her life, she would face turmoil and war, deceit and betrayal, and an Empire barely back on its feet battered from every side. The only thing that seemed to keep her alive was her gift, the final dying wish of her father.
==Early Life==
===Childhood===
Yen was born in the year 2758, second in line to be the next ruler of the Sangheili Republic, and head chairman of the United Coalition of Sentient Republics. Unlike her father, Wyrda, Yen never caught the attention of the spotlight, as the Republic was content with its current Emperor, and made it clear they had no intention of thinking about his death. However, Wyrda grew attached to the young Princess, and took the utmost care in raising her. Every moment not spent working or with Yen's older brother, Solna, Wyrda spent with her. At the age of three Wyrda instructed her in sword dueling, and by the age of five she was as good of a duelist as her Brother, Solna.
As she grew older, Yen became more and more attached to her father. At the age of 6, she discovered that Wyrda was going to a planet far away to conduct a search. Desperate to go with him, Yen convinced Solna to come with her, and they snuck aboard the ship. Once they had arrived at the planet, most of the crew went groundside, so the sibling duo found it easy enough to live comfortably on the ship without being found by the guards. They expected the search to take weeks, but the weeks turned to months, and two years went by without them seeing their father on the ship. Curious as to what happened, they staked out in the hangar, and when a dropship prepared to go groundside, they snuck aboard. This was difficult, as almost two dozen Sangheili Commandos their father had trained were aboard the dropship.
When they hit the ground they discovered why. They looked out a small porthole to see hundreds of explosions and mushroom clouds rising from the surface. The planet was in a state of total war. They landed at the main camp, and attempted to blend in. However, Solna was tall for his age, nearly seven feet, and was mistaken for an adult. The Commandos were short on troops and drafted him to join a unit of new recruits to fight in an upcoming battle. Solna was given a Ghost to ride into battle, so Yen clung to its underbelly to tag along. In the first engagement, an entire legion of some dark-skinned human like aliens marched towards the unit of seventy Ghost-mounted recruits. The orange-armored soldiers opened fire with everything they had, tossing grenades from their Ghosts, firing the plasma cannons, several tried to ram them with a brutal result for the Sangheili. Nothing they could do would penetrate their armor, so they decided to try a sword's effectiveness. The recruits dismounted, and charged the vast army to fight them in, they were unaware of, their single greatest field of battle.
The small unit of recruits was ripped apart by the alien threat, all of them ineffective in battle, their alien opponents remakably efficient at it. The swords cut through shields, armor and flesh all the same, and the Recruits immediately routed, with the exception of Solna. He believed himself to be the heir of his father's combat ability, and took on the champion of the enemies. This proved to be a mistake, as in a few efficient strikes, Solna was disarmed and on the ground, unable to fight back. Yen looked away in horror, though when she peeked at what happened she saw a single Sangheili in violet armor towering over the champion. In one swing, the champion and three aliens were felled, and the rest began to rout. 
For a single terrifying moment, the Sangheili, that Yen now recognized as her father Wyrda, met eyes with his son. But he only gave him an affirmative nod, wasting no time in learning the face of the recruit, and continued to chase after the aliens, several dozen Commandos following. Yen and Solna immediately fled to hide in the desert, no longer wishing to take part in this war.
Several weeks later, they saw their father again, as he sped by on a Ghost. They decided to follow and see what he was up to. They soon found themselves in the capital city of the aliens. It didn't take a genious to figure out Wyrda was planning sabotage, judging by the bomb he carried in his hand. They stuck close, but kept out of sight throughout the city, finally coming to a stop in a hanger, surrounded by hundreds of menacing ships. As Wyrda finished setting the timer, Yen accidently blurted out for him to hurry up, but it echoed all around the hangar. In moments, thousands of the aliens were upon them. As Wyrda fought off almost the entirety of them alone, a single alien attacked Yen and Solna. Solna drew his personal sword, and Yen picked up two alien swords off the ground and attacked the alien. During the grapple, the two children heard their father call them Ju'Rin and assumed that was their name. After several minutes, Yen whirled through the air and beheaded the Ju'Rin that faced them. Only one other remained in the room. It was huge, taller than their father, even, easily twice the size and height of a normal Ju'Rin. Wyrda charged at it, but the alien gutted the Emperor and tossed him aside like a child's toy. Yen attempted to behead it, but there was no gap at its neck, and threw the young girl aside without even breaking stride. Solna stood before the creature, his foolhardiness again clouding his judgment, and rushed the clearly superior enemy. The Ju'Rin twirled his blade and cut Solna at the throat. The young Prince hit the ground without his head. Terrified, Yen crawled into a corner, trying to get away, but the massive armored foe walked up to her and drew his blade, making his intentions clear. However, Wyrda attacked the Ju'Rin, barely alive, but desperate to save her. He mercilessly destroyed the massive enemy, and his attention returned to the bomb.
He ran to Yen, and covered her as if to protect her from the blast with his own dying shell. He said with his dying breath that for the rest of her life, no harm shall ever come to her. Before anything else could be said, an explosion from the bomb destroyed everything within 10 miles of the explosion. All except for a small girl.
===Royal Preparation===
A week later, Yen was rescued by several of Wyrda's Commandos, whom she explained the situation to. They reported it to the other leaders of the UCSR, and she returned to Sanghelios. With Solna dead, she was the sole heir to the throne, and must be taught to be an effective Empress.
Over the next twenty years, she was taught by the Commando leader and co-founder, and temporary Empress and mother Myaan 'Jcor. She was taught proper ettiquite, languages of each member race of the UCSR, and enough of Forerunner of understand the old text from the Covenant era. She was taught combat by her mother personally, as sword dueling was an ancient tradition of the 'Jcor bloodline, dating back to Covenant times. In total secrecy, unable to be watched by anyone else, she was instructed in the rigorous training to learn the 'Jcor dueling technique, using two energy swords to beat your enemy with finesse and cunning rather than brute strength alone. This would be a great boon in any combat situation.
She was also taught to lead. To remain in control of the economy and the population alike. Wyrda established a successful dynasty. It was Yen's duty to maintain it.
===Trial by Fire===
In a protracted ceremony, Yen 'Vadum was crowned Empress at the age of 27, but the crowning was cut short as a report came in of Kig'Yar mercenaries hired by the Ju'Rin to kill her, as they were still legally at war. A contigent of them had landed just outside the capitol building, and had set up a massive shield wall. Yen instantly formulated a plan, and went to action immediately. Thousands of grenades were thrown out of the capitol, landing ten feet from the Kig'Yar. Thinking nothing of it, they simply backed up into the street... directly into the range of a Ghost convoy. The would-be assassins were run down by the dozens as they desperately tried to retreat. The Kig'Yar frigates attempted to enter slipspace, but found themselves surrounded by the Sangheilios Defence Fleet. The were blown to pieces.
==Political Career==
Though Yen made a name for herself in the many dueling arenas of the UCSR, she rarely engaged in true combat, the most violet was never beyond putting down small rebellions of distant colony worlds, none of which were a match for the elite Commando units.
===Oath Guard===
Her first action as Empress was to change the Commandos from the ground up. They were dressed in extremely ornate black armor and gold trim and runes. They were renamed the Oath Guard, and were equipped similarly to the Honor Guard of the Covenant. They took an oath at initiation into their order, swearing to uphold peace and justice at all costs, even if it meant going against the will of the UCSR. Though the Commandos were Sangheili-exclusive, the Oath Guard created chapters on many worlds for each race. Though Yan'me refused the offer, and Unggoy were somewhat reluctant, Humans, Jiralhanae and Lekgolo joined in droves. Humans equipped themselves in Medieval armor in the same color pattern as Sangheili, and Jiralhanae wore even more ornate and fully-covering armor worn by Lesser Chieftans. Unggoy mainly served as Chaplains for the Oath Guard, giving them encouragement on the battlefield and developing formations and manouvers. Lekgolo served as the ultimate bruisers, leading the head of any Oath Guard charge, though there were many peaceful Lekgolo who proved to be successful medics.
In three years, the Oath Guard's numbers would reach 50,000. Though this number would wax and wane through the years, the Guard survived throughout the entirety of the UCSR's existance, and would lead and instigate its share of conflicts.
===Subjication of The Ju'Rin===
Though they were the enemies of the UCSR, they had proved to be effective in melee, and one encounter several years after the destruction of their fleet proved they were a boon in space. A single ship took on an entire Human Battle Cluster without taking any crippling damage, destroying a Cruiser and routing the rest. Several months after Yen took office, an entire fleet of them appeared at the edge of Kig'Yar space, and destroyed three combined fleets of corsairs. Yen decided that it would be ridiculously costly to go to war with them, and decided to try and make an alliance. She led the entire Sangheili battlefleet, led by the flagship Vadum's Patience along with several flets from each other race and a dozen Oath Guard ships, totalling 873 ships deep into Ju'Rin territory. They discovered what they believed to be the capital world, a Terran planet the size of Saturn, orbited by thousands of stations and at least 400 ships. Before Yen could open communications the Ju'Rin attacked, and an epic struggle broke out.
The battle lasted only 20 minutes, but over 370 Ju'Rin and 418 UCSR ships were destroyed. The Ju'Rin ships stopped and retreated to regroup. Yen tried communications again, and the Ju'Rin Thane, the apparent leader, answered. Weeks of negotiation began, resulting in a deal: If the UCSR would stay out of Ju'Rin space, the Ju'Rin agreed to assist in an crisis. Yen accepted, and a shaky alliance was born.
===Bloodline===
At the age of 32, Yen took a mate, the Honor Guard Paladin Jadin 'Vvir. In three years they had five children. Three sons and two daughters. The firstborn son Mordii was the heir to the throne. The secondborn son Danii became head of security. The third son Reguma would become a Councilor. The first daughter Yu was second in line to the throne and Maya lived as a noble on a colony world.
===The Senate===
Though the Empress could handle matters well enough on her own, there were times where enough issues sprang up it was difficult to settle them all, especially during times of strife and conflict. Empress 'Vadum attempted to solve this problem by establishing the Senate of Sangheili. Similar to the Council of the Covenant, the Senate was to assist in dealing with lesser matters, and give advice on greater ones. For 20 years the Senate assisted ruling in the Sangheili Republic. Now not only a Republic by name, but by actions.
However, in the year 2808, Yen 'Vadum turned the age of fifty. At that time she suddenly stopped participating in dueling tournaments, and began to send her mate and children to perform tasks on the field. Several Senators that were particularly greedy took this as both a sign of weakness, and a chance to seize power for themselves. This short but bloody war became known as the Senatorial Conflict.
===The Senatorial Conflict===
The rebellious Senators began to spread lies and treachery among the rest of the Senators, claiming their Empress had become sick and unfit to rule. While many agreed through persuasion, several realized the treason behind this, and got together. Among these were Reguma 'Vadum, the third son of Empress 'Vadum. He declared that this should remain a secret, as the Senate would no longer be trusted if they planned to rebel. The dozen Loyal Senators gathered a Human Chapter of the Oath Guard, the Oriental Blade, and took several hundred members to arrest the Senators. A Human chapter was selected because they would not be in enough contact with Sangheili to let slip the secret, and they were the most easy-to-trust species in the UCSR besides Sangheili.
This contingent of troops marched into the Senatorial Chambers and declared the arrest warrants for the Rebels. However, they would not go quietly and attacked. Four Oath Guard were killed, along with two dozen Senators. The remaining Rebels fled and decided to cut off the Snake's head immediately and fled to the Empress' Palace. They barged into her chambers and drew swords on her, their intentions clear. However, the fully-armored Empress calmly walked to a chest in a corner, and opened it, drawing out two Energy Sword hilts. They flared to life, and the green blades of the 'Jcor Blades tinted the room. It well-complimented the blood of the Senators. In a single blinding spin from one side of the room to the other, three dozen of the Rebel Senators, killing the rest in the next three strikes.
The next morning, she announced in a press-conference that the Senate had declared war on the Sangheili Republic. She also noted they unconditionally surrendered the same day.
Category:Sangheili