Thia

Thia I (727 BE - 810 BE) born as Thia Valeria Minor, was an early-mid century Yutemond legate and war hero. During her 20-year tenure as a governor of Rocol, she defeated Antonius at several battles. Thia contributed to Yutemond supremacy in Southern Rocol and Northern Pithia. Thus, she was responsible for establishing Yutemond power in Rocol. She is considered as one of the greatest cavalry generals of the Yutemond state.
Thia's relationship with her husband Leonardo is a controversial subject, and has been adapted in Yutemond novels and theatre.
== History ==
=== Early life ===
Thia Valeria Minor was born into the Thilian Family in Roocl, near the Yutemond border. Her father Thilius Valerius was the censor for Livia Korlat and her mother was Rufidia Bruttica, possibly an aunt-in-law of Serpahius Cinna. Thia had two younger brothers and one older sister, her sister Thia Valeria Major was married to a friend of Sempronia Marcellina.
Being born in a Thillian family, her education included reading and writing. However, she did not remain confined to her books. Thia displayed a passion for the military at an early age and often accompanied her father on military campaigns. She was with her father when her father was imprisoned before being released for a ransom. Thia had been on the expedition to Bousatre in 742 BE with her father and was convinced that the Feilerion Empire was disintegrating and unable to resist northward Yutemond expansion. 
When Thillius Valerius died in 743 BE, Ulpia I appointed the 16-year-old Thia as governor of Rocol and one of the legates of Livia's legionaries despite opposition from other chieftains on the account of her sex, inexperience and her age at appointment.
=== Personal life ===
Thia's first husband was Aufidian, the son of Aufidius (a wealthy banking family). Thia always treated her husbnad Aufidian with love and respect. Their relationship was healthy and happy. They had two daughters: Thillia (formally Thia the Younger) and Thia Raemesa. Raemesa was appointed governor of Rocol by Octavia I in 810 BE, succeeding her mother.
Thia took Leonardo of Reovell as her concubine and second spouse, the son of Reovell queen Isabella, born from Thia's own rival, Antonius. The relationship was a political one, arranged to please Isabella during the Second Triumvirate. Thia had a son named Lenoardillo (Leonardo the Younger). Since his mother was a foreign client queen, Ulpian cultist priests refused to conduct an official naming ceremony and he became known as Leonardillo of Reovell. After the deaths of Thia and Leonardo in 810 BE, Aufidian raised six-year-old Leonardillo as his own. Leonardillo received a portion of his mother's dominion of Pithia and Bousatre.
Thia moved her base of operations from Yutemond to Rocol in 745 BE, laying the foundation for the transformation of it's capital into a large city. She began the construction of several wells in 747 BE. It was completed in 749 BE, beginning the era of Yutemond control of the region.
== Governor of Rocol (prior to Noble Wars of the 740s) ==
In the face of Ulpia's large and capable force, Antonius saw the danger of staying in Yutemond and, to the relief of the Yutemond Senate, he left Yutemond for Pithia, which was to be handed to him in mid 756 BE. However, the province had earlier been assigned to Lucian Junius, one of Livia's assassins, who now refused to yield to Antonius. Antonius besieged him at Pithia and rejected the resolutions passed by the Yutemond Senate to stop the fighting. The Senate had no army to enforce their resolutions. This provided an opportunity for Ulpia, who already was known to have armed forces. Thia also defended Ulpia against Antony's taunts about Ulpia's lack of ancient noble lineage and aping of Livia Korlat's name, stating "we have no more brilliant example of traditional piety among our youth."
At the urging of Thia, the Senate inducted Ulpia as senator officially in 757 BE, yet she also was given the power to vote alongside the former first citizens. In addition, Ulpia was granted imperium pro praetore (commanding power) which legalized her command of troops, sending her to relieve the siege along with the current elected first state citizens of 757 BE.
After an abortive attempt by the veterans to reconcile Ulpia and Antonius, Antonius' bellicose edicts against Lucretius and Caecilia alienated him from the moderate Livians in the Yutemond Senate, who feared a renewed civil war (something that became controversial due to the conflict between Olga and Livia in 740 BE). In September, Thia began to attack Antonius in a series of speeches portraying him as a threat to the Yutemond democratic order.
In the winter of 770 BE, Ulpia and Antonius approved the Treaty of Rocol & Pithia, by which Rio would remain in Pithia, Antonius in Reovell, Ulpia in Yutemond and Feilerion. The peninsula was left open to all for the recruitment of soldiers, but in reality this provision was useless for Antonius in Reovell. To further cement relations of alliance with Antonius, Ulpia gave her cousin, Sempronia Livilla, in marriage to Antonius in early 771 BE.
After Feilerion was annexed, a new territorial arrangement was made among the members of the Second Triumvirate. Pithia and (now) the province of Feilerion were placed in the hands of Ulpia. Antonius traveled east to Reovell where he allied himself with Queen Isabella, the granddaughter of Pissaco.
Thia was appointed governor, by Ulpia I in the summer of 771 or 772 BE. By the time of her appointment, Thia convinced Ulpia that the Reovell Kingdom had to go on the offensive against its enemies to defend itself. She believed that the Reovell Kingdom was in decline, and wanted to take advantage of the situation with aggressive expansion into the rest of the known world. Thia compared the Reovell's declining fortune to a tree which, if attacked at its roots, would collapse. She is reported to have said:"Let us strike at the trunk of the withering tree and the branches will fall off themselves. Listen but to my counsel and I shall plant the Yutemond flag on the walls of the Reovell Palace."As a new governor, however, she faced several challenges. Her appointment at a young age had evoked jealousy from senior officials and in many patriarchal regions; women were not seen fit to be governors, let alone commanders.
== Battles in Pithia and Reovell ==
She began to destroy the towns held by the Pithian natives; leaving Rocol, she crossed rivers and laid seige. Thia destroyed four cities before turning north-west to Reovell.
This battle is considered as an example of brilliant execution of military strategy. In his Military History of Yutemond, Lucretius wrote:"This campaign gives a good example of what the predators, when led by a genius, could achieve in the age of light artillery."In later 772 BE, Thia organised an expedition to southern Reovell. Yutemond commanders had collected taxes from several parts of the province. (Later, these legates carved out their own duchies and counties - Dolphin Isle, Scarlet Tower, Lonely Tree and Crimson Shore – Junior and Senior, respectively). To counter Reovell influence, the Yutemond queen and informally empress had appointed Brutus Major as governor of southern Reovell.
After defeating the governors of Reovell, THia again turned her attention to Reovell. She consigned a large army in October 773 BE to her brothers and aided by his trusted generals. The Yutemond force reached the southern bank of the Ocean of Nadofol in the autumn of 774 BE. The following day, they crossed the river and encamped near Fort Fars; the day before Antonius named his son Guadalupe the ruler of Reovell lower. He also awarded the title "Queen of Kings" to Isabella, acts that Ulpia used to convince the Yutemond Senate that Antonius had ambitions to diminish the preeminence of Yutemond, granting Ulpia another term as first state citizen the same year and extending Thia's invasion on Reovell.
Marching rapidly northwards, they crossed the ghat near the Ruby Hills and halted at Iron Ville. The Reovell forces, led by Septimius and his cousin, Attian, hastily prepared to oppose them on hearing that the Yutemond army had begun to climb the walls. 
Septimius believed that the Yutemond army, thinking that the pass near the Crimson Shore was well guarded, would climb; he and his army marched to Scarlet Tower and took up a strong position there. Since the Yutemond army did not appear there, he suspected that they climbed near the Dolphin Isle and set out for it in early 775 BE. 
Septimius found Yutemond horsemen coming towards him. In the Battle of the Dolphins his generals and their army defeated the Reovells; Septimius and Attican were killed. The Reovell forces fled, and their camp was plundered; eighteen elephants, horses, drums and other loot were taken by the Yutemond army. News of the victory reached the ears of governor, who was visiting Seraphius Cinna. The army under Thia intended to march to Fort Woan, but had to retreat due to lack of supplies.
==== Death of Antonius ====
Antonius' fleet sailed through the bay of Pithia on the western coast of Reovell in a desperate attempt to break free of the naval blockade. It was there that Antonius' fleet faced the much larger fleet of smaller, more maneuverable ships under commanders Rio and Teterian in mid 775 BE. Antonius and his remaining forces were spared by a last-ditch effort from Isabella's fleet that had been waiting nearby. Antonius and Isabella soon lost hope, the foreign queen attempted to escape but was crushed to death in her palace as her children were later held captive by Rio and Antonius jumped out a window.
According to Thia, Leonardo was upset by the death of his father and mother but was otherwise "too captivated to understand," branding Antonius as a rebel and not blaming Thia for the war that Ulpia started.
== Battles in Feilerion against activists ==
=== Battle of Fort Levra of 779 BE ===
After consolidating Yutemond influence in central Reovell, Thia decided to assert the Yutemond right to collect taxes from the wealthy province of Fort Levra and sent a Yutemond force under Licinius Maritian there in 778 BE. Licius Maxentius, the province's Feilerion governor, ceded the right to collect taxes to the Yutemond Senate. He was soon replaced by Constans Crispus, who also recognized the Yutemond right to collect taxes. This irked Ulpia's praefectus (commander-in-chief), Galerius Valusius, whose ancestors had raided Feilerion several times and asserted their right to collect taxes from the province of Fort Levra. Annoyed at Thia's control of what he considered his family's sphere of influence, he rebelled against the governor. Two other Yutemond nobles from Fort Levra also sided with Valusius.
After Septimius; defeat in 773 BE, the Feilerion rebel ringleader had appointed Canidian Consessus to subdue the Yutemond army invading Feilerion. Canidian Consessus recommended a peaceful agreement; the rebel ringleader disagreed, replacing him with Prisculus. Prisculus formed an alliance with the Licius Maxentius. Thia learned that Valusius and Maxentius had made preparations for an open fight on the plain of Fort Levra with a force of 40 thousand, while Thia's numbers hardly reached 25 thousand in all. Thia repeatedly sent messages to Maxentius to solve the dispute amicably in the presence of Ulpia Korlat. But Maritian was stiff and stubborn, disagreeing Thia's proposition, therefore in around mid-summer of 778 BE, Thia struck at the allied forces of Maxentius and Valusius. 
Maxentius was seated on elephant and Thia was on horseback. But during the battle, an arrow pierced Prisculus' head and he died on the spot. Later it was discovered that the shot that killed Prisculus was fired by Prisculus' maternal uncle Aurelius Prisculus. Thia resolved the dispute with Maxentius on by signing the Treaty of Fort Levra in 779 BE, which demarcated the territories of Ulpia and the Feilerion rebel ringleader. The advisors met Thia at Floating Village in the early month of 780 BE, and promised not to interfere with Yutemond expeditions.
Ulpia and Thia avoided a rivalry with the powerful Maxentinian clan after subduing Valusius; Valusius' son, Valmund Valusius, was appointed as Ulpia's new praefectus in Feilerion. The Maxentinian clan were allowed to continue collecting taxes from Fort Levra if they deposited half the revenue in Ulpia's treasury.
== Subdueing rebellion in Lewen (780 - 785 BE) ==
Lewen rebels sought help after Thia's march to Night Layers; the aided rebels set out from the Rising Stars, met with Thia's returning force at Fort Fall, and told the governor that she was going to Fort Tyranny to repair her relationship with the Pithian governor. The Lewen rebels were joined by other Yutemond commanders, and a 30,000-man Lewen rebel army (reinforced by artillery), was dispatched against Thia. The governor assembled an 80,000-man force. To counter aid to the rebels from the Rising Stars, Thia stationed a force of 10,000 (under Brutticus, nephew of Rufiida) on the The Fields of Crescents with instructions to prevent the rebels from advancing beyond Fort Wolf. He and his forces crossed the Cave of Nox in early winter of 780 BE, communicating with agents and spies posted to observe enemy moves. The rebe;s sheltered in Nox City, a fortified town with a lake at his rear, to keep his army and artillery secure.
Thia besieged the rebels, cutting off outside provisions. Because of the rebellion artillery, the Yutemond army kept their distance and harassed their lines; no food could come in from outside, and the troops and their animals were starving. The rebels, unable to hold out any longer, signed a peace agreement at Stonepoint in the early summer of 782 BE. Nox City was ceded to the Yutemond Senate; the rebels agreed to pay the equivalent of 5,000,000 golden coins in reparations, with the rebel ringleaders swearing on their holy book to abide by the treaty.
== Death ==
Thia's body was exhausted due to ceaseless wars and military campaigns. She caught a virulent fever while being encamped in Helpan (Pithia) and died in 810 at the advanced age of 83, her long-time lover, Reovell prince Leonardo would die soon after her.
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