Micah Essen

== Micah Essen ==
=== Earlylife and Childhood ===
Micah was born to Rachel and Baric Essen of Bondhome in northeastern Ghillodahn. Like many lordlings and young ladies of Ghillodahn, Micah was rigorously taught and tutored in histories, art, warfare, and the various sciences. She was keen and intelligent. Her father, Baric Essen II oft told her that the world would belong to her, and helped instill a feeling of superiority in his daughter. Micah pursued less the art of sword and lance in favor of wizardly magic. She studied at the University of Wizardly Arts in Taer from the age of 14-22, eventually graduating with mastery over three schools of magic in the 72nd year of the third cycle. The school's professors disliked her for her sense of entitlement and contempt for poorer students. Her father Baric Essen II made a cunning marriage offer to Gilbert Hohenstaufen, to wed his daughter Micah to Lord Gilbert's nephew, Grand Magister Roebert Hohenstaufen. In the 72nd year of the third cycle, the two were wed. This match was a great victory for the Essen family. Perhaps unfortunately, Micah was incapable of having children and Roebert and Micah never had heirs of their own blood.
=== Becoming a Lord Protector ===
Later in the 72nd year of the third cycle, her father Baric died, Micah succeeded her father on the lordly seat as her mother Rachel abdicated.
=== Hustalen Rebellion ===
In the 73rd year of the third cycle, the Hustalen rebellion began. While the exact details of this event are discussed more here, it is simply important to know that Micah and many other lords of Ghillodahn participated in the conflict. 
==== Battle at Sodom ====
Ultimately, at the battle of Sodom, Micah lead the WhiteBridge Reiters in the defense of Illion's fourth hill. A Hustalen sorcerer named Reznick Sørensen cursed Micah using his arcane power, and stripped from her the ability to cast spells. In the aftermath of the battle at Sodom, Roebert Hohenstaufen and Micah Essen took princess Minada Sørensen as a ward to ensure the Hustalen people would not raise their banners in rebellion again. Micah eventually began to see Minada as her own daughter, and named her the heiress to Grand Magister Roebert and herself. This announcement brought much chagrin to the other lords of Ghillodahn.
=== Micah's Rebellion ===
After her husband Roebert vanished on the bold road in the 79th year of the third cycle, Micah expected herself to be crowned the new Grand Magister. Many of the other lords vehemently opposed her coronation due to her Hustalen sympathies. The wizards of Tear procured her second cousin Bianca Lathandre, as an alternative to Micah. Tuomas Durandon the Grand Bishop of Chevalie refused to coronate Bianca as she was not an individual who could enter the election for a new Grand Magister, despite having received a close majority of lordly votes. Tuomas Durandon was killed by 4 great swords of Sterich at a Pelorite church in the fall of the 79th year and was replaced by Grigory Lathandre, a close student of the church. He immediately coronated Bianca. Micah declared her rebellion against the Grand magister in the fall of the 80th year of the third cycle. The bishop of WhiteBridge crowned her as an absolute monarch, a queen, soon after.