Maria I

Maria I (881 BE - present), known as Maria the Resolute or Maria the Red, is the empress of the Yutemond Empire of the Korlat dynasty from 10 AK to 66 AK. Her is reign is notable for the enormous expansion of the Empire, particularly her conquests between 20 AK and 40 AK of the entire Barbarian Fuedal Realm of Daolsore, which included all of the Pithia, Feilerion and Reovell itself. On the eve of her resignation in 66 AK, the Yutemond Empire spanned about 5.4 million km, having grown by eighty percent during Maria's reign.
Maria's conquest of the heartlands of the civil world, and particularly her assumption of the role of guardian of the pilgrimage routes to Reovell and Pithia, established the Yutemond Empire as the pre-eminent paganist state. Her conquests dramatically shifted the empire's geographical and cultural center of gravity away from tribalism and toward capitalism. By the 70s AK, Maria's conquest of the Barbarian Realm of Daolsore had come to be romanticized as the moment when the Yutemond Senate seized leadership over the rest of the known world, and consequently Maria is popularly remembered as the first legitimate Empress of the Realm.
== History ==
=== Early life ===
Born in 881 BE, Maria is daughter of Empress Aldara the Executioner, the daughter of the last queen of Korlat, Rosamund the Great. Her father was Galerius of Stratham, formerly an imperial dowager (as he was the consort of Ulpia II) and was in fact the grandfather of her mother. Much unlike her mother, Aldara, Maria was very popular with the Yutemond Senate.
Through her mother, Aldara she is a direct descendant of popular Korlat duchesses queens, such as; Namidia the Cruel, Ulpia Caesaris, Livia Korlat and Aurora the Sweet. Her father, Galerius was the son of Claudia Sempronia Minor, therefore making Maria an great-granddaughter of the popular and virtious noblewoman, Sempronia Livilla, who was also the daughter of Anastasia Korlat.
Maria is a bisexual, who took one concubine, Tiberius as her primary consort and emperor and had two imperial consorts of the female sex; Lithia and Fythia. With Tiberius she bore three children: Princess Julieanna Korlat (later Julieanna I), Prince Lucon Korlat (later emperor consort) and Prince Lucien Korlat.
== Reign (10 AK - 66 AK) ==
=== Seizing the throne ===
Mass discontent was caused by the Feilerion and Lewen blockade of the Ports of Kolic — which created scarcities in the capital— and the imposition of heavy taxes during an economy to pay for Aldara's whims. In 9 AK, the Vicilum Militaris, Sanameus Arrius, Maria Korlat, and the grand priest Attius Olumpus unsuccessfully plotted to depose the empress and replace her with one of her daughters. Sanameus Arrius was executed, and Princess Maria Korlat was exiled from the household as she had the ambition to place herself as the new empress.
===== Role in the forced abdication of Aldara I (10k) =====
The next year in 10 AK, the Imperial Guard and members of the clergy revolted. Corrupt first state citizen, Arrius Claudius Rufus Basilian was strangled and torn to shreds by an angry mob, gaining the posthumous nickname "milia" ("thousand pieces"). On the same day, Aldara was seized and imprisoned in Korlat Palace. Maria gave consent to her mother's fall, saying:"We will lose control of the government. The whole society is in ruins. Have her removed from the throne immediately."In late 10 AK, Princess Maria Korlat formally took the throne, and the next day, under heavy guard, Aldara was moved to the Korlat's subsidiary palace, while still honored with the title of Empress Mother Aldara Korlat. Within her palace, she had her own staff of maids and eunuchs as well as all three of her official concubines (Elowen, Zaza and Augustus) to accompany her. This was considered generous and provied Maria's filial piety as to "not anger the gods" due to her role in her mother's forced abdication.
=== Dismantling the Brotherhood of Justice (12 AK - 17 AK) ===
One of Maria's first challenges as empress involved the growing tension between the Yutemond Empire and the Brotherhood of Justice led by High Brother Willem, who had recently brought the Brotherhood to power and had switched the Yutemond state religion from monogamous worship. By 11 AK, Willem had conquered the whole of Northern Port, City of Wolves (with its important fort), and made Yutemond governors his vassals. He was a great threat to his Yutemond Senate's neighbors to the west. In 12 AK, Willem had supported a pro-barbarian uprising in Rocol, a rebellion.
Early in her reign, Maria created a list of all barbaric leaders and their monogamous-followers ages 10 to 100 in a number of central Rocol cities including Rock's End, Loronae and neighbour, Barnas. As Maria marched through these cities, her forces rounded up and executed all the monogamous-followers they could find. Most of them were beheaded. The massacre was the largest in Yutemond history.
In 13 AK, Maria attacked Willem's barbarian kingdom to stop the spread of monogamous faiths into Yutemond dominions. Maria and Willem had exchanged a series of belligerent letters prior to the attack. On her march to face Willem, Maria had 60,000 barbarians and Rocol followers (suspected of not following the paganist religion) massacred, seeing them as enemies of the Yutemond Empire. 
Maria I defeated Willem at the Battle of Tecan in early 14 AK. Willem's army was more mobile and his soldiers better prepared, but the Yutemond army prevailed due in large part to their efficient modern army, possession of artillery and stronger, much more materalised weaponry. Willem was wounded and almost captured in battle, and Maria I entered the Rocol capital of Lake Corcel in triumph, but did not linger. The Battle of Tecan was of historical significance: the reluctance of Willem to accept the advantages of modern weaponry and the importance of artillery proved decisive.
=== Conquests in Pithia, Feilerion and Reovell against the barbarian fuedal lords (20 AK - 40 AK) ===
Empress Maria then conquered the Barbarian Fuedal Realm of Daolsore, defeating the barbarians first at the Battle of Horned Grasses (summer of 20 AK), and then at the Battle of the Rising River (spring of 25 AK). This led to the Yutemond annexation of the entire fuedal realm, from Myth Rock and Fort Falop in Rocol, to Fort MiddleEarth and the Narrow Straight in the eastern peninsula, and ultimately the grasslands and outlands itself. This permitted Maria to extend Yutemond power to the newly established Yutemond holy cities and establish Yutemond supremacy.
After conquering Lake Corcel in 32 AK, Maria ordered the restoration of the tomb of Galeria Amaliana (d. 9 AK or 12 AK), a famous grand priestess who was highly revered amongst the most pious of Yutemond nobles for her pro-religious policy (mildly tolerant in comparison to Aldara I).
== Later reign (40 AK - 66 AK) ==
In the years 40 AK to 60 AK, Maria was determined to govern the Yutemond Empire conscientiously and scrupulously. She became personally involved in all branches of the administration: edicts were issued governing the smallest details of everyday life and law, while taxation and public morals were rigidly enforced. According to historians, the imperial bureaucracy never ran more efficiently than under Maria, whose exacting standards and suspicious nature maintained historically low corruption among provincial governors and elected officials.
Although she made no pretence regarding the significance of the Senate under her absolute rule, those senators he deemed unworthy were expelled from the Senate, and in the distribution of public offices she rarely favored family members, a policy that stood in contrast to the nepotism practiced by a few of her predecessors; Namidia the Cruel, Octavia I and Livia Korlat.
Above all, however, Maria valued loyalty and malleability in those she assigned to strategic posts, qualities he found more often in her officials of the gentry than in members of the Yutemond Senate or her own family, whom she regarded with suspicion, and promptly removed from office if they disagreed with imperial policy.
== Abdication as empress ==
A planned campaign westward was cut short when Maria was overwhelmed by sickness and decided to resign in 66 AK, she resigned to her subsidary palace (following the example of her mother Aldara) and was given the honorific title of Empress Mother Maria. She was 66 years old at her time of abdication.
Maria was one of the Empire's most successful and respected rulers, being energetic and hardworking. During her reign, she accomplished momentous success. Despite the conquests and (officially) the barbaric wars ending somewhere in 45 AK, many historians agree that Maria prepared the Yutemond Empire to reach its zenith under the reign of her daughter, Julieanna I.
== Family ==
Maria I was lustful, however while she had many concubines only three are noted, including her emperor consort, Tiberius.
=== Consorts ===
* Tiberius, an ethnic Pithian, the emperor Consort of Maria and the father of Julieanna,
* Lithia, of Rocol origin. She was the second concubine of Maria.
* Fythia, also of Rocol origin. She was the third concubine of Maria.
=== Children ===
* Princess Julieanna Korlat, later known as Julieanna I, sired by Tiberius.
* Prince Lucon Korlat, was later emperor consort for his sister, Julieanna and sired a daughter, Jahzara.
* Prince Lucien Korlat, was sired by Tiberius and firstly married to Atia Amalia and was later married to Richard Fahrington, a statesman and relative of Atius Amalius Davos.
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