Merlena the Ambitious

* Child
 **Family**

**Merlena Azamaras**, stylized **Merlena the Ambitious** and known foremost as the Iron Sultana **Yspedas** (4788-), is a Dashari politician and clergywoman currently holding the office of Sultana of the Sultanate of Dashari, serving since 4833. Before rising to the throne through a unanimous *Untays* contest, she was a field marshal stationed in south Dashari who, prior to the 4830s, participated in the Nascent Revolution that formed the Oceanic Republic of Voshe as well as other conflicts within and outside of Dashari, including its defense during the state of emergency imposed by the Aether War.

Merlena was born in Canjydas, Dashari, as the second child of four to highly devout parents, having an older and younger sister and a younger brother. Her mother was a high-ranking officer in the Ayndrvunlas who was renowned for harsh but effective tactics in pacifying both internal dissent and threats from without. Her father was an elementary schoolteacher and raised the four children after school with devotion and love. During her childhood, her family voyaged frequently to the Muqaddas range to pray, attended every service and hosted their own, and were respected in their community as the prime example of an Ayndr-serving family.

Merlena herself was a strong student, excelling particularly in communications and religious studies, and becoming apt at statistics in her later school years. She was close with her siblings, and her older sister Zulema strove to be a good example, coming home often in her conscription years to deliver souvenirs, stories, and - to Merlena's annoyance - a handful of lectures. She herself was a caring older sister, being supportive and protective of her younger siblings, particularly her younger brother Kamsin. As she neared her conscription years, Merlena showed potential to be an ideal army woman - stoic, devout, clever, and physically more than capable - and planned to study theologic law while serving. While the eyes were off of her, she was a regular Dashari teen girl, competing for the attention of boys and occasionally sneaking out into town for nights with her friends.

It was during her final year of secondary school that Zulema and her squad vanished without a trace while patrolling the foot of the Kantoon mountains. Because no body or equipment were found, her officers could not rule out the possibility of desertion, and could therefore not give the family an honor-letter as well as restitution. Heartbroken and now faced with carrying the family forward and bearing the brunt of her mother's expectations, Merlena finished secondary school strongly and in silence, joining the Ayndrvunlas with the girls of her class months after.

She decided to continue her studies while serving, but doubted her own future as a theologian. On a particular day when she was dismissed into town, she met a young man by the name of Zalidor, one year her junior, who was academically bright and planned to pursue nursing. Merlena was captivated by him and his soft and caring demeanor that contrasted with her cool, sharp exterior. The two became fast friends, falling in love over the course of the following years. They married upon Merlena's graduation and the end of her conscription, and she fell pregnant soon after.

She decided to continue a career in the army, following the footsteps of her mother, and subconsciously filling the shoes of her older sister. She was widely respected, seen as both strict but in tune with others, and knew how to raise morale when needed. More than just the army, Merlena wanted to focus especially on her family, which she saw as the center of her life. Deeply in love with her husband and seeking a more spiritual fulfillment, she had two more daughters and two sons over the next decade. With the help of her devoted husband and own father, she was able to raise them attentively while climbing up the ranks of the Ayndrvunlas. She participated in excursions as far as Alamut, and during her travels developed an interest in seeing Dashari grow beyond its current borders, within which she thought it seemed the Sultanate trembled at the thought of the sea.

When the Aether War began and anomalies began to ravage Aphelion, she - now a sergeant - was put in charge of evacuating the displaced into temporary encampments and fighting back the enderman threat as Moros threatened to assimilate Aquila into something far darker. Even through days where the sky remained pitch black, she maintained the morale of her women and delivered thousands to safety, beginning her popularity among the people. Mere weeks after the end of the war, fate would have her meet the Outlanders Amare Jelani and Sam Darkwalker, who sought an audience with the then-Sultana to rally support for a massive slave rebellion. They piqued her interest, and although she did not join their excursion, she sent a few of her own women who had volunteered for the cause.

The next decade and a half would see a peak of spiritual fulfillment for Merlena. Her children grew, the girls joining the army - one choosing to stay, one leaving manage a metallurgy chain after graduating from university, and the third becoming a professor of statistics in Ereni. The boys began promising careers, one as a teacher and the other rising up the ranks of a prominent textiles company as a public relations head. Merlena and Zalidor vacationed regularly, as far as Occa and Audax, and learned much about the world, having already accrued considerable respect and wealth. She served as a councilwoman from her city of Canjydas for two consecutive two-year terms while still serving in the army, building herself a following as a staunch nationalist and experienced soldier with policies that would embolden Dashari militarily as well as support education and national intraconnectivity.

However, she still felt enchained to her past, and most of all to her status as her mother's daughter. Seeking time away from the Sultanate to reevaluate her devotion, she joined the Nascent Rebellion in Voshe, with Jelani and his comrades at its head. After the liberation of the continent from its slavers, she was among many Dashari to successfully petition the Sultana for the imprisonment of the stateless slavers and the pursuit of close ties with Voshe.

Seeing a new opportunity, Merlena opted to serve the Ayndrvunlas abroad, bringing her husband out to the port of Dalatari to serve as an overseas nurse. With much passion, Zalidor was able to guide and train a new generation of Oceanic medics and published a series of books on common diseases and treatments during their time there. The two enjoyed the noon years of their marriage there while Merlena pondered her own future as a mother, wife, and servant of the Earth Goddess. They would return to Dashari in 4829, and Merlena undertook a personal voyage to Sudaran, and prayed at her tomb for a light to guide the way forward. There, she heard advice she did not yet understand - an order to follow the fire to become closer to her Goddess.

Months after her voyage, war would break out with the Commonwealth of Dreiton over control of the Omsk territory, at the frozen foot of the Kantoon mountains. While the war raged in the east, elements of the Dreitonese army also slithered through the Muqaddas, defiling holy land with the goal of coercing Dashari into submission with a pincer attack. She fought bravely for two years, the livelihoods of her husband, children, and aging father on her mind. The situation was unforgiving - despite being suited to the climate and geography, the Dashari women struggled with an inconsistent supply of food, some days being desperate enough to eat the scorpions and snakes they found in the pits and nooks. Even so, Merlena fought tooth and nail to keep the morale of her platoon high in the midst of what was essentially a holy war, and often gave up her own dinners to feed her own sisters.

The Dashari soldiers dug into trenches and fired back at the invading force with their muskets. Over the next two years, the Dreitonese frontline would be pushed back by kilometers, slowly but surely. This was aided in no small part by the enigmatic natives of the Kantoon mountain range, who found solidarity with the Dashari soldiers who were defending their sacred land. Despite being primitive, the Kantoonese were of great help, allowing the Dashari limited use of their land in addition to their own strength, which Merlena suspected was partially magickal in nature. The war in the Muqaddas continued ever so slightly in Dashari's favor until the sudden cessation of fire and marching one morning. Upon returning to her command center, Merlena was informed that the war had ended, and Dashari had sued for peace after a disastrous bombing of the port city of Asten that the Sultanate's primitive air force failed to repel. The gains made against Dreiton in the holy mountains were forfeit, as was control of the area around Omsk.

Merlena was among many throughout the Sultanate, especially in the land army, that felt disgraced by the settlement. Thousands of their sisters had been lost in the cold Omsk tundra as well as in their own holy land, for the glory of their families as well as the protection of their homeland, and had been dishonored after death. Merlena herself was heartbroken, and believed that Dreiton, now emboldened, would return to destroy their lands and families one day.

Understanding the message at the Sudaran at last, Merlena declared her candidacy for the upcoming Untays and, being among the Sultanate's most widely respected figures in contrast to the fading Sultana, was the only one put forth to contest for the throne. She overcame and slew her predecessor in combat, and rose to the throne in 4833, at the relatively young age of 44.

Her immediate order of business was a galvanization of Dashari society in the direction of fierce nationalism and development. The air force and navy of the Sultanate were to have a renaissance in tactics, technology, and numbers. Religion, communications, and the applied sciences were to be revamped throughout all Dashari schools with strict standards. Most ambitiously, Merlena would please the disgraced land army and put the new navy to the test with a conquest of northwestern Aphelion. The pirate threat in the area was extinguished, and new communities would rise in the green savannas that would feed Dashari. New trade routes were opened, not only with Voshe but with states throughout Kilran and places as far as northern Audax.

In terms of the armed forces, the navy would begin a campaign of power projection by strictly delineating and defending Dashari's trade waters and stamping out pirates all throughout the southwest quadrant of Aquila, beginning with the Bakadaja near home. The air force would be the subject of much successful R&D in terms of fuel and aerodynamics, and developed around the concept of the smaller and faster armed airship, designed to defend the Sultanate's own skies and clear the skies of any other target nation while the land army marched in. Metallurgy and materials sciences, as industries, expanded explosively in the 4830s, with advancements in important technologies such as superconductors and impact-resistant vests. While the military industry prospered, its success rained into the civilian sector, and radios became a staple of every complete home.

In the sphere of government, Merlena and her right-hand women stamped out corruption at every level fiercely, imprisoning those guilty. Elections were changed to be more meritocratic and accessible for every women, either candidate or voter. In a land-shattering move, the Yspedas government outlawed trial by combat in 4856, with Merlena being the last one subject to it, ensuring a process that was more in line with the needs of modern Dashari.

However, the rapid advancement of Dashari increasingly highlighted a dreary question for Merlena: how could they advance socially? Throughout the quarter-century of her tenure thus far, the Sultanate's ways of life have changed drastically. People remain devout, but seek to serve Ayndr economically and academically rather than preaching Her word as before. And as the population grows and develops larger and more advanced needs, the barriers against men in business, government, academia, and the military have become increasingly tighter chains. Could Dashari continue as a devout nation, serving Her name, slowed down by its norms of the past? A small but growing part of the population believes not, and Merlena finds herself at a crossroads - as a sister of the highest order, does serving Ayndr mean to change or to hold steadfast?

Regardless of the answer, the question has been thrown into the shadows by the events of the late 4840s and 4850s. As the faraway nation of Khotan invaded parts of Aquila during the War of the Sunflower, Dashari for the first time in a dozen years had to hold its ground against a foreign invader, successfully repelling attempts at incursions by Kazimir by both land and sea and extending the Sultanate even closer to Windforth. And in the current day, Dreiton is once again at the doorstep of the old Sultanate, making inroads into the holy lands of central Aphelion, ever-hungry for money. Only time will tell whether Merlena can assert Dashari as a modern state that will survive into the next century, and how it should change - if at all - in its eternal mission of serving the Earth Goddess.