Aki Stoddard

Grand Duke Kolya

**Empress Dowager Aki of Forgotten Hollow** was the second recorded consort of Forgotten Hollow before it became what it is known today as Yustea. She was born to a very low noble family, but managed to get herself an advantage by marrying Tsar Alfred. Together they had 3 children: Tsarina Nika, Grand Duke Alexei, Duke of Sulani, and Grand Duke Kolya. She also had 3 more children out of wedlock, Celeste, Zyla, and Julio.

## History

It's said that the former Empress Consort seduced her groom, Tsar Alfred into disobeying his mother's orders of marrying his betrothed, to secretly elope with Aki instead. However, these rumors have been classified as propaganda coming from her late mother-in-law, Tsarina Xenia.

In reality, the couple met and formed a mutual attraction towards each other. Alfred, only Tsarevich at the time, was willing to give up the throne in order to marry her and get out of his betrothal, despite Tsarina Xenia's demands. Fortunately for them, when things were turning bad for the couple, the Empress was assassinated. His father, Roman, without the advice of his wife, granted to nullify Alfred's betrothal and blessed the union between Aki and Alfred. Aki was turned supernatural for him, and the couple were wed in a big and lavish ceremony, one that would be iconic for decades to come.

Weeks later, Tsar Roman decided he could not keep up with the demands of the country anymore, and abdicated the throne, in favor of his son. The couple were enthroned in the Capital Cathedral as Tsar and Tsarina of Forgotten Hallow. Life as monarchs with their three happy children seemed to be a dream come true for them. Alfred was able to situate the country and began plans to boost the economy and improve it into a booming modern era since it had been left extremely impoverished from numerous wars and exploration of its goods from other countries.

After her husband's abdication and death, Aki remained in Forgotten Hallow to support her daughter. In the past, Dowager Empresses didn't have as much power and influence as they did when their spouse was on the throne in Forgotten Hallow. Her counselors suggested many properties to spend the rest of her life in, in peace. But Aki defied her advisors and remain in the imperial court with her daughter and grandchildren.

However, things weren't as blissful and expected as Aki hoped. She started to see red flags in the family almost immediately. As it turns out, Tsarina Nika had converted to the mortal life years ago, and all of her children were mortals as well. To Aki, it all made sense. During these years, the immortal Empress was unable to attend baptisms and weddings, as they were always in the daytime. It was odd, but she brushed it off since she knew her daughter would be busy in the night, holding council meetings and attending royal events. She didn't know that it was all because Nika did not want Aki or the royal immortal court to be present and unveil the truth. Nika immediately caved in when interrogated and apologized immensely for her betrayal. Aki and her daughter always had a good and healthy relationship. Nika hoped that Aki would forgive her, as she always did. However, this sent her mother on a rampage. How could she throw away what made their dynasty distinct from the others and powerful? After a while of trying to calm down Aki, Nika had no choice but to banish her from Forgotten Hallow, never seeing her again in the process. Aki, in response, swore revenge on her own descendants and swore to show how strong the immortal dynasty could be. But she would bide her time in scheming a plan to leave a mark on history.

Aki secretly went to live with her sister-in-law, Dowager Queen Adelia of Willow Creek. Now an old woman, Adelia had no knowledge of what or why Aki had come to live with her, but she was lonely so she enjoyed her company.

Aki's plan was rather simple; she would try to have more children, attempt to marry them off to high ranks, and secure this "immortal dynasty" while proving to her daughter her sinful mistake of turning mortal. Despite this being her big scheme, she needed to perform lesser schemes in the process before pursuing this bigger one, like trying to get her daughter off the throne by any means necessary. She felt that destroying their symbol, the perfect Tsarina Nika, would leave the country in a desperate state and have no choice but to have Empress Dowager Aki back in the country to get things back in order.

She managed to have more three children while away from Forgotten Hollow. She pressured her kids to do her bidding yet keeping their true identities a secret. Her oldest, Celeste, briefly dated Prince Arthur of Willow Creek while being a lady in waiting to Dowager Queen Adelia. Aki took advantage of this union and urged Celeste to suck up all of the misshapes they had and almost harass him to propose to her. Unfortunately, those plan fell through. When Arthur finally proposed, Aki became too cocky and arrived to the palace in her vampire form in order to celebrate her legacy finally being finalized. Needless to say, everyone was horrified by the Tsarina, who was thought to have been dead years ago. Before she was arrested, she escaped and her daughter was shunned. Disappointed and with her mistakes laid bare, Aki realized she needed to be quick in her plans before she gets caught.

#### -Death-

Aki's actions finally caught up to her when she became cocky and planned to kill her grandson, Artemi herself. The Dowager Tsarina died by being exposed to sunlight by her grandson, Tsar Artemi. With this, Artemi finally avenged his mother.

Following these events, Artemi felt he had no choice but to put the country into drastic reformations and officially changed the country of Forgotten Hollow to T*he Empire of Yustea.*

## Kill Count

### Victims=1

Tsarina Nika: After being banished from Forgotten Hollow, Aki schemed a plan to try and get her own daughter off the throne. However, all of attempts to get her off the throne alive were unsuccessful. Finally, Aki decided the only way her scheme would work was to just kill her own child. After the Tsarina's birthday party, she took to her chamber for rest, little did she know, Aki was in there and immediately bite her, infecting her with poison and killing her on the spot. By the time doctors were called to treat her, they were unable to find the bite mark, since it already healed. They concluded that she died from lead poison, and Aki left without even being noticed by anyone.

## Attempted Kill Count

### Attempted Victims=2

1. **Tsar Artemi**: After her first victim, Aki mistakenly believed she would have enough time to press her right to come back to Forgotten Hollow as regent. She was mistaken when the country quickly appointed Artemi as Tsar. He was around 30 at this time and the council believed he was good enough to rule on his own. Due to her mistaken, her plans had to be compromised and she schemed to kill her grandson. She knew it would seem suspicious if there he was poisoned just as his mother was, so she went for a more public approach and remotely. While the new Tsar was on tour around the country to boost public moral, Aki paid someone to take out her grandson with most of the richest she had left from her husband's death. The hitman agreed and planned to shoot him while he made a speech. However, those plans were foiled when Prince Keitaro of San Myshuno jumped in to take the bullet for the new Tsar. The hitman was arrested, but did not mention the tsarina, letting her avoid persecution scot-free. Although disappointed, she still was firm on ending the Tsar's reign anyway possible. After she exposed herself in front of the Willow Creek court, she decided to rush her plans and to just kill Artemi herself before everyone caught onto her. Like how she killed her daughter, Aki was going to sneak into the palace late in the night, kill the Tsar, and leave without a trace. However, Artemi suspected her and was expecting her arrival. Out of rage and vengeance for his mother, Artemi unexpectedly confronted his grandmother and killed her by pushing her into the rising sunlight.
2. **King Sorrel of Del Sol Valley:** After Nika's assassination, Aki saw how good of a relationship her grandson had with King Sorrel of Del Sol Valley. Before she planned to kill Artemi, she believed that if she were to cut off all of Artemi's ties with others, he would isolate himself and thus become vulnerable. Therefore, she partnered with the opposing party of Del Sol Valley, the original supporters of the late King Jarrod, who were now in support of former Queen Heather. Aki planned to award any of the members with luxurious riches and other rewards if they were able to shorten the life of the new king.

## Titles

Born-Marriage: Lady Aki Popov of Forgotten Hollow

Marriage-Roman's Abdication: *Her Imperial Highness* Tsarevna Aki of Forgotten Hollow

Roman's Abdication-Alfred's Abdication: *Her Imperial Majesty* Tsarina Aki of Forgotten Hollow

Alfred's Abdication-Death: *Her Imperial Majesty* Tsarina Dowager Aki of Forgotten Hollow