Frida Hillevy

**Hillevy IX** **(Frida Gunvor Hillevy; born 1792)** is the **Præxy of the Karelian Empire and Protector of the Eastern Houses**. A self styled nationalist and reformer, Frida has overseen Karelia’s rise to prominence following the Great War and the collapse of the UHR. The only daughter and second child of popular monarch Rowlind Hillevy VII. She was content to pursue a career in teaching following the ascension of her brother Sigurd Frode Hillevy VIII to the throne. However the 1813 Officer's Revolt following the Great War would see her replace him as ruler soon gaining the admiration of the common folk and military and leaving her hated by the broader aristocracy who view her as an illegitimate military puppet. And though she wears of the face of the reformist "People's Præxy" rumors abound that her warm populist public persona hides an often shy and awkward aromantic.

## Frida Gunvor Hillevy IX

### Relatives

* Rowlind Hillevy VII (Father)
* Suzannah Lykkennen(Mother)
* Sigurd Frode Hillevy VIII (Older brother)
* Duke Skola (Cousin)
* Liv Hillevy (Daughter)

### Affiliation

* Karelian Empire
* House Hillevy

## Early Life

Frida was born in 1792 within the Emerald Palace of Korinta. Her older brother Sigurd already being groomed to be king, Frida was largely raised to be a suitress who might entrench House Hillevy's power within Karelian aristocratic politics. However the death of her father in 1798 lead to Frida being sidelined from court life by her brother's new government. She would spend much of her adolescence at the palace of House Bigir in Lansdowne, being raised by heiress Kika Birgir X, alongside her daughters Vera and Caohime. Frida would come to maintain a close relationship with the Bigirs, with Kika serving as her closest advisor, and Caohime and Vera, whom she came to view as sisters. Though Frida and the family's relationship with Vera would drift away as years went on. Culminating in the Bigirs all but disowning Vera after she had left home to join the Hoffnung Restoration Army. The move which Frida found to be unnecessarily callus would cause the only bit of tension between her and her adopted family. Though she has hope Vera may one day rejoin the family she has come to terms with the fact Vera may not be coming back.

She would spend the later years of the Great War at the Technical College of Kongens Lyngby, the public College in Korinta. There Frida would meet her future husband, Frode Murstenslag. After graduating in 1811, Frida returned to Lansdowne to teach at a public grammar school. She also became a member of the Frei’s Circle, a prominent intellectual society. There she would meet the controversial author and theorist Ryoumi Saito.

## Rise to Power

### 1813 Officers Revolt

Following the ratification of the Treaty of Phyber, the Great War officially ended. With the Shirudan Empire neither dissolved nor deprived of all its continental holdings, officers and nationalist nobles led a revolution against Sigurd Hillevy. Led by now war hero Kika Birgir, they stormed the Emerald Palace on the 27th of Life’s Beginning, 1813. It was believed that the revolt would mark the end of the monarchy. However, Kika Birgir instead proposed Frida as replacement for her now exiled brother. Reluctant to leave her quiet life as a teacher and intellectual, Frida none the less returned to Korinta, primarily as a means of repaying her surrogate mother. Entering the Emerald Palace for the first time since her childhood, she was coronated on the 5th of Life’s Ending two weeks later.

Frida was not immediately recognized, being viewed as a puppet of a military junta and Kika Birgir. The Council of Elders that historically acted as the source of legitimacy for the monarch outright rejected Frida. When this did not stop her coronation, the enter council resigned in protest. Many Conservative aristocrats turned to this as proof that Frida should be removed. Unperturbed, Frida replaced the Council of Elder’s with the Queens Council, made largely of prominent members of Fei’s Circle. With the support of the Army, the aristocracy lacked support to remove the upstart monarch.

Frida instead turned to common people for support. She negotiated with and recognized the Karelias Arbejderforbund, the Karelian branch of the INLU. Perhaps most controversial of her early decisions however, one that even Kika Birgir advised against, was the marrying of Frode, a man common birth. The two decisions enshrined deep support with common Karelia’s suffering in the shadow of the Great War, a source of power Frida would often return to. Frida’s daughter, Liv (n. 1824) has also become a symbol of Karelia’s close relationship to common Karelian’s. Instead of being raised behind the gates of the Emerald Palace, Frida has raised her daughter publicly (albeit, behind a carefully crafted and censored thin window), crafting the image of Frida as a loving working mother.

### Policy

Not wanting her outreach to the common people to be seen as symbolic, Frida implemented many of the KA’s demands. In 1819, the KA was invited to the Queen’s Council. KA Finn Frandsen became the Queen’s Council, Karelia’s head of government, a position he has held since. Working with Frida’s government, the KA created one of the most complete social safety nets outside of the Aequalist world. The KA and its members provided Frida with mass support, further sidelining the Aristocracy.

Frida’s government has also overseen one of the most expansive re-armament programs in Karelia’s history. This came alongside the controversial undoing Karelia’s historic reliance of levies and house guard forces as the backbone of its military. Symbolizing this shift was the construction of the Army College at Lansdowne, built on the grounds of the Birgir Family palace. Karelia has also centralized its fleet and made it the largest in the world. Karl Enniswick and other weapon’s companies have expanded from being small, single factory operations, to being expansive operations involved in a range of military and civilian industries.

In terms of foreign policy, Frida has used Finn Frandsen as a means of tempering Karelia’s relationship to the Aequalist world. Arcea has been a particular target of this courtship, with Karelian propaganda often centering the efforts of the Aequalist ally. Companies with strong FA presence have also been able to make valuable partnerships with the ANLU that have allowed Karelia to benefit from Arcea’s own modernizing industry. Frida herself has also built a close relationship with Duke Skola, providing Koven a great deal of former Nordvest’s territory. She has, however, been reluctant to recognize Skola’s claims on wider former Nordvest.

Lastly, Frida has supported Birgir and the armies propaganda campaign against the Shirudo. Despite attempts by Hathor to reach out to Frida, the Karelian press, and Frida’s own office, have worked diligently to portray the two as bitter rivals. Ryoumi Saito, a self imposed exile from Shirudo, has played a significant role in helping cultivate this image, and has used her position within the Queen’s Council to construct a “Shirudan Government in Exile”.