Theodore Aspen

Theodore Aspen (Photograph; aged 13)

**Theodore Aspen** (Theodore Rolf Zimmerman Aspen; 1 January 1901) is the second-eldest High Duchess of the House of Aspen, the honorary Duchess Euphemia of Austria, the honorary Austrian Edelstein, the honorary Maiden Orleans, and the first Queen of Upper Austria belonging to the House of Aspen-Kirkland before the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. The second-eldest daughter of Duke Wilhelm Aspen and Duchess Viola Aspen, she was viewed as extremely high-ranking in Austrian-Hungarian society; Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria (her maternal great-grandfather) even named her as his favorite among his great-grandchildren (her older sister, Duchess Rebecca) was his second favorite grandchild. One of her favorite uncles, Charles I of Austria, named Theodore Aspen, as one of his most favored nieces; her sense for politics even rivaled those of previous Austrian leaders; she was nicknamed **Princess Theodore the Great**, despite her actual title being that of a Baroness. The style of **Her Royal Highness, Princess Theodore of Austria-Hungary** was given to her in 1913, exactly one year before the First World War began; her siblings were also given the styles of His/Her Royal Highness, Princess/Prince of Austria-Hungary, following in the footsteps of their political-genius older sister. In 1911, her favorite uncle (Prince Charles I of Austria) married Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma, a marriage that Theodore herself had tested as a politically-strong move; Theodore was given back the ancestral castle of Schloss Hartheim with the castle returning to the hands of the House of Aspen. After the death of her maternal great-grandfather in November 1916, her favored uncle (Prince Charles I of Austria) succeeded to the thrones and became the Emperor of Austria; the whole of Upper Austria was given to Theodore who was secretly crowned Queen Theodore of Upper Austria, and Schloss Hartheim. Her parents were fifth cousins with their marriage producing extremely healthy children; Rebecca and Theodore being one example of this fact. A descendant of Casimir III the Great of Poland, Lavonna, desired to marry Theodore; Emperor Charles I of Austria (her uncle) disgusted with the man (as he was both a stalker and a pervert) ordered for him to be executed for attempting to assault his niece. After this incident, Charles I assigned guards to Theodore (his niece) every single hour of the day and night; in the few, rare public appearances that she did make without her guards watching her, she was depicted with the rest of her family and other Austrian-Hungarian nobles, or even her own uncle. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg (one of her favored uncles and aunts) caused her mental anguish, with Theodore often confining herself in enclosed spaces to cry over the cruelness of their assassination; she was often described as "emotionally-stirred and filled with great sorrow."

Otto von Habsburg (born in 25 November 1912) later became the young thirteen-year-old Theodore`s favored nephew, as she considered his younger brother (Prince Robert) to be a "bore" and "utterly useless" in matters of politics; she as the favorite niece of Emperor Charles I of Austria, educated Otto in all matters of politics, considering him to be more politically-smart than his younger brother Robert. Following the Armistice of 11 November 1918, Charles "renounced participation" in state affairs, but did not abdicate. Emperor Charles I of Austria banished his favorite niece, along with the rest of her family to protect them from both the Allied Powers and Axis Powers; they retreated to their Austrian countryside castle, Schloss Hartheim where they holed themselves up until it was safe to come out. The Austrian Parliament who had assumed that Theodore was a governess to the young Prince Otto and his younger brother (Prince Robert) didn`t take away their wealth or styles; as such, Theodore and the rest of her family resided in the countryside until September 1, 1939 when the Second World War started. The Austrian public could only watch in horror as Theodore`s sole brother (Luke) was killed by Nazi Germany in their ancestral castle; Theodore and her family who were opposed to violence became desensitized to it, through seeing countless atrocities reported every single day on the newspapers in Switzerland. The loss of her parents played a part in her discengrating mental state, the once politically-smart Theodore had her mind wreaked with painful memories always flowing in; her PTSD was so severe even the American Doctors who treated her worried for her mental sanity and recommended that she be sent to a mental hospital for her and their own safety. After the Second World War, Theodore who had been completely "cured" by the doctors returned to a broken Austria (this time even more emotionally-broken than before) and kicked the patients out of her ancestral home of Schloss Hartheim, having a private facility built for the patients` usage where she personally cured them. By doing so, she eased the mentally brokenness of her mind and gradually repaired herself; by September 2, 1945, she was as politically-smart as she had been before the start of the First World War. Upper Austria, where her family`s ancestral castle, Schloss Hartheim, was located decided to split from the rest of Austria; in her youth, Theodore had bounded to a pack of gigantic white wolves and they would become the police force of Upper Austria. Soon Upper Austria was flourishing with magic-users and as a precaution against outsiders, they made a magical force-field around the region to protect it; this protection helped them avoid castrophetic wars that could destroy them. Theodore is styled as **Her Royal Highness, Queen Theodore of Upper Austria and Schloss Hartheim**, as she ruled the whole of Upper Austria and all of Schloss Hartheim by herself. She married Duke Edward Kirkland and the couple have no children currently, their marriage was such a happy occasion that even the citizens of