Vesper Butterfly

## Queen Vesper Butterfly

*"During the hard years of darkness,*

*When the scarce hope is already far*

*The evening star will be revealed*

*Like the brightest morning star."*

Vesper Butterfly was the 23rd Queen of the Butterfly Queendom. She is best known for ending the Dark Ages and starting the Renaissance Age. Vesper also established the Royal Bank, which created a new monetary system and established the Mewnian Civil Code.

### Early Life

Vesper Tina Igraine Butterfly was born on the 12 of Admirestar, 597 years after Mewnipendence to Queen Heaven Butterfly and King Consort Arthur McKnight. She was born right before the dawn, under the glow of the morning star Venus, which gave Vesper her name, thus making her a star queen, the 4 star queen, the last three being Queen Venus the Fairest, Queen Asteria the Mother of Stars, and Queen Estelaria Estelaria the First Star. Vesper was the low mewnian word for dusk as well as the low mewnian name for the morning star. Vesper possessed orange blond hair and blue eyes she inherited from her father. She also had the symbol of the morning star on her cheeks, 8 lines diverging from a center point which were blue. Growing up under Heaven's strict, rigid, and paranoid rules, Vesper was described as a respectable lady, with a large intelligence and calm personality, who was very determined. She was a lover of the arts, especially music with her lyre and lute skills, and dance. She also loved culture and learning, preferring books more than a sword. Vesper’s relationship with her father was very good and was almost a friendship. The same couldn’t be said with her mother Heaven. Ever since she could speak and think for herself she antagonized her mother. Vesper was focused on her family and her studies, while her mother was a woman who showed no interest in governing, preferring to indulge in daydreaming, paranoia, gossip, and conspiracy. The family feud increased 607 years after Mewnipendence when Heaven refused to give Vesper the traditional Lonely Star Ball on her 10th birthday. However she had this ball as a gift from her father. This event marked the first time she left the castle walls and the ball took place at the House McKnight headquarters, Fort McKnight. She danced with her father Arthur in the presence of lords and ladies she had never seen before. She met people who would become her longtime companions, her cousins squires Erec and Enidae McKnight as well as her best friend and confidante Hilda. 609 years after Mewnipendence was a milestone of the troubled relationship between mother and daughter. After the Lonely Star Ball Vesper developed the habit of sneaking out of the castle and discovering the kingdom that existed outside, almost always with her cousins or Hilda. Vesper initially only met the lords and ladies of the great houses and noble houses. However over time she began to focus on the most humble of people and discover the horrible conditions they lived in. Vesper went to question Heaven about this, a heated argument broke out, with The Princess accusing The Queen for negligence and bad character and The Queen accusing The Princess of being a delinquent and made promiscuous assumptions about her escapades and made bad remarks about Hilda, who was not of noble blood. From then on the relationship between Vesper and Heaven would never be the same. 611 years after Mewnipendence, when Vesper was 14 came and she was set to inherit the wand. However this hardly occurred due to her mothers isolation and her insistence on not handing the wand over to her daughter. The wand would only find its way into possession of The Princess at the end of the day and at the tireless insistence of Vesper and Arthur. She also as a gift got a kitty corn named Mrs. Linka. Curious and determined, Vesper was an exemplary magical student. She valued more the quality of her spells rather than the quantity. One of her most useful spells was the alethiometer spell also known as the truth spell. The spell was able to tell if someone was lying and was able to answer any question, however to do this the caster would have to understand the chosen symbols out of 32. By the age of 16 she no longer listened to her mother, doing whatever she liked whenever she liked. Vesper was both appreciated by the nobles and the castle staff and was held in high regard by the common people, due to her visits to the town, volunteer work, and donations. She donated much food from the castle in her name. 614 years after Mewnipendence The Princess traveled outside the borders of the kingdom for the first time to attend a tournament in the Fahrmann Kingdom. At the tournament Vesper talked to foreign families, such as the Fahrmann and Clifford Kingdom's Royal Families, as well as many kings, queens, and princes of the United Kingdoms. Vesper in her journal writes “During the banquet, I sat at the table with the heirs of the neighboring kingdoms. Hilda told me that being the only princess among princes helped me to have a good conversation with them. I think she's right, but in any case, it's a good start to recover the good alliances between our kingdoms.” However during the tournament Vesper didn’t expect to find an answer to a mystery that had been held since the beginning of the dark ages, why the Butterfly Family had been so inferilte. In a letter to her father, Arthur, Vesper writes “Today while Hilda and I were visiting the Fahrmann Castle painting gallery, I had the pleasure of meeting the Blue Princess of the Rainbow Isles. She admired one of those stark, but I admire beautiful portraits of Queen Venus the Fairest. The princess and I had a very pleasant and enlightening conversation. She explained to me that Bloomoon flower tea, which Queen Venus was known for being passionate about, is used in the rainbow island for abortive purposes, and that if consumed in excess, can affect the fertility of future generations. Fortunately there is a treatment for this. And the fact that my grandmother Luna became pregnant more than once, suggests that the effects are milder and that a chance for a cure is a reality.” Vesper never made clear what the treatment consisted of, but always made clear she hated Queen Venus for it. The simple trip to the tournament paved the way for a series of conflicts that would start in 616 years after Mewnipendence when Vesper was 16, after she decided to go on a pilgrimage to the United Kingdoms to finally put an end to the troubled relationships between her kingdom and the other kingdoms caused by her Queen Heaven. Seeing this as yet another one of her delinquencies, Heaven arranged for Vesper’s carriage to break in the Forest of Certain Death, so that she could learn a lesson once and for all. The plan worked and Vesper was forced to return to the castle with her knights. However they were surprised by a horde of monsters that killed the majority of her knights. Vesper and two horsemen survived but the worst was with the death of the Second Prince of the Dogbulls, which resulted in the end of the peace treaty between the Monster Nations and the Butterfly Kingdom created by her grandmother Queen Luna the Child. The details that followed the battle of the third spell were covered in Queen Heavens chapter and won't be repeated here. What will be noted here is that Princess Vesper showed incredible leadership, going so far as to evacuate the capital of the citizens and the unification of the Noble and Vassal Houses of the Butterfly Kingdom, something that had disappeared during the reign of her mother. In addition, the fearless attitude of fighting for her kingdom, even though she wasn’t an expert warrior, made her image grow in admiration and respect to her subordinates. Near the end of the battle, Vesper was wounded and disarmed by a bearicorn, and was close to finding her final end. However she was saved by the most unlikely of heroines, her own mother. The last image Vesper caught before passing out was of worried looks from her mother. Vesper woke up in her room hours later, around 4 in the morning, with her abdomen bandaged, and waking up her father and her kittycorn Mrs. Linka who slept beside her bed. Soon the good news of her waking traveled around the castle and through the kingdom as quick as the wind. However it wasn’t long before the servant sent to inform The Queen about her daughter's awakening returned with tragic news, Queen Heavens suicide. Shocked and disconcerted, Vesper demanded to see her mothers body, contrary to Lord Cross's recommendation. Seeing her mother in that state, Vesper's heart broke and she gave into tears. She pain of loss caused complications in Vesper’s condition and was forced to stay in bed for two weeks, while her mothers autopsy was being conducted by the Royal Doctor and Lord Cross, which had been done on every queen, except Queen Galaxia the Clairvoyant and Queen Meteora the Relentless, since Queen Soupina the Strange. Although grief affected her greatly, something she didn’t want to admit, Vesper didn’t allow it to hinder her start in the office of queen.

### Reign as Queen

Her first two months as queen were promising, quickly repealing her mothers rules and banning bloomoon flower tea from the kingdom. Still in bed and assisted by Hilda, Vesper ordered the official reopening of the main gate of Butterfly Castle effectively reopening the

    kingdom for the first in 37 years. She also responded to the letters pending nearly twenty years ago, in addition to writing new ones, citing that the era of fear was over and the era of the new star was now. She reopened negotiations with kingdoms both to the north and south. In an effort to avoid future quarrels and realtations after the Battle of The Third Spell, Queen Vesper brought King Sudo and Queen Pemma Avarius of the monster kingdom of Avarius, the last of the three remaining monster royal families willing to come to the castle. The monsters of the Avarius Kingdom are called Kappas and are weak compared to other monsters. King and Queen Avarius agreed to negotiate peace after Vesper gave them “Some food, sweet words and their insignificant weight in gold.” They agreed to work to control moods in the monster society. Vesper claimed the Avarius’s are easy to put in the palm of your hand and control. In less than 2 weeks monster attacks and lootings of villages ceased. With the most immediate problem solved Vesper focused on a plan that would solve all the other problems at once. The event known as the

    Golden Tournament, organized by Queen Vesper, Hilda, and her Mewnisters, would occur in the summer of the first year of her reign and would help bring relief to the Crown’s Treasury, which was close to broke, after centuries of spending on war, the closing of the castle gates, and personal neglect. Vesper also used the event to host the first meeting of the Mewnian Kingdoms Organization outside of the Gorge Kingdom, which was partly created by her great-great-great-great-great grandmother Queen Helia the Light of Power after the 2nd Mewnian War. She also used the event to house her coronation ceremony, making her coronation with the most foreign people in history, with her being crowned queen at the age of 20. It was during the Golden Tournament that she announced her engagement to Caspian Waterson whose story begins four months earlier at her first face to face meeting with the Royal Council. It was during this meeting Vesper announced her plan to get married. Queen Vesper said “My family’s blood has flirted with disappearance for the past three centuries. After my 2 weeks of recovery, I realized that continuing to give luck at random

    is very risky. I’ll choose  an appropriate fiance based on a process personally done by me, and i’d be happy if there were no outside interference with my choices and decisions.” For an entire month Vesper only listed suitors based off of analysis, consultation with documents, medical examinations, and the Alethiometer Spell. In this long process, Vesper focused on looking for candidates in Noble Houses who had fewer and more distant blood ties to the Royal Family. Those houses were Stone, Redbird, Firefly and Waterson. In the first stage, which consisted of a private dinner between The Queen and each of the twelve suitors, Vesper disqualified at once the three Stone brothers. “One of the brothers was a personal space invader, was a personal space invader and alcoholic, one had no skills in conversation, and one seemed to have a tendency towards boys.” However in less than a month and a half Vesper reduced her list of suitors to just three, who became known in history as the three favorites. In a letter to Hilda Vesper states “Pictor Firefly is a boy of admirable intelligence and incredible artistic gifts, an accomplished painter of landscapes and portraits. Grosbeak Redbird, on the other hand, is strong and handsome, has a charming look that made me distract myself for a few moments, I admit. As for Caspian Waterson, the only son of Lord River, he is a confident boy who likes to tell stories about his sea voyages, who, even though I doubt the truth behind them, end up having fun and entertaining.” The process, as a whole, lasted for a long quarter, with Vesper

sharing part of her time between balls, dinners, tours, events, and several other types of activities that would allow her to get to know the personalities, intentions, goals, ideas, strengths and weaknesses of her suitors. Most people believed that she would choose the Redbird for her consort. However she surprisingly chose Caspian Waterson, much to the delight of his family and the 6 Mewmans that bet on him. When questioned Vesper never answered why she chose him but the explanation can be found in Vesper's chapter in the book of spells on a page written in entirely High Mewnian and glued between two pages. On this page she revealed that in the final 2 weeks she asked each of the boys to bring her a gift. She implied but never directly said to the boys she faced a problem in the Royal Council and needed a gift to serve a purpose. A week in advance Pictor Firefly was the first to fulfill the task. He presented her a painting titled A Star in the Spring, a portrait of the queen with a serene expression wearing a wreath. He said the queen looked more beautiful when she wasn’t worried. It was then she eliminated him stating “a queen cannot pretend that problems don’t exist.” Three days later came the probable cause why she wanted to keep this secret. When Grosbeak arrived with nothing in hand The Queen thought he knew what she wanted. However the moment they were alone in the garden he pulled her into a kiss, which she thoroughly enjoyed. However this was the reason she eliminated him stating “a good queen cannot allow herself distractions.”  As for Caspian, Vesper assumed he withdrew after two weeks of not hearing from him.  However the boy unexpectedly appeared during dusk on the last day while Queen Vesper was having tea in the garden. Caspian had nothing in hand except pieces of paper tied in a velvet string. The pieces of paper were in fact documents that proved a tax forgery for members of entire families of the Great Houses, that forged documents and lied about amounts paid for luxury imported items,

     paying taxes well below the amount established by law during the majority of the reign of Queen Heaven the Scared. “A king must be the queen's eyes for what she cannot see.” After the announcement of the engagement at the tournament Vesper allowed him to be present in her day to day life. Hilda’s description of the couple during their engagement was “Initially it wasn’t much different than what i had witnessed during these past months.. But in two weeks, I could already see some developments, a caress, a smile, an exchange of looks, a walk holding hands and even a kiss. I wonder if Her Majesty should have just taken the Lord Caspian for lover after the first dinner. These conventions of nobility and royalty confuse me.” The wedding took place two weeks before the autumn equinox, with a ceremony and feast restrained in pomp, since “the kingdom wasn’t healthy enough to allow such whims.” in the words of Vesper. However Vesper and Caspian's wedding wasn’t as celebrated as they imagined. At their first meeting after their honeymoon Vesper was notified that the princes of the United Kingdoms of Southern Mewni would meet in the village of Cornwell in a series of unique combats and whoever won would marry The Queen Butterfly. Vesper laughed thinking it was a joke but when she saw the serious and concerned expressions of her Mewnisters realized it was a serious problem. Upon arriving at Cornwell, Vesper already found the dispute taking place, with several knights, squires, lords, and more importantly princes dressed in full armor, in jousting competition, in which they didn’t know would lead to nothing. Vesper put an end to the nonsense by casting a spell that made the great bell of the town ring with loud and deep sound. Vesper achieved temporary peace and offered in return for the competitions to cease, an invitation for each of them to dance with her at a ball held the following week. The only one who complained was Prince Mukwald, who King Caspian took a club from a knight's belt, hit the prince dropping him to the floor, kissed Vesper and took a wineskin from a knight and walked away. The event became known as the Battle of the Silver Bell, although a real battle had never been fought. This was the point of creation of the Silver Bell Ball, which is still held today in the Butterfly Castle Ballroom though it has many differences from the original ball held by Vesper. Today the ball brings all the monarchs, consorts, and most importantly heirs of the United Kingdoms of Southern Mewni to the Butterfly Kingdom, where each of the heirs dance with one another symbolizing the bond between the kingdoms, and after that dance a feast is held. Vesper and Caspian extinguished anything that would spark future problems and finally restore good relationships between the southern kingdoms. Once the small problems were solved, Vesper was able to actually focus on governing. 618 years after Mewnipendence Vesper tried to solve the problems of the Great Houses tax forgery. The Queen hired a bard to play a song about the Red Winter Rebellion, which was when her great-great-great grandmother Queen Meteora the Relentless while only a princess destroyed three rebellious vassal houses. Vesper had this played during a council meeting when she started to discuss the forgery. Once the “negotiations'' were over they all paid their dues plus interest and Vesper charged them all with forgery in the highest degree and had them stripped of their royal titles as well as renewed the Mewnistry, but before leaving their positions Lord Redbird called her the insane daughter of the mad queen. It was then that Vesper created a law banning anyone from calling her mother the mad queen and if you did you would pay 100 gold suns. Lord Redbird was charged with this and laughed it off and stated the treasury of his house would pay it no problem, however Queen Vesper didn’t allow him to use the Redbird treasury and he was forced to clean the pig goat stables for four months to pay his fine. One of her first acts was to get the Butterfly Kingdom back on track from the dark ages and the first step was the creation of the Royal Bank. In addition to reducing inflation caused by centuries of war and mismanagement, the Bank began to issue a new type of currency replacing the coins of her great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother Queen Cosmica the Explorer to a more modern monetary system. The effects of this shortly began to appear with the strengthening of trade and agriculture and stimuli to production and domestic consumption. 625 years after Mewnipendence in a long joint work with Lady Flowers, the Mewnister of Justice, Vesper established the Mewnian Civil Code, which among other things, addressed and discussed respect for private property, and the right of individual freedom and equality of all before the law. In one section of the code it was established that either male or female was entitled to receive proper military training if they choose so they could enlist in the Military Forces of the Butterfly Kingdom. Vesper never took any congratulations on the project. Although this code has undergone minor changes it still remains in effect to this day. A curious fact from the same year was that one night in the middle of the night the hundreds of stone statues that decorated the Butterfly Castle came to life. According to Sir McKnight who headed the guards that night, all the knights in the castle engaged in a battle against the stone statues in the various corridors of the castle, chambers, halls and gardens, which ended only a half hour later when The Queen undid the spell she had inadvertently cast., when trying in her own words “trying to unravel an old protection spell of the supposed queen who had built this castle and its secrets.” Although it caused some broken bones, massive bleeding, and material damage. This event is known as the Night of the Statues. 627 years after Mewnipendence the kingdom during the tournament, reopened into interdimensional agreements. During the tournament Vesper crossed paths with the newly appointed rector of the Elfendor Interdimensional University. Vesper took the opportunity to recover her family's vacancy in the University until the ban of the family due to some Butterfly accused of necromancy. The rector was adimate the family was still to be banned. It was then the King Caspian suggested a jousting competition, the prize of which would be a family place in the University, without any restrictions. The rector accepted and agreed as long as Vesper

    competed herself against the kings and princes who sought the same prize. The rector did this because he knew of Queen Vesper's unwarlike nature. Inexplicably Vesper ended up taking down challengers one after another that afternoon. During that entire spring afternoon refused to remove her helmet, even in between battles,, and at the honors ceremony only lifting her face visor. To this day it is unknown if Vesper actually competed herself. Many believe that Vesper switched roles with Hilda, who in addition to bearing a striking resemblance to Vesper was also trained by House McKnight's master at arms despite being a non royal. This would explain why “Vesper” refused to remove her helmet because Hilda has more blond hair than The Queen’s gold blond hair. The rector gave the Butterfly Family their prize of the place in the school, but was clear any Butterfly would have to pass an entry test, which Vesper agreed to. 629 years after Mewnipendence after years of treatments and attempts, Vesper gave birth to her first child named Solaria Butterfly. Princess Solaria was well regarded by the nobles, especially for demonstrating a great aptitude for fencing and chivalry at a young age, although her rebellious and daring personality caused headaches for Vesper. The surprises didn’t stop there, in 634 she announced she was expecting another child. The kingdom was overcome with excitement on such imaginable levels. However it wasn’t all joy. During a diplomatic voyage to the Rainbow Isles, carrying King Consort Caspian, his sister, and Queen Heaven’s husband King Father Arthur sank off the coast of the pie folk island. The news hit Vesper hard and almost lost her baby but thankfully due to her willpower and determination gave birth the following months in 635 years after Mewnipendence to a girl with orange blond hair and blue eyes like her Vesper as well as having lavender cups on her cheeks. Vesper named

    her Melody Butterfly. Queen Vesper was the first queen since her great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother Queen Galaxia the Clairvoyant to give birth to two daughters, beside her great grandmother Queen Eclipsa's second secret monster Mewman hybrid daughter named Meteora ll, however the kingdom nor Vesper knew about Eclipsa or Meteora. With the birth of her second daughter Vesper was able to overcome the grief. 638 years after Mewnipendence Vesper brought back the financial aid program for single mothers and widows, created by Queen Crescenta the Eager and discontinued by Queen Venus the Fairest at the expense of her own whims. Vesper did this when she realized the common people didn’t have a castle staff to assist them with being single mothers. Although her love and commitment as a mother and for her kingdom was not shaken, in her later years Vesper became a less smiling and more bitter person. Hilda reported that only two moments made The Queen feel as happy as she did in her early years: the passage of the wand to Princess Solaria and the admission of Princess Melody into Elefendor. 647 years after Mewnipendence Vesper was murdered in her room asleep by the mud dweller and septarian monsters, ironically on the 30 year anniversary of the Butterfly-Avarius alliance. Vesper was 50 and it ended her reign of 30 years. The most beloved queen in three centuries as well the 4th star queen and the first queen of the renaissance was buried in the Crypts of the Butterfly Castle.

### Trivia

* Besides Low Mewnian, Vesper was fluent in High Mewnian, Silvan and Laurelian languages.
* Whenever she blushed, Vesper started to hiccup
* Several times, Vesper and Hilda switched places so that she could have some free time for herself.
* Vesper used to make her own tea in the morning, cause she didn't think any servant could do it properly
* She said she didn't wear socks because they made her feet itch or sweat.
* Vesper had a secret boyfriend when she was younger, but she left the boy when she realized that in the future she would need to marry strategically.
* Vesper always felt embarrassed in Grosbeak Redbird's presence after their kiss.