Empress Isabella

**Her Imperial Highness, By the Grace of The Heavens, Mother Imperial, Isabella Marie Ludovica Leopoldina Franziska Therese Josepha Lucia of Saffira and Copa de Elegaria An-Bagranthar, Empress High and Undisputed of the Second Kymurian Empire, Kazan Oxūs Eraz, Protector of the March, Lady-dowager over the Plains, Queen of Frisia, Duchess of the Greater Realms, Supreme Diarchess of the Free Merchants of Astar, Countess of Masonburg, Mayoress-Viceroyal of Krahull, Countess of the Royal Estates and Grand Keeper of the Saffiric Seal, THE CHARITABLE** was Empress of Kymuria from 940-974KF. As the only daugther of her father, Emperor Viktor II, she inherited the throne at an increasingly unstable time, and despite her attempts to keep the failing Kymurian economy afloat with loans from the Diarchy of Astar, (hence her given title) the Empire only continued it's downward spiral, and following her declining mental health and the death of her husband, she lived mainly in her bedchamber, coddling her son Tyenn. She remarried, creating the house of Elegaria-Bagranthar, and gave birth to three daughters, but did not view them as her own children. After a vicious cancer of the womb, she died, leaving the throne to Tyenn, who inherited his mother's and grandfather's mental health woes.

## Early Life

Isabella was born to her father, the then Prince Viktor, and Duchess Elena of Villaflores. Due to Viktor's extremely poor health, he did not father any more children, putting the lineage at great risk, especially since all other branches of the An-Bagranthar had married off or ceased to exist. It was therefore agreed that Isabella would not change her name upon marriage to Duke Heinrich of Zennenburg in 934KF, when she was 15. Isabella's childhood was a solitary one, she spent much time reading in the vast empty chambers of the Grand Palace, and did not like venturing outside the Royal City She was known for her agitational and harsh temperament, never partaking in any diversion such as a music or socialising. Isabella had a scathing hatred of the poor which she did little to hide, making her thoroughly unpopular, but nonetheless, many Kymurians insisted that a woman with such convictions was the only one who could stabilise the empire. They were incorrect.

## Reign

By all accounts, Isabella's marriage to Duke Heinrich was a deep and loving one, with them spending little time apart. when in 940KF, her father succumbed to his illnesses, and her mother did not accept the regency, Isabella was proclaimed Empress of Kymuria. Unlike many other royals, she revelled in bureaucracy, scrupulously going over every document she was sent, and largely refusing to co-operate with any of the political machinery. She dismissed her entire Imperial Cabinet and refused to sign any bill sent from the Common House.

In late 940KF, just a month before her coronation, the Empress became pregnant but the following week, Duke Heinrich was killed by an agrarianist assassin on the streets of Saffira, causing the Empress to suffer a total nervous breakdown. She appointed a clerk to see to all functions and remained locked in her chambers for a month, only leaving to attend her own coronation, at which there were no celebrations out of respect.

## "Neutralise the threat."

In 956KF, political unrest against the Imperial Court increased across the country. This led some members of the Common and Noble Councils to demand more power and influence in the name of preserving the empire, with Sir Merick Abren, the leader of the All-Kymurian Freedom League (briefly the largest party in the house) calling for the abolition of Huw's charter. Upon hearing this, the Empress took a bizarre and unprecedented step by simply abolishing his constituency and placing the small area of only 860 people under direct imperial rule.

The next year, a Pandoric writer named Alric Cydatha founded the Pandoric League of Anarchy, which advocated the removal of the governmental system entirely, and a return to dozens of small autonomous republics. This movement quickly picked up among Pandoric minorities, and before long most towns and cities had a PLA club. The RKC, under the orders of Empress Isabella, began an observational operation, but the tone changed when the North Copa PLA attempted an assassination of a prince, and the rest of the city turned on them out of fear, sparking a race riot.

The Empress held an emergency council with both the army Grand Marshal and her physician, Dr Josef Trevaylian, on whom she had come to depend. The Grand Marshal was in favour of merely rounding up and imprisoning or executing the Pandoric Anarchists, but Dr Trevaylian suggested that Pandorics, due to originating from a loose confederation of ancient tribes, were genetically predisposed to be anarchistic, and that they must be forcibly sterilised to prevent further such incidents. The Empress agreed and ordered the Grand-marshal to "neutralise the threat." He swiftly began rounding up Pandorics empire-wide, but violent resistance greatly slowed this task, and with popular resistance to the draconian and biologically horrific plan mounting, the Empress declared a state of siege, disbanding both noble and common houses and restoring ancient decree-rule in all provinces bar the Diarchy of Astar or any city that did not contain ethnic Pandorics.

At first, many Kymurians expressed sympathy for Abren and his party, but once threatened with "voluntary" sterilisation, turned against them.

Whilst close to a million Pandorics were rounded up and taken to the Saffira Institute of Justice, less than around 650 were actually sterilised, because practically no physician would consider acting against a patient's will, despite the fact that the government insisted the program was "voluntary."

Notable incidents from the period include:

* The case of William Lloyd, a Pandoric man of 43 who was captured by a gang of soldiers while tending his crops. He was sterilised, but could not work for a year due to complications.
* Albert Ore, taken all the way from Dannenholm to Saffira by zeor-speaking soldiers. As such, he could not explain to them that he had already been sterilised as a child. He was brutally beaten afterwards.
* Heinrich Bagoz, a Kymurian, was sterilised for apparently no reason.
* Dr Xavier Johan. He was ordered to sterilise some captives, but refused. Soldiers bizarrely then cut of his hands in an effort to force him to do the surgery. He could not.