Avemiri Simakha

Avemiri Simakha is renowned for being the first Kugemukh (lit. "Great-Queen") of Asmukhar and the first ruler of a united Asmukhar in over a thousand years. She is also known for her role in the War for the World alongside her husband, Emperor Athdus III. Although Avemiri became Empress of Nesaria upon her marriage with Athdus, she continued to style herself as Kugemukh of Asmukhar (Asmocarian: *Kugemukh Asmukhareg*). To this day, Avemiri remains the only person to marry into the Imperial dynasty who was not of Elvic heritage.

## Early Reign

Avemiri never had an opportunity to properly know her parents, as her father was slain and her mother taken as a slave by Mukh (King) Taivar of Jagaan when she was around three years old in 60AD. She was placed under the guardianship of her uncle Guran, though his wife Gebi had been mortally wounded in Taivar's attack - soon dying several days later - and he was unwilling to remarry, so to fill the maternal role he assigned his household slave Kheri to watch over Avemiri. Though Kheri was young and not much older than Avemiri - merely being thirteen years of age, ten years Avemiri's senior - she took to the role well, and the two developed a very close bond. It is often said of Avemiri that although Kheri was her slave, she always treated Kheri with the respect of a mother.

Following the death of her uncle in 75, Avemiri succeeded him and became the Gemukh of Helrai (*Gemukh Helraineg*). Although the succession law dictated that her two male brothers should take precedence, her older brother Duran was terminally sick and unable to accept the crown, and her younger brother Bolyan felt unworthy of the position, giving it instead to Avemiri. Though Bolyan of course insisted he was the superior warrior to Avemiri, he thought he would make a bad leader, but he recognised good qualities in his sister.

### Conflict in Voron

Avemiri immediately set about securing tribute from her neighbours, making sure that none of the tributaries her uncle had established would use the disruption of a new ruler to shirk their dues. This went smoothly until she arrived at the Raskevite town of Voron, which was simultaneously greeted by Mukh Golran, the son of Mukh Taivar and the new ruler of Jagaan. Mukh Golran insisted that Voron was his rightfully his tributary, citing an old agreement that Voron once had with Jagaan which was illegitimately usurped by Mukh Sagan, Avemiri's father, which Golran claimed was what forced their two tribes into war to begin with. In response, either Avemiri or her brother Bolyan (the sources differ) demanded to know the whereabouts of their mother, Ashai. Golran informed them that she was dead, and that he was willing to return her bones to Helrai unconditionally. Bolyan became furious at what he assumed to be a cruel manipulation using the remains of his mother as a bargaining chip, but Avemiri quickly cut in and made an agreement with Golran to establish Voron as a neutral zone and seek a council of Mukhul (Kings) for arbitration, as was the tradition in the ancient days when Asmukhar was united. The people of Voron, for their part, quietly - and probably wisely - hid inside their homes as soon as the confrontation began.

Messages were sent to all the neighbouring Mukhul, and most of them agreed to come to the arbitration meeting "as soon as the snows melted". Over the winter, Mukh Golran personally brought Ashai's bones to Helrai, and it is said that he expressed to Avemiri that he greatly desired peace, but he was forced by his tribe to uphold the claim to Voron. However, when the snows melted and the Mukhul gathered near Voron, they were interrupted by news of the arrival of a vast foreign army seeking to conquer the world - which turned out to be the Nesarians under Emperor Athdus III.