Eleanor III of Irene

## Eleanor III

Eleanor III (Drawing; 16th century)

**Eleanor III** (Eleanor Genevieve Natala Irene-Aquitania; c. 481 – 28 November 600) was the first high empress of the Irene Empire to bear the surname of Irene- Aquitania, becoming the first empress to reign underneath the new ruling house. The famed older sister of Princess Medusa of Irene, she was famed as a powerful magician; in the history of the Empire she defeated a terrible evil by herself. The great empress of the Empire, she was nicknamed "**The Ice Queen of the Irene Empire**" due to her powerful ice-magic. She was feared among the enemies of the Empire as the greatest warrior of all time.

Eleanor succeeded her father, Gaul II, as a empress of the Irene Empire upon his death in 26 October 500, and eventually came to rule over a much expanded Irene Empire by the time of her assassination by her power-hungry daughter, Genevieve II of Irene, her assassination resulting in a massive power-struggle among the members of her family. By the time of her death in 28 November 600, the Irene Empire was one of the greatest and held massive amounts of influence—with Historians of the Irene Empire chronicling her reign as the "Golden Age" of the Empire itself. High Empress Eleanor III is important in the historiography of Irene as "the first high empress of what would become the Empire of Irene and the Southern Islands".

## Life

Princess Eleanor III of Irene was born in during the 4th century in the year of 481 in Tournai Castle, Tournai, which was part of the Roman Empire at the time—her mother (then only Princess Victoria) and her father (then only Prince Gaul) feared for her death as Eleanor was born sickly much like the condition of her mother, Princess Victoria, when she was first born herself. In 484, another daughter was borne to her parents (Princess Medusa), and three years later, four more daughters followed Medusa`s birth (Princesses Basina, Clotilde, Clotilde II, and Sedeleuba). As the first-born child of Prince Gaul (later King Gaul II) and Princess Victoria (later Queen Victoria), she was automatically the heir apparent to the throne of the Irene Empire (then only the Irene Kingdom)—her strength and conviction helped to win the hearts of her people who readily rallied behind her—by the time of her ascension upon the death of her father, she was regarded as being as politically-adept as her father.

### Ascension

Upon the death of her father in 26 October 500, she assumed the throne as the Queen and absolute ruler of the Irene Kingdom—her mother who had advised her father during their youth and was extremely cunning and strategic herself helped her daughter and protected her, as well as the kingdom and it`s people as best as she could—upon her mother`s murder by a group of Clovis I`s men, she assembled her troops and went to personally demand his head for the death of her mother—though her campaign ended in failure, her name became associated with the Irish Goddess of Death, Morrigan—simply reciting her name and that of the Goddess herself was enough to scare even the most fully-trained warrior. In retaliation for her mother`s murder and subsequent death, she kidnapped Clovis I`s mother and burned her alive—this barbaric act further associated her name with Morrigan.

#### Marriage

Though she was a Queen in her own right, holding powers and titles that most people in her kingdom could only dream of having, she was incredibly unhappy as she wanted somebody to confide in her troubles—she accepts an invitation from a Mesopotamian Prince, Prince Gilgamesh (later King Gilgamesh) of Uruk to travel to their kingdom and leaves her sister (Princess Medusa) in charge of the Kingdom.