Empress Aenea

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Called: The Builder

Early Life and Election

Born and raised in Highguard, the girl who would become Empress Aenea was a student of architecture, who helped build and design everything from mausoleums to castles.

Reign

Aenea's attention was heavily focussed on the systems and apparatus of the Empire, with modifications to the roads, the infrastructure of the Civil Service, the organisation of the Bourse, and the Imperial Senate and Imperial Law in search of refinement. She largely ignored the Imperial Synod, which continued to exercise its political powers in pursuit of the spiritual well-being of the Empire - only when the priests interfered with Aenea's projects for expanding and consolidating the infrastructure did she pay much attention to them.

One of Aenea's failings was that she left foreign affairs, including military matters, entirely to the Senate and the Military Council without oversight; she was interested only in the Empire itself.

The Senators and the Generals took this as an opportunity to expand the borders of the Empire, and their perceived aggression disquieted nearby foreign nations. Several border wars occurred during Aenea's tenure on the throne, and at various points the Empire was at war with Faraden, The Iron Confederacy, Axos and Skoura.

In 118 YE, the Sumaah Republic officially broke with the Imperial Synod and technically excommunicated not only the Empress but all the priests of the Empire. Historians to this day disagree as to whether the Empress might have been able to head-off this international incident had she been more interested in foreign policy; several scholars point to key points at which the intervention of the Empress might have defused the increasingly tense situation.

The Empire was technically at war with the Sumaah Republic for the next two hundred years, but the vast distances involved meant that military conflict was all but impossible, All trade between the Republic and the Empire ceased, however, and it was not until 326 YE that the trade-routes were re-opened.

Death and Legacy

Aenea died. Parrallels are occasionally drawn with the later Emperor Nicovar, but as the historian Senator Luca de Tassato said "A ruthless attention to detail is not the same as being obsessed with details."

After her death the Throne remained empty until the ascension of Empress Varkula in 125YE. During this time, the Senate became increasingly fractious and factionalised, creating the environment that allowed the ruthless Varushkan to sieze power.

""By enabling free education in the magical arts, access to the title of Conclave Mage has also become free. Being free it has lost value, and it is important to the wellbeing of this Empire that the Conclave be comprised of mages who know the value of the work they do."