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The First Emperor

Hakon

Hakon Fremar Elemmiire I
Orchestrator of the First Imperial Empire
Duke of House Elemmiire (Main Bloodline)

Hakon Fremar Elemmiire I (born 02 December c. 244 – 3 December 316) was the first Haru emperor from 268 to 312. Born to a family of low status in lma'tia, which would become a suburb of modern day Ninas'Terath, Fremar is actually a Haru-Daket word of old that means, Farmer. It is especially noteworthy that Hakon also claimed the old bloodline of Kalinka, and if that's the case, he came from a time honored line,even if it slowly phased out of favor as time went. Even so, Hakon rose through the ranks of the military to become a cavalry commander in the army of House Lord Cairu Elemmiire. After the deaths of Cairu and his son Umerian on campaign against the eastern mountain tribes, Hakon was proclaimed lord of the territories. The title was also claimed by Cairu's surviving son, Tarius, but Hakon defeated him in the Battle of the Free Marshes, in which Tarius and his forces were killed to the last man.

Hakon was not initially a member of the Elemmiire house and clan, but upon becoming lord of the territories, he was adopted within and made a blood member.

Hakon's reign stabilized the area and marks the end of what is referred to as the Time of Travesty. He appointed fellow officer Kiam Jargo'Vlos as Duke, and this allowed him to make a house in his name, House Jargo'Vlos, in 281.

During this, several others would also earn this rank. Duke Alarius Renor Elemmiire would be allowed to create the house that would become synonymous with honor in the future, in the same year as Jargo'Vlos. Barely into the new year, 282, Sevra Tagnik would be sworn in as a Duchess, and form the House of Tagnik Zun. 282 Also saw the formation of Houses Mzil Velven, Olath Orn and Renor Xukuth.

Hakon created the edict that of rule over territories by these houses, and eventually said territories would become the city-states in the modern landscape.

The Imperial Throne reigned in the Central Territories, with the merchant cities of Chel'de Yorn, and Prathen, with the former becoming the capital, House Jargo'Vlos reigned in the Western Territories of the Empire, consolidating at the trade city of Ulan-Ude. The Eastern Territories of the Empire were under the authority of House Renor Elemmiire, of whom would rule from the city they had been born within, Belaya. Rounding this out was the Southern Territories of the Empire, and this massive area was under authority of House Tagnik Zun and their proclaimed fortress city of Taganrog.

Under this rule of House Lords that in turn served the throne, Hakon secured the empire's borders and purged it of all threats to his power. He defeated the wilder tribes during several campaigns between 285 and 299.

Hakon separated and enlarged the empire's civil and military services and reorganized the empire's provincial divisions, establishing the largest and most bureaucratic government in the history of the Haru people. He established new administrative centres in Prathen, Tver, Yaris, and Tiksi, closer to the empire's frontiers. Building on third-century trends towards absolutism, he styled himself an autocrat, elevating himself above the empire's masses with imposing forms of court ceremonies and architecture. Bureaucratic and military growth, constant campaigning, and construction projects increased the state's expenditures and necessitated a comprehensive tax reform. From at least 297 on, imperial taxation was standardized, made more equitable, and levied at generally higher rates.

Not all of Hakon's plans were successful: the Edict on Trade Prices (301), his attempt to curb inflation via price controls, was counterproductive and quickly ignored. The Trials of Persecution (303–312), the empire's first, largest, and bloodiest official persecution of Christianity, failed to eliminate Christianity in the empire; indeed, after 315, Christianity became a tolerated religion (There were several requirements and laws concerning it however) under successive emperors.

Despite these failures and challenges, Hakon's reforms fundamentally changed the structure of imperial government and helped stabilize the empire economically and militarily, enabling the empire to remain essentially intact for centuries. Weakened by illness, Hakon left the imperial office on 1 May 313, and became the first emperor to abdicate the position voluntarily. He lived out his retirement in his palace on the Peryian coast, tending to his vegetable gardens. His palace eventually became the core of the modern-day city of Perya.<br.


The First Empress

Valeria

Valeria Hallas Elemmiire
Patron Saint of Law
Duchess of House Elemmiire (Main Bloodline)

Valeria Hallas Elemmiire (born Nov 11, 302. Dod 352.) was the daughter of Emperor Hakon and his consort Galeria Hallas Grail. The first Empress, directly succeeding her father after his resignation and then death shortly after, took the reigns of the growing empire and proceeded to expand its rule. She is known for the creation and reformation of the justice system that would continue on into the later versions of the Imperial system.

Valeria is remembered for the work that she did as a 'justicar', a figure of authority whose duty it was to keep the empire in peace, to create and maintain stability and justice. She arrogated, regimented and centralized political authority on a massive scale. In her policies which often mirrored those of her father, the previous emperor, she enforced an Imperial system of values on diverse and often unreceptive provincial audiences.

In the Imperial propaganda from the period, The history of the empire before the leadership of the Imperial throne and the houses was portrayed as a time of civil war, savage despotism, and cultural collapse.

In either Chel'de Yorn or Prathen where the Imperial throne was placed over the time of rulers, the people of the empire lived frequently in this period. A new style of ceremony was developed, emphasizing the distinction of the emperor from all other persons. Circuses and basilicas were designed to keep the face of the emperor/ess perpetually in view, and always in a seat of authority. The emperor/ess became a figure of transcendent authority, a being beyond the grip of the masses.

In keeping with her move from an ideology of republicanism to one of autocracy, Valeria's council of advisers, differed from those of earlier rulers and indeed that of her own father. She created the illusion of imperial government as a cooperative affair among emperor, army, and council, while also effectively institutionalizing an autocratic structure.

Valeria further regulated the court system by distinguishing separate departments for different tasks. From this structure came the offices of different ministries, and associated secretariats. These were men and women suited to dealing with petitions, requests, correspondence, legal affairs, and foreign embassies.

Within her court, Valeria maintained a permanent body of legal advisers with significant influence on her re-ordering of juridical affairs. There were also two finance ministers, dealing with the separate bodies of the public treasury and the private domains of the empress, and the Imperial Royal Guard prefect, the most significant person of the whole. Valeria's reduction of the Imperial Royal Guards to the level of a simple city garrison for Prathen lessened the military powers of the prefect, but the office retained much civil authority. The prefect kept a staff of hundreds and managed affairs in all segments of government: in taxation, administration, jurisprudence, and minor military commands, the IRG prefect was often second only to the empress herself.

To avoid the possibility of local usurpations, to facilitate a more efficient collection of taxes and supplies, and to ease the enforcement of the law, Valeria instituted her late father's plan of doubling the number of provinces from fifty to almost one hundred. The provinces were grouped into twelve city-states, each governed by the lord of a major house and or merchant guild approved company. Some of the provincial divisions required revision, and were modified either soon after 317. Prathen herself (including her environs, as defined by a 100-mile (160 km)-radius perimeter around the city itself) was not under the authority of the IRG prefect, as she was to be administered by a city prefect of imperial noble rank, the sole prestigious post with actual power reserved exclusively for imperial lords.

The dissemination of imperial law to the provinces was facilitated under Valeria's reign, because the reforms of the Empire's provincial structure meant that there were now a greater number of governors ruling over smaller regions and smaller populations. Valeria's reforms shifted the governors' main function to that of the presiding official in the lower courts: whereas in the early Empire military and judicial functions were the function of the governor, and procurators had supervised taxation, under the new system governors were responsible for justice and taxation, and a new class of imperial lord ranking was implemented, acting independently of the civil service, and military command. These new imperial ranks sometimes administered two or three of the new provinces created by the Imperial Throne and or the Council, and had forces ranging from two thousand to more than twenty thousand men.

In addition to their roles as judges and tax collectors, governors were expected to maintain the postal service and ensure that town councils fulfilled their duties. This curtailment of governors' powers as the Imperial representatives may have lessened the political dangers of an all-too-powerful class of delegates, but it also severely limited governors' ability to oppose local landed elites, especially those of status, which, although with reduced opportunities for office holding, retained wealth, social prestige, and personal connections, particularly in relatively peaceful regions without a great military presence. If a governor of imperial rank himself felt these pressures, one can imagine the difficulties faced by a civil servant. That accounts for the strained relationship between the central power and local elites: sometime during 323, an attempted military sedition in Tiksi and Yaris made Valeria extract a bloody retribution on both cities by putting to death a number of their council members for failing their duties of keeping order in their jurisdiction.

After Valeria's reform of the provinces, governors became responsible for decisions first to his/her immediate superiors, as well as to the more distant office of the Imperial Council. It was most likely at this time that judicial records became verbatim accounts of what was said in trial, making it easier to determine bias or improper conduct on the part of the governor. With these records and the Empire's universal right of appeal, Imperial authorities probably had a great deal of power to enforce behavior standards for their judges.

Valeria's zeal for justice grew, and as such she is considered a Saint of Law within the Imperium. She died upon the throne, succeeded by up and coming Lord and head of House Renor Xukuth, Thranias. This non hereditary based ruler, came from Valeria's own revision of how the throne could be claimed. The Council of the Nine would take every measure of review possible once the throne was abdicated, and then vote upon a replacement.


Kira'Karn Elemmiire

Empress of the Haru-Dakat Territories
Head of Government concerning Imperium Affairs
Autokrator of Kaldana
Matriarch of House Karn Elemmiire

Early life
The offspring of Sa'Karn Elemmiire and Saya Vek Elemmiire, Kira'Karn Elemmiire was boren in 1987. was first involved in student radicalism, dabbled in the fringe educational groups, and finally graduated to a unique perspective of the classist system within the Imperium. She was trained at an early age as a ballerina at an exclusive facility run by the Imperial Court. 

She is full of contradictions: cynical yet romantic, calculating but naive, blunt and prone to beating around the bush. She is a qualified expert with a variety of small arms and blades. She is also a qualified in operating helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft of varying type. A regimen of training from her time in Kaldana, where everyone, regardless of status, had to be adaptable in the environment and terrain of the territory.

Kira was raised in the Tyng Sudran faith of her father at Yasra Temple within the Imperial Ward of Chel'de Yorn. She has a half-sister by her father's first marriage, Hana von Gras'Ni, this was before the civil war, when her father, was the sixth crown prince and not destined for the throne. The second marriage produced herself and her brother Ji'Mar. Ji'Mar was not relocated to Kaldana however and was raised within Chel'de Yorn. 

Hana's mother passed not long after birth, and she was adopted by her uncle Tazrin Karn. She keeps in contact with Hana, who is of the imperial rank, Viscountess, Noblewoman of House Karn Mzil and married to her husband Count Ajax Mzil Velven. 

Her own father and mother eventually passed away, albeit her mother died first, and then twenty years later, her father followed suit. However, due to the nature of the Imperial politicking and so forth, Kira was sent to live with her uncle, Lord Nekan Karn, Highlord of the Kaldana city-state. He died in 2001, when she was fourteen years old, she continued to stay in Kaldana however, living with her aunt, Countess Yasmira Hallas. 

Into the early 00's, Kira often travelled between Kaldana city and the rest of the imperial domain. With the rise of fascism in the Imperium, though, her aunt forbade her travel, sensing a terrible development. This would later be the rise of Empress Fayh, also related to Kira, being her aunt by extended ties. 

Civil War 2003 - 2005
During the civil war, Kira spent the time travelling about the western fringe territories. Her experiences on that trip would form the basis of her first published book, a travelogue entitled The Sudden View: A Journey West, which was published in 2003. Kira spent the remainder of the mid 00's living in frontier townships and Kaldana City itself. During this time she had a love affair that has blossomed into a relationship, with a woman, Ayn Gende, who left her husband for Kira and became a writer and editor herself. 

Under Imperium tradition and law, Ayn can legally be married to Kira, and become the Vice-Empress, a position that will be hers as the planning and such is already in motion.


Ayn Gende Elemmiire

Autokráteira of the Haru-Dakat Territories
Advisory Council Member concerning Imperium Affairs
Ix-ajaw of House Karn Elemmiire

Ayn Gende Elemmiire, born Ayn Gende, (April 13, 1985), was a Haru novelist of the Imperial Renaissance.

Born into a poor district of the Southern provisional city-state known as Levee, on April 13, 1985, the daughter of Petr Gende, believed to be an immigrant from the Western Provinces, and Paeta Unari, born 1968 in Brahet, a city-township on the mountain Fyn, died in 1989.

Her mother who went by Una in the Kaldana city-state, worked as a seamstress and domestic worker. She would remain unmarried for the rest of her days, raising Ayn and working. Though her own family would aid, she would not seek out another husband.

The author and critic Kimaz Utan wrote of her anomalous situation:

As a member of a low tier family, she [Ayn] had no entrée into the world of the Imperium's higher status tiers of the would be middle-class. If she could never be of the land like her mother, neither could she ever be a tradesmen in quite the same way that her father had been. Hers was a netherworld, unrecognizable historically and too painful to dredge up.

Her mother believed that education could give Ayn an opportunity and supported her in attending the Kaldanan Imperial Academy, a student there in 1997-01, for the first time Ayn was living within a community of likeminded hopefuls, but she was still separated by her own background and life experiences from most of the students, who were primarily from Kaldana itself, with most descended from former other entry level laborers and so on.

She graduated with top honors and after serving two years civil service in a medical facility, continued her education while writing short stories and so forth.

In late 2003, Ayn enrolled in the nursing school at Kaldana City's Auno Hospital. She soon became head nurse, and an instructor of training. While this was ongoing, her writing was being submitted via various channels to outlets. Be it BBS boards, or in print.

Early 2004, right after her marriage, Ayn worked nights and weekends as a volunteer within the Kaldana City Library. Encouraged by Rose Ygell, Lalla of the Imperial Text, head of the Library of Kaldana, to offer her works for promotion.

Ayn passed her certification exam in mid 2004. She worked her first year as a librarian at the Hoheit Branch on the Eastern Approach, which was predominantly low status citizenry. There she had strong support from her supervisor Aiken Yaganno, as she had from Rose. They, and another branch supervisor where she worked, supported Ayn and helped integrate the staff of the branches. Ayn transferred to the Guispe branch, as she was interested in the cultural excitement in the Ishkorian ward, a destination for those seeking a life in the city-state.

In October 2004, Ayn took a sabbatical from her job for personal reasons, of which she confided, the recent marriage to Galus Ytrell via arrangement between families was falling apart. It soon became apparent that he was a drunk and violent. It was also this time that she had encountered a journalist named Kira'Karn and begun an affair with. Soon after these events she had begun to write her first novel. In 2005, after leaving her husband and bonding with Kira, and having made friends with important figures in the Imperial Awakening (which became known as the Imperial Renaissance), Ayn gave up her work as a librarian.

She became a writer active in the literary and arts community, where she became friends with Carla Yegarin, a photographer and writer. In 2006, Ayn published Tilted Dreams, a largely autobiographical novel that spoke about arranged marriages, violence that sat under the surface of familial status and so forth. It received significant critical acclaim, if not great financial success.

In 2009, she published In The Passing her second novel, which was also critically successful. It dealt with issues of two women who were childhood friends and had taken different paths of ethnic, and gender identification and marriage. One identified as an Imperial traditionalist and married a doctor; the other passed as male and married a woman. The book explored their experiences of coming together again as adults.
In 2011 she accompanied Kira'Karn, now named First Princess of the House Elemmiire and rightful ruler of the Haru-Dakat Imperium, who would later ascend to Empress of the Haru-Dakat Territories, and thus becoming her wife via custom of yore.

She is currently a senior member of the advisory council, and secondary head to the powerful House Elemmiire. With her progressive views of gender, identification of such, and sexual freedoms, she acts as a voice for the social services ministry, and to the growing community of identifiable genders and so forth.

A revival of interest in her writing has occurred since the late 2000's, when issues of sexual identity are coming to light. Her works have been the subjects of numerous academic studies, and she is now widely lauded as "not only the premier novelist of the Imperial Renaissance, but also an important figure in Haru-Dakat modernism.