Empress Yama of Patra

Yama Umendo of Patra
A mosaic portrait of Yama Umendo, unknown artist, c. 768 CE
Reign	October 1st, 761 - November 29th, 822 (61 years)
Coronation	October 1st, 761
Predecessor	Vyche Umendo (as Protector)
Successor	Naiimya Rabkanadasha Umendo I
Born	April 9th, 741 Shesine Palace, Nosamo, Patra
Died	November 29th, 822 (aged 81) Patran Imperial Palace, Chednye
Burial	December 9th, 822 Temple of the Emancipator, Topano Mountain.
Spouse	Gashtu Murikahs (m. 763; his death 770)
Issue	Naiimya Rabkanadasha Umendo 765-836 Dhona Pari Umendo 763-800 Rougo Umendo 764-780 Kashius Mauro 765-768 Dendo 771-799 Takhadaisu Divoushtikhde (illegitimate) c. 759-839 Credimyu (disputed) 760-828 Bamo (illegitimate) 773-840
Full name Chekhenes Ramya Yama Umendo (before ascension) Yama Umendo Patras Rabkanadasha Nosamako (as empress)
House	Umendo-Yamani
Father	Vyche Umendo
Mother	Yustanya

Yama Umendo Patras Rabkanadasha Nosamako (April 9th, 741- November 29th, 822) was the 1st Empress of the Patra States, a military leader, writer, founder of the proto-Dorian alphabetical script Yamah'ksh, and founder of the Old Dorian language. She is widely considered by historians and scholars to be one of if not, the most influential leader in Guadalupadorian history. After her father Vyche Umendo's death in 761, she assumed the role of Empress of Patra at the age of twenty. During her 60 year reign as Empress of the Patra States, she oversaw the creation of the first national educational system in the history of the region, helped invent as well as ordered the creation of both the Yamah'ksh, and Old Dorian, conquered several northern kingdoms, brought the Lupan Coast states under Patran control, captured several island city-states across the Dorian corridor, many of those campaigns she had personally led.

Biography

Early life

Yama Umendo was born Chekhenes Ramya Yama Umendo in Nosamo on the 9th of April, 741 to Patran dictator Vyche Umendo and his concubine, Yustanya. Yama quickly proved herself in various tasks and assignments over her legitimate siblings, earning the trust and love of her aging father, as well as becoming his favorite child. By the age of 15 she was sent off into the Patran Army by her jealous older half-brother, Asuelcho Umendo, whom was next in line to become Protector, and just started to rule as regent over Patra while Vyche Umendo languished away. In the Patran Army, she earned the endearment of her peers, and her commanders. During her early years spend in the Army, she decisively put down an actual secessionist revolt in the city of Sharakov, mirroring her father's first two suppressions in Sharakov. By the age of 19, Yama had gained massive popularity in the Army, to the disdain of Asuelcho, and his legitimate siblings, and the Yan, Patra's secret police, inducted her into the organization as a Junior Commander. In 759, while on an extended campaign in the north, Yama had a child with one of her military subordinates, she named Takhadaisu Divoushtikhde, once she was called back to Nosamo, she was taken to the palace to see Asuelcho, and his four legitimate siblings in chains, overthrown in a coup engineered by both the Army and the Yan to put Yama into power. Although she had no knowledge of the coup, she gladly took power as Dictator of Patra.

The Protector of Patra

On the first of October, 761 Yama was declared Protector of Patra. Within three months, Yama phased out and disbanded the Yan, relinquishing the decades-old power that the organization had over the Patra States. In consolation however, she appointed a majority of the former leadership of the Yan as her court, and instated new military posts for many in the Yan. Her early reign as Protector saw her constantly moving around Patra lands meeting with local leaders, and consolidating her power, all the while she was raising young Takhadaisu. In 762 Yama had effectively won over her people as she loosened restrictions and struck down the totalitarian-esque laws that her own father had enacted during his rule. Yama's popularity skyrocketed as Patran merchants were allowed free passage through the land without paying an exuberantly high entry tax to any city in Patra. Scholars refer to this time in Patran history as Yama's Miracle, when incomes within Patra began to significantly rise as the conversion of landed wealth to a multitude of ways to make a living. An early "middle-class" emerged from skilled craftspeople and the merchants, whom according to primary sources from the time, unanimously praised the young woman for giving them the freedom to travel, calling her "Emancipator."

Marriage and Ascension to Empress

In 763 Yama declared herself Empress of Patra, establishing an dynastic absolute monarchy based on a matrilineal form of primogeniture. Her first child, Takhadaisu was by law unable to inherit his mother's place on the throne, this inadvertently forced Yama to look for a suitor to bear a girl. After two months of looking for a suitor, she found one in the form of Gashtu Murikahs: a young noble from the Lupan Cliff City-states, nearly four years her junior. In the winter of 763, Yama would have her first legitimate child; a girl named Dhona Pari Umendo, heir to the throne of Patra.

Early rule

Within the first five years of her rule as Empress of Patra, the King of Chibritinum, Eiidun VI emerged as her local rival to the north, threatening to drive his armies south through to Nosamo. Eiidun VI and Yama's tenuous relationship and subsequent rivalry was started when Yama overlooked him as a suitor, choosing Gashtu Murikahs to be her husband. Eiidun VI was furious that Yama denied him, and was determined to conquer Patra and force Yama into submission. After giving birth to her second child, Yama was faced with fierce aggression from Eiidun as his troops constantly raided Patra's northern towns and fortifications. After several failed attempts at parleying, Yama issued a declaration of war on Chibritinum. Yama herself led her troops along the northern front during the first war with Chibritinum, decisively putting an end to the frontier attacks by routing and taking thousands of Chibritinuman conscripts as prisoners at the Battle of Tishimoyna seizing control over several north-south trade depots in Chibritinum itself, forcing Eiidun VI to sign an armistice to regain control of the depots and Tishimoyna.

After her successes in the first war against Chibritinum, Yama left Nosamo to spend two years ruling from her villa on Ebinya Island. When Yama arrived back in Nosamo after her two years spent on Ebinya Island in the spring of 765, Eiidun once again began to harass and raid towns on their common border. Yama was quick to react by declaring a second war on Chibritinum, the Summer War saw great territorial gains for the Patra States as Yama's forces seized Tishimoyna, and broke the siege of Bansua. With the end of the Summer War in October 765, The Patra States forced a humiliating peace agreement on Chibritinum. Furious, the King of Chibritinum executed his entire military command, restructured his forces and promoting capable officers through the ranks. Eiidun swore revenge on Yama, secretly pledging to his sons that he'd burn Nosamo to the ground and force Yama to be one of his many concubines. Yama spent the time following the Summer War meeting with her advisors and ensuring that Tishimoyna remained under Patran control. For the next eight years she worked to integrate Tishimoyna, and to secure her gains from Chibritinum.

Following the Summer War and the Consolidation of Tishimoyna, Yama wrote the Edict of Emancipation ordering the full abolition of slavery within the realm to take place over the course of ten years as a reward to the numerous Chibritinuman slaves that aided fought alongside Patra during the Summer War. The title bestowed upon Yama as Yama the Emancipator was solidified through the Edict of Emancipation. Many within the Patran nobility with avid stocks of slaves and servants felt betrayed by Yama's Edict as it was them that provided her with most of the troops and equipment to fight Eiidun. Some within the nobility started a plot to overthrow Yama and install one of their own as the Emperor and re-institute slavery. In 776 however, the plot was revealed and Yama took no time in purging the conspirators against her rule. Yama decreed that any and all property and wealth belonging to any of the conspirators was now forfeit, and to be divvied up to be a reward to anyone willing to bring the conspirators to justice. The Proscriptions of 776 was a bloody affair as many of the Conspirators and their families were hunted down by vigilante groups of both former slaves and Yaman loyalists, and were mostly murdered upon capture. Some Conspirator nobles fled north to Chibritinum to seek amnesty and refuge under Eiidun VI. In response to the Plot, Yama decreed that the Patra States would no longer be a feudal kingdom, and once again centralized the state. With the opposition against the reorganization of the Patra States either dead or having fled, Yama's decree was passed through unopposed by the remaining nobility.