Teilaea IV

Teilaea was born to an obscure family in the imperial heartland. Her father was a shoemaker, while her mother worked as a smith for the Imperial army, producing weapons and armour for the legions of Tethas. Little is known of Teilaea's early life, other than a few unsubstantiated anecdotes, doubtless manufactured later to bulk out various hagiographic biographies of her. If we are to believe these accounts, Teilaea was a perfect child, a model citizen, and instilled from an early age with simple, wholesome ideals that very obviously conflict with the legendary decadence of the Late Tethan upper classes.
 Regardless of the veracity of these claims, what is known is that Teilaea received some small amount of education from her parents, and (possibly through her mother's contacts) joined the Tethan armies at around 17 years old. Her name first appears in contemporary records in 721, when the Annuarium Imperiale for that year records that she took command of a small force surrounded by a horde of Ebrasan rebels. The Annuarium indicates that, the unit's commander being killed, Teilaea assumed command and managed to extract her unit without a single further casualty. Her real rise began in the following battle, fought a few days later. Once again according to the Annuarium for 721, Teilaea had maintained her de facto field promotion and, joined by reinforcements from the provincial capital, decisively crushed the rebels at the Battle of Imirta.
 Teilaea's subsequent rise was swift. Despite the rapidly growing atrophy at the heart of the Empire, the remaining competent elements of the Imperial government managed to make sure this promising young officer rose rapidly through the ranks of the army, until by her mid 30's she was a full General of the Empire, the highest a person of non-Servan blood could rise. Doubtless, during her climb up the ladder she would have seen the naked corruption, incompetence, and laziness that ran rampant through the supposed rulers of the known world during this age. Her opinions on the matter are not known; however, her actions following her accession would indicate that she definitively disapproved.
 Few details survive (or, at least, few that are not obviously fictitious) of Teilaea's life and career between Imirta and the events of 743, but it is known that she was recalled to the capital at the beginning of that year. The exact reason is unknown, but we can assume that it was to do with the growing unrest in the peripheral provinces of the Empire, particularly the Elven Provinces and the Archipelago. As the most talented military commander of her generation, she would doubtless have been the first choice to deal with such swelling insurrection. Regardless, there are two interpretations of what happened next. The first possibility is that Teilaea, finally tiring of the obvious lethargic uselessness of the Emperor, Calkhas IX, became part of a plot to remove the by now thoroughly useless Servans and replace them with an at last semi-competent monarch. The second possibility, and the version given by the official accounts, is that while such a conspiracy was hatched and put into motion, Teilaea herself was as in the dark as the Emperor himself. Certainly, the account of Lamethios Andakes (a wealthy courtier who was present for the events of Calkhas IX's assassination) would indicate that this was the case- once the Emperor was dead and the palace secure, the conspirators proceeded to the quarters of the general and, while she was still rising to greet them, acclaimed her as Empress. Andakes says that Teilaea greeted this sudden acclamation with shock and confusion- however, we cannot discount the possibility that she was doing her part by putting on an act of stunned reluctance for the audience of terrified courtiers. Either way, the act was done- Teilaea, the commoner girl from an obscure family, was now Empress Teilaea IV, Empress of Tethas, ruler of almost the entire known world.
 In name, at least.
 Teilaea was revealed to the people in the Great Plaza outside of the Palace of the Griffons, and her accession proclaimed alongside the denunciation of the old dynasty. The mood in the city is described as tense; Andakes tells us that Teilaea's first night as Empress was 'celebrated' with rioting and looting. Regardless, there was a formal coronation at the High Fane the next day, replete with all the ancient pomp and ceremony of that most sacred of rites. Then Teilaea got to work- within days, a flurry of orders was dispatched from the Palace. Officials were replaced, laws proclaimed or repealed, offices abolished or combined. Had the Empress lived longer than she did, these would doubtless be described as the Teilaean Reforms, and may have been seen as the work that saved the Empire from the Abyss. However, there were new problems to deal with. In the Archipelago, a distant cousin of the Servans declared himself Emperor within three months- the Imperial Navy, disgruntled with years of neglect and casual denigration, defected to him immediately. With a single declaration, the Archipelago, the Caerarn Peninsula of Archugic, and the western coast of Mardet were all lost to the Empire forever. Almost simultaneously, the Elven Provinces rebelled, seeing their chance- Imperial collaborators were massacred, Tethan officials sent fleeing for their lives, military garrisons besieged.
 Teilaea immediately threw herself into action. From across the Empire, new armies were raised, new commanders appointed, reserve forces called en masse out of retirement. The Tethan Empire began the build-up for the largest war it had fought in centuries- a challenge, to be sure, but far from an insurmountable one to a vigorous, capable ruler like Teilaea.
 On the 17th of Anthurien, 744 YT, Teilaea IV took a break from her work to stroll in the gardens of the Palace of the Griffons. The sources of the time, of whom Andakes is the best surviving, tell us that the day was warm for autumn, and that the Empress, seeking peace, dismissed all but one of her guards. It was while inspecting the roses that a gardener by the name of Pserias approached her. This man had served in the Palace for some 40 years, and was well known to all who lived there. He was also, it turned out, deeply mentally disturbed, and had come to the conviction that he could silence the thoughts resounding in his head by one simple act. As he greeted the Empress and she, seemingly wishing to discuss the garden, turned, he drew forth a simple kitchen knife and stabbed Teilaea with such force that the blade emerged from her back. Empress Teilaea IV was dead by the time she hit the ground, and no magic succeeded in restoring her. The one guard attending the Empress apprehended the assassin who, three weeks later, was publicly and painfully executed in front of a truly enormous crowd. He supposedly laughed hysterically as he was led to the scaffold, yelling cheerfully that he was freed at last of all his cares.
 The death of Teilaea IV marked the end of any hope of renewed stability and peace. When Calkhas IX was killed, the conspirators had a replacement waiting, or at very least had chosen one beforehand. This time, with the sole conspirator being a deluded madman, there was no ready replacement. By ancient law, the Concilium Parvum was tasked with choosing a new ruler in the event of a broken line of succession- however, they were utterly powerless as within days beings all across Mardet declared themselves to be the rightful ruler of the Empire that dominated it. By 773 YT, when Tethas itself was devastated by the Great Sack, there was no Empire left to claim.

Born: c. 698 YT,Eteraea, Tethan Empire
Died: 17 Anthurien 744 YT, Tethas, Tethan Empire