Cynebeorht the Pious

I remember her as my grandmother, all white hair and wrinkles and skin like soft leather. She taught me to ride, she did all the voices when she read us bedtime stories, and she always gave me an extra piece when Cook made lemon tart because she knew it was my favourite. But what you need to understand - just take a minute to think about it - with Bjeria being the kind of god xe is, what kind of person did she have to be to earn a byname like 'the Pious'?

Cynebeorht the Pious was born Cynebeorht Angenmaer, third surviving child of Bjerian Empress Angengearda Iron Chest and Prince Byrhtmaer of Kaulaan. Contemporary accounts describe the young Princess as a happy child who enjoyed sports, hunting, and hawking, and who had a deep fascination with the arcane.
She was married to Prince Iaenwald of Tulpuhavis in 812, when he was 15 and she was 13. Iaenwald joined the imperial household in 820 and their first natural-born child, Wulfthryth Iaenbeorth, was born in 823. The couple had five more children, with four - Cynebald, Angenmund, Sigfrid, and Wychtleth - surviving to adulthood.
In 5.820, Princess Cynebeorht was given the task of bringing the seventeen clans of the Felkirrin territory under direct control of the Empire. She hosted a dinner for the Felkirrin clan chiefs, proposing that they sumbitted to imperial rule. When they refused, she had them stabbed to death as they left. She sent their decapitated remains to their successors with a written proposal restating the proposal with the concession that, for any clan that joined the Empire, the chief's head that she had taken would be interred with full royal honours, per Bjerian tradition. The clans were horrified at this barbarism and refused. In response, Princess Cynebeorht used the decapitated heads of the clan chiefs to annihilate their bloodline, bringing the clans to their knees and entirely destroying three. She discovered her first dream-born child in her bed on the morning of the clans' surrender - the birth of a mage being a symbol of divine favour - and a second child was discovered three days later, when the Free State of Weilerbach surrendered without resistance.
Princess Cynebeorht led several further military campaigns in a similar vein, gaining a reputation that often ended negotiations before she arrived. She was credited with expanding the empire's reach by 15% before becoming empress, and a further 15% before her retrement in 5.890. At the time of her death in 901, she counted twenty-one magen among her children - more than any other ruler in Bjerian history - and overseen the expansion and modernisation of the Kingsmagen into the unit is now.
In 5.834, following the Empire's humiliating loss of Ke'ao Waoki at the hands of Auali'i Keao and her revolutionaries, Cynebeorht murdered her mother and father and assumed the throne. Her sister, Grand Duchess Aethelwaru, who had expected to take over the Empire, attempted to rally an army against Tuuha, only to find many of the vassal kings unwilling to rise against Cynebeorht. Aethelwaru's army was routed, and she was captured on the battlefield, tried for treason (for opposing the emperor) and blasphemy (for opposing Bjeria's divine will), and executed. Duke Wyard, who had been in Awaia arranging for the safe return of Bjerian citizens from Ke'ao Waoki, wrote to his sister demanding she allow the line of succession to play out as intended and acknowledge Wyard's right to the throne. Duke Wyard was later discovered in his bath with his throat cut; the cause of death was ruled as misadventure.
Immediately after her coronation, Empress Cynebeorht ended the rule of primogeniture, declaring that she would not tolerate the entitlement it engendered, and infroming her children that they would be expected to earn the throne. In 5.862, she survived an assassination attempt orchestrated by her eldest son, Duke Cynebald. Despite Prince Iaenwald pleading with his wife to exile their son instead, the Duke and his accomplices were publically executed in 5.863.
Emperess Cynebeorht and Prince Iaenwald fell seriously ill during the plague of 5.888. Although Cynebeorht survived, she was physically and mentally weakened by the illness and the death of her husband. She became paranoid and suspicious that her heir apparent, Grand Duke Sigfrid, would attemt to assassinate her. In a now-famous letter, Sigfrid recounts a hunting trip to his mother, noting that there is neither challenge nor honour in killing a dying bull and that a good hunter must exercise patience. Two years later, following a resurgence of plague which affected her memory and speech, Empress Cynebeorht retired from active duty and appointed Sigfrid as Emperor Regent. The first mage of Sigfrid's regency was found by Cynebeorht, on the day of her son's coronation.
In 901, Cynebeorht suffered a sharp decline in her health. As the College of Necromancers began to make preparations to inter her with with her husband, Cynebeorht instead demanded that she return to her first true love, Bjeria-Maefra. She sent for a sturdy horse and instructed her servants to tie her into the saddle. Thus secured, she rode alone into Acostaal. The date and manner of her death, and the location of her remains, are unknown.

Species

Yutaaq

Date of Death

Unknown

Life

799 901 102 years old

Circumstances of Death

Last seen riding into Acostaal. The location of her remains is currently uknown

Birthplace

Tuuha, Bjerian Empire

Place of Death

Acostaal

Pronouns

she/her

Belief/Deity

Bjerian

Aligned Organization

Bjerian Empire