Alliyma Antisuyu, known during her reign as Alliyma Yuyak, was the
Prismatic Empress of the
Intersedran Empire from the years 1799 Re to 1805 Re. She is known for being the empire's first ever Yuyak empress, and is the only known Yuyak to hold the position to date.
Empress Alliyma's rule was relatively short by Intersedran standards, lasting only six years, and was defined primarily by conflict between her and the empire's
Scalebearers; which lead to an eventual coup in the year 1805 Re in which she was forced to abdicate from the throne. This conflict began from her status as one of the Yuyak; stemming at first from the unprecedented nature of one of their number taking the throne, and later escalating as a result of the difficulties that came from the interactions between a Yuyak empress and the rest of the non-Yuyak court. Alliyma was characterized by detractors during her reign as an inept empress who failed to conduct herself in a way that was befitting of her station; while her supporters instead portrayed her as a just and benevolent ruler who made decisions that were uninfluenced by favouritism or political convenience, instead focusing simply on what was best for the state.
During her tenure as empress, she was primarily occupied with attempting to implement new laws regarding the rights of the Yuyak; as well as in attempting to garner support for her project to create a Yuyak-governed city. The latter would dominate her efforts in the final two years of her reign, and would see her come into
Hair Colour: Bright yellow with dark blue
Eye Colour: Yellow
Height: 5ft4 / 165cm
Birthplace: Corhihuos
Year Of Birth: 1781 Re
Year of Death: 1832 Re
Age: 51 at time of death
Date of Accession: 1799 Re
Ruled For: 6 years
Abdicated in: 1805 Re
conflict with many of the empire's most influential power brokers. Despite all odds, she would succeed in her agenda, passing the necessary legislation to allow for the creation of the city of
Kurkuki. However, the acts necessary to allow her to do so made her so unpopular with the empire's Scalebearers that she was ousted from her position as empress a mere six months later. After her abdication, she lived out the remaining 30 years of her life in exile in the eastern reaches of the country; before eventually dying of an illness.
Early Life
Alliyma was born in the year 1781 Re to the Antisuyu family. The current Prismatic Empress hailed from the Antisuyu family, making Alliyma part of the royal family. Despite this, she was the fourth child of the woman second in line to the throne, and ninth in line to the throne overall between her various cousins and siblings; meaning she was never expected to ascend to the throne. Records of her early years are scarce, but it is presumed that she was identified to be Yuyak relatively early in life, and was thus kept away from politics as a result.
In the time between her birth and her coming of age, the Antisuyu dynasty were struck by a series of tragedies. Several of Alliyma's sisters are recorded to have died during the outbreak of epidemic disease that occurred in 1788, while another perished in an accident in 1789, and one more yet was murdered in 1794 by a family rival in a failed coup attempt. The final blow to the Antisuyu family came in the latter months of 1798 Re, when a massive earthquake in the capital caused parts of the palace building which Alliyma's family had been staying in to collapse. The entire female branch of the Antisuyu family save for her was killed in the collapse alongside over a hundred other palace guests and nobles, which threw the empire into chaos.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, Alliyma was identified to be the only remaining woman of Antisuyu descent; leaving her as the only viable candidate to replace the now-dead empress. This lead her to be hastily crowned a mere three months after the disaster in order to avoid leaving the empire leaderless for a protracted period of time, resulting in her accession to the throne in early 1799 Re.
Reign
Alliyma's accession to empress was unpopular with a large portion of the Scalebearers from the very beginning. Many among them thought that it was unacceptable for one of the Yuyak to take the throne, and this lead many aristocrats to openly speak out against her appointment in the months prior to her crowning. These voices were only emboldened when, after becoming Prismatic Empress, Alliyma took to openly ignoring various traditions and expectations in her role. She attended galas but refused to speak to the Scalebearers there, instead preferring the company of administrators and bureaucrats; with whom it is said she would spend hours discussing state matters and asking for advice on how to address various problems. She also took little notice of social class; choosing who to interact with based on merit rather than rank within Intersedran society, which included her elevation of a disgraced former noble named Yanantin to her personal aide.
She was also known to spend significantly more time among the empire's poor and lower class than preceding Prismatic Empresses. One of the most famous events of Alliyma's rule saw her combat the effects of a famine in the capital by substituting potato crops with the contents of the imperial pantry; a decision which was immensely popular with the city's peasant population but proved infuriating to the Scalebearers.
She is said to have relied extensively on Yayantin's advice during her reign for interactions with the Scalebearers and other members of court. She allowed him to sit in on all of her meetings, and is rumoured to have asked him for advice on matters such as whether individuals were lying to her and whether or not she could trust them. Her elevation of a man to such a high position in the Intersedran court was one of her most unpopular acts, and would play a large part in souring the opinion of the more traditionalist Scalebearers against her.
Elevation of the Yuyak
At the start of the second year of her reign, Alliyma began to seek support from the Scalebearers for an empire-wide construction project in the style of previous Prismatic Empresses. This project would differ somewhat from the norm, however, in that its aim was not the creation of a new temple or palace or roadway; but rather the foundation of a new city, one intended to be populated by the Yuyak. In order to acquire labourers for this project, Alliyma proposed a novel solution: The various Scalebearers of the empire would not be required to contribute workers, but rather would be asked to allow any of their Yuyak subjects to travel to the site where the city was constrtucted and would perform the work themselves. In exchange for this, they would be allowed to stay in the newly created city.
Alliyma drew upon religious justifications from within the state religion of
Estrella in order to justify her intended creation of the new city; stating that
Lyrielle's acknowledgement of the Yuyak's differences made them religiously significant, and that they would better contribute to the empire as a whole if a place were created that catered to their particular needs. This argument was initially met with staunch refusal by parts of the empire's religious class, but clever leveraging of key clergywomen in the capital would eventually gain Alliyma the support of the priesthood. The majority of Scalebearers were much more difficult to convince, as one of Alliyma's stipulations for the law was that they would be forced to provide transportation for any Yuyak who wished to travel to the construction site; an extremely costly affair for Scalebearers whose demesnes included a large number of them.
Eventually however, through a combination of deal-making and outright bribery or blackmail, the latter facilitated by her advisor Yayantin, Alliyma was successful in securing enough support to go ahead with the construction of her new city. Arrangements for the Yuyak to begin travelling to the city began being made in 1803 Re, and a massive wave of migrations had begun throughout the empire by 1804. Construction began in proper in the following year on Alliyma's new city; which would come to be known as
Kurkuki.
Abdication
Although her great project was a success, the measures required to implement it proved the tipping point for the relationship between Alliyma and the Scalebearers. In the summer of 1805, a coup was staged in the imperial palace and Alliyma was forced to abdicate upon pain of death. She forfeited the throne to a woman who would soon come to be known as Empress Apaguray, and was thereafter forced into exile in the eastern reaches of the country.
Despite successfully overthrowing Alliyma, Empress Apaguray allowed the project to construct the Yuyak city to continue undisturbed. Work on the city would eventually conclude in 1817 Re, continuing on into the reign of the next empress after Apaguray. Alliyma herself lived out the rest of her life in a religious establishment in the east of the country, where she would eventually die around 30 years later of an illness. Despite her short tenure as empress and her controversial reputation within the empire, she would go on to become a hero of the Yuyak, and remains one of their most respected figures in the present day.
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