Zora I Shiroko
Zora I became baejan (empress) in 574 after the retirement of her mother, Natalay I Shiroko. Her father was the mad Timof III Shiroko and she had seen him plunge the empire into civil war. After her ascension, she wanted to continue her mother's peace and improve the image of the monarchy. She banned capitol punishment and created the first national library in the empire. However, she also began the persecution of practitioners of Tekel, believing the foreign religion was a threat to the empire.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Zora was born in 536 to Natalay I Shiroko and her brother, Timof III Shiroko. During her early years, most of her education was given by her mother, with subjects such as military strategy, history, international politics, and economics. Normally, the ruler would be the one to teach their heir. However, Timof III believed himself to be incompetent and was constantly anxious about his hold on power and other people's perceptions of him. Thus, he was worried he would somehow endanger his daughter's education and left all of that to Natalay.
Spending most of her time with her mother, Zora learned a great deal about the inner workings of the empire and about how unstable her father could be. While Natalay tried to shield her daughter from most of it, Zora grew up watching Timof III's increasing anxiety. Instead of getting in the middle of the debates between her parents, she began working with books. The Department of Historic Preservation welcomed a royal child into their ranks and she spent a large amount of time learning about the history of Eoion and of the kingdoms that had once existed.
During her Attunement Test at age eight, it was discovered she was a pyr-esh like her mother, which brought them even closer. It was Natalay who taught Zora how to make the Ilyannoi rather than the ruler, as would have been done had tradition been followed.
When Timof III started his war in 560, Zora was twenty four years old and very aware of how unfit her father had become at ruling. Rather than stay in the Gandenye with her mother to assist her in ruling, Zora accompanied Timof III to the front lines. There, she witnessed the destruction of whole towns between the rebels and her father's creatures and military. This hardened her against violence and she searched for a reason for it all to stop. Spending time with Timof III helped her learn about his theories and the 'dark' god he believed was responsible for the former Bracan's rebellion. While she believed her father was unstable, the idea of another religion breaking up the unity of the empire stuck with her for the rest of her life.
After Timof III's death, Zora switched places with her mother and returned to the Gandenye while Natalay put down the rebellion. During her mother's time away, Zora worked with the Bolugama church to determine how a greater sense of unity could be brought. She also struggled with her own mental issues, notably the start of depression. Through her life, she would struggle with the illness and ended up retiring from her rule early many years later because of it.
Upon Natalay's return, Zora settled into a supportive role during her mother's reign and married one of her cousins in 562. One year later, they had a son, Ilya III, and then three more children: Andriy, Zora II, Evgeny, and Kristana. All of her children lived to adulthood, aside from Andriy, who perished from an infection in a sporting injury when he was seventeen.
Natalay retired in 574 and Zora took the throne of Eoion, determined to continue the peace her mother had established and also to ensure the unity of the empire. However, both tactics were oddly gone about and one ended up causing more violence than the other.
Zora's first act as baejan (empress) was to ban the use of capital punishment within the empire for those convicted of crimes. Her decision was based on the idea that the monarchy had to appear merciful after Timof III's disastrous reign and Natalay's strict rule. Instead of killing convicted felons of high crimes, she instead sentenced them to working the mines in the west of the empire. They mining groups were strictly supervised and criminals could earn a small salary through their work if they performed above and beyond expectations. While their sentences were never shorted, she believed that forced labor was a much more effective deterrent to criminality than death.
To increase the unity of the empire, she began a purge of those who practiced Tekel. Despite knowing her father was unstable, she did see some logic in the idea that different religions could cause unnecessary factions to form within the empire. To keep this from happening, she forced those who were followers of the Tekel tradition out. The religion itself was also heavily associated with Eoion's longtime rival nation, Yzel, and Zora framed this as a purge of enemies. Followers of Tekel could not be trusted due to the connections they had with the opposing country. This led to much of the Tekel population in Eoion fleeing to Yzel and only in the last 200 years have they begun to move back. Merchants were spared as they were only temporarily in the country. Permanent residents were forced to convert or had to hide their religious affiliation from their neighbors.
Zora's final most famous act was another devoted to unifying the empire. She began the first national library. A copy literary works published within Eoion's borders were brought there to be collected and maintained. The public was given permission to access these works to learn about the accomplishments and knowledge of their fellow citizens and ancestors. Family registries were also kept in the library. Throughout her reign, Zora added more and more books, finally expanding the collection to works published by those of Yzelian descent, but these were only accessible by nobility. Her library has stood since its founding and has expanded further, now containing books written in Bracan, Farenese, Metra, and Ula, as well as Eoin. Each year, a new 'class' of books is added in a ceremony dedicating each one and showing how they will benefit the empire.
Throughout her reign, unfortunately, Zora's depression worsened and she feared that she was not doing enough to help the empire and that she would never be capable. By the end of her reign, she could barely be convinced to leave her bed or eat despite support from her husband and children. When Ilya III Shiroko became an adult at 20, Zora officially retired to Parishi intending not to return to the Gandenya. However, Ilya III sudden abdication in 585, two years after his coronation, nearly forced her to return to active rule. Instead, Ilya III's sister/wife, Zora II Shiroko took over as baejan. Zora I lived the rest of her live in Parishi with her husband and the lifting of ruling responsibilities assisted in her partial recovery. For the remainder of her days, she worked with the Bolugama temple in the town and helped ensure the productivity of the Shiroko family lands.
Life
536
614
78 years old
Birthplace
Place of Death
Children
Gender
female
Eyes
wide, dark violent, almost black
Hair
long, all braided, white
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
pale, yellow undertone
Height
5'8"
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