Leothea, Chosen of the Eclipse

Leothea, also known as Light's Shadow or the Chosen of the Eclipse, was the founder of the militant One Faith and queen of the Moranthine Empire.
Her remarkable leadership and military skills made her one of the most influential people of her time and her belief in an ancient prophecy of a secretive and persecuted sect of the Andarine faith would come to change the landscape of the continent for centuries to come, as she would not only claim the throne of one of the greatest powers on the continent, but also reform it with an iron fist into a religion-driven autocracy, embarking on an unending crusade against all who would not bend the knee before the new One Faith.
Leothea's story is one of amazing talent and a strong will, but also one of wrong purpose and hubris and people to this day disagree on whether she was a hero and a visionary or a tyrant that brought nothing but turmoil and stagnation, making her one of, if not the most controversial people in recorded history.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

When the second daughter of king Hallard II of the house of Harinn and his queen Selleme was born, no one would dare to even conceive of the controversial nature of the little girl's future. Princess Belianne Harinn was a lively and rambunctious child, often found playing with boys and running away from her duties. Her caretakers struggled in vain to make the child act in a manner befitting her station and her father, although not pleased, could not help but like his daughter's boyish behavior. Lacking a male heir, Hallard would soon start thinking of a way to get his favored second daughter to inherit his throne in a way that would not cause an uproar from the nobility or an open rebellion by the future husband of his firstborn. The young Belianne, however, would not want for the throne, but would instead wish to learn to fight with sword and spear, eventually being allowed to do so by the king to the dismay of his wife and many of the royal court.
As Belianne slowly grew to be a young woman, she would show remarkable talent for combat, becoming a skilled warrior, easily matching her father's knights. With her sharp wit, strong, dauntless personality and powerful gaze, she would silence any opposition to her unladylike behavior, which would incur a lot of bafflement and resentment from the rest of her family. Refusing to get married and turning down a prince from a neighboring kingdom, she would shame her family and lose all her favor with the royals at her father's court, which only drove her to spend more time training and studying strategy. She would come to regard her father's generals as her true family, as they would be the only ones that would accept her and appreciate her talents, apart from the king himself, who, however, still had to keep up the appearance of disapproval. In the light of this, Harald would tell the princess of his plans to make her his heir and the need for an improvement in her behavior for the sake of the kingdom's future - and although Belianne gave her best effort to meet these unforeseen expectations, she would ultimately fail to change and return to her rigid, militaristic way of conduct.
Her life changed drastically when her father's questionable hereditary policy came to light before its time and a coup would take place, with Hallard II being assassinated and the queen remarrying to the new king. With Belianne's life now in danger, some of Hallard's loyal generals would sacrifice themselves to allow the former princess' escape. Belianne would be hidden in a monastery, where she was to life out the rest of her life as a sister, in chastity and prayer, forever hidden from her enemies at the royal court. This life, however, was not fit for her proactive and intimidating character and she would constantly be in conflict with her sisters, to the point where she would be nearly expelled from the monastery. However, before this could happen, the young nun would meet Gerovius, the abbot of Holminster, who would be visiting the monastery. Her lively nature made an impression on the abbot and discovering that she was about to be expelled, he decided to take her from the nuns and place her in the Palatine monastery of Ylisthé, seeing the militaristic nature of the Palatine Order as a better fit for the headstrong young woman.
In the Palatine Order, Belianne would rise through the ranks at a staggering speed. Taking the monastic name of Leorine, she would soon become the first female to achieve the rank of paladin and her sound grasp of military theory, strategy and tactics, as well as her combat and leadership abilities, would eventually make her the leader of a small elite squad of paladins called the Clementines, tasked with some of the more difficult military matters of the order.
As a knight-lieutenant and the leader of the Ylisthé Clementines, Leorine would enjoy a lot of prestige and due to her ability combined with her feminine allure and capability until that time unseen in a woman, she would gather almost a cult-following. This popularity, however, would also serve to make her give in to her pride and when confronted by an ancient prophecy of a female holy warrior destined to bring a new, true faith to the people of the Continent, her hubris would cause her to believe she was this remarkable woman talked about in legend.
This happened at the eve of the war with the Moranthine empire, which has been struggling with inner strife ever since Hallard II was assassinated. The Palatine Order, at the time under the patronage of the kingdom of Westhia, found itself on the opposite side and this ensured Leorine that this was clear proof of her great divine mission, as she saw it as fate itself setting her up to reclaim her throne in order to start fulfilling the prophecy. Eventually managing to become one of the main Palatine commanders in the war, Leorine would be essential in the siege of the Moranthine capital of Rethinas, which she knew all to well from her earlier years.
She would come to confront her mother in the castle, revealing herself and slaying her by her own sword, an event that would push her further into extremism. The true scarring of her psyche came, however, when she has slain her older sister, thinking that a purge of her family is necessary for her fate to be fulfilled. She would then declare her true lineage to the world, expecting to be recognized as the queen of Moranthis, only to find out that few seemed to recognize her claim. Her hubris, the emotional damage caused by the atrocities she committed in service of what she believed to be fate and her own zeal caused her to gather her following in the castle and stage a coup, secretly trapping everyone important inside the conquered city and setting it on fire, killing thousands and crippling the Westhine command of the war.
She would then reveal her true alignment to a forbidden sect of the Andarine Faith which considered her to be the messiah based on the ancient prophecy she believed in. Gathering her followers, boosted by the many secret societies that clung to their chance at coming out of the shadows, she would establish the One Faith and rename herself Leothea, deifying her monastic name.
Leothea would use her considerable charisma to win over followers, her remarkable military capabilities to defeat her enemies against all odds and her wide-reaching networks of formerly underground cults to strike both directly at the hearts of her enemies, as well as indirectly at the loyalty of their subjects. Taking control of the Moranthine Empire and defeating the crippled forces of Westhia and her former order, Leothea not only defended her position as the head of Moranthia and the new One Faith, but also expanded her domain and ushered in a new era of western continental history - the domination of the new, brutal, totalitarian and theocratic Moranthine Empire, lead by an iron-fisted zealot that would stop at nothing in order to see her vision fulfilled.
Leothea's grip on Moranthia would be so absolute that her new order remained in place even after her death and her methods and beliefs would continue to permeate the empire for hundreds of years, making Moranthia the menacing power that would strike fear and paranoia into all nations on the continent throughout a long period of its history.