Fredrika Tar-Ilium
| Fredrika Quarrovth Tar-Ilium Empeuress of Myroria | |
|---|---|
| |
| Fredrika in 1976, two years after her accession. | |
| Empeuress of Myroria | |
| Reign | |
| Reign dates | August 15, 1974-present |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 11, 1923 Nelvil's Landing, Nouvé Resdaynia |
| Nationality | Myrorian |
| House | Quarrovth |
| Spouse | Peté Tar-Ilium |
| Children | Meneldur Tar-Ilium (b. 1945) Ælar Tar-Ilium (b. 1947) Emma Tar-Ilium (b. 1953) |
| Father | Fendryn Quarrovth |
| Mother | Vadeni Quarrovth |
| Residence | Imperial Residence, Pelagis Quarrovth Estate, County Quarrovth |
| Alma mater | Imperial Lycée at Green Hills Imperial College at Fellowmoor |
| Religion | Non-denominational Christian |
| Signature | 
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Fredrika Tar-Ilium (Fredrika Vadeni Quarrovth Tar-Ilium; born January 11, 1923) is the Empeuress of Myroria, and the second woman to take the throne. Born in Nelvil's Landing, Nouvé Resdaynia, to decorated veteran and future Empeurer of Myroria Fendryn Quarrovth, Fredrika lived most of her early childhood in Nouvé Resdaynia on her family's homestead before being sent to boarding school in mainland Myroria. After her education there, she attended the Imperial College at Fellowmoor and graduated with a degree in sociology in 1944, the same year she would marry her husband and future king Peté Tar-Ilium. For the following five years she would work part-time as an advisor for the Council of Great Houses.
In 1950, Fendryn died and Fredrika, as his only child, was expected to easily win election by the Council and take the throne. However, in a surprise vote the Council instead chose her husband to become Empeurer instead, and she would spend the following 24 years as Empeuress Consort, devoting her time mainly to publishing sociological papers and working for various charities. The Vrotrith poisoning scandal in 1973 would eventually unravel a web of corruption and scandal at every level of Myrorian government, and would lead to the impeachment of the Empeurer in 1974 and Fredrika's accession to the throne.
The effects of the Vrotrith scandal did not leave Fredrika untouched; the early years of her rule were marked by low opinion polls, both of the Empeurer and the Great House system which, as head of state, she administered. In an effort to improve her public image as well as consolidate power, she instituted a widespread system of programs designed to alleviate poverty, including the construction of new housing projects, Myroria's first low-income public health insurance program, and work-release programs in Imperial prisons. Fredrika also decreed into effect drastic reforms of the Great House system that, though considered successful, have been described by detractors as "autocratic".
Fredrika is the second woman to sit on the throne of Myroria, and has devoted much energy to ensuring continued access to education for girls and young women. Her coronation in 1974 was the first to be televised, and her reign saw a much-expanded space program as well as the founding of the Imperial Forest Service, dedicated to preserving old growth forests in the south and east of the nation. Though she has occasionally faced severe criticism of the Imperial Family and republican sentiments, currently support for the monarchy and her personal popularity remain high.
Contents
Early life
Fredrika is the first child of Fendryn Quarrovth and his wife Vadeni Quarrovth. Her father was a decorated war veteran who fought in the Great War on the Myrorian and Ozian fronts, and was in command of the Myrorian forces during the Resdaynian Aboriginal War when she was born. Her mother was an author of moderate renown who published several books on the genealogy of various Great House nobles. Fredrika was born on 3:46 AM on January 11, 1923, in the family's homestead in Nelvil's Landing, Nouvé Resdaynia. She was baptized in the Myrorian Catholic Church by the town's priest on February 14, and named Fredrika after her father and Vadeni after her mother.
When Fredrika was two years old, her mother died of tuberculosis. Fendryn never remarried and raised his daughter alone on Nouvé Resdaynia, though by the time of his election to the throne in 1930 she spent most of her time with governesses or at the Imperial Lycée at Green Hills, an exclusive boarding school for children from wealthy families around the world.
Heir presumptive
On May 7, 1930, the Empeurer of Myroria, Nelvil II Moomintroth, died. Great House Moomintroth, previously the foremost and most powerful House on the Council for more than a century, found its support base crumbling after a Pyrrhic victory in the Great War, and it was widely assumed in the press that the Council would choose a new king from a different House to lead the nation upon Nelvil's death. The two candidates considered most likely for the position were Fredrika's father, Fendryn, and Anos Indiotrovth, of House Indiotrovth. One month into the Council's rule of Myroria, and still some weeks away from any election, the Indiotrovth scandal broke, and it was revealed by several whistleblowers that agents from the Royal Confederacy of Eluvatar were holding high positions as nobles in House Indiotrovth.
Once this scandal came out, Anos Indiotrovth's chances for election all but vanished and on July 15, Fendryn was elected Empeurer of Myroria. Fredrika, seven years of age, became Crown Princess of Myroria, but this had little effect on her studies at the Lycée. In addition to studies there in Myrorian history, Inglish literature, and arithmetic she also learned Ozian and Eruvite from a succession of native-speaking tutors. She alternated summers between the Grand Imperial Residence in Pelagis and her family's homestead in Nouvé Resdaynia.
In 1939, at age 16, Fredrika undertook her first solo appearance on a visit to the Resdaynian Guards, of which she had been appointed an honorary commander the year before. The following year, at age 17, she was appointed to the Council of Administration so she could act as one of three Administrators in the event of her father's incapacity or absence, such as his visit to Prydainia in September 1940. In May 1941, Fredrika graduated from the Imperial Lycée and matriculated into the Imperial College at Fellowmoor that fall, majoring in sociology.
Marriage
Fredrika met her future husband, Peté Tar-Ilium, at the Imperial Lycée in 1930, at the age of seven. They quickly became friends and in 1939, at sixteen years of age, Fredrika "begrudgingly" admitted to her friends that she was in love. Peté was two years her senior and graduated from the Imperial Lycée that year, but the two exchanged letters. On March 23, 1942, their engagement was officially announced.
The engagement was not without controversy; Peté was foreign-born, had money that was feared to be "too old to be respectable in Myroria", and from a family with rumored connections to organized crime and pederasty. In Eluvatar, Fredrika, the daughter of a veteran who allegedly committed war crimes against native Resdaynians, was seen as being "dangerously promiscuous", and had money "too new to be respectable" as well as an alcohol problem. Later biographies reported that Fendryn initially opposed the union, even calling Peté an "untrustworthy outlander", but shortly before his death would say that he thought Fredrika's fiance was "a good man".
Fredrika and Peté were married two years later, on April 27, 1944, in the Eluvataran hamlet of Tuith Cemven. Fendryn Quarrovth was in attendance, though many of Fredrika's relatives who were invited did not attend, disapproving of the marriage to a foreigner. Despite the controversy, the couple recieved over 1000 wedding gifts from across the world. Fredrika's dress was a simple design based on her mother's wedding gown, and was designed by Galsa Meyvrith, of Pelagis. After the ceremony, Peté was created Duke of Fellowmoor and granted the style His Highness.
Following the wedding, the couple took up residence in the Quarrovth Estate, in County Quarrovth, Fendryn's ancestral home. They continued to reside there until October 15, 1946, when they took up residence in the newly-built Ilium House in central Fellowmoor. Fredrika gave birth to her first child, Meneldur Tar-Ilium, on July 1, 1945. The Empeurer had issued a decree allowing the couple's children to use the style of an imperial prince or princess, which they would not have otherwise been entitled to as their father was not royalty. A second child, Ælar Tar-Ilium, was born in 1947.
Empeuress Consort
During the spring of 1949, Fendryn was diagnosed with cancer of the oral mucosa, likely from years of smoking cigars - up to 15 a day during the Great War. After the diagnosis, his health declined quickly, with Fredrika standing in for him at many public events. When she toured Nouvé Resdaynia and Drakland, in Australis, in November 1949, Fredrika's personal secretary drafted plans announcing her candidacy for the throne in the event her father died while she was on tour. The following winter, in February of 1950, the Empeurer's health declined dramatically and it was clear he was nearing the end of his life; on February 23 he died.
Fredrika was devastated by her father's death; though an official declaration of candidacy was delivered to the Council, she sent Gothren Quarrith, her Imperial Chamberlain, to deliver it, rather than following tradition and giving it to the Council herself. Fredrika, as the Empeurer's only child, was widely expected to be elected to the throne; in fact, in cases of clear succession, election often took place only a few hours after the Empeurer's death. However, for reasons that were never publicly revealed, the Council elected her husband, Peté, after one week of deliberation.
It was widely rumored in Myroria that Fredrika was bypassed for the throne based on her rather indecorous personal history; tales of alcohol and Zuavka problems, as well as rumors of sexual exploits, had dogged Fredrika for years and following her husband's election, it seemed obvious to many political observers it was these tales that cost her the election. Fendryn's death, as well as her loss of the election to succeed him, weighed heavily on Fredrika the following years. Courtiers described her as "depressed" and "moody", and she herself reported candidly that she found herself bored in the Imperial Residence much of the time.
Following Peté's election, it seemed probable that Great House Quarrovth would bear his name; though he had never been fully inducted as a member into the organization, every previous Empeurer had become head of the majority house that elected him. Many nobles found this possible turn of events unacceptable; Ereven Quarrovth, head of House Quarrovth on the council, as well as many other members of the family preferred that the House keep its name. On April 24, 1950, Peté announced that he would not join House Quarrovth and that it would keep its name. In the same statement, he urged the House to consider picking his wife to be its leader, but this would not come to pass. This declaration made Peté the first Empeurer of Myroria to not belong to any Great House.
Pelagian Nationalist Army affair
On September 21, 1951, at 10:00 AM, a bomb exploded in Moomintroth Square in Pelagis; Peté had gone on a yacht race in Eluvatar two days before and, despite recommendations to appoint a council to lead in his stead, left the matter of who would be running the government unclear. Constitutionally, the duty fell to the head of the majority House on the Council to rule in the Empeurer's stead if there was no administrative council; in 1951, Folvys Quarrovth was head of the House. At noontime he made a statement asserting his authority over the nation, but for the rest of the day, for unclear reasons, made no public statement about the bombings or organized any response. Constitutional lawyers theorized that Folvys was hesistant to order a response because the Constitution of Myroria left it unclear exactly what an "Acting Empeurer" was allowed to do; the authors had intended the Administrative Council to be the head of the nation until the Empeurer's return or succession.
The following day, at 10:30 AM, Folvys was seen being taken away from the Quarrovth Estate towards the courthouse in Quarrovth City. At five o'clock that evening, Fredrika made a speech to the Council of Great Houses informing them that Folvys had been arrested on corruption charges and that she would be running the nation in her husband's stead, her first promise being that she would track down whoever set off the Moomintroth Square bomb, and that intelligence stated it was probably a Pelagian nationalist group known as the Pelagian Nationalist Army. Though the Myrorian populace was pleased that someone was taking action, the Council widely viewed the incident as a breach of protocol and authority; though there were discussions among nobles in the Council House of removing Fredrika by force, the resolution never came to a vote.
Vrotrith scandal
The term Vrotrith scandal has come to refer to an affair that resulted directly from the attempted murder of Rothis Vrotrith, the head of Great House Vrotrith by associates of Peté. The affair started in the spring of 1967 with the destruction of #18 levee on the River Ser outside Fellowmoor. The destruction of the levee was ostensibly ordered to relieve water pressure that built up following a particularly snowy winter, but the resulting diversion of flood waters away from wealthy parts of the city towards less wealthy parts that were composed almost entirely of members of House Vrotrith was widely seen by survivors as a ploy to save Quarrovth lives at the expense of those belonging to House Vrotrith.
Following the destruction of the Vrotrith-affiliated neighborhood, Peté ordered the construction of new housing projects to replace those destroyed in the flood, and to fund it instituted the nation's first peacetime income tax. House Vrotrith, opposed to the new tax, campaigned ferociously against the new law and saw its ranks swell with low-income retainers bitter at having to pay for "replacements for buildings Quarrovth destroyed in the first place".
On August 12, 1967, Rothis Vrotrith was admitted to the hospital in Fellowmoor with symptoms consistent with warfarin poisoning; as this was not a medication he was prescribed, reported not buying rat poison in months, deliberate poisoning was widely suspected. The Imperial Office of Investigation quickly suspected Chostamir Dalonmabar, an associate of the Empeurer's for years who recently left Myroria to return to Eluvatar. On January 15, 1968, he was arrested in Eluvatar and extradited to Myroria to face trial.
On January 18, Dalonmabar pleaded guilty to the charge of attempted murder against him and insisted he acted alone, but while waiting in jail for his sentencing, he sent a letter to the presiding judge of the case, Sovor Riltrith, recanting his story and saying he was hired by an organization and lied on the stand for his own safety. The trial dragged on for a year as ten people associated with the Empeurer were each questioned, and each were successively found to have done no wrong. A year after the trial began, in January of 1969, Dalonmabar testified he was hired directly by the Empeurer to kill Vrotrith, and on January 30, the Empeurer was subpoenaed and ordered to appear in court.
Though for the past year the Empeurer had remained silent on the case, once he appeared in court he admitted to asking Dalonmabar to kill Vrotrith, but contended that, as the Empeurer, he was above any laws. The Council promptly voted to impeach the Empeurer and put Fredrika on the throne for the duration of a trial against him. Despite the Empeurer's firm belief that he would survive any trial intact, on June 19, 1969, the court trying him found him guilty of soliciting attempted murder and sentenced him to fifteen years in prison. However, Fredrika pardoned her husband immediately after the verdict and he returned to Ilium House in Fellowmoor where he would live until his death in 2009.
Reign
Accession and coronation
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1970s
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1980s
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Reform
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Foreign policy
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Public perception and character
Fredrika has been frequently dogged by her persona and the public's perception of it. Editorial cartoonists and comedians frequently exaggerated her physical appearance and mannerisms, to the point where the line between the human and the caricature has become increasingly blurry.
Fredrika has a complex personality and has been described as both "strikingly reflective" and "strikingly awkward". She is inclined to open up to others but also extremely formal, wearing a suit jacket and skirt even when home alone. One biographer, Polvyn Marinirith, described the Empeuress as "extremely driven, but also easily bored". According to Marinirith, Fredrika "thought she was forever doomed to fight against a monolithic society that would never accept a woman Empeurer, but that by using her mighty will and tenacity she would ultimately carve out a name for herself in the annals of history". Biographer Sadyni Hlarroth as a "strange woman with an indomitable will, who functions well with others so long as they listen to her commands." Hlarroth also argues, "Almost a polar opposite to her husband, the former Empeurer of Myroria, Fredrika easily opens up to others which time and time again has come back to bite her."
Fredrika, throughout her tenure as Empeuress Consort and her reign as Empeuress, has been rumored to take many lovers. Though she has never confirmed or denied any specific allegations, it is widely believed among courtiers and biographers that Marcica Quarrovth, her third cousin, has been Fredrika's longest lasting affair and some have attributed his quick rise in House Quarrovth politics to her influence. Fredrika has never commented on any rumors surrounding herself, and M. Quarrovth has been quick to deny any relationship beyond a purely professional one. Rumors of alcohol and Zuavka abuse by Fredrika likewise go uncommented on, but have swirled around her since her early twenties.
Titles, styles, arms, and honors
Titles and styles
Fredrika holds many titles and honorary military positions within the Myrorian Empire, is Sovereign of many orders in her own nation, and has recieved honors and awards from around the world. In Myroria her official title is Fredrika Vadeni Quarrovth Tar-Ilium, first of her name, and by authority elected to her by the Council of Great Houses, Empeuress of Myroria, Administrator of Nouvé Resdaynia, and Lord of Great House Quarrovth.
In addition to her title as Empeuress of Myroria, she is also accorded a title as Lord of Great House Quarrovth: Fredrika Vadeni Quarrovth Tar-Ilium, elected by the Ruling Council of Great House Quarrovth, and Lord of House Quarrovth and all Houses sworn in Holy Fealty to it. Additional styles include Belliveur of All the Houses of Myroria, a reference to her traditional role as war leader of the united Great Houses, and Duke of Pelagis. When in conversation with the Empeuress, the convention is to address her initially as Your Majesty and thereafter as Ma'am.
May 9, 1930 - April 27, 1944: Her Highness Crown Princess Fredrika Quarrovth
April 27, 1944 - March 5, 1950: Her Highness Crown Princess Fredrika Quarrovth Tar-Ilium
March 5, 1950 - August 9, 1974: Her Majesty Fredrika Quarroth Tar-Ilium, Empeuress Consort
August 9, 1974 - present: Her Majesty Fredrika Quarrovth Tar-Ilium, Empeuress of Myroria
Issue
| Name | Birth | Marriage/Partnership | Issue | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meneldur Tar-Ilium | July 1, 1945 | February 19, 1967 | Athesie Quarrovth | Maurice Tar-Ilium |
| Ælar Tar-Ilium | December 9, 1947 | September 27, 1970 | Ginadura Quarrith | Manwe Tar-Ilium |
| Emma Tar-Ilium | March 23, 1953 | April 29, 1971 | Vendecci Parpaski | |
See also
| Myroria | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Cities: | Fellowmoor, Ivorheart, Novrith, Pelagis, Quarrovth, Traval | Colonies: | Nouvé Resdaynia |
| Counties: | County Ivorheart, County Pelagis, County Novrith, County Traval | Great Houses: | House Moomintroth, House Quarrovth, House Vrotrith |
| People: | Fredrika Tar-Ilium, Peté Tar-Ilium, Meneldur Tar-Ilium, Gothren Quarrith, Rothis Vrotrith | Politics: | Government of Myroria (Empeurer of Myroria, Council of the Great Houses), Myrorian census, Great and Lesser Houses, Political status of Myrorian colonies, Vrotrith poisoning scandal |
| Society: | Myrorian people, Standard of living, Inglish language, Pelagian language, "Outlanders" | Miscellaneous: | Imperial College at Fellowmoor |
