Empress Varkula
Reign: 125YE to 167YE
Called The Undying
Empress Varkula (also known as the Dowager Empress, the Iron Empress or the Carrion Queen) ruled for over forty years, the longest uninterrupted rule in the Empire’s history. A Varsushkan draughir, she rose through the ranks of the Imperial army before making the leap to politics.
Taking advantage of a weakened and divided senate, she manipulated (and in some cases, allegedly extorted) her way to the throne, then set about dramatically increasing the military strength of the Empire. Throughout her reign she was the victim of frequent assassination attempts, many of which she fought off personally, others of which left her scarred and eventually crippled. By the time of her death at the age of seventy-six, it was fully four days before anyone dared to approach the throne and try to remove her body – even then apparently her fingers were so tightly coiled around the arm rests that they had to be broken before she could be removed.
While her reign saw a great increase in the scope and efficiency of both the armies and the civil service, the individual nations chafed under her rule.