Empress Giselle
Reign: 331 YE - ??? YE TBC
Called:The ??
Early Life and Election
Empress Giselle de [{Sarvos]] was a born politician; clever, manipulative and cunning. While she was not lineaged herself, she had blood-ties with a powerful naga guild of Reckoners. Her husband Teodore von Mestra was a merrow of another guild, and between the two she never lacked for useful information about the business of her allies and rivals. She surrounded herself with agents through a delicate web of blackmail and patronage, and had business interests throughout the League, as well as in Siroc, Meade and dozens of other places.
Her approach to becoming Empress in the aftermath of Ahraz was to do exactly what she had done to become a merchant prince; to use blackmail, bribery and patronage to bring as many senators as possible under her influence. She owed her election as much to senatorial concerns over the need for unified leadership in the wake of the loss of Spiral.
Reign
Unfortunately the talents that had made her a successful Merchant prince made her a dangerously ineffective Empress. Her habit of playing her supporters off against one another deepened the divisions in the Senate. Her ever-present agents looking for signs of rebellion and for useful blackmail material encouraged an atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia. Her loyalty to the League skewed decisions that might adversely effect one of the cities, even if they were for the greater good.
She encouraged the Senate to spend money as if it was water, and claimed at one stage to be a reincarnation of Empress Richilde despite a complete lack of evidence. .
Death and Legacy
Empress Giselle died at Holberg during an ill-fated attempt to defend the territory against Druj forces. She refused point-blank to accept the repeated advice of her Generals that the battle was a trap, removing the Marcher General Maria of Upwold and the Brass Coast General Xavier i Torelia i Riqueze
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