Empea and Maeyan, The Royal Untwins.
Empea and Maeyan, The Royal Untwins.
Empea was discovered in the streets of a far village one bright May dawn.
No one knew who the week-old infant was or claimed to be her family; it was suspected that foreigners who'd been attending the annual Eydair Greetings the previous day had abandoned her. As per law1 she was taken to the highest ranking official in town, who happened, at the moment, to be Firesweeper. Firesweeper, visiting for the Greetings as well as a government inspection of the rural southern villages, took a liking to the child and announced that if no one were to claim her she would be adopted into the royal family.
When word reached the people, many tried to claim the infant in hopes of selling her to Firesweeper, but no one suceeded. The adoption was made official by mid-August. This caused much apprehension among Firesweeper's royal cabinet members.
As is practiced today, adopted children were counted as equal to any full-blooded children when considering an inheritance and Firesweeper was expecting her first child at the end of August. If the child was a male, the throne would merely pass to the newly adopted Empea, but if the child was female the law was unclear as to who would inherit the throne - the blood child or the oldest child2.
On the day before Maeyan was born, Firesweeper signed into effect the Empea Law, declaring that if two royal children are born within 365 days of each other, they must inherit equally. This effectively gave the throne to both Empea and the newly born Maeyan, a possibly bad prospect for the Empire if the two did not rule cooperatively. Fortunately, Empea and Maeyan would not cause any such trouble. As young girls, they fought often, as sisters are wont to do, and yet despite their differences in many things, the two girls were the best of friends. Close enough to often be mistaken for twins by foreign dignitaries, it was the Prime Minister of Grensh who, when touring the eastern borders with the royal family, dubbed them the Royal Untwins3 , a nickname that has remained through history.
Barely in their twenties when Firesweeper stepped down from the throne to spend time with her second family, Empea and Maeyan took the reigns from their mother's hands with a strength and pride that belied their years. As they grew older they ruled the Empire both wisely and kindly, constantly deferring to each other in decisions and enabling some of the best growth the Empire had seen in generations, especially in the areas of literacy, tourism, conservation, and transportation. It was during their reign that the Empire saw it's first balanced budget and the greatest decrease in government spending in history. The Royal Untwins were also instrumental in the early development of both the Community Assists and the Community Works systems4 .
In their mother's likeness, the two women jointly adopted a young child found wandering the streets looking for food. The girl, Miko, had lost her parents and siblings in the plague of Tlen-Ti Town and been on her on since she was but one year old. Maeyan and Empea took her in and, after verifying that Miko's family had indeed all perished, adopted her as their daughter and heir. This established the second generation of rulers that was not fully direct bloodline to the Royal family. A fact that did not pass unnoticed by some in the land.
***
1 See Greewick's Royal Concordance of Leyw Laws and Court Rulings, v5 s.32 p.3.
2 According to Barrong's "Discussing the Empea Law", the argument was hotly debated even after the law was passed. See also Utley's "Adopting an Heir - Why the Empea law is illegal" for an almost convincing argument against the law.
3 When questioned in her later years, Empress Empea was quoted as saying that she never really remembered the incident that caused the nickname to come about: "apparently it wasn't as interesting as the name itself."
4 See chapter 25 of this book for a fuller description of the accomplishments of this time.
| Creation of the Empire | The Untwins | LB's story | More to come soon... |
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Updated: 2004.09.20