The First Empress of Rosenburg

The Seven Kingdoms of Rosenburg

The Empire of Rosenburg was not always an empire. Several centuries ago, it was instead a loose alliance between seven different individual Kingdoms and Queendoms. These nations were never at war with each other, but they did jockey amongst themselves politically for alliances, wealth, and power. The seven original Kingdoms were as follows:

• The Northern Kingdom of Ashtalon
• The Queendom of Montellano
• The Heartlands Kingdom
• The Archipelligan Kingdom of Janus
• The Queendom of Parcent
• The Sovereign Nation of Saxe-Limburg
• The United Kingdoms of Frias

This loose collection of not-quite-allies persisted for centuries. Their non-aggression pacts and mutual defense pacts made them too much of a risk for other nations to attack, but neither could they become a power on the global scale because of the infighting within the alliance.

The Birth of an Empire

This alliance existed until Queen Nami de Rosenburg Montellano, first of her name, united the Kingdoms and Queendoms into one Empire. An incredibly smart and charismatic Queen with a brilliant mind for strategy, Her Majesty Nami de Rosenburg used various tactics to gain the allegiance of three other Nations.

The Kingdom of Janus was the first to join her group because, as an Achipelligo, it had ready access to the Coral Sea and the strongest navy in the alliance. It was also plagued with pirates. None of the other nations would send aid to Janus to deal with the pirates, despite standing mutual aid pacts. They claimed the pacts were intended to assist in the face of outside aggression, not inward, and stepping in the squash the pirates would be the same as stepping in to support one side over the other in a civil war.

The Queendom of Parcent was the second to join. They were, and still remain to this day, the smallest Nations of the Empire. Their neighbor, The United Kingdom of Frias, had been making marriage offers to their queens for several generations, always from their second royal princes. This heavily indicated a desire to either annex Parcent into their United Kingdoms, or at the very least, exert influence over the Queendom by replacing their Queen with a male heir that would be lenient in favor of Frias. 

Feeling at risk of losing their cultural identity as a Queendom in the face of a much bigger power, The Queendom of Parcent jumped on the chance to rally behind the only other Queendom in the alliance. Queen Nami de Rosenburg also promised that the Empire she proposed would have a second governing body for checks and balances: a Council made up of one representative from each participating Nation, where each Council Member's vote would hold equal sway. As the smallest Nation that would join the Empire, this would give the Queendom of Parcent a greater sway in the alliance than it currently had.

The Heartlands Kingdom was the third to join Queen Nami de Rosenburg, and it was perhaps the most important strategically. The Heartlands Kingdom was, and still is, known for producing the largest percentage of agriculture in the entire Empire. This gave them an incredible amount of power and influence, as they could choose to fluctuate prices between the different countries and season-by-season to help get what it wanted. This was one of the practices that Queen Nami de Rosenburg wanted to do away with, as she believed it was harming the alliance of the Seven Nations to be holding trade wars between themselves. How she got The Heartlands Kingdom on her side, and so quickly, remains a mystery scholars still puzzle to this day. Some believe she manufactured tales of an outside crisis, or either manufactured or found evidence that another one of the Nations was planning to pressure the Heartlands Kingdom due to their unethical price setting. Although solid evidence for either theory has never been found. Others simply say she seduced the King, King Yarrow, and he followed her out of love. King Yarrow did become one of her first husbands after the Empire was established, the main evidence behind this theory, but there is still no solid evidence that they engaged in any romantic affairs at this point in time.

Once Queen Nami de Rosenburg had the backing of four Sovereign Nations, including her own, she held a majority over the seven Nations and was able to maneuver the other Nations into signing a bloodless treaty, creating the Empire of Rosenburg, at that time called the United Empire of Allied Nations. Queen Nami de Rosenburg assisted lawmakers from every Nation to draft the rules of law for this new Empire, including tighter treaties between all member Nations that guaranteed free trade, military aid, and a transfer of ideas while safeguarding the individual Nations' cultural identities.

The Bloodline of the Rosenburgs

After the groundwork for the Empire was in place, she abdicated her rule and turned over the power of the Queendom of Montellano to her sister, Queen Raven de Rallia Montellano. Nami de Rosenburg was then crowned Empress Nami de Rosenburg and the Empire was officially renamed The Rosenburg Empire. But Empress Nami de Rosenburg was a forward thinker, and she knew this Empire was young. It wouldn't last more than a generation unless something tied it together more strongly than a piece of paper.

And what ties people together more strongly than blood?

Historically, the Queendom Montellano was a matriarchal kingdom with power passing from mother to daughter, or to another female relative such as a sister or aunt. It was not uncommon for Queens to take multiple Prince Consorts as husbands, and the practice of a titled nobility, regardless of gender, to have multiple spouses was seen as high fashion, in imitation of the throne. Non-titled nobility and members of the peasantry were not allowed this honor. During the first decade of her reign, Empress Nami de Rosenburg spent a period of one to three years in residency at each Court of the Nations within the Rosenburg Empire. She took a husband at each court from the extended royal family and gave birth to a child, which remained with the husband at the court after she left. This ensured that every royal family could claim extended cousinship, not only with each other, but with the Imperial Family as well.