Ekaterina Mariya XVI

Her Holy Majesty Ekaterina Mariya the Sixteenth, by the Golden Grace of Sol and Shosha Pontiffess and Sovereign of the Divine State and Land of Terra Borskaya, Queen of Greater Tugna, Queen of Akodiak, Queen of Yemden, Queen of Ryadoko, Grand Duchess of Borossibirsk, Lady of Novoborossibirsk, Lady Paramount of Navarrin, Sovereign of the Northern Reaches, Protector of the Black Cape, Mistress of the Thousand Lakes Tribes and Peoples, Keeper of the Sacred, Mother of the Faithful and of all Borskayas, and Supreme Custodian of the Divine Order.

Ekaterina Mariya was born to House Mariya, a centuries-old noble family living in Terra Borskaya and known for producing numerous theologians, scholars, and military advisors across five hundred years of history. Ekaterina herself was raised in the same theocratic traditions as her predecessors, trained in etiquette, homemaking, governance, religious law, martial combat, swordfighting, equestrianism, and the art of ritual. She grew up in Garruw Manor, named after its constructor and her five times great grandfather, Paulus-Gorky Garruw, a knight.

In her teenage years, Ekaterina moved away for official higher education in the capital city of the kingdom, where she studied under and resided with members of the Royal Clergy. At this time, the nation's leader was the kindly but afflicted George III Maximus, who took it upon himself to personally aid the headstrong, self-reliant Ekaterina in becoming a proper leader to the people. When Ekaterina was 23 years old, George Maximus died, and a power vacuum immediately consumed the members of his Court. Because the old king's offspring had all become invalid in some way or other, there remained no eligible heir, and no officially chosen regent.

This internal war between court members very quickly blossomed into an external conflict among factions of the people, and from the brief, terrible violence rose a certain Irina, thereby crowned Pontiffess. Her rule was pockmarked by instability, tyranny, draconian punishment nationwide, and the outbreak of an armed conflict on the other side of the world that acted as a precursor to the Great War some time later. Civil unrest played a major role in the eventual dismantling of Pontiffess Irina's rulership, which left Ekaterina, of the noble Mariya family, in line to take up the mantle.

The beginnings of the Borskayan Civil War ousted the wicked Irina from the throne and tore Terra Borskaya into three tattered factions and armies, leaving the very baseline of the nation's theocracy in the balance. Ekaterina's reputation preceded her presence, and because of her pedigree, her accession to power was seen as a blessing. Ekaterina's first years in power saw the quelling of the Civil War, the consolidation of political and religious authority into one figure, the sanctioning of state-funded industrial buildup, increased spending in the military, and the laying down of an all-new naval force.

Ekaterina's rule was not perfect. The Great War killed over ten million of her subjects, the black Death infected and killed a further twenty five million, and an invasion by air nearly spelled the end for the capital city, but Ekaterina's beliefs acted as her shield.