Empress Ariadne

Ariadne, the youngest direct descendant of Emperor Malak, is the only daughter of Emperor Marius. After five years of serving on the Imperial Senate, she has been elected to the rank of Empress - the youngest to do so in several hundred years.

Early Life
Little is known of Princess Ariadne. That her mother after whom she is named died in childbirth is well known and was mourned across the Empire. It was worried that Emperor Marius  would become lost in his grief, and would either turn away from the Empire or from his infant daughter. He did neither. Though Ariadne was cloistered in the Crystal Citadel for most of her childhood, she seems to have been well loved by her father and those with whom she was close.

Her education was largely conducted in secret and in disguise. In her teens she is rumored to have studied martial combat with revered monks, swordsmanship with masters, the arts of the arcane with archwizards and the mysteries of the divine with high priests. So pervasive is the story of the Princess's secret education, half the temples, schools, dojos, and barracks throughout Paisur claim that she trained with them at one point. If even a fraction are telling the truth, Ariadne may be one of the most well educated and deadly people in the whole of the Empire.

Senate Legacy
Where her father fought hard to change minds, Senator Ariadne spoke with such eloquence and beauty that even the most stolid of racial purists saw the benefit in a more unified, open, and accepting Empire. Said to be so convincing she could turn a lecherous sailor into a celibate priest and a druid into the most industrial machinist, Senator Ariadne used her gifts of persuasion to further her father's work, solidifying the gains he strove to make in his career. At twenty she joined the Imperial Senate. At twenty five, in the wake of the failing health of Emperor Marius, her peers elected her Empress.