Jef Leonov

In TE 332, 11-year-old Jef Leonov met Umar Hoister at a re-creation of the Battle of Gaugamela on the original soil. During the victory celebration, Umar taught Jef some simple tumbling. A tenday later, the Emperor hired Umar to coach Jef and his sister Anna in self-defense. A few months later, Jef and Umar became lovers (it is important to remember that Jef was well beyond puberty, having been aged by daily sessions under the Memory Crown, and having passed his adulthood tests a year earlier).

Some historians contend that Jef "fell under the pernicious Schmidt/Hoister influence" -- this overstates the case, but Jef did become more sympathetic to the Hoisters and Emperor Alak feared (probably rightly) that the Hoisters would use Jef's sympathy and their growing influence to bring themselves closer to the Throne. Umar had a drop of Imperial blood (as did virtually everyone else) and Jef refused to father a Carroll Heir. So Alak sidestepped Jef and allowed Lura Carroll to be born.

After the departure of the Fey Kindred in 335, Jef and his father reconciled, and for the next few years Jef's responsibility and authority steadily increased. During the first half of TE 341, Jef was the de facto Emperor, as Alak's health declined. Finally, in August 341, Alak died and Jef ascended to the Throne with only token opposition in the Council.

In 340, of course, the Masilek dynasty took over the Patalanian Union and began to pursue a more aggressive course. Jef's reign was marked by a constant struggle for defense against the ever-advancing Union. The First Battle of Vetret in 343 was a triumph for the Empire, but the Beta Putki supernova later that year was a blow to Imperial morale. The loss of Vetret in the Second Battle of Vetret, TE 344, cost the Empire more than morale -- the Vetret shipyards, a major producer for the Imperial Navy, were now under control of the Union.

After Vetret, Jef began a slow physical and mental decline attributed to the stress of the war and the responsibility of the Throne. His sister Anna took an increasingly-larger role in running the Empire. Jef died in May 347, chronologically a man of 26 but physically and emotionally a victim of old age.