Kythran Carroll

Kythran Carroll was the only daughter of Jamez Carroll and Karen Wuorio. Throughout her childhood, she was intimately involved with the Throne and its occupants. Marrc Jakobbsen was her godfather. From 431, when she was only three, it was established that Jamez would inherit the Throne from Marrc -- and, therefore, that Kythran would be his Heir.

As a girl, Kythran doted on her Imperial godfather. To the rest of the Galaxy, Marrc Jakobbsen was an ineffective Emperor and a worthless playboy; to Kythran, he was an exotic, beloved uncle. When he died in 444 (she was 16), she was inconsolable.

In the center of the political whirlwind that was the Late Empire, Kythran was unable to make her own way. In 445 she entered a political ement with Daved Kuchta, a leading voice in the Imperial Council. They had three Jonn (b. 446), Marilag (b. 451), and Kidlat (b. 453). Only days after Jonn's birth, he was named Heir's Heir.

In 450, at the age of 22, Kythran accompanied Jamez on a triumphal tour of the Empire, along with her four-year-old son Jonn. This trip proved to be Kythran's introduction to the responsibilities of the Throne; after they returned to Laxus, Jamez began his slow decline and each passing year saw Kythran taking up a larger portion of the say-to-day governance of the Empire.

Politically, Kythran had always been on the side of the Bubs, who supported no-holds-barred war with the Patalanian Union. Her experience as Jamez' surrogate, however, made her aware of the increasingly-fragile state of Imperial politics. The Idara were growing far too powerful for the Throne to control, and the various factions in the Imperial Council were completely intransigent, unwilling or unable to compromise.

After Jamez died in 459 and Kythran was confirmed as Emperor, she attempted one last time to balance the competing factions of the government. In 460 she convened the Council of Euphrates, a gathering which brought together leaders of the major Idara in an attempt to find common ground. The Council failed spectacularly. Notably, the Lütken, Chen, d'Herelle, and Adelhardt Idara all opposed Kythran (and each other).

Several rival claimants to the Throne appeared, notably Philip d'Herelle and the reigning Chen of Chen. Under these two, their Provinces (Credix and Borshall/New Sardinia, respectively) conspicuously went their own ways. Borshall/New Sardinia, for example, ceased to fight with the Patalanian Union and began trading, recognizing the Union in all but law. Credix withdrew many of its ships from Navy operations in the Transgeled, and instead conducted its own independent maneuvers along the border with the Union.

The Bubs party, of course, found Kythran not committed enough to their aims, and began to support her son, Jonn. Kythran, meanwhile, aged terribly under the strain of the Throne. On 27 March 467, she died under the Memory Crown. Suspicion, of course, fell on Jonn -- but later historians favor the theory that young Kidlat, under the control of extreme Bubs, was actually responsible for her death.

Kythran was succeeded by her son, Jonn Kuchta.