Museum of the Empire, Eveari, Ananto

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V.4 and V.5 and V.5a
ANANTO-KUNDRTI 4 and ANANTO-KUNDRATI 5
Emperor Fredrick IV Ananto, Empress Jennifer I Ananto, and Princess Regent Nicolette Ananto-Collins


Emperor Fredrick IV Ananto and Empress Jennifer I Ananto at Coronation, and Lady Nicolette Ananto-Collins, 5686

Emperor Fredrick IV Ananto and Empress Jennifer I Ananto
The very conservative oldest child of Mary I Ananto, Fredrick Ananto-Collins grew up taking his role as future Emperor very seriously. As a youngster he was said to be fun loving and was into surfing as other Anantos previous to him were (He would ultimately prove to be a decent, but not excellent surfer and soon gave that up for more serious matters, allowing his sister the chance to prove herself to be the true talent in the family.) He joined National Service and then prepared to take up his birthright as Emperor.

But her married the love of his life, Kalistani supermodel Jennifer Connor, and began a family. When there was six months left in Mary's reign, it was decided that Jennifer, now a Duchess, should be co-empress, because she was thought to be a far more personable and warm person, and could do things for the Monarchy that Fredrick did not believe he could. When the two were crowned in 5672, they were crowned on a jewel encrusted double throne which had been installed into the new Opium Throne. Keeping with the Glittering Empire, Jennifer's entire bustier was made of Amethyst, while Fredrick's tunic was covered in embroidered poppies with gemstones inlaid. The affair was the most lavish throne and coronation to date.

The Kalistani experiment with Internationalism
Immediately following the Coronation, a Nationalist wing of the Institutionalist Party rose, under the young firebrand aristocrat, Lady Erika Donahue, of Vrassa. She represented the reactionary wing of the Party, and seemed to fit the Emperor's and Empress' preferences for chief policy creator. She was erudite, she was arrogant, and she was singleminded on nearly all things. But she was intensely loyal to the Institution of the Monarchy, and was the perfect attack dog for the Emperor and Empress, both within the National Assembly, as well as in the National Press. Despite the Nationalist orientation of the Chancellor, the Emperor and Empress early set Kalistan on a path to seek new international partnerships.

Early policy initiatives included expanding High Speed rail in Nevaras, re-establishing relations with Kundrati, who had finally found some peace after nearly 100 years of misery, poverty and war, and patronization of the arts, music and the Theater. Kalistan sent hurricane relief to Valruzia, further strengthening ties, and developing a Seleyan regional identity.

Five years into the reign, a crisis in Southern Seleya, the occupation of Rildanor by Egelion caught Kalistan unaware. Apparently, a brief revolution in the rump of the Canrillais Empire, or what was left of it, broke out and a neo-fascist power took over. Kalistan, who misunderstood the position of the government, took the side of the Government, and saw the uprising against it as being manipulated by Egelion to spread their Empire. Kalistan's notice arrived too late, and following early statements concerning the illegitimacy of Egelian occupation of Seleyan territory, Kalistan realized that Egelion had created a fait accompli where Kalistan could not address the matter without war, and Kalistan, exhausted from war after nearly a century of trying to contain Kundrati by itself, could not go to war. The result was an Egelian occupation of Rildanor, and the sidestepping of Kalistani interests in the hemisphere. For the first, and certainly not the last-- Over the next half century, nations have gotten into the habit of ignoring Kalistan's legitimate regional interests entirely following this precedent setting fait accompli.

After a decade of being ignored and sidestepped, insulted and publicly attacked in the international press, the Internationalist policy Emperor Fredrick IV Ananto and Empress Jennifer I Ananto had adopted at the beginning of their reign collapsed. Following the Chancellor's comments about communism and an unhinged personal attack in the Istalian Press against the Empire, its monarchs and Chancellor, The Emperor declared that Kalsitan's policy would henceforth be regionally oriented, and stated that the royal experiment with Internationalism was dead. Kalistan was finished seeing international relationships in the world from nations who demanded concessions from Kalistan without offering anything in return. Kalistan was finished allowing nations to disrespect the sovereignty of the Anantonese Empire or treat Kalistan as anything other than equals. Retrenchment of the Empire was now officially the policy of the Anantonese Empire, Kalistan discovering that the rest of the world wanted nothing to do with Kalistan on Kalistan's terms.

The Kizenian War and Occupation of Luncasi
A dust up with Xsampa following its own occupation of part of Amudim led to decades of tensions with Xsampa, a nation who Kalistan had maintained good relations with. Again--Kalistan was unable to influence events in anyway, and the occupation went ahead as much of the world ignored the implications of the deal. Finally, when a rightist authoritarian government overthrew the legitimate government of Kizenia, Kalistan chose to no longer attempt to persuade with diplomacy, but invaded Kizenia to protect a long standing Kalistani diaspora who lived in and near Luncasi, Kizenia. The Kalistani Regular Forces established a security cordon along the south coast of Kizenia with which it could supply anti-fascist forces in Kizenia.

After the war, Kalsitan protested over Egelion's cynical plots to annex parts of Kizenia to itself, and wrung a treaty out that guaranteed that Luncasi and its sister city Delatbor would remain a free and open cities, despite a puppet monarchy being set up for Kizenia that was oriented toward Egelion. Kalistan remained in Luncasi for thirty years, spawning a vibrant expatriate community, building a new commercial port, and maintaining the Supply base that had been built upon the old port.

Princess Nicolette's Regency
The Emperor and Empress, in a visit to Artania and Kundrati, became the first Kalistani Monarchs to set foot in Mainland Kundrati since the days of the Black Empress. But on their return home, their plane was caught in a storm and was destroyed, killing the Emperor, Empress, Minor Crown Prince William-David and and Minor Prince Mark-Henry. The loss of the Monarchs made the Royal couple's Second child, the often ignored but playful, curious, and enthusiastic Minor Princess Carolina, the Empress, though she could not take her office until she achieved her chronolocal Majority.

The Chancellor, long a personal ally of the Emperor and Empress, approached the Princess Nicolette Ananto-Collins, who had been a professional surfer as a young adult, and had since taken up a life of the exceptionally overqualified surf teacher, and highly competent alcoholic and drug user, the Regency. The Princess, who was used to the life of the idle rich also inherited the 11 year old Carolina who had been orphaned-- Princess Nicolette was her next of kin.

At first the Princess sunk into a deep depression in mourning for her lost brother and sister in law, who had been estranged from her because of her lifestyle. She remained depressed, crying daily, barely able to take care of herself or her Niece for six months. Her husband, the Viscount Andrew Rohrbach attempted to help, but his relationship with the Princess was also strained, and eventually Nicolette's mother, the Princess of the Empire Mary stepped in to help the hurting family, while Lady Ericka Donahue took Carolina under her wing and began keeping her both occupied with school and starting formal administrative training, and also fed on occasion when Nicolette neglected her role as the child's mother.

When Nicolette finally returned to her senses, she decided to clean up, to apologize to those she hurt and to take her role as surrogate mother of the pre-teen Empress and Regent seriously. She leaned heavily upon her mother and the Chancellor, because she herself had never been trained for government. The Regent was helped to see her administration as a caretaker administration, to allow Carolina to learn how to take over and rule effectively. She doubled down on Kalistani Institutionalism, and Lady Donahue moved to the center of Kalistani Politics.

Fortress Kalistan
With Nationalists ascendant, and in charge of both Kalistani domestic and foreign policy, a new doctrine was adopted known as Fortress Kalistan. The strategic Doctrine involved a modification of the old Defense in Depth strategy, and was designed to increase Kalistani military security to the point of dramatically increasing surveillance and early warning capabilities of the Empire stretching across the Northern half of the Anantonese Ocean. The navy formally identified defensive points as gateways to Ananto, and began patrolling those points. The thinking of the strategy was to make attacks against Kalistan so costly for any attacker that any victory would be purely pyrrhic. Kalistan might lose, but would rather burn the entire nation to the ground in house to house fighting than to allow another nation to gain anything from an attack on Kalistan.

Most of the Northern Seleyan states played a role in this system. Relations with Lodamun and Valruzia were improved as part of the strategy, and important cooperation was conducted in conjunction with Kalistan strategic imperatives. A close personal alliance was forged between the Anantos and Valruzian President Urzsula Pawlik, whom the Regent and the Chancellor both liked and admired for her strongly nationalist, conservative views and overall consonance with Kalsitani strategy, while maintaining her national independence. In a lot of ways the three women spoke much the same language in terms of regional interests and goals and there was genuine sympathy between the two states which continues to this date.

Meanwhile, the Regent watched warily as Egelion founded a loose personal union called the Kerisian Empire between itself, Trigunia and Kizenia. While initially concerning, it proved to be nothing worth being concerned over: Trigunia ended up locking up their own monarch not long after that and Kizenia went inert in short order following the establishment of the empire. Meanwhile, Egelion began aiming for global empire, seeking to assert its dominance and deliberately sidelining Kalistan as a potential partner and ally and confirming the Nationalist critique of the northern Kingdom.

The late Regency
In 5689, the Princess Regent, along with the now teenaged Empress in Waiting convinced the Princess of the Empire Mary Ananto-DeLaurentis to send the Hulanevek Diamond out of the nation. Princess Regent Nicolette, but more so, the Minor Empress in Waiting were convinced that the rumored curse on the diamond had been responsible for the deaths of the Emperor and Empress, as well as the two Minor Princelings, and the Empress wanted to be done with it. It had done nothing, she said, but bring ruin to the Royal Family, and by sending it out of the country, it was her hope that she could help the family. The three women contrived to hand it to the Hutorian Monarch, Queen Arianna, who was married to David Alvarez, a distant cousin of Princess Mary's.

The diamond, however, was not finished with Kalistan. Following the transfer of the Diamond, a corruption scandal broke out concerning money laundering and the Yeudi mafia, with resulted in the death of AYIC leader Jacob Maxwell, and a severe crackdown and short war against the forces of organized crime in Sulari, associated with the Sulari Bookmakers Syndicate and the Bank of Suldanor. After several months of violence, the mafia had been essentially decapitated and neutralized, and both the Bank and the Bookmakers' syndicate were reorganized. The National Government began very heavily regulating and overseeing both institutions and they both emerged clean and transparent, despite the violence that plagued Suldanor.

The Minor Empress also got the opportunity to study languages in Valruzia. She joined National Service, where she worked as an operator at a hydrothermal generation plant in the Green Mountains above Eveari. As the young Empress moved closer to her Coronation, she showed herself to be very much Donahue's protegee and announced that her policy was Nationalism, which she placed as a mid point between communism and internationalist liberalism. The young Empress showed herself to be a very erudite young philosopher who studied political theory obsessively, moving away from her earlier focus in linguistics, and demonstrated a keen theory oriented mind. While she was in National Service, the Future Hutorian King took residence at Cliff House with the Regent, who began his formal training and oversaw it for until the Empress discharged.

Kalistan improved relations with Xsampa and named a communist as Ambassador to Xsampa, over the Chancellor's objections. Other Ministers who Lady Donahue did not particular support or like were maintained in or named to important posts, even earning the moniker "Her Imperial Majesty's Cabinet of weirdos". While the orders came from the Regent, she made it clear that she was acting on the Empress' orders, even though Her Imperial Majesty was still enlisted. The Empress, who had been being prepared to take her throne since soon after the loss of her parents, was ready to begin her reign, and the Regent was more than happy to allow her to do as much as she could from the Barracks in the Green Mountains. The regent was allowed to return to private life in September of 5695, having served as regent for ten years, and maintaining relative peace, prosperity and stability. The Regent was yet another in a long string of competent Anantos, taking over from her Brother on behalf of her niece, and keeping the ship right with no formal or practical training in public administration, but a set of institutions around her that she could absolutely rely upon when things got rough.