25-05-2026, 07:19 AM
![[Image: d55AroP.png]](https://i.imgur.com/d55AroP.png)
Kalistan's Philosopher Empress prepares to Abdicate
Author releases new biography of erudite monarch that evaluates her long reign
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
September 20, 5729
![[Image: 7g9zzv3.png]](https://i.imgur.com/7g9zzv3.png)
Empress' last Official portrait, taken earlier this summer, shows a monarch who is ready to retire
Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Carolina II Ananto has begun the count down to her abdication and retirement, which will formally begin on July 1, 5630 as the new Emperor is crowned. When she steps down, she will have been Empress for 44 years, 6 months and 2 days long, including the 10 plus year long regency of Lady Nicolette Ananto-Collins, making her the longest serving monarch, ahead of Mary I Ananto, who served for 41 years, 6 months and 28 days, including the regency of Lady Michelle Ananto-Sandoval, and even Empress Nicolette the Great, who served for 43 years, 5 months, and 10 days. Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Carolina II Ananto has been Empress since she was 12 years old, and it is safe to say, the transition will be a completely new experience for her.
"Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Carolina II Ananto has been the reigning monarch for four-fifths of her life," said Michael Simkins, who has recently released a public biography of the Empress called Accidental Greatness: the Life of Kalistan's Philosopher Empress. "The wildest thing about that fact is that she was never supposed to be Empress: she only became Empress upon the loss of her father and mother, and also her two brothers in a plane crash in the Mad Dog Ocean. That ill fated flight, which she was not on because she was ironically too ill to fly with her parents for the trip, radically altered the trajectory of the Empress' life, and set her on journey she is about to complete within the next 10 months."
According to Simkins, there is no way to say what kind of Emperor her brother would have been, but the loss of her family dramatically changed the young Empress. "Carolina was known as a bit of a pest before losing her family," said Simkins. "She was very outgoing, gregarious, and inquisitive. She was the middle child, and therefore was often overlooked by her parents who were busy trying to prepare her brother for his life as Emperor, or busy keeping up with her younger brother, who had a reputation of skill at athletics."
Carolina became very self reliant at an early age, and then after she lost her mother and father, and moved in with her aunt, she learned quickly that her self reliance was needed. There were rumors that the Princess Regent, herself devastated by the loss of her brother and sister in law, was nearly catatonic for the first two years of the regency, and the Chancellor of the Empire, Lady Ericka Donahue, who was really the only person from outside the royal family which was even allowed by law to approach the Roya Family, looked after the young Empress, took her under her wing and served as a very close mentor for the future ruler. "Ultimately Nicolette Ananto-Collins worked through her grief and her chemical addictions, and took up the role of adoptive mother as Carolina was entering her teens, finally providing a very stable and caring household."
The turbulence in Carolina's personal life at such an impressionable age led the girl to retreat into learning, where she took an early interest in linguistics and logic systems. The Empress got the opportunity to study in Valruzia, where she met another mentor, the late Valruzian President Urszula Pawlik, and learned about Valruzian society and language. In National Service, the Empress spent her time maintaining the geo thermal power plants in the Green Mountains, while she added philosophy to her interests and studies.
The Empress was not formally educated after High School: it is believed that she completed her degree while still in the service, but even she says this was not the same as actually going to class and sitting with a learning community. But philosophy and political theory became the love of her intellectual life: The Empress became a voracious reader, and now consumes ideas from all corners of the intellectual universe. She has written multiple peer reviewed articles, despite not being affiliated with any university, as well as numerous columns for Kalistan's various newspapers, all on theory and political thought. "in another life, she would have been a brilliant theorist," said Simkins.
She also remains an avid go player: She met her husband, the Prince Consort Elliot Rosenfeld losing to him at a National Go tournament. She maintains a professional Go Ranking of 3 Dan p, and alongside her husband, who has made a career as a go teacher, she plays weekly in Eveari. She is a devout Brethrenist, and attends the Eveari Monthly Meeting every week for worship. She is probably the most open about her faith of all of Kalistan's monarchs, nearly all of whom have maintained a public affiliation with the faith. Despite the affiliation of previous monarchs, Her Imperial Majesty has been called the first explicitly Brethrenist Empress, and under her reign, Brethrenism, while to date the dominant faith in the Empire, has really moved to the center of much of the political and social discussion in the Empire.
The Empress has also been called, and is still occasionally referred to as "The Red Empress", owing to her tolerance of moderate and even left wing political positions within the nation. Though she herself is a reactionary, the Empress was the first to allow socialists to actively participate in government since the institutionalists kicked the old SP out of the National Assembly before Nicolette the Great became Empress. Under her watchful eye, democrats are recently making inroads into the Institutional Party. She is openly supportive of robust working class rights and power in their work places, a ubiquitous social safety network, improvements to rural housing, infrastructure, health and education, and wealth redistribution in the nation. Except for her expressed and very bitter hostility toward democracy, markets of any kind, totalitarianism in the form of communism and Metzism, and her staunch and unyielding defense of hierarchy as natural, placing, of course, the Anantos at the pinnacle of the hierarchy, and herself at the top of that point, one might confuse her for a socialist. The title "Red Empress" is often applied to her as a critique by her political opponents, but she has never publicly disavowed the nickname.
The Empress has spent most of her reign having hard nationalists serve her as Chancellor. Despite the ideological orientation of the Government, Under Carolina, the nominal integration scheme known as the Anantonese Empire fell apart. "Carolina would have obviously preferred that Gaduridos was permanently and inextricably fused with Kalistan, but Gaduris, like the Lodamese before them, has no intention of politically submitting to the Empire. Lodamun fled long ago, but Gaduridos remained for another 80 years, and by the time of the Divorce, Gaduridos was draining Kalistani wealth faster than an open drain, while refusing to appoint a government to address problems they refused to allow Kalistan to address. At the end of the day, Carolina dissolved the Anantonese Empire rather than allow that nation to ruin Kalistan. And then after the Divorce, naturally the Gaduris stepped up, finally appointed an actual government and have been working to rebuild the state, while completely eschewing Kalistani offers for assistance and comradery. History will vindicate the Empress for shedding the anchor tied around Kalistan's neck, but the Nationalists of her generation will likely never forgive her."
After four and a half decades, the Empress leaves her son a much slimmer Empire than the one she inherited. The last vestige of Kalistan's once mighty Empire sits at Bentasur, which the Imperial Government has no intention of returning under any circumstance, and House Ananto's personal property in Athosia which constitutes the only part of that national obsession which remains the possession of the Royal Family, if not a possession of the Kalistani State. "But it is a Nation with the most stable currency on the face of the planet," said Simkins, "a nation with a military strong enough to deter any attacks from any foreign adversaries anywhere in Terra, a nation at peace with all of its neighbors, even if some of its neighbors nurse old petty grudges against Kalistan, and a nation that has diplomatic and trade contacts that range as far as Utaristan and Mordusia, as far as Hutori and Valruzia, and a nation that talks with more nations now than when she took the throne. That is a success in any book and when the story of her era is written, Empress Carolina II Ananto will rank among the greatest monarchs in our national History."
Carolina's turn at the helm of State has been a stable one: Kalistan went from an era of seeming existential collapse when Gaduridos decided that it no longer wanted any association, positive or negative with Kalistan to an era where Kalistan watches as other nations spend their time undermining national stability with wild constitutional innovations, revolutions, and insane trade patterns, as it sits in its place and continues to exist, as it always has, vibrant and alive, but secure and status quo oriented. Carolina's long reign has ensured that Kalistan will keep this Institutionalism, internal peace and order for generations to come. And for that, she, and the entire nation should be proud and optimistic to see her hand the reigns of government over to her son, the future Emperor William II Ananto.
"The next Emperor is of course going to be his own person," said Simkins, "But we already have indications, given his wife's expressed attitudes--Her Highness, The Princess Consort Casey Leigh-Campbell is herself also an avowed reactionary, in her own words, and the daughter of the extremely entrenched and privileged high Aristocracy--that William himself will also continue a very conservative course, maintaining continuity with Carolina, and every Ananto Emperor and Empress before her. It is doubtful that William is any sort of radical or reformer on any level--if he was trained for office by his mother, it can be certain that he shares her acerbic animosity for popular government of any kind, anywhere it exists, whether at home or abroad. But Kalistan thrives on order, and if this is what the soon to be Emperor is offering, Kalistan will continue along as it did under Her Imperial Majesty. And I suspect most Kalistanis are just fine with that."
Here's to Her Imperial Majesty's last year- may she complete everything she needs to before handing over power.
"Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Carolina II Ananto has been the reigning monarch for four-fifths of her life," said Michael Simkins, who has recently released a public biography of the Empress called Accidental Greatness: the Life of Kalistan's Philosopher Empress. "The wildest thing about that fact is that she was never supposed to be Empress: she only became Empress upon the loss of her father and mother, and also her two brothers in a plane crash in the Mad Dog Ocean. That ill fated flight, which she was not on because she was ironically too ill to fly with her parents for the trip, radically altered the trajectory of the Empress' life, and set her on journey she is about to complete within the next 10 months."
According to Simkins, there is no way to say what kind of Emperor her brother would have been, but the loss of her family dramatically changed the young Empress. "Carolina was known as a bit of a pest before losing her family," said Simkins. "She was very outgoing, gregarious, and inquisitive. She was the middle child, and therefore was often overlooked by her parents who were busy trying to prepare her brother for his life as Emperor, or busy keeping up with her younger brother, who had a reputation of skill at athletics."
Carolina became very self reliant at an early age, and then after she lost her mother and father, and moved in with her aunt, she learned quickly that her self reliance was needed. There were rumors that the Princess Regent, herself devastated by the loss of her brother and sister in law, was nearly catatonic for the first two years of the regency, and the Chancellor of the Empire, Lady Ericka Donahue, who was really the only person from outside the royal family which was even allowed by law to approach the Roya Family, looked after the young Empress, took her under her wing and served as a very close mentor for the future ruler. "Ultimately Nicolette Ananto-Collins worked through her grief and her chemical addictions, and took up the role of adoptive mother as Carolina was entering her teens, finally providing a very stable and caring household."
The turbulence in Carolina's personal life at such an impressionable age led the girl to retreat into learning, where she took an early interest in linguistics and logic systems. The Empress got the opportunity to study in Valruzia, where she met another mentor, the late Valruzian President Urszula Pawlik, and learned about Valruzian society and language. In National Service, the Empress spent her time maintaining the geo thermal power plants in the Green Mountains, while she added philosophy to her interests and studies.
The Empress was not formally educated after High School: it is believed that she completed her degree while still in the service, but even she says this was not the same as actually going to class and sitting with a learning community. But philosophy and political theory became the love of her intellectual life: The Empress became a voracious reader, and now consumes ideas from all corners of the intellectual universe. She has written multiple peer reviewed articles, despite not being affiliated with any university, as well as numerous columns for Kalistan's various newspapers, all on theory and political thought. "in another life, she would have been a brilliant theorist," said Simkins.
She also remains an avid go player: She met her husband, the Prince Consort Elliot Rosenfeld losing to him at a National Go tournament. She maintains a professional Go Ranking of 3 Dan p, and alongside her husband, who has made a career as a go teacher, she plays weekly in Eveari. She is a devout Brethrenist, and attends the Eveari Monthly Meeting every week for worship. She is probably the most open about her faith of all of Kalistan's monarchs, nearly all of whom have maintained a public affiliation with the faith. Despite the affiliation of previous monarchs, Her Imperial Majesty has been called the first explicitly Brethrenist Empress, and under her reign, Brethrenism, while to date the dominant faith in the Empire, has really moved to the center of much of the political and social discussion in the Empire.
The Empress has also been called, and is still occasionally referred to as "The Red Empress", owing to her tolerance of moderate and even left wing political positions within the nation. Though she herself is a reactionary, the Empress was the first to allow socialists to actively participate in government since the institutionalists kicked the old SP out of the National Assembly before Nicolette the Great became Empress. Under her watchful eye, democrats are recently making inroads into the Institutional Party. She is openly supportive of robust working class rights and power in their work places, a ubiquitous social safety network, improvements to rural housing, infrastructure, health and education, and wealth redistribution in the nation. Except for her expressed and very bitter hostility toward democracy, markets of any kind, totalitarianism in the form of communism and Metzism, and her staunch and unyielding defense of hierarchy as natural, placing, of course, the Anantos at the pinnacle of the hierarchy, and herself at the top of that point, one might confuse her for a socialist. The title "Red Empress" is often applied to her as a critique by her political opponents, but she has never publicly disavowed the nickname.
The Empress has spent most of her reign having hard nationalists serve her as Chancellor. Despite the ideological orientation of the Government, Under Carolina, the nominal integration scheme known as the Anantonese Empire fell apart. "Carolina would have obviously preferred that Gaduridos was permanently and inextricably fused with Kalistan, but Gaduris, like the Lodamese before them, has no intention of politically submitting to the Empire. Lodamun fled long ago, but Gaduridos remained for another 80 years, and by the time of the Divorce, Gaduridos was draining Kalistani wealth faster than an open drain, while refusing to appoint a government to address problems they refused to allow Kalistan to address. At the end of the day, Carolina dissolved the Anantonese Empire rather than allow that nation to ruin Kalistan. And then after the Divorce, naturally the Gaduris stepped up, finally appointed an actual government and have been working to rebuild the state, while completely eschewing Kalistani offers for assistance and comradery. History will vindicate the Empress for shedding the anchor tied around Kalistan's neck, but the Nationalists of her generation will likely never forgive her."
After four and a half decades, the Empress leaves her son a much slimmer Empire than the one she inherited. The last vestige of Kalistan's once mighty Empire sits at Bentasur, which the Imperial Government has no intention of returning under any circumstance, and House Ananto's personal property in Athosia which constitutes the only part of that national obsession which remains the possession of the Royal Family, if not a possession of the Kalistani State. "But it is a Nation with the most stable currency on the face of the planet," said Simkins, "a nation with a military strong enough to deter any attacks from any foreign adversaries anywhere in Terra, a nation at peace with all of its neighbors, even if some of its neighbors nurse old petty grudges against Kalistan, and a nation that has diplomatic and trade contacts that range as far as Utaristan and Mordusia, as far as Hutori and Valruzia, and a nation that talks with more nations now than when she took the throne. That is a success in any book and when the story of her era is written, Empress Carolina II Ananto will rank among the greatest monarchs in our national History."
Carolina's turn at the helm of State has been a stable one: Kalistan went from an era of seeming existential collapse when Gaduridos decided that it no longer wanted any association, positive or negative with Kalistan to an era where Kalistan watches as other nations spend their time undermining national stability with wild constitutional innovations, revolutions, and insane trade patterns, as it sits in its place and continues to exist, as it always has, vibrant and alive, but secure and status quo oriented. Carolina's long reign has ensured that Kalistan will keep this Institutionalism, internal peace and order for generations to come. And for that, she, and the entire nation should be proud and optimistic to see her hand the reigns of government over to her son, the future Emperor William II Ananto.
"The next Emperor is of course going to be his own person," said Simkins, "But we already have indications, given his wife's expressed attitudes--Her Highness, The Princess Consort Casey Leigh-Campbell is herself also an avowed reactionary, in her own words, and the daughter of the extremely entrenched and privileged high Aristocracy--that William himself will also continue a very conservative course, maintaining continuity with Carolina, and every Ananto Emperor and Empress before her. It is doubtful that William is any sort of radical or reformer on any level--if he was trained for office by his mother, it can be certain that he shares her acerbic animosity for popular government of any kind, anywhere it exists, whether at home or abroad. But Kalistan thrives on order, and if this is what the soon to be Emperor is offering, Kalistan will continue along as it did under Her Imperial Majesty. And I suspect most Kalistanis are just fine with that."
Here's to Her Imperial Majesty's last year- may she complete everything she needs to before handing over power.
@Orthodoxo
Primary: Institutionalist Party of Kalistan (IPoK), 5146-
Inactive:
Socialist Party of Kalistan (SPoK), 2591-
Inactive:
Socialist Party of Kalistan (SPoK), 2591-