Kalistan

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At Home with the Emperor and Consort
Royal Family share secret to happiness
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
April 6, 5742


Emperor and Princess Consort share a moment at Cliff House

When people think of His Imperial Majesty, Emperor William II Ananto and Her Highness, the Princess Consort Casey Leigh-Campbell, they think power, wealth, and prestige that surpasses all other royal couples on Terra. And they would be correct. The Royal Family is estimated to be worth somewhere north of K$1.4 trillion Imperial Rubles in total, hold vast properties in several nations, having a controlling share in many of Kalistan's private sector industries, including tourism, gambling, tech, automobile and aircraft, and entertainment operations. And it goes without saying that the family's massive horde of precious stones and metals which sits in a bunker under the family's ancestral estate in Eveari evades description. The Empire maintains a maritime sphere of influence which extends from Southern Keris to Yingdala, and has held off Artanian imperialism in our part of the world for millennia, while continuing efficient and just absolutist government here at Home.

But His Imperial Majesty and the Princess Consort are also very personable, very easy going, and surprisingly, humble people. La Moda's reporter Natalie Drewery sat down with the Royal Couple at the newly renovated Cliff House. She found them to be filled with joy, using a sense of humor to approach life and parenthood that is refreshing, and quite honestly, far more down to earth than most heads of state in Terra. Below is the transcript.

(La Moda's) N(atalie) D(rewery): Before I begin, I am required to state that for the purposes of this interview, His Imperial Majesty has suspended the portion of the House Law which forbids commoners from addressing His Imperial Majesty directly.

(His Imperial Majesty, Emperor) W(illiam II) A(nanto): This is correct. We have done that. It is a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Drewery.

ND: Indeed the pleasure and privilege is mine. And Your Highness, I am most thrilled to meet you as well.

(Her Highness, Princess Consort) C(asey) L(eigh-Campbell): Thank you for coming to our home today.

ND: I've never been inside Cliff House, of course. But from all I have read and seen, this place is far more magnificent than I've been led to believe.

CL: It's recently been renovated, of course, but this truly is a wonderful spot for a home. We have have like a 215 degree view of the Sea, we see the Wilson Bridge from our home, and then beyond that is the capital. Our home is set into the Wilson Hill Municipal Park and the Hill behind us, Wilson Hill was, I am told at one time covered with houses that were extremely valuable, but which one of Willy's ancestors tore down after they bought this hill and turned it into a park for everyone in the city to enjoy. And then of course Mary, Willy's Great Grandmother, added her beloved redwoods to the arboretum here, and so now its basically a forest. The property is just an amazing wonderful spot, with easy access to the City, but also kind of insulated from the busyness and the noise.

ND: Well, it is certainly suitable.

WA: It's a little small to be completely honest. We do not think it was designed with five kids in mind. We believe it was originally built for some member of the bourgeoisie to use as a vacation home, and when our family was smaller, it certainly served. But as our children grow up, its gonna get a lot more crowded around her pretty quick.

ND: And your oldest daughter is 12?

CL: Yes, she will be 13 at the end of this year.

ND: Will she debut in Society?

WA: We are going to let her debut at 16. We think our sister Jennifer debuted a little early, but we have decided to let our children grow up a little more before allowing the press to have them.

ND: Will the Emperor begin the Minor Princess' Crown training this coming year?

WA: That is the goal. She has already been named as our successor, but training her for the office is quite arduous. We will work with our Chancellor and with our Sister in Luxon on the training for her office. Between the three of us, we will ensure that our daughter is prepared for this office when it becomes her time to take it over.

ND: I notice Kalistan has had probably almost as many empresses as emperors. That's not common in the world. Why is Kalistan so different in this regard from the rest of the world.

WA: Genetics, of course. By which we mean, we cannot choose the gender of our children. In our case, our mother had two girls and one boy, and we just happened to be the oldest. We think if anyone was qualified for this office, it would have been our sister Jennie. But she happened to be born second, and the tradition is that the title passes to the oldest child, even though our mother could have picked literally anyone she wanted. So we had to give up a promising career as a professional skater, world traveler, and connoisseur of marijuana and beer and accept our fate to become the Emperor.

CL: Haha, do not listen to him. Willy was born to govern this nation. I saw that from the first moment I ever met him. I think Kalistan is lucky to have him. No, he might not have been the most disciplined person in the world, but the qualities he brings to this office are second to none. He cares about everyone, he is very sensitive to the needs and dreams of his loved ones, and he cares for his people as he cares for his own children. And he is such a considerate and generous husband and partner. These are the kind of qualities I would want in a person who is, quite literally, the avatar of our nation. But I think these are the kind of qualities we encourage in our children as well. Empathy, humility, and confidence: And I don't think these kind of qualities are limited to just men, though some countries in this world seem to think that only men can possess the qualifications to govern.

WA: We think our wife doth flatter us too much sometimes.

CL: And we disagree.

ND: Do you see these traits developing in the Minor Princess as she grows up?

CL: We are trying to cultivate these traits in all of our children. But Nicolette still has a lot of growing to do. She is silly sometimes. I think she would be a musician and play in a band if she had her way. We are allowing her to take piano lessons, and she has her own drumset, which she plays along with song on the radio or on her phone. But as she gets closer to the throne herself, she will start to discover that some of her friends, not all of them, but some of them will do things to get closer to her, because they see in her an opportunity for themselves. It is just the nature of who she was born to be, and its kind of sad for her. All of our kids will go through this, to be honest, but for Nicki, it will be worse. So we are also trying to teach her how to watch out for that too.

WA: Yes, encouraging healthy relationships with friends, and focusing on those relationships which boost her up, rather than what is in it for others. We try to get to know her friends' parents, at least on an acquaintance level, to see if there's anything up.

CL: We are very involved in our kids' lives, because we kind of have to be.

WA: We use IBSI to get full dossiers on each of our kids' friends' parents.

CL: Stop it! She's gonna print that! Listen Ms. Drewery. We do NOT use the state security bureau to spy on the parents.

WA: Oh yes we do. Every day. That's half of what we do every day...

CL: We do not. Don't listen to him.

ND: Besides domestic spying, what other measures do you use to protect the kids?

CL: We invited her friends' parents and the school to talk with us. We're about to go to another parent night when Nicki goes into High School next year. We sit with the parents of her classmates in a very informal setting and sort of explain the situation with her, and we ask if there is any concern that the parents have. It's sometimes a little uncomfortable for us, as we can imagine it is uncomfortable for the parents of our children's peers, but we have to be very sensitive to the needs of her peers for a normal experience in school like we are asking for for our own kids. So, communication and openness is key here.

WA: Yes, Nicolette's classmates' parents know us pretty well by now, and we want to sort of take the mystique away from the family. It's a challenge sometimes, for sure. More so really for them than for us: We have laws at our backs. But the other kids have to basically pretend that our kids aren't who they are, and just interact with them like they're just other kids, when that's not really true. Because laws specifically protect our kids. So we need to make a very serious and genuine effort to inform the other parents that we are always willing to come and talk with them about their concerns around schooling for their own children so they have the same chance to learn in school as our children do.

ND: Have you considered sending your children to private school?

CL: We kind of do already. In the winter we go to Athosia for about 4 months, and we have a private tutor for each of the kids. But that leaves about 6 months for the public schools where our kids are with other children, and we wouldn't dream of denying them that opportunity. It just takes a bit more work on our part to make it happen. But we're pros at it by now.

WA: And it is important that our children develop affinity for people who are not in the royal family. The Wilson School district in Kaliburg have schools which admittedly does have a lot of kids of professors in it, but it also has a lot of working class and middle class children who attend as well, as it serves not only those who teach at the University, but also all those families who work at the university to support it. And, most importantly, the nobility send their kids elsewhere, so there's not a lot of peer pressure to look or act a certain way. The high society kids do not go to school down here. Our children will run into them soon enough, they don't need that kind of headache in their school as well.

ND: Does the Emperor not care for Kaliburg Society?

WA: Oh, they're fine. But their internal politics especially here in the capital, are a bit nauseating sometimes. We prefer the society in Eveari to be honest. This society stuff is one of the more, shall we say, necessary evil aspects of the Glittering Empire that still reigns here in Kalistan. But what do you do? We benefit when they help House Ananto support the things we support, so we have to give them a certain leeway.

CL: They're harmless, really. And they contribute millions annually to the city's economy, keeping our fashion and culture at the forefront of the world, so on balance the Society folks are a net positive for the Empire, even if they annoy my husband ever so slightly.

ND: But you Madame are a member of the Garden Club, which is one of the most exclusive clubs in the world.

CL: Yeah, that's correct.

ND: And that's not an issue?

CL: Not for me. It's important, even if you have the ear of the Emperor, or in my case, sleep upon the physical body of the Emperor most nights, to have connected friends when you need things done. As Consort, I don't have a lot of official responsibilities: I bear my husband his children. That's really my only official duty. But this also opens me up to a lot of informal opportunities: I can talk to certain people he cannot. I can pass information it would be unseemly for him to touch, but which needs to be communicated credibly. I can work as an informal ambassador between camps when there is some political dispute that my husband can't appear to be weighing in on. It's how we keep the wheels from squeaking in this country. I have a social life quite apart from being my husband's wife and my kids' mother, and I jealously protect that, because it is mine, not the Empire's and not the Public's. And a lot of the people I consider to be my friends happen to also be in Society. So no, its not a problem. The annoyance is his, not mine.

WA: The woman speaks the truth. Let her have it, she enjoys it more than we do; she was raised in Sulari society, so she's used to the little nuances that we just find to be trite.

ND: As the Emperor pleases. Let's wrap this up here. Please, could you tell our readers what the secret to happiness is?

WA: Get a smart, hot, fun wife: you will never wake up unhappy.

CL: William Ananto! (The consort laughs in mock chagrin) I can't believe you said that!

WA: Truth be told, and wife outrage aside, this seems to be more a question for our mother than us. She is the moral philosopher. Anything we could possibly say on the matter comes with a huge asterisk. We, and we mean our entire family, is incredibly privileged. We have life very easy. It comes with a cost, but in terms of our happiness and material well being, that cost is nothing compared to what most people pay for a tiny fraction of our happiness. So We are not sure what we could say that would really make any sense to your readers, given that true happiness seems a lot more difficult to attain for some than others.

ND: Perhaps the Emperor could hazard an opinion regardless of any asterisk. Something he says will inspire someone, or maybe the readers could put it in terms that they could apply to their own life.

CL: We are quite happy with our life, but we are also very lucky, Willy and I. I think that much of happiness comes with discovering your station and place in life, as it is, and trying to do the best with what you have. The Emperor is right of course that we are more privileged than a lot of people and so therefore have more options, but I want to think that we could be happy in our lives together even if we didn't have all this, all these privileges. Our lives would be harder, sure, but I can't say they would be less happy, because I would be happy with him even if he was some terribly undisciplined corporal in the Regular Force. When I met him, that's basically what he was. A dah-smoking artilleryman who skated on the weekends at the skatepark. He also happened to be the son of the Empress, but this is not what attracted me or kept me with him the whole time. He is a kind hearted, moderate man who believes in order and stability. Nothing crazy, nothing radical. He's perfect for me, and I find a lot of joy in that. I think accepting your lot in life includes making room for that luck and being open to new opportunities when they set themselves in front of you. So happiness is finding the thing you want to do and doing it well, whatever that is.

ND: Happiness as fulfillment. That's nice. Thank you both for your time.

CL: If you have time when we are done, we could show you around Cliff House.

ND: I... will make time, Your Highness.

The interview concludes, the Emperor and the Princess Consort proceeded to give our reporter a tour. She reported that the home is elegant in its simplicity and efficiency. Space is utilized well, travelling between floors is quick, and the only gaudy opulence happens to be in the Consort's private bathroom, which is more decadent and luxurious, as per her request, than any other room in the home. The Emperor and the Consort were never more than 2 feet apart the entire time.

Another note: The Princess Consort found it necessary, at the end of the visit, to ensure our reporter than the Royal family does not use the Imperial Bureau of Security Information to "spy on other parents," regardless of what the Emperor claimed during the interview. Ms. Drewery assured her than she did not think the Emperor was serious in that claim.

@LaModa