Melumna Aŋlijatu Ŋura-Eilara

Melumna Aŋlijatu Ŋura-Eilara was the third monarch of Baranxtu from the Ŋurīa-Eilarīa dynasty, and also the shortest reigning. She was also the last monarch of Baranxtu who was not born there.

Biography

Born in Bërëa, where her parents were studying, she was sent to a convent in honor of the goddess Atamia at the young age of 5, where she was subject to a strict but thorough education. Here, she also was raised to be a very religious woman, and she made a vow to Atamia at the age of 12.

Melumna left the convent in 1816, when she had to move to the constituational monarchy of Baranxtu along with the rest of her family.
The years in the convent had distanced her from her family, and so she married a priest of Atamia, Auliari Anhin-Aŋli, although her grandfather would have liked her to marry an aristocrat.

She gave birth to the twins Siŋiari and Siñiariin 1817, and to her daughter Laila in 1819.
After Siŋiari died of the measels in 1820, she became a priestess herself and served at the temple of Atamia in Ān-Baranxiž.

Soon - it is generally assumed due to her mother's influence, who had become queen in 1821 - she was elected High Priestess of Atamia in 1823.
In this function, she made several controversial public appearances, for example critizising the relaxed attitute of the country towards members of other faiths. She also publicly spoke out against her mother's politics, especially the Hantis-Baranxtu War (1830-1832), which at the time was highly popular with the people.

Probably as a result of this, she was sent to the remote province of Dorista to serve as High Priestess there in 1833, which at the time was equivalent to the position of a governor.
She wrote several statements regarding this, and attacked her mother in blunt and harsh words, as she was forced to leave her family in the capital.

Melumna was forced to stay in Dorista until she was to follow her mother on the throne - although Aŋlija herself had stated once that if there was a way for her to do so, she would strip her daughter of the privilege.
She was only allowed to return to the capital for the funeral of her husband, who died in 1845.

When her mother died in 1852, Melumna only reluctantly returned to the capital for her coronation, but her pride did not allow her to refuse, as she wrote a month after her inthronisation.

Weakened by the hard life in the then still underdeveloped province of Dorista, she suffered from a fragile health from the beginning and spent most of her short reign in sick bed, developing one cold after the other. Melumna died early in 1853 of pneumonia.