Natolya Valin

Natolya Valin
Date of Birth April 4th, 1764 Place of Birth The Jaia Kingdom of Morindira, present-day Remistlin, Morindira Current or Last Rank Praetor Emeritus Current Status Deceased

Natolya Valin (b. 1765 - d. 1851) (r. 1789 - 1800)

She was born in the town of Ja'ccio in the Jaia Kingdom of Morindira, on April 4th, 1764. Her family was minor Jaia nobility. Her father, Carlo Valin, an attorney, was named Jaia's representative to the court of Amadeus III of Dracoriana in 1778, where he remained for a number of years. The dominant influence of Valin's childhood was her mother, Maria Valin. Her firm discipline helped restrain the rambunctious Natolya, nicknamed Rabullione (the "meddler" or "disrupter").

Valin's noble, moderately affluent background and family connections afforded her greater opportunities to study than were available to a typical Jaian of the time. On May 15th 1774, at age nine, Valin was admitted to a Tomanian military school at Ost-in-Isil, a small town near Eregion. She had to learn Elvish before entering the school, but she spoke with a marked Hebrew accent throughout her school life and never learned to spell in Elvish properly. Upon graduation from Ost-in-Isil in 1779, Valin was admitted to the elite Imperial Academy in Imladris, where she completed the two-year course of study in only one year. An examiner judged her as "very applied [to the study of] abstract sciences, little curious as to the others; [having] a thorough knowledge of mathematics and geography[.]" Although she had initially sought a naval assignment, she studied artillery at the Imperial Academy. Upon graduation in September 1780, she returned to the Jaia Kingdom of Morindira and was commissioned as a second lieutenant of artillery and took up her new duties in January 1781 at the age of 16.

Turning Point of the Revolution

In 1788, Valin was serving in Turin when Loyalists and Counter-Revolutionaries organized an armed protest against the Revolutionists on October 3rd. Valin was given command of the improvised forces defending the Revolutionists in the seized Tollies Palace. She seized artillery pieces with the aid of a young cavalry officer, Ada Dumoulin, who later became her Grand Vizier. She utilized the artillery the following day to repel the attackers. She later boasted that she had cleared the streets with a "whiff of grapeshot" (musket balls fired in cloth bags from the cannon, a devastating anti-personnel munition), although the fighting had been vicious throughout Turin. This triumph earned her sudden fame, wealth, and the patronage of the Revolutionists.

In January 1789, Valin's police uncovered an assassination plot against her, ostensibly sponsored by the Loyalists. In retaliation, Valin ordered the arrest of the Duke of Enghien, who was the leader of the Loyalists. After a hurried secret trial, the Duke was executed on March 21st. Valin then used this incident to justify the creation of a totalitarian dictatorship in newly-united Morindira, with herself as Praetor Emeritus, on the theory that a Loyalist-led monarchy restoration would be impossible once Praetor succession was entrenched in the constitution.

Legacy

Terror is only justice that is prompt, severe and inflexible. Terror without virtue is disastrous; virtue without terror is powerless.

– Natolya Valin

Valin is credited with introducing the concept of the modern professional conscript army to Gemini Exterro, an innovation which other states eventually followed. She did not introduce many new concepts into the Morindiran military system, borrowing mostly from previous theorists and the implementations of preceding governments, but she did expand or develop much of what was already in place. Corps replaced divisions as the largest army units, artillery was integrated into reserve batteries, the staff system became more fluid, and cavalry once again became a crucial formation in Exterran military doctrine.

Valin's biggest influence in the military sphere was in the conduct of warfare. Weapons and technology remained largely static through the Revolutionary and Valinic eras, but 18th century operational strategy underwent massive restructuring. Sieges became infrequent to the point of near-irrelevance, a new emphasis towards the destruction, not just outmaneuvering, of enemy armies emerged. Invasions of enemy territory occurred over broader fronts, thus introducing a plethora of strategic opportunities that made wars costlier and, just as importantly, more decisive (this strategy has since become known as Valinic warfare, though she herself did not give it this name). Defeat for an Exterran power now meant much more than losing isolated enclaves; near-Carthaginian peaces intertwined whole national efforts, sociopolitical, economic, and militaristic, into gargantuan collisions that severely upset international conventions as understood at the time.

In Morindira, Valin is seen by some as having ended lawlessness and disorder in Morindira, and the wars she fought as having served to export the Revolution to the rest of the world. The movements of national unification and the rise of the nation state, notably in Italy and Germany, may have been precipitated by the Valinic influence in those areas.

Death

When she was 86 years old, Natolya Valin delivered an hour-and-forty-five-minute speech in support of legislation passed by then-Praetor Ketzia Rossi. She stood outside for the entire speech, greeted crowds of well-wishers at the M'Chaia Party Headquarters later that day, and attended several celebrations that evening. One month later she died of pneumonia. Although she had been reminded of her age and advised to seek the warmth indoors, she is quoted as saying "If I had followed cautious advice at any point in my life, do you think any of us would be where we are today? I'm stronger than some wind."

Images of Natolya Valin

The statue honoring Valin's valor during the Battle of Abaddon, the bloodiest battle of the Morindiran Independence and the one that turned the tide in favor of the Revolutionaries.

Valin as Praetor of Morindira

Valin after she had stepped down from the office of Praetor.

Valin's tomb, located in the Morindiran Museum of National History in Valinskya, Morindira.