Siaros

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The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. The correct title is siaros.

In popular history, siaros is seen as the heroic, freedom loving rival of her older sister, athpelyn. Professional historians view her as much a more ambiguous character.

siaros
siaros1small.jpg Portrait of siaros shortly before the Battle of the Pass in 1892
Role
Princess of the Zu-Vendi
Nation
Errinundera
Lived
1861-1892
Noted for
Killed in civil war against her sister, Queen athpelyn

Early Life

siaros and her sister athpelyn were the only children of King ikalanian and Queen arym. The younger siaros was a precocious child, eclipsing her sister intellectually and physically. Early in her life she became a favourite of the High Priest of the Flower Temple, hagon.

In 1873 the King and Queen drowned in a boating accident on the Snowy River. athpelyn narrowly survived the disaster. Some historians, notably Professor onspirac from the McKillops Bridge Polytechnic, have argued plausibly that the accident had been engineered by hagon so as to install siaros as his puppet queen. The orthodox view remains, however, that drunken revelry led to the drownings.

Growing Rivalry

At only 14 years of age the older sister became nominal head of state of the realm. Effective power, however, remained with hagon until athpelyn attained adulthood. At that point, with the aid of the army, she consolidated her position by placing hagon and other senior priests under house arrest. After 3 months the priests were released but, by then, they had been effectively neutralised.

With the alliance between siaros and hagon strengthening, the fracture line between their faction and the army faction, led by athpelyn, continued to grow.

The Usurper

In 1889, with tensions simmering between the factions but with athpelyn and the army holding the upper hand, British explorers arrived in the royal city, Milosis. athpelyn and the leader of the expedition, George Curtis (later to be known as curtu the usurper) became lovers. The queen installed curtu as her regent, an ill-judged move that was highly unpopular with her subjects.

<div" class="plainlinksneverexpand">athpelynandsiaros.jpg
siaros (right) with the newly crowned athpelyn.
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curtu persuaded athpelyn to move against the priesthood. Presumably his motives were to replace the indiginous religion with Christianity. In any case, athpelyn was keen to remove the perceived threat to her power. This second ill-judged move angered the populace further as the priests were highly regarded by Milosians. On top of this, curtu's personal excesses dispelled whatever sympathy remained.

Civil War

With Milosians turning to open revolt and the army leaders ordering bloody reprisals, siaros smuggled Hagon out of the city and fled to Marstuna (now the site of the city Tubbut). She was soon joined by the remnants of the priesthood, many soldiers of lower rank who had mutinied, and tens of thousands of refugees.

In Marstuna siaros had the larger army but her troops were ill-led, undisciplined and poorly equipped. Further, she and her generals lacked the strategic understanding frequently displayed by their rivals so that, by 1892, after a series of minor battles, siaros and her army found themselves facing starvation. They decided to gamble all on a major battle. Luring a large segment of royal army into a mountain pass they attacked from higher ground. Unknown to them the rest of the royal army was less than half a day's march away.

athpelyn force-marched them into battle but they soon found themselves in a perilous situation. She and her generals kept their nerve, believing that, despite the poor tactical position and the disparity in numbers, their soldiers were much the superior. This confidence was well placed and after six hours they began to gain the upper hand.

In a last desperate effort siaros and hagon rallied their troops and led changes against the royal army lines. Both were killed in the brave assault and from that point the contest turned into a rout.

Aftermath

<div" class="plainlinksneverexpand">siaros.jpg
A young siaros.
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athpelyn and curtu liquidated the remaining rebels and levelled Marstuna. The old state religion was completely eradicated. Thereafter siaros became a popular symbol of resistance to the queen and her despised husband. Thirteen years later, in 1905, a second revolt led to revolution and the annihilation of the Milosian dynasty.

Modern Historical Judgement

A prolific writer, siaros never wrote a word about democracy or political freedom for the royal family's subjects. Further, although, in theory, royal lineage passed to the oldest child, in reality siblings, cousins, uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces frequently seized power by force. She remained popular with Milosians because of her charisma and because of the pervasive dislike of athpelyn and curtu.

Her relationship with hagon was also ambiguous. Correspondence between close colleagues of theirs sometimes mention a sexual liaison, however this may well have been rumour. The Milosian archives contain much correspondence between siaros and hagon but, although they often display a familiar tone, there is no suggestion of an affair.

The ambitious siaros did not attain absolute power so it will never be known whether she would have abused that power or whether she would have introduced democratic reforms. Like many larger than life figures who die young (31, in her case) she is judged by many people according to her potential rather than her achievements.