This is the infobox and story of Miela IV, the "Little Empress".
Born in poverty and losing her parents to a house fire when she was barely 4, she is known to have had labored in harsh conditions (the pre-Unification period was not good for the working class at all) at such a young age (Maladul had no laws against child labor). She first saw the Man in Dark Robes when she was 6. A foreman with pedophilic tendencies tried to take advantage of her, but faced the Man in Dark Robes instead, who told him in a harsh, clacking voice "Miela is not to be touched. If you try, your throat will be ripped out." This experience, along with the rest of her working-class background, influenced her personality greatly.
The Man in Dark Robes continued to shadow Miela as she continued to labor in still harsh conditions, and "learn her place" as a lower-class person (although that particular foreman died in mysterious circumstances and she was never molested). Eventually, she lost one of her fingers to a mill and was told off by the foreman for "wasting our time" and "making work slower" due to her finger making the mill stick.
She was living in Maladul, a country known for its low standards of labor and for often enslaving people and bringing them over. Miela's closest friend was a slave, Arnoud Rutte. Rutte's life up to that point was nothing else but being in chains as soon as he was old enough to walk.
Within the same region, the Imperial Conference was held. It was an assembly of splendour, of fine food, fine wine and fine conversation about the future of the continent and the restoration of the Safirian Empire. As the conversation turned to the old Empire, someone said "would it be grand if we could find Pacjo IX's descendant and crown them?" Nikki Rosenberg, Professor at Paradizio University, took this as a cue to call in one of the Men in Dark Robes and told him to bring her in. All Nikki knew was that the Men in Dark Robes knew where the rightful heir was and that she was female.
A Man in Dark Robes appeared as the foreman was berating Miela, shot him in the face and told Miela in a soothing voice "Come with me."
Miela chose to go with the Man in Dark Robes. They arrived in a somewhat quiet building, where servants were unusually kind. They bandaged Miela's finger-wound (where she lost a finger), washed her and got her in somewhat decent clothing.
The Man in Dark Robes then took her through an annexe and through some cornerways, crossing some streets, before arriving to the big room the Imperial Conference was held in. Miraculously, the conversation was turning back to an idea of a heir.
"The rightful heir to the Silent Emperor must sit upon the Sapphire Throne. No one else. The Purple Bloodline must have survived somehow." declared Patrician Recep Demirci of Maladul. At this point the Man in Dark Robes entered the room, bringing Miela in.
*check the type up I did about this earlier
here.*
Her friendship with the slave Arnoud Rutte made her back the war against the slave-holding South. Maladul itself thankfully abolished slavery (it was on its way out, albeit not without troubles). However, it did so in a sleazy way, it sold most of its slaves, including Arnoud, down south to more independent-thinking slaver republics.
It took until 1925 for Miela and Arnoud to see each other. Arnoud was now just a liberated slave and Miela the Empress of the Great and Bountiful Safirian Empire. The class difference was immense. But the background wasn't. Miela declared that Arnoud should be granted a title somehow, but Arnoud refused.
Over time, the two became closer, and eventually fell in love and got married in 1930. They had children, many of them.
Miela unfortunately died in 1957, only in her forties. Arnoud lasted only a year more. Their short lives is because of the harsh conditions of their childhoods.
Thanks to Miela's influence and the growth of Populism, Safiria by her death was a far better place than when she was born.
By her death, she was no longer the "Little Empress", but the "
People's Empress". And it remains an open secret that she got on better with Populist presidents than Coronalist ones. Nikki Rosenberg, her sole Federalist one, was on cordial terms with her.
