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Maya Valeriya Casimirovna (Common: May Valeria), known regally as Maya of Muldav or Maya of Antioch, was a Queen-Consort of Hanseti-Ruska, and earlier the incumbent Grand Lady of the Queen Milena Ekaterina's court from 1744 to 1746. She was princess of Hanseti-Ruska as the daughter of Grand Prince Kazimar, and Princess Sofiya. Through her father, she was the paternal grand daughter of Josef of Bihar and Aleksandra of Antioch. Through her mother, she was a descendant of Marius II of Haense and Valera of Adria.
Contents
Biography
Early Life
Born in the first city of Reza, Maya was raised in a fine manor within the noble district. Maya was introduced to the harsh realities of life in her early youth, with her father taking her to an execution at the age of five and having her spectate. Her mother, on the other hand, was strict and believed her premature daughter was corrupt because of her grandmother’s blood. Maya took quick interest in politics due to her family ties despite her young struggles, and frequently attended courtly matters with the Queen-Consort of Haense at the time, Milena of Adria.
Because of such interests, she was one of the few caught within the Prikaz walls as the city caught fire. The princess escaped in time with the Queen, and later reunited with her youngest sister, Karina Sofiya, as they waited out the fire in the crypts of the Basilica Cathedral. The two clung together to block out the faint screams of those burning and endure the crowded space they were confined to. Maya and her sister were able to survive through the night and into the morning when the fire had died down.
The aftermath of the fire, and memories of its terror, soon faded as she busied herself with studies and duties similarly to a chamberlain’s at eight years old. She was tasked with event-planning within New Reza, and hosted numerous festivities despite her age. In secret, she trained in swordsmanship with her uncle Vladrick Alimar, Prince of Rubern, and made frequent trips to Rubern to spend time with her beloved cousin, Anabel Alimar. During such a time in her life, she was introduced to Andrik Barbanov– the crown prince of Haense. Though their meeting was by accident, the two became close nonetheless. Maya insisted on helping the prince with whatever she could– including the stuttering in his youth and writing to his betrothed, the Kaedreni princess, Arianne Helvets.
Maya continued to hold relevance in Haense and the new city with her events and assistance to the Queen. However, there were darker times yet to come for her. The youth, upon a bandit attack in the city, was brought to an unconscious state alongside Milena Carrion and almost dragged away in an attempted kidnapping. The two would escape, though Maya would reveal upon their entering of the palace of a terrible pain in her side– a stab wound that would stay scarred on her skin for many coming years. Soon following, her relationship with her father became strained and her mother would soon depart for Aeldin without saying goodbye. It is rumored that the relationship between Maya and her father fell apart after he nearly drowned her with the traditional Haeseni drink, Carrion Black. On the other hand, she grew closer with the crown prince of Haense as he helped her out of the situation with her sister, Karina. According to servants of the Alimar family at the time, Maya was frequently striked by her father even before the incident.
Troubles stirred between the Duchy of Morsgrad and the Kingdom of Hanseti-Ruska. With the declaration of war from Morsgrad coming quickly, Maya’s family was split between the two sides of the war. Tensions became strained from the differing sides of the family. Maya was strong-willed with her patriotism and love of Haense while some relatives were aligned with Rubern. Whilst, her hatred for Morsgrad only grew after being held captive alongside her cousin, Princess Aleksandra Mariya. She nearly beheaded within the Haeseni palace courtyard by Norland-aligned bandits who had snuck past the gates, after she offered to give them all her belongings to set Aleksandra free. To her luck, she was rescued by her cousin, Godfric Alimar, before they could lower the sword down upon her neck.
Adolescence
Maya, upon invitation to a tea party, was quick to make friendships with different allies and vassals of the empire. She became companions with the imperial crown princess, Anne Helane, and the Curonian princess Elizabeth Devereux. With wary, she travelled the roads to visit the two frequently in their respective cities.
The Rubern War continued to wage on and Maya’s tenure as a ward and apprentice under Milena Ekaterina came to a sudden end with the Queen’s assassination in 1742. Before her death, Milena had urged Maya to take the throne from the Kaedrini princess, and to speak to her father on it. Being naive and looking up to the Queen as a mother, Maya sought out her father to speak of what Milena asked. When she inquired such and told her father of her feelings towards the crown prince, she was reportedly seen dragged by her hair and locked within her room for three days straight. With the death of the Queen and the absence of the king, Andrik came to Maya to ask for assistance in raising the royal children once she was free from being locked within her home– and so she did, seeking out Princess Alexandria and her younger brother to take care of them like her own siblings.
With her father’s abdication of the Haeseni vassal of Muldav, the leading of such was given over Prince Otto Sigmar. He was soon to decree the disinheritance of Vladrick and his eldest son, Marius Alimar, on accounts of treason to the Kingdom of Hanseti-Ruska. The family was, in law and officiality, divided by the war.
Soon following the decree splitting the family in half, Maya was awakened in the middle of the night by harsh knocks at the Alimar manor door. Two guards were hoisting up a bloodied corpse in which they believed to be of the House Alimar. She identified the body as her father’s in sudden turmoil and shock. The following day, she received a letter speaking of her mother’s death as well, in which she was allegedly murdered before she could reach Aeldin. Her skeleton was found at the bottom of Lake Milena. On the eve of such news, another parchment came to Maya in the midst of her mourning. The contents of the paper were words written by her cousin, Anabel, in her moments before drowning herself. The suicide was rumored to be a hoax, though she would never learn to know the truth of the situation. Maya locked herself in the confines of the Ekaterinburg palace and refused to leave it for weeks.
As she began to recover, Maya spent more time attempting to raise the twins Alexandria and Otto Rupert, despite her own young age. Her plans to ensure Milena’s views were taught to the children was cut short when Alexandria was captured and executed by stabbing in 1744 at the age of nine. Maya’s festering anger brought her out of the palace and fueled her determination and patriotism towards her kingdom. She continued with the duties the late Queen-Consort had tasked her with before and continuously held events alongside such until she was offered the position of Grand Lady of the Haeseni Royal Court when fourteen years of age. She accepted, and began her work.
With her newfound position as Grand Lady, she hosted numerous events and kept up the Haeseni court from falling apart when there was no Queen to manage it, and the king had hardly been seen in the public eye for years. During this time, she looked to the old Haeseni customs and traditions in hopes of reinstating them among the court. The constant work of bringing the court back to its full strength kept her composed through the overwhelming grief she faced, as well as her close friendship with Prince Andrik.
In 1745, the princess Arianne Renee, was declared as missing and presumed dead. With the betrothal between the crown prince and the Kaedrini princess no longer in existence and the prince nearing his time to ascend the throne, Maya was betrothed to the future King of Hanseti-Ruska. The arrangement occurred within a fortnight, and the wedding was set to occur on her sixteenth birthday.
At the end of her term as Grand Lady, Maya took on her cousin the Ruberni princess, Aleksandra Mariya Alimar, as an apprentice to the role as Grand Lady. Maya stepped down as the Grand Lady upon her marriage to the crown prince, Andrik IV, and later ascension to Queen-Consort of Hanseti-Ruska.
Marriage
Upon the year of Maya’s sixteenth nameday, 1746, celebrations and cheers of good health were held in the name of the pair soon to be wed as the ceremonial day drew near. She was assisted by her confidant and handmaiden, Maela Thorfinn. The ceremony was held within the Basilica Cathedral and officiated by Pontian III. Maya was walked down the aisle by her great uncle, Otto Sigmar Alimar. Flanking her close behind was the Maer and Chamberlain, Lady Kamilla Stafyr, and her eldest sister, Princess Katerina Alimar.
Maya wore the dress of her predecessor and mentor, Queen Milena - a headdress made of chiffon, a long gown of velvet white, and a furred golden robe embellished with designs of roses in various colors. Her hair was styled to be a replica of Princess Mariya Barbanov’s in her wedding to Adrian de Sarkozy, and ornamented with varying flowers alongside her crowned veil. Similarly to the late Queen, the young princess was prided for her costly outfit during the revelries following the royal ceremony.
Queen-Consort of Hanseti-Ruska
Upon her ascension to the role as Queen-Consort, Maya was merely sixteen years of age. For only several weeks was she the Grand Princess-Consort of Kusoraev before the passing of King Andrik III. Nonetheless, she formulated plans of what she wished to accomplish and chalked together the possibilities of how to achieve such. Not only did she have her sights set on a revival of the Haeseni court, but a rebirth of the Haeseni customs and traditions and higher usage of New Marian.
Maya was haste in her actions to begin renovations within the Ekaterinburg palace, alongside her new Grand Lady and closest confidant, Aleksandra Alimar. The entirety of the residential part of Ekaterinburg was stripped and redone. With the blueprints and layout done by the Grand Lady, Maya assisted greatly alongside other workers to implement the new design. A variety of courtiers were of help in the reconstruction process. Outside of her working on the new palace layout, she spent time arranging events for the populace and within the confines of taverns to speak with varying people. She was oftentimes found in the tavern drinking Carrion Black with others and caught up in conversation with anyone who she could find. When asked about her newfound duties as Queen, she was believed to have quoted:
To many, the crown may very well be a burden. Though I love my people, and have been willing to give my life for them since my early youth. It is a blessing, if anything.
After having read through the initiatives and reforms implemented by her predecessor, she effectuated new ones and redid the old such as the Ward Initiative instated by Princess Mariya Barbanov. In many ways, she looked up to her childhood mentor though wished to undo any imperial culture brought in out of a want to differentiate the culture of the Haeseni. She wanted to give the best to her ladies-in-waiting as well, oftentimes arranging marriages for them such as Lady Frida Gant to Prince Henrik Barbanov.
During her time as Queen-Consort, she formed the Queen's Council which consisted of the palatial offices of the Chamberlain, Grand Lady, and Secretary of the Queen. She sought to bring more relevance to the Queen-Consort's role, and thus included that the Queen's Council had the right to trial and deal with issues of the courtiers. She rewrote all ways of Haeseni etiquette and mannerisms, with hopes of lessening the imperialistic culture that she believed had started to seep into the royal courts. In fashion etiquette, she widely promulgated furs and pelts for both noblemen and women. Regarding diplomacy and work outside of the kingdom, Maya studied Elizaveta of Vidaus, a previous Queen of Haense, as she was known for her diplomacy during her reign. She frequented trips to the imperial city of Helena with hopes of furthering relations with the heir apparent, the Imperial Princess Anne Augusta, and her betrothed Joseph Clement de Sarkozy.
On the 10th of the Deep Cold, 1749, the young Queen of nineteen was bestowed with her first child and the heir to the Kingdom of Hanseti-Ruska, Otto Sigismund. She was believed to have been worrisome in the weeks before when speaking with her courtiers, allegedly saying that she was anxious of whether or not she would give the kingdom an heir. Nonetheless, her troublesome thoughts were subsided and she adored her child. Despite having read that many consorts adorn a nanny or other royal servant to care for the children, she did not hire one and cared for the baby herself - with advise along the way to ensure the child's wellbeing and health.
Maya was, in the following year, nearly brought to the brink of death with the birth of triplets. While she believed to only be pregnant with another child, she was granted with three daughters in which she named Analiesa Reza, Alexandria Karina, and Amelya Valeriya. Her survival was prayed upon by a priest who had been nearby as she struggled to hold on to her life after bearing the triplet princesses. After several days of question of whether she would live or not, she recovered only to hear of her sister's death in a letter that had been sent to her in Karina's last hours before she succumbed to a chronic illness. Over the course of a month, Maya was able to recover and attend to her duties once more.
It was shortly after her recovery that further chaos ensued with two terrorists attacking the Varoche Hall in the imperial city of Helena. Later, the terrorists traversed to Haense in which they attempted to assassinate the King. The Brotherhood of Saint Karl was haste in detaining the pair. Only when the first had been executed did Maya approach the situation and learn of what occurred, in which she took her husband's sword and beheaded of the second assailant herself. Later in that same evening that she beheaded the terrorist, she orchestrated the arrest of a Morsgradi governmental official who had fallen in love with her sister, Katerina Alimar. He was later executed as well by the hands of her husband, King Andrik IV.
With Aleksandra stepping down as Grand Lady of the Royal Court, the Queen was said to spend little time in the city and instead within the confines of the palace doing courtly work. Her closest friend and confidant had reportedly grown ill to where she couldn't leave her new home of Nenzing. Maya worries took over her thoughts, and so she busied herself to the fullest extent to keep the fear of her friend dying of illness out of mind. She also grew fearful of assassination, after another attempt on her husband's life and a threat that was left on his throne in the great hall. During this time, she greatly expanded the Haeseni royal court. More palatial offices were created, such as the Office of the Princess Royal and the Office of the Royal Architect. She strove to provide as many jobs for commonfolk and nobility alike in order to see through with a lively court. Around this time, she gave birth to her second son, Nikolas Stefan and also constructed a public chapel within New Reza as her husband's religious interests greatly increased.
On the 18th of Snow's Maiden, 1752, Maya was faced with terror as she was captured in the midst of the night - only being twenty-two at the time. Her captors were later learned to be varying Haensemen who were seeking revenge due to the occurrences within the War of Two Emperors. With her during the time of her capture was her husband and eldest son, Prince Otto. Both herself and five year old son were held with a knife to their throat, in which she pleaded for them to let him free if she went with them willingly. They accepted the terms and threw the boy to the side, escaping the palace with the Queen in tow. For the two months following the day of her capture, she was confined to a small room within an old keep. Throughout the course of her imprisonment, she was often brought to the courtyard and held as she was beaten. She received a minimal amount of water and was bestowed little to no food at all. By the time Andrik arrived with a group of the finest soldiers he could collect, she was hardly able to stand without her knees giving in to where she would collapse over. Her malnourishment was to a near-death state, though she was freed at the end of the two months. Amidst the fighting to save her, she was stabbed deep into her shoulder after being thrown to the ground and her husband had been struck down after killing the leader of her captors.
Maya was rushed back to the city of New Reza's clinic with Andrik trailing not long behind as the fight concluded. She was attended to by an onslaught of medics, as was the King upon his arrival. However, he was bleeding out by the second and his wounds appeared fatal. Families prayed outside of the clinic while others attempted to burst in to see the monarchs for themselves. Rumors spread that the King had succumbed to his wounds, yet they were quickly halted. Guards stood at the door to keep anyone other than requested within the clinic. As the two struggled to keep consciousness, the Pontiff - Pontian III - prayed for the royal pair to survive through their injuries. There was later a mass held for the people of Haense to pray for their health.
Struggles came into the young Queen's life as she was obligated to inform Prince Rupert, the King's brother, of the arranged marriage to the Princess Margaret of Kaedrin. Such an ordeal became messy as the prince outright denied the arranged marriage his brother had set in place for him. However, Maya had cut the meeting that occurred regarding the betrothal short as she was still recovering from her months of captivity. She later was informed that the palace guards had bursted into the Helena Cathedral on her alleged orders, in which she hastily made way to Helena and spoke with the High Pontiff - infuriated that someone claimed she gave orders that she never said. The situation was soon to be halted and was cleared after she spoke with the church officials.
At the end of her reign as the consort, Maya hosted a ball known as the Dance of the Crows for her daughters being introduced into court and her husband's eight years of reign. The ball was astounding in attendance and the music boisterous until the end. Her great uncle, Otto Sigmar, rushed her out of the ball after her brief dance with the Lord Regent. She was informed of her husband's fading life and she stood at his side until his end.
Queen-Mother of Hanseti-Ruska
At the age of only twenty-three, Maya became the Queen Mother of Hanseti-Ruska. She was overcome with grief as soon as her husband had passed away, who was a childhood friend and someone she had lived more of her life with than without. She kept away from the public eye and instead spent time with her children and her son, King Otto IV. Although not yet coronated, the kingdom passed onto him despite him only being five years old.
She frequented visits to the imperial city far more often than she did during her tenure as the Queen-Consort. However, her visits were lessened when she was urged to stay in the city of Reza after fear of assassination of the Queen Mother rose. Whilst she was in Reza, however, Maya saw through with plenty of lessons for her children and sought for only the highest education in their youth. The triplet princesses and their eldest brother were tutored in over twelve different subjects including swordsmanship and music among the many.
Maya's once flourishing court fell in its activity as she focused on the ongoings of her children and their education far more. Her trips to the imperial city eventually led to her bursting onto the courtroom floor during the Carrington vs. Crown, in which she and the Grand Lady of the Imperial Court, Valentina Ruthern attempted to accuse the surprise witness as false. The witness claimed to have killed the Pontiff, Pontian III, himself - and had his cross to show it. Yet, the cross had been given to her husband in the weeks before his death. She obtained the true item, but Lady Valentina and her claims were not taken into consideration and the witness was executed on charges of murder. Following the trial, Maya was said to have grown immensely in paranoia and stayed within the city of Reza only. Rarely was she seen without a Golden Hussar - the name of the Haeseni royal guards and protectors of House Barbanov.
Through the years as she grew into the middle of her twenties, she became bitter and often was far more blunt than she was in years before. Her half-sister, Katerina, would commit suicide during the years of her being Queen-Mother. Lady Valentina Ruthern was also found murdered, someone who she had been well-acquainted for quite some time. The murder reassured Maya's paranoia, as she felt that she was going to be the next to be killed. However, none of which happened and there were no assassination attempts on her. She attempted friends to keep her mind off the family of hers that continued to dwindle, including Tiberius - the Lord Regent - who was executed by hanging after his capture to the AIS.
Soon following the previous streak of death, her cousin Princess Winnifred returned to Haense only to admit to the illness that had nearly overcome her and later passed away as well. By the time of her death, Maya was able to pull herself from the depression she had fallen into and properly mourn the loss of another relative. In the wake of her mourning, she was able to put past her struggles and began attending to the court unlike before, as well as appearing in the city more. She started to plan balls and assist with festivities, and work on court reforms to help breathe life back into it. Haense flourished under the regency of her great uncle, Otto Sigmar, with the help of the Lady Maer, Aleksandra. Maya was assisted by the new Grand Lady and her Bihar cousin, Tatiana of Alban, and thus she was able to push through the darker times of before and begin with her work once again.
Titles, Styles, and Honors
Titles and Styles
- 1730-Present: Her Highness, Princess Maya of Muldav
- 1744-Present: Her Highness, the Baroness of Antioch
- 1746-1753: Her Majesty, the Queen of Hanseti-Ruska
- 1753-Present: Her Majesty, Queen Maya of Hanseti-Ruska
Style as Queen Consort
Her Royal Majesty, Maya Valeriya Barbanov, Queen-Consort of Hanseti and Ruska, Baroness of Antioch
Style as Queen Mother
Her Royal Majesty, Maya Valeriya Barbanov, Queen-Mother of Hanseti and Ruska, Baroness of Antioch
Issue
| Name | Birth | Death | Marriage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Otto Sigismund Barbanov, Grand Prince of Kusoraev | 10th of The Deep Cold, 1749 | Alive | Unwed | Firstborn son of Andrik and Maya, King of Hanseti-Ruska. |
| Princess Analiesa Reza, P | 14th of The Amber Cold, 1750 | Alive | Unwed | Firstborn daughter of Andrik and Maya. Triplet to Alexandria and Amelya. |
| Princess Alexandria Karina of Haense | 14th of The Amber Cold, 1750 | Alive | Unwed | Secondborn daughter of Andrik and Maya. Triplet to Analiesa and Amelya. |
| Princess Amelya Valeriya of Haense | 14th of The Amber Cold, 1750 | Alive | Unwed | Thirdborn daughter of Andrik and Maya. Triplet to Analiesa and Alexandria. |
| Prince Nikolas Stefan, Duke of Alban | 5th of Sun's Smile, 1751 | Alive | Unwed | Secondborn son of Andrik and Maya. |
