The Undying Empress

The Undying Empress was the eighth and final ruler of the Koan Empire. She inherited a thriving nation, one that had long conquered and domesticated every major sphere in the system--with the imperial language and laws uniting all the current civilizations. She earned her name from her long-lived tenure on the throne, ruling for eighty years and into her centenarianhood. The Empress's later rule was one marked by cruelty and dementia. Her mind was ruled both by paranoia of losing what the Empire had and greed of expanding its reach into unknwon lands.
She became fascinated with the Progenitors and locating the Orphan Sphere. The more she researched the subject, the more despotic her rule seemed to become. In its final stages, she would bombard enitre cities to the ground in response to even the slightest hints of dissention.
The Undying Empress was also infamous for rarely visiting the Koan Homeworld. Instead, she spent her time on Source in the Imperial City. Her first knight Sir Phaedrus, managed most domestic affairs within the Koan homeworld itslef. This arrangement became so longstanding that it became institutionalized in modern Koan politics, with the modern Koan executive branch being divided between a Matriarch serving as the Republic's international representative on Source and a Patriarch who leads the Koan Senate on Sera.
Only those closest to the Empress knew the reason for her absence was her fear of the Koa Ta, a sect of secret police founded by the first Koan Empress to ensure the empire's longevity. The exact reason for her fears were unknown, but one of the empress's grandaughters was taken by the Blue Frogs and raised in their headquarters to be cryogenically frozen in case the empire needed an heir from the imperial line. The Empress's paranoia eventually caused permanent damage to the system. To reward her loyal generals, she allowed frequent ceremonial hunts of rare game called Triumphs, which resulted in the near extinction of the lions. The famous Koan hunter, Sir Ballum, rewarded the Undying Empress for her generosity with a space serpent egg. She raised the serpent to maturity, naming it Atrabaxis. It became her favorite protector and she let it slither and fly loose across the imperial city. Even the Empire's finest animal handlers found difficulty keeping the beast reigned in, and the residents who chose to remain in the Imperial City always went about with the risk that Atrabaxis might eat them or catch them in its petrifying gaze.
Needless to say, the Empress in the throes of paranoia didn't take kindly to the news that a Rim-bred barbarian named Nasser Graham had assembled a sizeable rebellion against her. Even less so, given the fact that he seemed to emerge from thin air, without a hint of warning from the cadre of prophets the empire kept on hand to warn her of just such occasions. She decided the prophets were all either charlatans or traitors, neither of which she would tolerated. She ordered anyone who purported to have prophetic abilities in the empire executed. Perhaps such auguries would have availed the Empress as Nasser Graham's rebellion evaded her forces, growing in strength as they acquired allies across the spheres. At least she might have seen the sneak attack he launched in the imperial city while both sides were martialling their forces for a climactic confrontation, one which resulted in the death of her precious Atrabaxis and the fall of the Imperial City.
The Undying Empress died with her worst fears coming to pass. The Empire she inherited had been taken out from under her--and the lands that lay outside it would be forever out of her reach.