Empress Illuminata
When the Nakaal summoned humans and Clarati into the world, the latter arrived with their leader, Illuminata. They called her Empress when referring to her, but those who have studied the Clarati consider the title to be an ill-fitting one. The structure of the Clarati was not a human one, and no human truly understands what Illuminata was to the other Clarati, although many have guesses based on how they treated her, and how they responded to her disappearance and probable death during the destruction of Sange.
Illuminata did not seem to actively rule the Clarati, but her existence seemed to impose order and structure upon them. When the Clarati who ruled Ynys spoke of Illuminata, it was in terms that were more typically applied to a goddess than a living being. Her word and opinion seemed to take on the force of natural law to the other Clarati. She never had to enforce anything, any more than a government might have to enforce the law of gravity. She rarely exerted her authority directly - instead she would mumur something like 'that just isn't done', and the Clarati would cease doing whatever she had referred to, and claimed to have no desire to do it ever again.
When Sange was destroyed and Illuminata lost, the surviving Clarati of Ynys seemed to go mad. They hurled themselves into duels and wars with each other, sending armies and monsters and armies of monsters against each other. While noone is exactly sure why they felt the need to do this, more than one chronicler who had first-hand experience of the Clarati during the period agreed that they considered the absence of the Empress as a reason they must destroy their fellow Clarati.
Since the destruction of Sange, there has been no sign of Illuminata or any of the Clarati who lived there. Curious dreamwalkers who sought fragments of the Sange in the Dream were so disturbed by what they found that they swore to never speak of it, and even created the O le Feagaiga to guard the ways to the dream version of Sange and prevent other dreamwalkers from learning what happened to the land, the city and the Empress. Even most of the current membership of this organization doesn't know the truth of what happened to Illuminata, although the fact that the destruction of Sange was immediately followed by the Becalming has fueled endless speculation.
Today, few think of Illuminata outside of certain academic circles, but the Cult of the Clarati is beginning to change that. They have identified her as the chief of the Clarati-inspired gods they are attempting to manifest, and Illuminata is the most prominently revered of all the Clarati the cult knows of. But beyond these cultists Illuminata is mostly forgotten.
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