Yukiji
| Yukiji | |
| Full name |
和賦留變愛令音火鈴麗恩 雪路 Wafurupenaireionkareireion Yukiji (legal name)片岡 雪路 Kataoka Yukiji (at birth; most commonly used name) |
|---|---|
| AKA | The Dowager Princess of Whales |
| Physical information | |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Female |
| Hair color and style | Black |
| Eye color | Brown |
| Biographical information | |
| Father | Kataoka Ken |
| Mother | Kataoka (née Iwazaki) Miko |
| Spouse | Prince Kir of Shireroth and Whales (b. 1667; m. 1692) |
| Children |
Ichirō (b. 1693) |
| Date of birth | 3.V.1667 |
| Place of birth | Kigazeki, Whales |
| Date of death | 9 or 10.XIII.1706 (aged 39 AN years) |
| Place of death | Palace of the Elenaran, Vesüha, Hurmu |
| Nationality | Natopian |
| Allegiance(s) | Whales, Natopia |
| Occupation | Princess of Whales |
Yukiji (雪路) was the widow of Prince Kir of Whales. She thus had the courtesy titles of Dowager Princess of Whales, Dowager Lady of Kigazeki and Dowager Viscountess Audon of Varmland. Mother of Ichirō (born 1693), Jirō (born 1695), and Enhei (born 1697). She was found dead from seppuku on 10.XIII.1706, in a protest against the lack of culpability for the alleged humanist killers of her husband.
Born to a family of fishermen in the south-east coast of Kigazeki, Yukiji grew up in the same lordship, rarely venturing outside it. Despite this, she was considered well educated for her station. She has a special interest for marine ecology, as well as Sangunese calligraphy. She was fluent in Sangunese and Istvanistani and is studying Saxon.
She met Prince Kir in 1685, and the two began a secret relationship. Being a commoner woman, Kir understood that his courtiers, especially the ones from Shireroth, would disapprove of his relationship with her. Similarly, Yukiji knew her father, being a proud Sangunese, would disapprove of such an interracial relationship, despite the noble and imperial status of her betrothed. Yukiji's father believed that each nation should stick to its own nation, and breed only within that one. As such, both Yukiji and Kir kept the relationship secret. As soon as the two became legal adults under Whales law, at the age of 25, they married in a secret civil ceremony at the Palace of Whales. In public notices, Yukiji (still known by her maiden name, Kataoka, despite the legal code in Whales of a family to share one surname) was proclaimed as Private Secretary to the Prince.
Their marriage, having not been approved by the Kaiseress, became publicly known in later 1692, just a week before the birth of Kir and Yukiji's firstborn son, Ichirō. Neither Yukiji nor Ichirō could derive any dignity from their descent from the Imperial Family of Shireroth, as the marriage between Yukiji and Kir was not approved by the Kaiseress. This action, notwithstanding, Yukiji was in Natopia afforded the courtesy title of Princess of Whales with the style of Imperial Highness (due to her marriage to a member of the Emirati Line of Ayreon-Kalirion) until Kir's death in 1703, whereafter she was styled and titled Her Imperial Highness the Dowager Princess of Whales in Natopia, and ''Her Imperial Highness the Dowager Viscountess Audon of Varmland in Varmland and the Mondosphere. Through her marriage, she was also Lady of the Holy Lakes and Lady in Jorvik. In Shireroth, she was created Lady of Engita and Princess of Shireroth upon her husband's death.
On 2.VII.1703, her husband Kir was found dead in a deconstructed state upon arrival in the Walstadt Gate, having travelled there one second earlier from Huyenkula Gate. A formal investigation was launched, with the hypothesis that the gate was malfunctioning. Yukiji, however, upon noticing the odd last will and testament signed in Kir's name, suspected that Kir had been assassinated in a plot to depose him and replace him as prince by Daniyal ibn Daniyal. Yukiji communicated her fears to her sister-in-law, the Kaiseress, and was promptly invited to come with her children to Raynor's Keep. She took with her the collected remains of Kir in a giant vase. The family flew in a private jet chartered by the Kaiseress.
In the eighth month of 1704 AN, after allowing herself to be drawn into the political crisis in Hurmu with unguarded comments to the media concerning the fate of her husband, Yukiji was contacted by discrete information couriers who reminded her that the safety of her children would be at stake if she continued to stir up alarmist controversies contrary to the interests of a coordinated and harmonious global society. Yukiji subsequently informed the Order of the Holy Lakes that she declined the position as first alternate for the Senate.
On the evening of 9.XIII.1706, Yukiji was invited for dinner with the Lady Chairman of the Senate, Li Naomiai, in the Palace of the Elenaran, in Vesüha. Arriving at the Palace of the Elenaran, she was dressed in the most formal form of a Sangunese kimono, with ceremonial make-up. After the dinner, Yukiji retired to her room, and spent the night at the Palace, as was her right as a member of the Order of the Holy Lakes (it provides free lodging for travelling members of the Order of the Holy Lakes).
In the morning, Yukiji had a breakfast meeting scheduled with Senator Aliande, the Lady Laegel (who was, like her, a widow of a man who was probably murdered by humanists). When Yukiji did not arrive to the meeting, Aliande inquired with security at the Palace, who reported to her that Yukiji indeed spent the night at the Palace and had not left it. Aliande asked security to check on Yukiji. When security reached Yukiji's room, they found Yukiji with a slit throat, and her knees ties together, sitting in a signified pose, but with blood stains from the neck down along the same clothes that he had been wearing the night before. A barber's knife, with blood on it, was found next to her, along with a calligraphic painting, signed and stamped by Yukiji herself, with the writing 謹記彼等殺之 in Classical Tieyan–Jingdaoese (jǐn jì bǐ děng shā zhī; in Sangunese reading: kon-ko-hi-tō-sei-shi), meaning "Remember they killed him". Once this became public, media alluded it to Yukiji's campaign to attach guilt for the death of her husband on the Humanist Movement.
In response to a petition from the government of Whales, the body of the suicide was taken into the protective custody of the state pending extradition proceedings, as the deceased faced trial in Walstadt for her repeated false allegations. The Hurmu Gate Company and the Hurmu Constabulary also proposed to sue the estate of the deceased. In response, the Hurmu government ordered the body to be cryogenically frozen and placed under guard, pending proceedings.
In 1713, the Prime Minister of Hurmu, Patrik Djupvik, ordered the release of the body of Lady Yukiji to her children, Ichirō, Jirō, and Enhei. A cremation funeral was subsequently held in Huyenkula, and the ashes of Yukiji interred in Varmland.
