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 (aged 64) |
| Place of birth | Kigazeki, Whales |
| Residence(s) | Palace of Whales |
| Nationality | Natopian |
| Allegiance(s) | Whales, Natopia |
| Occupation | Princess of Whales |
Yukiji (雪路), born in Kigazeki, 3.V.1667, is the widow of Prince Kir of Whales. She thus has 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).
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 is considered well educated for her station. She has a special interest for marine ecology, as well as Sangunese calligraphy. She is 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 may 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 Lady of Kigazeki in Natopia, and ''Her Imperial Highness the Dowager Viscountess Audon of Varmland in Varmland and the Mondosphere. Through her marriage, she is also Lady of the Holy Lakes and Lady in Jorvik as long as she does not remarry, in which case she will lose those titles. 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.
