From left to right are the 3 Empress consorts of Alistaire the 64th, Empress Celia, Empress Mary Louisa Elizabeth, and Empress Otehime. Each of these paintings were to commemorate their coronations.
…Out of the three wives of the Emperor there isnt one that you can say lived a life of fulfillment or a successful marriage, a fault that lies undeniable fully in the Emperor. As you know my dear princess, I served both your mother and step mother and was an intimate friends of both in their short tenures. Your mother, the Empress Celia was not particularly kind, but she was beautiful and intelligent. I never knew a woman like her, and I know I will never meet someone as dignified as she. On a particular New Years, the year that you were born, the Empress decided to hand deliver gifts to the children from the town where she grew up in. She spent all day standing and thanking the people of the town for being kind to her and the Emperor. It was uncharacteristic on her part I must admit however, it was kind hearted. Anyone could attest that the poor woman didn’t even sit down, she stood outside in 10 degree weather giving the children warm clothes and toys.
A few years later came your step mother. She was so beautiful and warm. I much enjoyed her tender embrace and her soft kisses. There was not a woman as innocent as she but for all she knew she loved your father. On his part he loved her money and the prestige that came from her family. She’d cry about missing him and how he wouldn’t visit her. Any man or woman throughout the isles would be in love with a beauty as she but your father never did. She followed every instruction given to her with care, the poor girl didn’t even have a brain of her own. When Helena was born the Empress May Loubeth begged your father to come, to see his daughter, but he wouldn’t. When she died he put on the worse show of grief, proclaiming Helena as his darling child.
In the following years women came and went, none wanting to be courted by him. Every woman in high society knew that if they were to allow him a fraction of their heart he’d squeeze them dry. In the end it became the responsibility of Otehime to pick up the pieces. Not to incriminate your step mother, but it is obvious her heart lies with another. Since her coronation the only thing she has willing done is present him and his family honors. There are whispers of what happens between the two but I say nothing. Your father is obsessive in his love for her, and she is not even faintly attracted to him. On their wedding day what you do not know is that she cried and screamed and hid from him sobbing with her pillow in her chemise. Eventually due to a letter from her brother she gave in. With the birth of your brother it hasn’t gotten any better. He spoils her and in turn she spoils her lover.
For a man who was given permission thrice to pick a wife you would think that he’d pick someone who he loved and who loved him but unfortunately a functioning marriage isn’t something he cares for. Not a single one of his wives are treated with the dignity and respect they deserved…
-An excerpt from a letter from Lady Therese Raphaelle, former lady in waiting to Empress Celia and Empress Marie Louisa Elizabeth and current Lady in Waiting to Princess Cordelia Mercedes, to said princess about the 3 wives of Alistaire the 65th