Iona Kamira Irizari

"I am a woman of many stories; some joyous and others heartrending. I have seen much, done much, gained much, and lost much—and yet I will persist until the end of my days."  ~Iona Kamira Irizari~

Iona Kamira Irizari is a Zukuren and the 2nd child of Emperor Mieszko and Empress Venéra Irizari of the Koldizé Empire, and thus 2nd in line for the throne of the most powerful empire in the world. She is known for being a powerful military leader, and a formidable advocate for the equal and ethical treatment of the dark elves, both in her native country and worldwide.

History
Iona was and remains a pivotal figure in Mencu's history, and was directly and indirectly responsible for a great many events that occurred in the late 182nd Age.

Early Life
Iona was born the 2nd of 7 children, and spent most of her childhood in the royal palace of Koldia where she was raised in a noble upbringing and taught the formalities of politics and how to be a proper princess. While most people anticipated that her elder brother Drazen would assume the throne once he reached a worthy age, Iona still learned the intricacies of Zukuren politics as a sort of backup plan.

Shortly after her 9th birthday, she was greeted by her younger sister Leto as she was born into the world. While her parents outwardly loved her, they did not seem very pleased with the child, considering that she was born with significantly hampered mental functions and capabilities. Her other siblings, Drazen and her younger brother Milan, did not inquire deeper into the subject, but Iona wound up learning much more about the issue than she should have. As such, when Leto was "sent away" at the age of 5, Iona suspected a setup. However, there was little she could do about it, and that was the last time she saw her sister for years.

Iona became an ambassador for the Kumenza at the age of 22, despite being 3 years underage. She fostered powerful relations with Shahar-Eka, and was instrumental in helping forge a powerful alliance between the elves and the dark elves. Her reputation as a charismatic and natural leader made her likable and easy to approach, and her popularity soared.

The Kumenza
During her time among the Kumenza, Iona helped uncover a rather prominent smuggling ring of Kumenza slaves southbound for Kroggné. Iona became particularly famous among the Kumenza by breaking these rings up, and leading to the Gladiator Uprising of 4576. Iona was instrumental in freeing hundreds of Kumenza soldiers, many of whom were traumatized after being forced to kill their peers, or watching them be experimented on by the Arakos. Two particularly mentally-scarred individuals, a man named Cadence and a woman named Lux, swore absolute loyalty to Iona from that moment on, and as such, she hired them as her personal retainers, marking one of the few times a member of elven royalty had retainers that were not also elves. While neither Cadence nor Lux every socialized much with anyone else in the castle, they did their job of serving and protecting Iona with ruthless efficiency, to the point where Iona currently would trust her life in their hands.

Lux and Cadence also served Iona as being a connection between her and the dark elves--a connection between Koldia and Shahar-Eka. Because of the diversity of the Kumenza, they were full of innovations and formidable fighters, which made them far better to have as allies than enemies. In a way, Iona watched their backs, while they watched hers, forming a mutually beneficial relationship that stood strong even as the old empire began to decay from within.

Elven Civil War
Problems began arising when Princess Leto returned to the palace. It was around this same time that Isikiro began forcefully expelling the oppressive Arakos from Shioru, causing many of them to turn towards the Koldizé Empire in turn, expanding their influence there. Somewhere between this time and Iona's 37th birthday, their leader, the Archon, managed to weave his influence around the minds of Emperor Mieszko and Empress Venéra and working with them to expel the Kumenza from the empire. This in turn led to more Kumenza being shipped or smuggled off to Kroggné, and thus the population began to rapidly dwindle within Koldia's borders. It was after the disappearance of the notorious Nevada Esmeralda Valencia that Iona realized Leto's suspicions were right, and knew that her sister's departure foreshadowed a great war.

Despite this, she could not turn her back on her country or her people, even if she knew what they were doing was wrong in her eyes. As a result, she led the first line of defense against Leto's rebellion, aiming to stop the rebels in their tracks before they could march on Kerala or storm the palace. When both armies hit a stalemate, Iona suggested to her sister that in order to prevent further needless bloodshed, to resolve this problem in single combat. To her surprise, Leto agreed. While she was able to hold off her sister for a great deal of time, Leto eventually took the upper hand and bested Iona, throwing her off a nearby cliff and to her seeming demise. Her role in the war ended here.

After The War
After finding that she had been saved from death by Zurok Takamatzu, Iona found herself trapped in a prison known as Zulera's Labyrinth, where she was forced to use her strength and skill to find a way out. While she managed to escape, the war had ended by the time she was out, and her parents as well as her brother Drazen had been executed. From here, Iona went into exile, disappearing to Shahar-Eka for many years, and leaving her younger brother Milan the throne. Eventually she returned, and while Milan returned the throne to her for a short time, Iona's true calling was among the people of Mencu, where her wild exploits were told for generations.

Appearance
As a princess, Iona is largely considered beautiful and graceful by Zukuren from across the country. Since her elemental affinity is Darkness, she can also manifest herself as a shadow, although generally stays in her elf form.Her pale skin and dark hair are commonplace in the Irizari Royal Family, although she is the only one in her family to have green eyes.

Physical Appearance
Like many elves, she is upright and slender, although also sports a stately and curvy figure, 'befitting of a queen'. Iona has also been called 'well-endowed', although she draws very little attention to this attribute. When in the royal courts, she wears elegant silks and satins, usually of blue or green, although sometimes she wears shades of silver and grey to match her darkly dressed retainers, Cadence and Lux. She wears her black hair down, and often wears crowns or circlets as well as appropriate jewelry or accessories when the situation calls for it.

When she travels, she wears more subdued colors such as greys, greens, or browns, with sturdy boots, breeches, and tunics to cover herself, as well as cloaks if she is travelling to colder regions such as the mountainous regions of Tazuké or Shahar-Eka.

Elemental Form
Like many powerful Kasil, Iona can take the form of pure elemental energy, where her form takes on a clouded purple haze with her eyes glowing purple. In this form, she can pass through solid objects and even penetrate through armour or clothing, as well as skin itself. Fortunately for most people, she does not elect to utilize this form very often.

Clothing
Iona's clothing ranges from elegant formal gowns when in the castle or courts, as well as any time she makes formal visits to people for political or social reasons. When she is out in the wilderness, or when she is travelling or adventuring, she often dons tunics, boots, and breeches of more subtle colours as to not draw unnecessary attention to herself, although even in these situations she tends to cover most of her body apart from her head and hands. While she does not have them initially, she is later seen wearing the infamous Golden-Hoop Earrings, thus betraying that she knows their significance.

Personality
Iona is a compassionate and altruistic woman who cares deeply about those under her command, and even many outside of her sphere of influence. Selfless, fearless, and charismatic, she is looked to as a role model and to many as an ideal queen. As such, there were many who were highly disappointed when she went into self-exile and left the throne to her next sibling Milan.

Virtues
Iona is a kind and just princess who fights in support of 'the underdog' and the disadvantaged, seeking for justice by lifting up those lower than her, rather than trying to tear down those higher than her. A charismatic role model for the Zukuren, she was refined to not only become the queen people had hoped she would be (even ousting her older brother and rightful heir in terms of popularity), but also serving as a role model even for her siblings.

Vices
While still far from perfect, Iona's primary vices were also some traits that could double as her virtues. Her mercy and compassion towards those she cares about makes her a problematic military leader on the basis that she is hesitant to risk the lives of those around her, even if they are willing, and especially if she feels she can put her own life on the line for it. This selflessness plays against her as well, as it threatens her own life, and given her popularity and her leading skills, Iona is not considered very replaceable. The fact that she is more popular than her elder brother Drazen also has sparked unintentional enmity, although neither sibling has addressed this just yet.

Beliefs and Morality
Iona subscribes to the notions of order and chaos; of good and evil, and while she has run into issues with the Arakos in times past because of this, she understands their motives of an orderly society, including their worship of Leaxyk. While she generally seeks to do good and to uphold law and order, Iona seeks to find the balance between the two, having seen firsthand too many times what excessive order or excessive chaos can do. The sundering of the Republic of Krippa and the subsequent rise of the 79th Krippan Empire was one such example of Iona's morals in action.

Abilities
Barring her abilities as an elementalist, Iona is still a formidable warrior with a myraid of abilities, both in and out of combat. As part of the royal family of Koldia, she possesses some of the finest education on Mencu, being highly literate, charismatic, and well-versed in politics and social etiquette. Overall, while she was a formidable warrior on the battlefield, her mind matched her might with ease, if not more so.

Elemental Abilities
With Darkness as her affinitive element, Iona was an expert at manipulating shadows and energized darkness to do her bidding. She is one of a few elementalists powerful enough to take on an elemental form, and one that even the Jalenga shapeshifter Zivia has remarked was impressive.

Martial Prowess
While Iona has developed a reputation as a whirling dervish with twin blades, her real talent was with the bow, where it was said she could pin a fly to the wall through a murder hole.

Relationships
There are very few people on Mencu who do not know or at least have heard of Iona, from as far away as Krawvill all the way to Shahar-Eka. A very motherly and family-oriented woman from a large family, Iona has many closer relatives, with different relationships towards each in turn. Given her many travels, particularly to Shahar-Eka, she has a lot of Kumenza friends, as well as acquaintances from Zaderei to Serenghe.

Family
Iona is the 2nd of 7 children, with an older brother Drazen, younger brother Milan, younger sisters Leto and Zora, and younger brothers Maius and Enerus. She maintained very close and intimate relationships with all of them apart from Drazen and Leto, the former of which distanced himself from his younger siblings for political and professional reasons; while the latter distanced herself from her own family after discovering unsettling truths about her past.

Iona maintained a close bond with her parents for many years as well, with her actions and lifestyle earning herself favour in the eyes of Mieszko and Venéra for most of her early life. However, enmity began to form as her parents and Drazen sided more with the Archon and the Arakos' way of thinking, while Iona thought more about the Kumenza and the people of her country. It is unknown if Iona ever married or had children of her own after her exile.

Friends
Iona was and remains extremely popular among the dark elves, and while she does not hold an official position of power in Shahar-Eka, her Kumenza Eka-Iona does, and the two are fairly close. Iona also keeps in close contact with the Serenghe mercenary Zak Dreggite, whose vast network of friends and accomplices gives him a broad sphere of influence. Given how commonly the two are seen together, Iona also befriended Jalenga queen Zivia, even if she and Zak were both part of the Letozé Rebellion at one point.

Perhaps her closest friends, however, would be her loyal retainers Lux Calameda and Cadence Montoya, a pair of hardened Kumenza who swear absolute loyalty to her due to Iona's involvement in rescuing them from lives of slavery and near-death. They were an oddity in the Koldizé royal courts, as the only royal retainers that were not also Zukuren. They seemed to hold no love or concern for the remainder of Iona's family, but their loyalty to her was unquestionable and unwavering.

Enemies
While they were not ever officially her enemies, Some of Iona's most formidable opponents came from her own family, with her elder brother Drazen ideologically opposing her as he supported the Arakos instead. Similarly, she was faced with opposition from her younger sister Leto, as Leto led a powerful army into Koldia to purge what she and her legions perceived as growing corruption within the Zukuren Empire. Despite this opposition from, Iona harboured no ill will towards her sister, even if she lamented the latter's decision to do what she did.

Incidentally, most of Iona's political enemies after the Elven Civil War were primarily those opposed to the growth and politics of the Kumenza and Shahar-Eka. The Shinzoka of Krawvill also disliked her due to her support of the Krippan Empire, which would later erase Krawvill from the map entirely.

Role in the Series
Iona has an enormous and pivotal role throughout most of the The Crest of Zabutur series. From her prominent influence in her nation's civil war to her subtle involvement with the Kumenza in the Krawvill-Krippa War, to her more personal involvement in the lives of those she has touched.

The Crown of Zivia
Iona is a major character in The Crown of Zivia, where she was both one of the most welcoming individuals to Leto as she tried to integrate back into her own family, but also one of the first lines of defense against her as she moved to invade Koldia.

Trivia

 * Iona has a Kumenza named Eka-Iona.
 * Iona's MBTI personality type (ENFP-A) is the polar opposite of her sister Leto (ISTJ-T)
 * Iona bears many similarities to Zai, both being 2nd-born princesses of their respective nature, and both go into exile, and are both ideologically opposed by a younger sibling at some point in their stories.