Empress Mariah

Another amazing commission by TychyTamara! tychytamara.deviantart.com/

Born and raised in the Earth city of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Mariah Cumbers was the first Human to be appointed Empress of the multi-species and (mostly) benevolent United Peoples Dominion. While she never served in the People's Guard or any other pre-integration Earth militart force (hence why there are no military insignias on her Royal uniform) she did serve as a nurse with the old neutral Earth organization Doctors Without Borders providing medical aid to civilians caught in the crossfire during the bloody Terran Colonial Wars. She later left to go into politics and played a crucial role in Humanity's integration into the Dominion.

During Mariah's twenty Galactic years (roughly twenty-five Earth years) reigning as Empress she presided over many reforms such as increased mandatory minimum pay and benefits for civilian workers in the more remote Dominion territories that had less government oversight and greatly improving the interstellar public transit systems for the majority of Dominion civilians whom could not afford their own FTL capable starships. She is best known however for being Empress during the devastating eleven year long Kollock War with the Verra Empire that ultimately ended in a victory (albeit an minor one) for the Dominion.

Four years after the war's end and the Dominion had managed to recover, Mariah voluntarily resigned the throne. Done with both politics and public life, but not yet ready to retire, she went back to Earth and to the hospital in Pittsburg where she'd been an intern nurse (and been born in) before Doctors Without Borders. She eventually became its administrator and ran it from behind closed doors only occasionally showing her face for charity events and war reunions. Sometimes she would surprise her patients by visiting and talking with them as well.

Several years later, just a few weeks before she was set to retire for real, she was ambushed and murdered on her way to work by a hit squad from the pro human insurgent group "Liberty" just outside the hospital. Two of the insurgents as well as a hospital security guard were killed in the ensuing gunfight.

Mariah Cumbers legacy remains however. She is generally considered to be one of the Dominion's greatest Empresses by all of its multi-species inhabitants. Her twin daughters, Princesses Diane and Lena famously also managed to make names for themselves though sadly they too were assassinated. Lt. Cmd. Mallory O'Rourke (the main heroine of my story) is a great admirer of all three of them, especially Mariah herself.

Mariah is modeled after real life U.S. belly dancer Ava Fleming, 2004 champion of the Belly Dancers of the Universe competition.