Eleanor Karloian, typically known simply as Karloian and sometimes also Freeman, was a famous revolutionary leader in Ochebana. She played a major role in virtually all major Balebian uprisings over three centuries.

Freemen Movement

Karloian first became known in the mid-4th Century, then usually under the name of Freeman. She had lived in the Balebian countryside for some decades already, likely suffering some displeasure at the hands of Ochebana, and began motivating the peasants of the Snakewoods region to be proud and stand up for themselves. She traveled from village to village with a small entourage, speaking on town squares and in barns, painting an image of a society free of oppressive imperial rule. The protagonist in her tales was always Freeman, a productive and proud farmer. When rumors about her spread, she was conflated with her character, and usually understood to be this very Freeman.

Soon after, Karloian was tracked down by some military officers who were also unhappy with the status quo. This kicked off a parallel networking effort, spearheaded by the former emperor Barley Brimstone. He set up an network of officers that would eventually span across virtually all the northern armies, and he laid out operational plans which an eventual revolution might follow to topple the powerful imperial government.

Brimstone and Karloian got along so well, in fact, that they had two daughters together, Ann and Eve. The two also married, though Brimstone died soon after, in 315.

Karloian decided to kick off the revolution in 296, after 50 years of preparation, because she judged her network of disillusioned peasants was strong enough. The military had been ready to act for well over a decade, but she had not wanted to launch a military-led revolution, because she feared this was the wrong method and that it would not lead to a successful resolution. The free peasants were now however finally ready to take up arms, and Freeman was a wildly popular figure throughout the empire.

Fierce battles were waged, and unfortunately Karloian's forces were not strong enough to succeed in their plans; the rebel armies were defeated or stalled out by loyalist forces and nobles' militias. However, Karloian had massively underestimated one factor: the anger of the huge slave population. It took up arms in Freeman's name as well, causing huge riots and devastation. Ultimately, Emperor Darndick was toppled by one such slave army, though no competent government emerged and the loyalist military soon took back control.

Karloian did not intend the slaves to take up arms, and at first believed them doing so would be a welcome support for her revolution; however, she found she had no control over them, because the slaves only knew of Freeman as a symbol and did not identify a real person, especially not an elf woman, with him. Aghast by her lack of control, she did once meet with the Solsunni leaders who had come from overseas and gained some measure of influence with the slaves, but she found no common ground with these elves whose goal was to overthrow and destroy everything of the old empire. With her few thousand remaining forces, Karloian even faced off against a slave horde come to plunder the city of Changate in late 296.

After the revolution failed, Karloian and a few close friends disappeared from public view, seeking refuge in a small forester village by the Snakewoods. The new rulers assumed she had died alongside the many other would-be rebel leaders who had succumbed to the rioting or the subsequent wave of executions by the loyalists.

Karloian Insurgency

Karloian, and her two daughters - now come well of age, and having traveled the continent - once again became active against the government. Things were not much better now. This time, however, Karloian made no attempt to lead and control a revolution; instead, she simply spread a message of hope, devising stories and songs which went against imperial doctrine and censorship. She spread some of these herself, but also acted as a kind of mentor for bards and the like who came from all corners of Balebu to learn from her. Her daughters were more active, traveling around themselves and bringing stories and news to people, and also weaving small personal networks of folks who might be willing to take up arms against the regime.

Eve Karloian even took action alongside some guerilla rebels, participating in raids to free slaves, and training the slaves to fight alongside her. She was unfortunately captured and imprisoned near Sharmid.

Ann started a revolution in 198 b. OW, partly in reaction to her sister's capture. Her call received a powerful response, thousands of slaves rising up to fight with her. Unfortunately, there was little military support this time around, and the rebel army was destroyed well before it reached Londerhome.

Eleanor chose not to participate in the open rebellion, or in the guerilla efforts led by her sisters out of the Cloakwood thereafter; she even advised those communities she held sway over not to go. She believed that fighting against the regime was a hopeless cause, causing unnecessary death and pain all around. She hoped that merely through ideas, the common folk - including the soldiery - might all be convinced to change their society. She continued to spread her tales and dreams about a fairer future, and was amazed by the open ears she received; in the suppression efforts, the government and church were taking far too harsh measures, pushing people away from the conservative Tempus faith and towards Eleanor's teachings.

Soon after, however, Ann and Eve led another open assault on Londerhome. This failed as well, and Ann was captured and publicly executed. Eve managed to flee to the Snakewoods, but the movement was decisively weakened: with the most fervent rebels dead, all hope seemed lost, and enthusiasm for stories also waned. The Karloian Insurgency petered out.

Dejected by her lack of success, Karloian made her remaining daughter promise not to risk anything so foolish again, and fully withdrew from public activity. Eve died peacefully some time later, and Karloian lived on, hidden somewhere in Balebu, traveling from backwoods to backwoods. Within a few decades, her existence was once again all but forgotten.

Orc Wars

Eleanor Karloian still lived in Central Balebu when the Bonebreakers invaded Ochebana. She chose to reappear in the public eye under orcish occupation, visiting small isolated villages who suffered under orcish rule and the loss of their symbols of faith (both secular and religious). She carried news between places and spread hope among them, helping the humans work together and make good lives for themselves despite the heavy weight of Orcish Guard taxes and supervision. She even helped the infiltrated soldiers, once they started operating in her region, giving them information and hiding them from the orcs. At the same time, she cunningly kept most orcish retaliation away from her communities. She became a somewhat known leader in that time, but she was just one of many insurgent figures; no connection was drawn between her name and that of the rebel from two centuries earlier.

A Nature Serene depiction of Karloian, 69 OW.

Sun Empire

When Ochebana returned, and the grand promises of communism under the Eternal Sun turned out to be hardly different from the oppressive systems of centuries prior, Karloian decided to once again make an effort to resist the imperial regime. She spoke in the rural networks of locals where she had influence, trying to shape the Sun Serene teachings in a different light and arguing for a different approach, but she struggled to reach far beyond these simple rural circles; the government was too fresh and too powerful, its brand-new structures of power too solid.

In the debates of ideas she led, Karloian developed a variant of Sun Serenity which pleased her; she thought the overall ideas of this new faith to be appealing, and she knew that most of the population was convinced of the philosophy's fundamental truth. She still advocated for communism - in fact, Sun Serenity's basic tenets weren't far from the dreams she had advocated all her life - but she pointed out how the Ochebanian government and church failed its own religion, how the new landlords were a plight for the Community, and so on. Her strand of thought, which slowly gained traction as an interesting and appealingly forbidden subject, became known as "Nature Serenity", or simply "Naturelvism".

Karloian found the allies she needed in none other than the defenders of the status quo: nobles and officers who wanted less power in the hands of the emperor and more power for themselves. It was an alliance of necessity, but in Karloian's eyes also a safe way to get the status quo changed without facing the massive bloodshed of outright civil war; in any case, many people were too tired from six decades of war to start fighting again. There were, however, some people who - with foreign support - waged small-scale insurgency war against loyalist centers of power. Karloian accepted these groups and kept friendly terms with those leaders she knew, but she didn't encourage them directly.

The revolution eventually kicked off in 69 OW, with lots of popular support as well as the active participation of a good chunk of the army. Karloian chose to lead from the front this time, making herself into a religious symbol: she wore clothes made only of lush green leaves, and wielded a large golden scythe. She arrayed a headquarters of nobles and officers around herself, and stayed near the army as it marched on Londerhome. She also sent missives to various cities, landlords, and military units, giving them orders and looking like proper leader.

Karloian managed to take Londerhome, and transform it into a "Naturelvist capital", turning it green with the help of Silurite mages and establishing a new government for Balebu. Unfortunately, she had not quite managed to convert the entire empire; many places did not yet recognize her rule, and there were powerful loyalist forces to the south. Karloian even struggled to secure, protect, and organize those territories which she was supposed to control, largely because her "ally" nobles wanted power mostly for themselves and less for any common good; thus, she was wholly incapable of doing anything about the rest of the empire.

Though she managed to create a nice little peace in a few constrained spaces such as Londerhome, ultimately reality caught back up with her, and Londerhome was invested by a loyalist army from the south. Karloian was publicly whipped, stripping her of her myth and stripping many Naturelvists of hope, and a strong new government - one which knew how to work with nobles, and which had the power to subject other strong-headed parties - sat once again at the reins of the Sun Empire. Thus Karloian's third and best attempt at changing Ochebana for the better was foiled.