Sultana Sadeet

Sultana Sadeet.

Saadet is the sole leader of the Osmani Sultanate, having taken the throne on the death of her mother fifteen years ago. Her period of rule has been troubled, mostly by ripples from the greater upsets in the rest of Known Space.

Politically and economically her leadership has been strong and difficult to fault, but militarily she is less proven and less confident: the Osmanis tend to measure up poorly against the rest of the Mandate and the prospect of civil war is not an enticing one.

Particularly since the Osmanis are a traditional haven for those fleeing oppression or arrest in the other areas of the Mandate and a gateway to many of the fringe worlds, it is likely they would be in the firing line of any developing conflict.

Physically she is 49 years old, tall and astonishingly beautiful: her body has been sculpted by the surgical equivalent of Michelangelo. She has seven husbands—a modest number for someone in her exalted position—and three children, princesses aged 17, 15 and 10.

Like all Sultanas she is connected at most times to the Hanedan (literally 'the House'), a data-respository accessible only to the Sultana and her bloodline that contains not only live feeds from all available information sources but also the uploaded personalities of her predecessors, plus a few of their most trusted advisors.

When Saadet dies the most recent backup of her memories and personality will also be uploaded, to advise her successor.

She has a court of advisors and hangers-on, but conventional wisdom says that the best way to plant an opinion in her ear is to pass it through one of her husbands. She is more likely to listen to it that way.