SHE: Once Upon A Throne [Unpaid]

Martina is the empress of the empire - Lillian. But due to her husband’s death [the emperor] she now has to rule alone. However, Martina has many flaws and cannot rule an empire without making mistakes. She is weak when it comes to political and diplomatic issues and problems. For centuries, Lillian and Ingra have been at war for the desire of expansion. Many thousands of years ago, the Temple strongly opposed this war and requested the Lillian emperor many times to stop this war. However, the imperial crown did not listen. With no one to listen to the Temple’s plea, it joined hands with Ingra to ensure the safety of the divine authority and to seize more power. The emperor did not permit this however, the temple threatened to remove a protective barrier that has been keeping Lillian safe for centuries. If it were to be removed, Lillian would have fallen in no day. Since then, a cold war has been going on with the temple and the imperial power. Emperor Eros [husband of Martina] signed a peace treaty with Ingra, which stated that Lillian would allow Ingra to trade with them with no restrictions.

Since Martina’s ruling was very clumsy, the economy was going down and people were starving. So, the members of parliament [i’ll call them ministers here so others can understand] had to bring a law that was originally used in ancient Lillian. The law stated that an empress cannot rule alone. She either needs an heir or a consort to rule. This law was removed since it couldn’t work in modern lillian. The ministers had no choice but to bring this back for the sake of the economy. Some brought it back for the people and the empire, while some brought it back for their own benefit [they could plant a consort with the empress and control the empire from the shadows]. With everyone trying to bring Martina down, she refuses to follow any of this. The ministers however, keep pressuring her to accept the law, but she refuses.

Amidst this all, the ministers decide to appoint Duke Ethan as Martina’s advisor to help the empire. Duke Ethan had the blood of royal Ingra. During Eros’ father’s rule, Lillian had won the fourth major war with Ingra. The Ingrarian Emperor sells their empress as a consort to Lillian, along with Ethan, who was the second prince.

But Ethan, after some time, confesses he holds feelings for Martina. Martina rejects him, but he stays by her side as her advisor.

However, after some time, tensions grew between Ingra and Lillian and Martina was unable to handle the political issue. Finally, Ethan stabs and kills her and takes the crown along with the support of the temple. Her sister - Aretina teams up with him as they both seize Lillian’s power

The backstory as to why Ethan kills Martina is still in progress so please be patient.