Takarana Sagana Dies Aged 95Above: Takarana Sagana, April 5th 4365 - December 28th 4460
After a double-hip replacement surgery on November 23rd, former President of the Confederated League of Vasakana - Takarana Sagana - has died of natural causes at the age of 95 surrounded by her family at home in Sangora, Vanakalam, Vascania. She was with her son T. Darethan and daughter S. Venegahama when she died, and three of her eight grandchildren and five of her thirty-one great-grandchildren. She leaves behind dozens of descendants and even a great-great-granddaughter named in her honour.
Her husband, T. Janasapan, died five years prior, and she will be buried next to him in Sangora's Hosian cemetery. The 95-year-old had shown several signs of her health weakening over the last year, culminating in multiple surgeries and several long stays at the hospital, but it was not until early December she was informed by her doctors she hadn't long left to live.
Sagana was born Tarabai Sagana on April 5th 4365 in Sangora to two rice farmers, growing up in poverty. She was lucky enough to get an education at a small school two miles from where she lived, to which she walked with her ten older brothers and one younger sister every day. While all twelve of the siblings attended the free primary education, only Sagana was granted a government subsidy for gifted children to attend secondary education - making her the first person in the family to still be in education by the time she reached 16. From there, she received yet another subsidy due to outstanding academic success, but delayed going to college after the death of both of her parents so as to look after her younger sister. After working to help her sister, she was finally able to raise enough money to send her sister to a nun-led boarding school - the cheapest way to keep her well looked after.
Sagana went to the only university in the Sangora region when she was 20, and studied Medicine in the hopes of becoming a doctor. However, she met her future husband Janasapan and married him as soon as she left university. She put aside her ambitions to have a twin son and daughter, but was discouraged from having any more children after a miscarriage. During her time as a parent, Sagana developed a keen interest in politics - particularly in keeping it fair and uncorrupted. After living as a full-time mother until the age of 38, Sagana entered the world of work as a electoral overseer. She eventually was able to work her way up from that position to the position of Electoral Committee Chairwoman due to her firm standards of electoral overseeing which had seen Sangora deliver the most accurate, traceable and unquestioned results in all of Vanakalam's elections.
Her push for free and fair elections brought her directly into conflict with the plan of communist leader Chairwoman Amishana Suhanthra in April 4411, when the nation's communist government refused to call an election. As IEC chairwoman, Sagana pressured the communist government but to no avail. Upon turning to the military for help in conducting a free and fair election, and having her compromises rejected by Chairwoman Suhanthra, Sagana and her allies were besieged by the forces of the communists.
What followed was a bloody conflict that took years and years to resolve. Sagana was a key player on the side of the anti-communist forces, forming the Forum for Democracy and helping to organise the armed struggle that went up against urban and chemical warfare while facing a massive number of conscripted enemy troops. The Vanakalamese civil war raged on, taking millions of lives, until April 4424. Sagana became the Vice-President, but became President after the assassination of her predecessor.
The time for peace did not come yet, however, as the brutal oppression of the Kalkalistanis by Emperor Raghu led to another war, the Vascanian War, which saw a complex web of princely alliance form along ethnic and religious divides against the Emperor. Massive-scale war raged across the continent, with thousands of miles of battle-lines sprawling across the map. Millions died and millions more were injured during the heavy fighting which culminated in the usage of crucifixion and chemical gas attacks by the Emperor's wife. The brutal usage of princely levies, naval assaults, guerrilla warfare and last stands created a spider's web of conflict which may well go down as the largest single war geographically and in terms of population effected in the last few centuries. The conflict became the largest single theatre of the Dovani War. Vascania was ultimately united, and Sagana became the first President of the united nation, the Confederated League of Vascania.
Sagana was a figure that was, and still is, beloved and idolised in the nation she ruled and the nation she united. A towering figure in the politics of the region for half a century, Sagana came up against some of the most violent and cruel warmongers in the history of Terra and stood triumphant. Her legacy is a rapidly growing economy, a rapidly advancing nation and a union of many different ethnic and linguistic groups to create a continent that is united and at peace. 93% of Vascanians have a positive view of the former President, compared to just 2% who don't. Her death has led to public mourning in the streets, and services being held in temples and churches across the nation. With an election coming up in just a few months, the question of whether nostalgia for the late politician will help her Republican Alliance party is still up in the air. Whatever the case, no person has left as great an influence on the continent as her, and she may well go down as the most influential woman of the century, if not the millennium.