Founding Mothers of Kerlile

The Founding Mothers of Kerlile were the sixteen women who created the Kerlian state, ten of whom formed the first Council of Kerlile. Each woman ruled over a specific region of Kerlile between 1924 and 1934, and then ten sat upon the inaugural Council of Kerlile to establish centralised rule in the Matriarchy from 1934 onwards; after the Castle of Grapes Massacre which wiped out the other six families, except for a baby, Adelaide Quinn. Only female descendants of these Founders are permitted to sit on the Council of Kerlile. The title Daughter of the Council is given to women who are descendants of the Founders through an unbroken female-only line.

Initial Meeting

The Founding Mothers initially met at the International Women's Congress, first held in 1893. At the 1913 IWC, Edith Hart proposed as a thought experiment the creation of a state ruled entirely by women. This became a regular discussion both at meetings of the IWC and via postal correspondence between the women who would become the Founding Mothers and several others. After the North Fleuran Succession Crisis, 1923-24, Hart - one of two primary claimants to the Fleuran throne - proposed that they attempted the experiment in reality; taking over North Fleura and renaming it to Kerlile, after a mythical temple of the Goddess of Secadualism.

List

Name	Birth Nation	Region	Current Councillor	Notes
Nancy Arnott	Laeral	Espoiria	Rosemary Arnott	Family name previously Arnaud; changed for unknown reasons
Chiu Yijun	Allied Cities	New Fanshe	Lia Chiu	"Blood feud" with [powerful family in homeland]; Yijun only survivor of a purge of the Chiu family
Phoebe Georgiou	Shuell	Toparta	Electra Georgiou	Fled during Communist Revolution
Wilma Greenwood	Libertas Omnium Maximus	Northwood	Letitia Greenwood
Camila Letitia Hale	Sanctaria	Virtus	Jennifer Hale
Edith Hart	North Fleura	Hartwood	Natalia Hart	One of two potential heirs to the North Fleuran throne
Sunita Patel	Andhrapur	Primrose	Nirmala Patel	Andhrapur was Daryan colony at Sunita's birth
Marilène Pierre	Kvask	Lunalea	Pauline Pierre	Family name previously Pjer; changed out of fear after the execution of her husband
Martina Viallamando	Aeluria	New Luria	Lucia Viallamando	Fled following Lauchenoirian unification and persecution of Aelurians
Margaret Robinson	Zongongia	Cherrytree	Removed 2021	Minor princess of Zongongian Royal Family stripped of title due to unapproved marriage
Park Ha-yeon	Haesan	Snowbell	Removed 1934	Daughter of Opthelian sympathisers
Audrey Quinn	Glanainn	Whitehills	Removed 1934
Inara Rakē	Eiria	Caralina	Removed 1934
Tetli	Xiomera	Sarnica	Removed 1934
	Novella Islands	Brookfield	Removed 1934	Left Novella Islands as a baby
		Grapevale	Removed 1934

Legacy

The Ten Founders are still regularly referenced in Kerlile, with formal role-call at the Council of Kerlile including a reference to each Councillor's Founder ancestor. Each current Councillor is either a granddaughter, great-granddaughter, or great-great-granddaughter of a Founder. Both proponents and opponents of Gynarchism cite the Founding Mothers in ideological debates, with gynarchists praising the founding of a matriarchal state and opponents pointing to the Founders Manifesto which states that female-only rule was designed to be a temporary state of affairs.

The Six Founders who were killed during the Castle of Grapes Massacre were erased from history, with all knowledge of their identities and the massacre kept under wraps by the Council until August 2023 when it was revealed by Amelia Quinn, a surviving descendant of both Audrey Quinn and Callum May, Edith Hart's rival claimant for the North Fleuran throne.