Empress Tulska-Kyanlae is the current sovereign of the Lyystranese, and by extension, the overseer of the starship they traveled to Earth on (a model of it is in her hand), which is now used as an orbital space colony, regarded as its own nation. Although during her reign she has turned the colony into a growing economic and political power, her private life is not so idyllic; Tulska-Gaikii, her sister and confidant, has vanished, and a rare neurological condition is slowly sapping her of a balanced mind.