Sheila Helman



About
Sheila Helman is from the 46th generation of the original Helman Emperor, born from the marriage between the last emperor and Pamela Helman in the year GI1005.

She's widely and universally loved by the people due to her kindness, beauty and intelligence. She's extremely popular with the populace to the point many worship her like a goddess and has even got fame outside of Helman. Even amongst the military many experienced and talented soldiers like Aristoles Karm are greatly inspired by her.

After the presumed death of her half brother, Patton Misnarge, and the death of the emperor she stepped up the throne in the year LP0002 and became the empress. However, in reality, she's just a puppet and the prime minister holds the actual power, Stessel Romanov.

When the emperor died she was forced to claim the throne but  obviously  she was considered too young for the role, since by that time she was only 11 years old. It's for this reason that even though she held the title of Empress, the political power was held by the Council of Eight and the Prime Minister Stessel, who used his influence to remove from power Patton supporters and leave at the top those that support him. Despite her position, she's absolutely powerless and is only used to talk with the people in large-scale speeches. Though she rarely appears in public, support for her is still high in the realm and she's mostly just used to talk to the people in populistic speeches.

Unlike common knowledge, Sheila is not the emperor's daughter, but born from a secret relationship between  Pamela Helman   and the Minister  Stessel, so she doesn't actually have royal blood. No-one aside from these two actually know about this. Her father Stessel has a rather peculiar relationship with. He's a man that is incredibly narcissistic and sees everyone else as dirt, including his secret lover Pamela (who he only sees as a tool to settle his power). However, he believes Sheila to be the greatest in the world, solely because she carries his blood, and is obsessed with her to the point that he plans to get in a secret incestuos relationship with her when she's old enough(and by plans, he means forcefully).

Appearances in Rance Games 

Kichikuou Rance (non-canon)
In Kichikuou Rance, Sheila appeared in the Helman phase as the ruler to inspire her people in the war against Leazas. It is later revealed that she's actually the daughter between Pamela and Stessel and doesn't have royal blood. However, Stessel cares little for Pamela and actually admires Sheila as the only woman worthy. Both Pamela and Sheila are under Stessel's control and he manipulates them to rule Helman the way he wants. She's aware that she's Stessel's daughter and follows all his orders.

Stessel has an obsession over Sheila and gave her drugs to make her do whatever he wants, often extorting her with drugs to have sex with her. She's worried about the incestuous relationship she has with her father but when she spends too long without drugs she loses focus and can't control herself, losing sight of everything around her. Aristoles Karm has a very special relationship with her but they have been forcefully distanced by Stessel, since he thought that he would be able to get her away from his control.

When Helman falls in the war against Leazas, Stessel escaped promptly and she was captured by Rance. If Rance has sex with her, he finds out about her addiction to drugs. Depending on the player's choices, and in Aristoles's fate, Sheila's fate varies wildly.

Rance IX (canon)
Her character changes quite a bit in the canonical storyline. Sheila remains the powerless ruler of the country while Stessel controls the government as he pleases, but he has yet to lay his hands on her(although he is planning to). Her addiction to drugs and the incestuos relationship with her father have been retconned. In canon she's also 16 years old, whereas in Kichikuou she was 18 too.

She made first appearance as a simple and a slightly tanned girl who was found in a caravan that was supposed to be heading towards a slave market. Her hair and skin tone was different and she was called Russian Kalette, hiding her real identity. The caravan stumbled upon with Rance's party, who had just arrived to Helman to aid Patton in a Revolution to take down Stessel. Rance noticed that there was something itchy and realised that the caravan owners were slave traders, who reacted violently and attacked Rance's party, yet easily defeated by them.

Russian begged Rance to release the girls of the caravan but Rance took a liking for her and claimed that he would do so only if she became his slave, which she reluctantly agreed. She at first appears to be a very gloomy and dark girl, usually despondent to Rance, but after some help from Kanami, she started to get used to her life serving Rance and she grew surprisingly fond of doing house chores.

She's eventually revealed as the Empress of Helman, much to her half-brother Patton's surprise. The reason why she became Russian and ended in a slave trade was because she was unable to go out to help the citizens in the deplorable state they live in due to the corruption there is within the government, so her maid suggested to swap identities with a magic potion, which left her exposed as a normal girl due to her change in appearance.

After the Revolution ended and Stessel's regime was overthrown, the Helman Empire changed to the Helman Republic when Patton decided to leave the country with Hanty, leaving Sheila this time to really rule the country as the President of Helman.

Trivia

 * She was ranked in the 1st place in the Rance IX popularity poll, making her one of the most popular characters in and out of universe.
 * In Kichikuou Rance she was ranked 19th, which is pretty good for her minor role in the game and ranking with so many characters.
 * In Rance IX there's an alternate non-canon bad ending for her where she's caught by Stessel and she's raped and drugged by him, mirroring her fate in Kichikuou Rance.
 * Her fake name "Russian" is a clear reference to Helman resembling the real life country Russia in many aspects.