List of Regalian Emperors: Difference between revisions

[[File:GodTheomar.png|220px|thumb|right|Theomar was a powerful Emperor who ruled the Regalian Empire over its formative early decades.]]

*Theomar I was born Thulric Ivrist-Kade prior to the [[Five Family Rebellion]] and was the ringleader of that uprising, which overthrew the [[Regalian Kingdom]] and established the Regalian Empire.

*He was responsible for the initial divisions of power among the Five Families. He brought House Kade into the hereditary position of Arch Chancellor which would last for nearly three centuries. This was due to not only their role in the rebellion, but also their blood relation to them through the marriage of his Ivrae (then called Ivrist) father and his Kade mother, as well as his close friendship with Thedmir Kade.

*The threat of the [[Skagger Horde]] also grew in the final year of Lilienmar I’s life, but sick and infirm by that time, he could do little directly. However, it was he who declared the first Holy War.

*However, Imperial responsibility ultimately tempered him, and most peculiarly, his godly powers came to him in life. In acting as judge over trials, as a sort of personal penance for his own bending and breaking of laws across the realm in his youth, his powers allowed him to render almost perfect, accurate judgments each and every time.

*While this skill was great, he could not sit in on every case of the Empire. However, his passion for law and justice saw him make great strides in standardizing the systems of law across the Empire, though he retained exemptions for certain regions or cultural groups with systems different from that of the Empire. Allamaria also founded the Regalian Marshalry and appointed the first Grand Marshal.

*Allamaria I died peacefully at the end of a rich life and was succeeded by his eldest son, Handorien. Allamaria was perhaps one of the only Emperors to lack heirs with his Empress, and instead, the [[Half-Eronidas]] Handorien, produced from an illicit relationship, was given an excellent education and raised to be his successor.

*Handorien I was the eldest son of Allamaria I. A Half-Eronidas, he represented a significant departure for the Imperial Seat, and was the subject of scandal given his background.

*Compared to previous Emperors, Handorien I stepped back from the everyday operations of the Empire and allowed the aging master statesman Nicholas Kade to steer the Regalian Empire as he had for decades. However, he began the process of better integrating [[Eronidas]] into the Empire, as well as contacted the various Eronidas nations across Aloria.

*Handorien’s death marked the end of one of the more uneventful reigns in Regalian history, most acts or plans he had being overshadowed by the death of Nicholas Kade. However, once again like his father, youthful indiscretion resulted in an Eronidas son and no children from his Empress. Allestrain I, however, was not Half-Eron, but full Eron, and he took the throne easily with support from House Kade.

[[File:Emendedgays.png|220px|thumb|right|Alexander I (left) and Allestrain I (right) were very close, including in physical size as both men towered over the average Ailor.]]

*Allestrain I was the eldest son of Handorien I and while being raised as an Ithanian, he espoused and engaged in ideas often antithetical to that Culture.  

*Together with the Dual Chancellors, Allestrain saw the Regalian Empire expand through military conquest, taking many of the kingdoms of [[Southwynd]], resistant regions of [[Westwynd]], and elsewhere, by force. To finalize such conquests, Allestrain and Alexander I’s brother and fellow Arch Chancellor, Cedmir I, oversaw the creation of the Acts of Navigation to codify the Empire’s control over its holdings and political partners.

*Allestrain’s personal life was perhaps the most notable of an Emperor. Highly unorthodox for the era, rumors abounded of him and Alexander I being engaged in a romance, while Allestrain’s wife, Eolaria Cadar, was supposedly similarly engaged in a relationship with Alexander’s wife, Leona Kade. Modern scholars, and theologians, debate this aspect of Allestrain’s life intensely.

*A man who led from the front lines, and among those rare Unionist vessels blessed with his godly powers while in life, Allestrain I was said to be immune from all physical harm. He was nonetheless shockingly killed by an arrow while engaged in warfare with the [[Kingdom of Nordskag]]. As he lacked any heirs, his brother took to the throne after him, with Allestrain and his wife deified into the divine beings Allest and Elia.

*Handorien II was the second son of Handorien I and brother to Allestrain I. He maintained the war footing of his brother and his close allies, but the costs from constant conflict began to mount.

*With the ascension of the future Golden Sun Chancellor [[Morgann I]], Handorien was forced to abdicate the Imperial Throne, becoming the first Emperor to do so. His seat went to his son Justinian I, with Handorien later dying a quiet death during The Seasonal Emperors Period. He is broadly considered one of the most inept Emperors, too easily cowed and convinced by those around him.

*Justinian I was the only son of Handorien II and a weak Imperial heir. Frail and sickly as a child, and prone to epileptic seizures, he was also one of the youngest Emperors to ascend to the Imperial Seat at only sixteen.

*Despite his decently long rule, Justinian I’s sole act of note was when he signed over his religious authority to Arch Chancellor Morgann I, a man with deep control over the government and the Imperial Court.

*With this act, Morgann I had the power to easily replace any Emperor to come, as theologically and politically, he held all of the power in the Empire. The system of Seasonal Emperors eventually followed this action, and Justinian I was pushed to near irrelevance in his own palace.

*Justinian I quietly died (some radicals insist Morgann had the Emperor killed though this is unlikely) and without any children, the appointment of the next Emperor fell to Morgann Kade.

*The Seasonal Emperors were figurehead Emperors who sat on the Imperial Throne at the pleasure of Sun Chancellor Morgann Kade, a man who held all of the real power in the Empire.

*From the exterior, little had changed across the Empire, as Morgann in the role of Arch Chancellor successfully explained away the repeated changes in who sat on the throne. However, internally, the power dynamic was stark, but few had enough power, will or otherwise, to stand against Morgann.

**Handorien III was the uncle of Justinian I and brother to Handorien II. He sat on the Imperial Throne from 224-227 AC.

*Each and every Seasonal Emperor mysteriously vanished after what was often a minor but noticeable argument against some policy or action by Morgann, being replaced before even a full day had passed. While folktales and rumors speak of the many awful ends these men, young and old, suffered, in truth, there is little known about their fates.

*Why Morgann Kade chose them to next succeed the throne is a mystery, as it proved a foolish error on his part. He might have assumed that “Vilgy” could be pacified and kept out of his affairs through parties, but instead, Morgann ended up executed during an Imperial Diet after the two shared a heated argument over Vilgemar’s appointment of their Viridian brother as an Imperial Guard.  

*The abrupt, unforeseen end of Morgann Kade saw no Kade Chancellor for the early years of Vilgemar’s rule. They spent the rest of their reign freeing thousands of slaves, hosting celebrations, and fetes, and overall having an ecstatic time. However, their considerable spending, and the uprooting of Morgann’s many corrupt cronies, gradually began the decline of the Empire’s economy. He was forced to reinstate a Kade as Arch Chancellor, [[Aliandre I]], a woman who worked herself to the bone in tireless dedication to her task.

*Vilgemar I’s death saw them deified in Unionism as Vess, a being focused on freedom and fun. They were followed to the Imperial Seat by their eldest son, Justinian II. Many modern overviews of Vilgemar’s reign find it impossible to avoid their role in starting the [[Regalian Pessimism]], though the praise they earn for ending the reign of Morgann Kade is often quite high.

*Shortly before his death, Justinian II signed the Imperial Succession Act (also known as the Kade Settlement), which allowed the passage of the Imperial title through women, permitting the ascension of the Kade Dynasty when he passed away in 302 AC. To this day, many still fondly remember Justinian II as the man who ended the Regalian Pessimism dissolved the disaster that was the Regalian Senate, and brought the Empire into its modern form.

*Alexander I was the first Emperor of the Kade Dynasty to ascend to the throne and was [[Regal]] [[Anglian]] in his upbringing. He was given an excellent and worldly education, with friends of all [[Races]] and origins found across the Empire due to travels undertaken in his younger years.

*One of the most aggressive and temperamental Emperors in recent memory, Cedromar was a warrior leader through and through. His reign saw countless conflicts start and end, from the [[Second Songaskian War]] to his expedition abroad to [[Jadeheart]] to fight the [[Akula]].

*Many have forgotten the considerable power the Viridian Order once wielded in the Empire, but the Imperial Guard, also called the Tyrian Order, has never forgotten. They are forever wary of all Viridians, regardless of the status of their friendship with the Emperor.

*Many believe today that Morgann Kade’s most effective method for disposing of the Seasonal Emperors was having his pet [[Marken]], Narsil, eat them. Such a horrible end is unthinkable today, but this rumor, combined with many incidents over the decades since, has resulted in potent anti-Marken sentiment in most regions of the Regalian Empire.