Aurakas Milo

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An influential Senator in the Imperial Senate who represented a faction opposed to the Emperor Viktor's warlike policies and especially the War of Ears. His key political rival was Senadal Voech.

## Appearance

Milo was a short fair haired man with a calm demeanor but animated face. As he aged his hair greyed early and then whitened.

## Traits

Milo was well educated and charismatic. Born to a politically strong family Milo created a network of powerful allies early. He was especially well connected to the Church of Celer as he was quite faithful himself. He often was seen accompanied by Cellan Guard. He was an extremely gifted orator and often out debated even seasoned veterans such as Senadal Voech. He spoke various languages as well as the dialects of the Alkar horselords.

## Events

Important events in Milo's life include:

1714PE: Born

1733PE: Milo was assigned as a senatorial aide to his father.

1737PE: Milo was elected to the Senate in his own right. His brother and father were both senators as well. Leaving the Milo family as the most represented political family in the Senate.

1744PE: Milo had gathered a very loyal group of like minded senators around him who were pacifist/ appeasement minded. They believed that the Empire should expand by cultural and financial means rather than military means which they disdained and even directly opposed. Instead of bowing Milo's faction shook hands as a way of showing they believed that fellowship through mutual agreement was the way to success.

1761-2PE: Viktor was crowned Emperor. He and his supporters started almost immediately to change imperial law against the elves of the Oakland Forest. Senadal Voech proposed Viktor's 'ear bounty' in the Senate. This was opposed almost immediately by Milo and his faction. They did so on a morale and ethical level partially but their main point was the financial waste.

1763PE: Milo warned the Senate that the decalration of changes to the imperial border in the Oakland Forest and the enforcement of the ear bounty would result in disaster.

1764: Milo was defeated in his attempt to vote down the military finance ammedment proposed this year. The military organisation committee who were completely opposed to Milo's policies and he to theirs. They voted to commit a huge amount of finance and 90% of all imperial recruits to the Rangers.

1764-1766PE: Rangers in their thousands pour into the forest and wipe out Elven settlements wherever they could. Milo was the natural rallying point for all anti-war representatives in the Senate.

1767PE: Milo demanded that the open warfare on the Alkan plains be brought to an end after great losses against the horselords. Due to military defeats, internal pressure from Milo and his kind and a desire to focus on the elves, Auria was forced to negotiate. Voech wanted nothing to do with the treaty but when the First Senator went Milo took the risk of accompanying him though as only an aide not a key negotiator. Later this was used against him to portray him as a coward and someone prepared to surrender all of Auria's rights and honour to get out of war. The resulting Plains Treaty was hated by Viktor as it meant elves could flee to north of the border and they could not be effectively pursued any more. Milo was who the Emperor chose to blame along with the First Senator.

1767-1772PE: Voech and the Emperor circumvented Milo's efforts by continuing the War of Ears by having it fought vicariously through bounty hunter guilds such as the Blood Coin. Milo's popularity waned during this era as the public opinion was heavily anti-elf.

1768PE: After a vote of no confidence in the First Senator, Voech, Milo's arch-rival was elected the new First Senator of the Empire. Milo had lost significant support.

1774PE: The Battle of Oakhome was a huge political and military victory for Viktor and his policies. A large concentration of elven forces led by the Quinkorin attempted to take Oakhome. They are decisively defeated. This was catastrophic for Milo as it seemed to vindicate the Emperor and his policies and the victorious military had caught the hearts of the public. Following this Milo was not re-elected to the Senate. However he retained a lot of his influence as many of his allies retained their seats.

1776PE: This went badly in the War of Ears. First the Dawnrakers started operating against imperial forces in the forest and worse the Shrouded of Karritan came with the Shadeborn and got involved in the conflict. These resulted in losses that are hard to defend for Voech and the Emperor and results in a dip in his popularity. Milo was re-elected with landslide proportions of the vote.

EDIT

1777PE: Viktor's long time rival **Aurakas Milo** gained new prominance as the head of a pro-peace faction in Tor Honarik. Milo focused on anti-Emperor rhetoric noting the death toll and the limited benefits of this ongoing conflict. Viktor was not well suited to argument on the floor of the Dome of Debate and so he relied on allies such as Senadal Voech who argued on behalf of the Emperor's policies. Yet the constant deaths and financial losses caused had made the Emperor's polices less and less popular and Voech really struggled to argue his points.

So Viktor and Voech leaned on the bitterness and loss of the war instead of the glory and riches which normally worked so well with the Aurian public. Viktor refused to stop the bounties or disband the guilds but this was no longer a popular position. Viktor was resented by the people and that included many of the nobility as well as the powerful factions of the Sapphire Wizards' Guild and the Church of Celer.

1778PE: Emperor Victor took ill probably due to the stress of his failing war. His son, Vincent, though supportive of his father's policies started to politically manoeuvre to get out of the elven genocide conflict. He distanced himself, and the crown, from the Bounty Hunter Guilds and negotiated with Milo to limit the embarrassment as he sought to extricate Auria from the conflict. Fortunately the Plains Treaty had already forced the country to refrain from openly waging war on the elves. This allowed Vincent to preempt the inevitable fall out of ending the War of Ears.

1779PE: Victor the Elfslayer dies and is succeeded by his son Vincent.

## Legacy

1766PE: As crown prince Vincent followed in his father's footsteps by serving in the military as a youth. He was set to serve under his father's old friend the High Ranger but his mother intervened directly to keep him out of the War of Ears that was being engaged in unofficially by the Green Protectoran. So he served as a Blademark in the Red Protectoran as his father had.

1767PE: Vincent accompanied the negotiators including the Commander in Chief for the meeting with the horselords resulting in the cessation of hostilities between the Empire and the Alkar called the Plains Treaty.

1767-69PE: Only 18 years old, Vincent was promoted to General and sent south with his personal legion the 13th Red Legion. He was placed in command of a 8 legion group of Border Guards repelled raiders long the Elygian border. It was very likely Vincent's mother was behind the assignment as most of the imperial military were engaged in the north-east.

1770PE: Vincent moved from active service in the military to working with as the military attache to the Audit Corporation.

1774PE: Vincent started working as royal liaison to the Senate financial committee.

1776PE: The conflicts known as the War of Ears gets worse and worse. Notably the Aurian deathtoll spiked in this year and the expenses had mounted to critical proportions. Vincent as someone representing the loyalist faction in the Senate had to defend the expenditure and worked with Senator Senadal Voech the lead of the War Committee to do so. It was during this year that Vincent became part of his father's feud with **Aurakas Milo** the Senator who lead a co-ordinated resistance to the Emperor's aggressive policies in the elven forest.

1777PE: **Aurakas Milo** gained new prominance as the head of a pro-peace faction in Tor Honarik. Milo focused on anti-Emperor rhetoric noting the death toll and the limited benefits of this ongoing conflict. The Emperor relied on allies such as Senadal Voech who argued on behalf of the Emperor's policies. Yet the constant deaths and financial losses caused had made the Emperor's polices less and less popular and Milo capitalised on these points. Milo's opponents tried to use facts and statistics to prove the Emperor's policies were working. However Milo was too well armed in this arena. The Empire had made no new gains, while gold and blood were draining out constantly.

In reaction to Milo's victories in the Dome of Debate the loyalist faction switched their tactics to lean on the bitterness and loss of the war instead of the glory and riches, which had previously worked so well with the Aurian public. Viktor refused to stop the bounties or disband the guilds despite his advisers' words of caution. Milo used this to lead powerful political families into conflict with the royal family and he championed the voice of the Church of Celer in opposing the War of Ears. Viktor reacted badly to this opposition and in a show of strength cut funding for church policies and increased imperial tax on church coffers. This caused a rift that Milo was eager to exploit.

1778PE: Emperor Viktor took ill probably due to the stress of his failing war. The Emperor was opposed at every turn, by the develish elves on the outside and undermined from within by his own people and key representatives such as Milo.

1779PE: Viktor died and Vincent was crowned three weeks before his 30th birthday. Vincent had not forgotten Milo's challenges to imperial authority.

1780PE: Vincent ended the 'ear bounty' and removed imperial funding from the Bounty Hunters' Guilds essentially bringing an end to the War of Ears. This was what Milo had been arguing for for years. It was the ultimate vindication of his political standpoint and left him as the most influential and powerful senator based on popularity and voting strength.

1783PE: Despite his previous success Milo is not chosen by Emperor Vincent as Imperial Vizier when the old one died. Instead Senadal Voech his long time rival was selected.

1784PE: Aurakas Milo paid the price of being the political enemy of the royal family throughout the War of Ears. He was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death.

## Legacy

Milo was consistently used as an example of the power of the Senate and the fact that many Aurians did not support Auria's consistently warlike approach.

Milo was also a marker that the royal family should not be crossed even by the powerful and that being proven right was no defense.