Basarab IX

Basarab IX was the Kosmokrator of theSilent Empire . He ruled for twenty five years, becomingly increasingly tyrannical and unhinged. Eventually he was deposed by a revolt led by his cousin, who was crowned in his place as Basarab X . He never married and is not known to have had any children. While many of the Basarion dynasty were cruel, petty or incompetent, Basarab IX is the only one who can be considered to be truly evil.

While Basarab was a public figure and his life was extensively documented as fits a reigning Emperor, his status as an tyrant of folklore means that some of the stories and rumours about his life must be considered unproven.

### Early Life

Basarab was born in the Purple Chamber of the Imperial Palace to then Crown Prince John Crispus, the grandson of ruling Emperor Basarab VIII . He was named Basarab after his great-grandfather and also after the progenitor of the dynasty, Basarab I .His grandfather, the then Crown Prince John Valens, died while young in a riding accident.

He was not expected to rule, as he had an elder brother Basil , who was the Crown Prince and their father's favourite. While Basil was trained in statecraft and warfare, Basarab was largely left to his own devices. He had a passion for scholarship and research, and while his father had no interest in his younger son's upbringing, he did provide him with plenty of money to fund lectures, libraries and researches. For two years the young Basarab traveled around the Empire.

Like all members of the Imperial family, Basarab kept Vaad as his patron Archon, although he was notably unenthusiastic about the Church of Vaad, rarely attending services and giving much less to the Church than his ancestors had.

When his brother was crowned as Basil I, Basarab hoped for some position of Imperial dignity, but he was granted only the prestigious but empty position of curator of the Imperial libraries. For several years until his brother's untimely death due to a mysterious sickness that ravaged Othery, he lived a quiet life. When John died, along with his wife and their unborn child, Basarab was elevated to the Sixfold Throne.

### Emperor

The people of the Silent Empire did not know what to make of their Emperor - some were even surprised to learn that John had a brother. At first, Basarab was popular. As the number nine is considered lucky in the Accord Lands, and he was the ninth Emperor to bear the name Basarab, his reign was considered by many to augur well.   He turned his intellect and passion for scholarly research to the administration of the Empire, collecting new taxes, building new roads and aqueducts, and reforming several archaic laws.

Over the years, however, the drive for efficiency became a grasping tyranny. Basarab vastly expanded the Imperial guard, until what had previously been a ceremonial force became a massive permanent army used to crush his enemies. He also established the Black Chamber, a secretive brotherhood of spies, assassins and blackmailers who answered directly to him. At first, only those who openly conspired against the Emperor were targetted by his minions, but as the years went by, simply speaking against the Emperor became a crime. But even the silencing of dissent was not enough, and soon the Imperial Guard and Black Chamber began to target those who belonged to groups the Emperor dislikes or saw as a threat - independent Knights, tavern keepers, street performers, mapmakers and even midwives were all targets for the Emperor's wrath.

### Dungeon Master

With tens of thousands arrested across the Empire, the Empire's dungeons groaned with bodies. Basarab's solution was to vastly expand the Imperial Dungeons. Although there had always been dungeons and crypts beneath the Imperial Palace, Basarab had them massively expanded. Exactly what he did within the Imperial dungeons is unknown, but it is known he spent nearly one third of the Empire's treasury on them, and would pass more time there than his official residences. He began to be known sarcastically as the "Dungeon Master", as tavern wits claimed he preferred to rule over the bowels of his Palace than the rest of the Empire.

### Overthrow

As his tyranny escalated, eventually the people of the Empire had had enough. When Othery itself rose against him, the people and nobles of the Empire prevailed on his cousin, the Grand Duke Basarab Alexander, to depose him. After a confrontation between the two, in which Grand Duke Basarab begged his cousin to return to the ancient ways of their ancestors and to cease oppressing his people, the Grand Duke agreed that his cousin had relinquished the Sixfold Throne through his despotism and put himself at the head of the rebellion. Although Basarab's Imperial Guard fought hard, and he supplemented his forces with mercenaries and assassins, he was defeated and beheaded, his body burnt to ashes and scattered into Starfish Bay. The Grand Duke was crowned as Basarab X.

### Legacy

The Empire took years to recover from the ravages of its Tyrant Emperor. For all of the reign of Basarab X, the name of his predecessor was forbidden to be spoken. Basarab IX was stricken from the Imperial litany chanted in the Grand Imperial Cathedral. Although the memory of his specific deeds has faded, he remains a figure of folklore and tavern gossip - in many old folk tales, the role of villain is assumed by Basarab IX, and mothers often threaten their children with the Mad Emperor if they do not eat their greens or do their chores.

### Rumours

As a prominent historical figure and a folklorish villain, many rumours have been assigned to Basarab. A few of the most popular are listed here.

* He was a self-taught Archmage
* He was secretly ordained as a Cleric of Vaad
* He was not the true son of John V but a baby stolen from a prostitute in the slums of Othery and brought into the Imperial family as a result of the then Crown Prince losing a bet
* He was the bastard son of Basarab VIII by a prostitute but was given to the Crown Prince to raise as his own son to avoid scandal
* He and his courtiers devised an elaborate maze of traps and monsters in the Imperial dungeons and used strange arcane devices to watch as prisoners tried futilely to escape
* During his youth he traveled west of Suliaro to view the ruins of the Western Mandate
* During his youth he lived with Unmen
* He spoke a hundred languages, including the forbidden languages of devils and demons
* He fed on human flesh and blood
* He was a worshipper of Malik Nous
* He built a secret temple to Malik Nous within the Imperial dungeons
* He was possessed by Malik Nous at birth
* He was one of the Rebel Archons in disguise
* He was not really named Basarab, but was renamed on his ascension to the throne to take advantage of the idea that nine is a lucky number, so he was really John VI, not Basarab IX, and Basarab IX was his successor (this would mean the number nine truly is lucky)
* He discovered Wind-Reamer, the lost blade of Basarab X, but had it sealed in the Imperial Dungeons so it could not be used by the forces of good to oppose him.
* He was actually a woman named Basaria who pretended to be a man in order to inherit the Sixfold Throne
* As a young man he loved a young woman who was stolen from him by a mapmaker, which explains why he had mapmakers imprisoned when Emperor
* He did not truly die but was placed into magical suspended animation
* He did not really die but fled across the sea to reign over the Unmen where he became immortal and will one day return to conquer his Empire
* He was a member of a secret race of lizard people who still secretly control the world