Emperor Adrion

> "*Men speak often of dying for your Gods, your family, your country. What use is that? I do not want you to die for your country. I want you to kill for your country.*"
> ― Emperor Adrion
>
>

## Emperor Adrion

### Parents

Jacras Capilus (Father), Avela vi Redalu (Mother)

### Ideology

(Initially) Traditional Conservatism(~1933/34 onwards) Inecurian Fascism

**Emperor Adrion** was the Emperor of Nesaria during WW2, the War of Independence and most of the Cold War. A highly controversial figure, Adrion is revered as a decisive and effective leader who saved a broken continent by some, whereas others consider him a brutal warmongering tyrant whose ambitions cost millions of lives.

Adrion is considered the founder of Inecurian Fascism, a radical and authoritarian far-right ideology. Though Adrion condemned the racist policies and beliefs of overseas fascists and national socialists, he simultaneously persecuted and expelled the Urilian race from Inecuria; approximately 97% of the Urilian population was evicted, with up to 350,000 dying in the process. Adrion reduced the power of democratic institutions in Inecuria, centralising power in the Imperial Government and in himself; he considered democracy to be rule by money rather than rule by the people, dismissing it as too easily corrupted for anything other than local governance. These anti-democratic reforms were undone in the Bloodless Revolution of 1980, in the final years of Adrion's reign.

Adrion fiercely adhered to traditional values and ensured that his realm would do the same, directing the state to censor so-called "degenerate material", restoring legal restrictions on atheists and re-introducing the criminal status of sodomy and adultery. He also completely reversed the secularising reforms of his predecessor Emperor Faltas V, re-instating clerical representatives in the Imperial Council. The most authoritarian of Adrion's moralising reforms were undone in the Bloodless Revolution, but they were not entirely reversed; for example, some restrictions on atheists still remain, and while sodomy itself is no longer a crime, publicly promoting or celebrating it is.

The Empire under Adrion joined the Axis powers in the Second World War, which - despite initial successes - eventually led to major Allied invasions of mainland Inecuria, marking the shift to the Imperial War of Independence. Through total mobilisation of the continent and finally the successful development of nuclear weapons, Adrion eventually convinced the invaders that total victory was impossible, and made a negotiated peace in 1958. To most Inecurians, Adrion's successful defence of Inecuria in the War of Independence redeemed him of his failure to win the Second World War - though his decision to declare war in the first place remains highly controversial.

Adrion then led the Nesarian Empire into the Cold War as a third major axis, presenting himself as the defender of order, tradition and religion against the communist USSR and liberal capitalist USA. Imperial forces intervened in many conflicts throughout Asia and Africa, most notably the Decolonisation Wars of Southeast Asia. During this time, the Empire underwent a major economic revolution, undergoing a wave of rapid electrification and industrialisation as Inecuria's colossal uranium reserves were able to be exploited by new nuclear fission reactors.

## Second World War

Furious at his cousin Emperor Faltas V for his leadership during and after the First World War, Adrion led a mass protest of over 200,000 to the Imperial Palace at Capera in 1930, successfully persuaded the palace guards to stand down, and forced Faltas to hand over the throne at gunpoint. Under the reign of Adrion, Inecuria was re-united under the Nesarian Empire after being broken up by the Treaty of Haguun, and he rapidly re-armed the Empire and prepared an invasion of the European-held lands in Asia, aiming to restore Imperial rule over Southeast Asia and to end British rule in India, seeking to cripple the rival empire's greatest strength and establish a powerful ally in Asia. The Empire prepared for this campaign much more extensively than in their previous attempt in the First World War, swelling the army and navy to a scale not seen since the Imperial Civil War.

These plans led to the Nesarian Empire making secret agreements with both Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire. These were made into formal alliances on the 11th of May 1940 - the day after the German invasion of France began - as the Nesarian Empire simultaneously declared war on Britain, France, the Netherlands and Portugal and launched its invasion of Southeast Asia. After initially experiencing unprecedented success, the tide began to turn against the Empire in 1943, and from 1944 onwards the Empire suffered near-continuous defeat until multiple Allied invasion forces landed on Inecuria in 1946, transforming the conflict into the Imperial War of Independence.

What exactly was to blame for the turn in Imperial fortunes has remained hotly debated into the modern day. Emperor Adrion accepted ultimate responsibility, publicly stating in a written publication that he "would not be a hypocrite", and he considered himself "gravely mistaken" for underestimating the capabilities of his enemies - particularly of India, which had not welcomed the Empire as liberators as expected, but had instead been one of the Empire's fiercest foes.

There is substantial evidence that Emperor Adrion's statement accepting blame was his version of a suicide note, and that he planned to take his own life after publishing it; however, he was convinced to stay and fight for the independence of his people and to not let the Allied invaders occupy and dismantle the Empire. Who convinced him to remain alive is not conclusively known, as there are two competing narratives; one claims that his wife Elena was the one to do so, whereas the other claims it was an anonymous peasant conscript.