Appius Salvian

Portrait of Salvian, ME 83

**Appius Salvian** (ME 57-99) was the first Emperor and founder of the Montiac Empire, as well as former Commander of the Montiac Military and rebel leader during the Montiac Civil War.

Salvian was born in the village of Almus in ME 57. His father, Abelus, a veteran of the Montiac Military, worked as a blacksmith while his mother, Floron, worked as a farmhand. Salvians father died when he was 4, forcing him and his mother to move to Ravenna, where Salvian first took interest in a military career. As Commander of the Montiac Military, Salvian oversaw the operations of every active Montiac Legion. Salvian was unique in that he himself would fight with the *XIII Lagian* while still holding the rank of Commander. This made him an incredibly respected figure both in the military and general Montiac society. At the outbreak of the Montiac Civil War, many of the soldiers apart of *XIII* would side with Salvian. Following the capture of Montiacos and the end of the Montiac Civil War, Salvian reformed Montiacos into the Montiac Empire, ushering in a new age for Calast.

Salvian was unique among Lepus in many ways. Along with outliving the average life expectancy by 6 years, Salvian stood at 6ft 5in, and is still one of the tallest recorded of his species. As well, his red coloured fur is rarely seen in other members of his species. These factors all added to his legendary status in Lepus society, both during and after his life.

## Biography

### Early Life

Appius Salvian was born on the 1st of Aquila, ME 57 in the small village of Almus, to Abelus and Floron Salvian. His father, a veteran of the Montiac Military, worked as a blacksmith, while his mother worked as a farmhand. His father died when he was 4 from an injury sustained in the military, forcing Salvian and his mother to relocate to Ravenna, where they lived in the city's skid row. At 8, Salvian joined the military. Though his mother was first opposed, the two were practically starving on the city's streets, and the soldier salary was badly needed.

### Military Career

#### As General

While described as "incompetent" with a sword by his commanders, What he lacked in melee skill he made up for in tactical skill. Salvian would regularly excel in his class by demonstrating flanking maneuvers, and was eventually switched to the Generals academy in ME 66. There, because of his fur colour and background, his classmates would frequently berate him. Despite this, he continued on in the academy.

His mother died in ME 67, prompting Salvian to take a hiatus from the academy, working for a tailor in the city's centre. Although not originally planning to return, Salvian was set on following his father's legacy, and rejoined the academy in ME 68, becoming a General the following year. Despite his stellar test scores the Montiac Military was worried having a prominent lower-class General would inspire more like him, and he was given the nigh-impossible task of clearing the Southern Island of its raider groups. Despite all odds, however, Salvian cleared the island in just a year. After this he was again tasked with eradicating banditry, this time in the area around the capital. This deployment allowed him to build relationships and connections in the core of Montiac society, which led to him taking the position of Commander of the Montiac Military in ME 71.

#### As Commander

As Commander of the Montiac Military, Salvian mainly worked towards stamping out raiders and bandits around Montiacos. He first met Nonus Montiaco around ME 74, and reportedly had talked with his father to convince him to appoint a different heir, but was unsuccessful. Though he didn't dislike Nonus, the declining health of Decimus Montiaco was clear, and Salvian didn't believe Nonus to be fit to rule at his age. From this moment, Salvian began using his influence to try to lobby for an elected leader rather than a monarch, though he would be unsuccessful. Throughout Nonus's rule, Salvian consistently opposed his actions and way of ruling, to deaf ears. He was also stiffly against the Kings invasion of Isara, mainly due to the unpreparedness of the military. Under threats of replacement, the invasion went ahead, with Salvian overseeing the legions.

The initial success of the war was largely due to the tactical prowess of Salvian, who captured huge amounts of territory relative to the number of soldiers he had available. Once Isara regrouped, however, these fortunes would change, with wide-scale retreats ordered for all legions. Salvian directly participated in the Liberation of Vectis just a month later, as well as the early stages of the Battle of Chaxuklas. The war would eventually grind to a stalemate, with Salvian requesting multiple times for Nonus to sign a treaty with no success.

#### Civil War

*Main articles: Montiac-Isaran War and Montiac Civil War*

In Ursus of ME 78, with civilians rioting across the country and his own soldiers dying in an unending war, Salvian delivered an ultimatum to Nonus: either end the war, or lose the throne. Nonus responded by threatening to demote Salvian, unintentionally beginning the Montiac Civil War. Nonus would later revoke his royal and military honours.

Despite having overwhelming support from Montiac civilians, Salvian's rebels were unable to secure the unified frontline he had hoped for. Instead, with his forces isolated and spread out across the peninsula, Salvian was forced to utilize a new form of warfare focusing on quick strikes against his enemy rather than a traditional frontline war. These attacks would continue for the remainder of the Montiac-Isaran War making it difficult for Salvian's replacement, Pellian Casca, to focus the Montiac forces on defeating Isara. However, faced with famine Isara would nonetheless surrender on the 13th of Callanius, ME 80. Salvian was reportedly pessimistic of his chances following the Isaran defeat, even going as far as to attempting to flee to Isara with his forces and overthrow King Cren, but his camp was raided before these plans could come to fruition. Much of the *XIII Lagian,* Salvian's personal legion, were killed in the raid which prompted him to stay and fight with the remainder of the *XIII* rather than flee.

Salvian continued using his "guerilla warfare" against Montiacos and, coupled with their failure to properly utilized the Chamael, this saw morale in the Montiac Army fall drastically. As the rebels neared Montiacos in the closing weeks of the civil war the Montiac Army saw mass desertions, and many garrisons would simply let Salvian's forces march into cities unopposed. Montiacos was finally sacked on the 5th of Thallanium, ME 81, bringing an end to the nearly 5 years of conflict on the peninsula. Salvian had planned to kill King Nonus, but took pity on the young king and instead banished him to Calor. The body of an unknown royal guard was put in place of Nonus and thrown into the streets of Montiacos.

### First Montiac Emperor

Three days after the wars end, Salvian officially reorganized Montiacos into the Montiac Empire with himself as its first Emperor. Other changes brought by Salvian was a drastic overhaul of the military, the creation of a High Council to govern alongside the emperor and, most importantly, public elections for these High Council members. Salvian refused to implement elections for an Emperor which resulted in opinions of him dropping amongst some of the lower class. Regardless, numerous rebuilding efforts as well as the introduction of the social welfare program kept him immensely popular.

Isara, unable to recover from the war, folded into the Empire in ME 83. Although he'd worked with the Isarans during the civil war, he held distaste for both their leadership and the sizable population of Chamael, for which he blamed the kingdoms trouble during the war on. Isaran leaders were stripped of all titles and authority, while the Chamel were effectively left to fend for themselves against the numerous bandits in Isara. Large numbers of Lepus settlers were sent to Chaxuklas, the largest Chamael settlement, under the guise of assisting with rebuilding, but in reality would push the Chamael out of their own city. Without easy access to food, the Chamael were hit with a mass famine in ME 86. Numerous requests for assistance were ignored by Salvian and his High Council, and the final reported Chamael spotting was in ME 88.

#### Final years and death

The final years of Salvian's rule were fairly uneventful. Attempts to venture outside the peninsula were stopped due to his fear of the "Rat-folk of the North", which in reality were just early groups of Nibayr merchants. As well, banditry around the Empire had become a non-issue even in Isara, which had long since recovered from the war.

Amidst rapidly deteriorating health, Salvian made his final public appearance on the 15th of Cappadox, ME 99, after which he retired to the Palace of Emperors. Salvian believed he was bound for a greater plane of existence, and feared that dying of natural causes would anger the gods. On the morning of the 19th, Salvian assembled his High Council and Generals and dove off the palace's balcony into the Bay of Aulus, killing himself at the age of 42. His skull was the only recoverable body part, and was placed in the coffin that was marched through Montiacos as part of his state funeral. Salvian's skull now rests in the Imperial Mausoleum underneath the Palace of Emperors.

## Personal Life

Appius Salvian stood out from most of his species for a number of reasons. For one, he exceeded the average height of a Lepus by 4 inches. As well, his lifespan exceeded the average by 6 years.. His rare red coloured fur helped him stand out in the early years of his career, though it had largely faded in colour by the time of his death.

Salvian was regularly described as an incredibly caring individual. He personally lead the *XIII Lagian* into battle, even after becoming commander of the Montiac Military. The raid on his *XIII* during the Civil War affected him deeply, with Salvian serving with many of those soldiers for nearly a decade. While serving as a general Salvian was known to socialize with his men outside of duty, something that was unheard of in other generals. Salvian also cared deeply about the Lepus people. While he enjoyed the tactical side of war, he confessed to those close with him that he despised killing his fellow Lepus. When clearing raiders out of the Southern Island, he ordered his men to bury both their fellow soldiers and the raiders that were killed in battle. Furthermore, during the Battle of Chaxuklas he attempted to organize a temporary ceasefire so that both sides could collect their dead, but was unsuccessful.

Despite his love for his people, he had an intense dislike for other races. He was strongly against a multi-race state, and would often use derogatory slurs against the Chamael. In his journal he states:

"*These scaled demons who call themselves the Chamael are nothing more than thieves and liars who've somehow slithered their way into Isaran politics.*"

His hatred for Chamael may have possibly came from their relentless defence of their home city during the Battle of Chaxuklas, with thousands of Lepus dying in the city's cramped streets. His racist views also spilled over into his rule as Emperor, when he left the Chamael to starve after absorbing Isara. Although the Empire under Salvian's rule never had extensive encounters with other races, Salvian himself did half a brief encounter with Nibayr merchants in the country's north. According to those accompanying him, Salvian began shooting at the rat-folk at first sight, and had to be stopped from pursuing them further once they fled. Upon his return to the capital he ordered a series of propaganda campaigns labelling the Nibayr as the "Rat-folk of the North", attempting to gather support from his people to launch a campaign against the Nibayr. However, Salvian passed before this could come to fruition.

Salvian was a devoted follower of the Rabium pantheon. He believed deeply that he was an instrument of the gods, and would go to great lengths to not directly kill. It's possible his decision to spare Nonus rather than execute him was done not out of compassion but rather out of fear of interfering in the judgement of the gods. Before going into battle Salvian would "converse" with the god Calla, who he claimed would show him who and who not to kill. Upon his death Salvian became the 10th god of the pantheon, and is widely worshipped present-day as the god of all Lepus.

Salvian had no children. Though he often spoke of having a child, he feared that doing so would risk recreating a monarchist state. He also never married or had any known relationships, as he was worried that they would distract him from leading the Empire.