Dread Emperor Terribilis II

## *Unknown*

**Terribilis II** was a former Tyrant of Praes reigning roughly 850 years before current events. He reforged the Empire from the Crusader Kingdoms created by the First and Second Crusade, and weathered the Third and Fourth; he is considered among the greatest Tyrants through the ages, and also one of the finest military minds in Praesi history. He was eventually assasinated after introducing magical sterilization and strict familial laws to try and end the unsustainable growth issue of Praes.

## Background

After the fall of Dread Empress Triumphant (may she never return), most of Praes was cut up into smaller kingdoms distributed among the participants in the First Crusade and the so called Forty Years of Shame began. A first revolt was crushed by the Second Crusade, but a second eventually deposed the occupants and reunited the Empire, letting the Soninke highborn who led it take the throne as Dread Emperor Terribilis II.

## Reign

The Third Crusade, coming too late to stop the new Emperor's rise to power, was crushed and humiliated, and ended up occupying Callow instead. The Fourth Crusade was so completely annihilated that it became the last Crusade aimed at Praes.

## Trivia

Many scholars have written commentaries about Terribilis and his battles and achievements.

There is a neat relief of Terriblisis turning back the Second Crusade, depicted in the Tower.

During his reign, it was forbidden by a decree for the Legions of Terror to give battle, if people thought them unable to lose.

Banned the play *I, Triumphant* by decree.

Diabolist noted once that Terribilis II barely held court and instead "distributed most its traditional authority to Ater’s bureaucracy".

## Epigraphs

*“Threats are useless unless you have previously committed the level of violence your are threatening to use. Make examples of the enemies you cannot control so those that you can will be cowed. This is the foundation of ruling.”*
– Extract from the personal memoirs of Dread Emperor Terribilis II

*“Mercy might be the mark of a great man, but then so’s a tombstone.”*
– Extract from the personal memoirs of Dread Emperor Terribilis II

*“Always mistrust these three: a battle that seems won, a chancellor who smiles and a ruler calling you friend.”*
– Extract from the personal journals of Dread Emperor Terribilis II

*“Trust is the victory of sentiment over reason.”*
-Extract from the personal memoirs of Dread Emperor Terribilis II

*“Did you really think I wouldn’t cheat just because I was already winning?”*
⁃ Dread Emperor Terribilis II

*“Never hold anything in a cage you can’t put back in, should it get out.”*
– Dread Emperor Terribilis II

*“Do not make laws you do not intend to enforce. Allowing one law to be broken with impunity undermines them all.”*
– Extract from the personal journals of Dread Emperor Terribilis II

*“In the aftermath of a rebellion do not execute merely those who rebelled. Remove those that remained uncommitted as well, for any power not bound to you is a threat.”*
– Extract from the personal journals of Dread Emperor Terribilis II

*“Never wound a man you do not intend to kill.”*
– Extract from the personal journals of Dread Emperor Terribilis II

*“Rulers must exercise restraint. Every action ripples across Creation, bringing three unintended consequences for every one anticipated.”*
– Extract from the personal journals of Dread Emperor Terribilis II

*“Do not call a man loyal who still draws breath.”*

-Dread Emperor Terribilis II

*“All law is upheld through violence, but when violence itself becomes the law then only disorder can come of it. As prosperity requires order, to ensure prosperity a ruler must therefore suborn violence to law.”*
– Extract from the memoirs of Dread Emperor Terribilis II

## Quotes and Extracts

“Two things must you face, when breaking a High Lord,” Black murmured, quoting from one of Terribilis II’s treatises. “Tall and ancient walls, manned by wrath. Then the seat of power, where old devils lie.”

“It’s written that in the wake of the victory that broke the Fourth Crusade, on the shores of the Wasaliti, the High Lords sang Terribilis’ praises and called him the greatest general Praes had ever seen. He lost his temper with them, and here’s what he said-”
“Another such victory and I will rule an empire of ghosts,” I recited.

“And after Okoro was taken its King Berengar Rohanon was dragged before the people in the place of Faded Jackals, where his hands were cut for having reached beyond his grasp and his head scalped for having dared to claim kingship over Praesi. His Dread Majesty ordered him driven into the Wasteland, bearing his hands around his neck and his scalp scribed with for all crusaders this warning: ‘There is only one crown east of the river Wasaliti, and once more will you be taught to dread it.’”
– Extract from ‘Commentaries on the Campaigns of Dread Emperor Terribilis the Second’

( not sure if first or second)  “Dread Emperor Terribilis once said that power is the ability to see your will done”

*“And so as night fell over the Blessed Isle, his Dread Majesty sent across the river the corpse of Prince Robert and the captured Princess Juliana, still bound in chains, for when released she had bit off the ear of the High Lord of Okoro. King Selwyn Fairfax rode halfway across the bridge, where he thus addressed His Dread Majesty: ‘You have fought this war grimly on the field and gallantly beyond. Would that you had been born west of the river, under a virtuous star.’ And so His Dread Majesty replied: ‘For having been born east of the river I became instead a man to pluck stars from the sky. Is that not a higher virtue?’”*

– Extract from ‘Commentaries on the Campaigns of Dread Emperor Terribilis the Second’

## References

1. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2016/08/24/chapter-36-madman/
2. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/07/30/chapter-37-offing
3. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2015/06/03/chapter-10-menace/
4. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2015/06/24/chapter-13-order/
5. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2015/07/29/chapter-18-match/
6. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2015/09/02/chapter-23-moroks-plan/
7. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2016/01/20/chapter-10-release/
8. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2016/04/27/villainous-interlude-coup-de-theatre/
9. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2017/02/15/chapter-1-right/
10. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2017/07/17/chapter-19-order-redux/
11. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2017/11/22/chapter-46-denouement/
12. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/interlude-liesse-iv/
13. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/08/22/chapter-47-culmination/
14. ↑ https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2019/06/28/interlude-concourse-iii/