Viktor

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The Emperor of the Aurian Empire from 1761-1779 PE. He was called the 'Elfslayer' because he initiated an effort to utterly purge the Oakland forest of all remaining elves.

## Appearance

Viktor was a tall man, wore a beard and had a hard face.

## Traits

Viktor was known to be skilled with a blade. He had a vicious streak and was hard on his enemies and those he had little respect for. His hatred of the elves was unmatched but he also disliked the horselords of Alkar and in fact all foreigners. Viktor was also boastful, quick to lose his temper and used to victory. He was very confident often to the level of arrogance.

## Events

Important events in Viktor's life include specifically the War of Ears.

1746PE: As crown prince Viktor was made a Blademark in the Red Protectoran to give him direct military experience.

1749PE: Viktor involved in clashes with elves and his forces won a skirmish on the Oakland Trail.

1752PE: Viktor's long term friend and ally Konrad Borov was made High Ranger of the Green Protectoran. The recommendation was certainly affected by the crown prince's pointed endorsement. Konrad shared Viktor's hatred of the elves and his desire to see them obliterated from the face of the Empire.

1758-1761PE: As the old emperor ails and it becomes clear that Viktor will soon be able to operate without restraint many elves leave the Empire. Many go into the Quintox forest, but there are also many who take on the huge journey to Rimic, Saracan or Karritan

1761PE: Viktor 'The Elfslayer' was crowned Emperor of Auria. As soon as he was in power he declared an end to his father's passivity and basically declared war on all elven insurgents in the Empire. He moves quickly to enact laws restricting elven rights to work and move freely in the Empire. At the end of the year he declares an 'ear bounty' that authorised the military to pay a bounty in exchange for elven ears taken from insurgent elves killed on Aurian soil.

1762PE: Viktor's policies on ear bounties and increased watch on elven communities started to really take effect. The population levels of elves in the Empire drops more and more sharply. Some elven communities were even massacred.

1763PE: Several Bounty Hunters in Oakland Forest were killed attempting to collect elven ears. Viktor used this death toll to fuel his anger and by the end of the year commemorates the the start of the bounty by declaring that all of the Oakland Forest was now imperial land. The Green Protectoran were mobilised as an army and told to cleanse the forest.

1764: Viktor used the Senate to increase financial backing of the Green Protectoran and 90% of all imperial recruits are diverted to the Rangers making them the largest in terms of manpower in their entire history.

1764-1766PE: Viktor sent in the Rangers in their thousands pour into the forest and wipe out Elven settlements wherever they could. Elves fled to the north of the forest where they were technically in Alkan not Auria. Remaining elven settlements in the south are all razed except a few hidden Quinkorin bases. The elven death toll numbered in the thousands.

1767PE: The horselords of Alkan ride south and hit Aurian border settlements all along the Aurian/Alkan border. An entire Yellow Protectoran Legion is surrounded and destroyed to the last man as it attempts to defend one of the towns. The Emperor is furious but is dissuaded from ordering an invasion of Alkan by his counselors. Negotiations pause the war for a period.

1767PE: The Tarriks of Alkan led by Windwhisperer, the Tarrik of the Shift of Gales, meet with Imperial negotiators. Viktor was forced to swallow his pride and his negotiators agreed to an end of horselord hostilities by agreeing no imperial military would stray onto the Alkan side of the border. This forced agreement the 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.

1769PE: Only Bounty Hunters and similar freelancers are allowed into the northern forest to hunt as the army is blocked by the Plains Treaty amendment. Large scale conflicts drop dramatically but it gives rise to some powerful elite hunter-killer groups.

1770PE: The Blood Coin Bounty Hunters' guild is founded in Tor Honarik. It is the largest conglomeration of Bounty Hunters yet. They become exceedingly wealthy by hunting the elves in the northern forest sanctuaries.

1770-1775PE: The genocide of the elven nations in the forest continues. The Quinkorin became increasingly extreme and Viktor used their savagry to justify his own vehemence.

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.

1776PE: Was a bad year for Viktor and his now so called War of Ears. First the Dawnrakers started operating against his forces in the forest and worse the Shrouded of Karritan came with the Shadeborn and got involved in the conflict.

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

Vincent waited two seasons and then officially repealed his fathers ear bounty, which officially ending the so-called 'War of Ears'.

Aurakas Milo an influential political foil who argued against the war and Viktor was found, two years later in 1781PE, guilty of treason on unrelated charges and sentenced to death.

Vincent also assigned Senedal Voech, a supporter of Viktor's and his policies as his Imperial Vizier.

Viktor's grandson Nikolay also prosecuted the successful War of 1803 against the Alkar to re-write the Plains Treaty and expand the northern border of the the Empire.

The fact that elves were always distrusted and obstructed by laws in the Aurian Empire is in great part due to the laws enacted in this era. This was not resolved even centuries later.