Vesuvia S. Caesar

Annia (Sister)

Verania (Sister)

Augustus (Brother)

Drusus (Brother)

Lucretia (Sister)

Gallus (Brother)

Thespasian (Partner)

Lettonian Executive Branch (1945-)

Queen of the Lettonians (1945-)

**Vesuvia Sabiniana Caesar** has been the Queen of Lettonia since 1945, the Supreme Commander of the Legions since 1945. Born in the middle class before her father ascended to the throne in 1932, the young woman is set to prove herself a capable leader despite being as young as she is. She is adored by the people due to her decorated military service in the Second World War as she sets about proving herself as the first Queen of the Lettonians and first Empress of the Romans.

## Early Life

### Middle Class - Daughter of the Legate

Vesuvia Sabiniana Caesar was born on December 18, 1926 in Nicomedia, Lettonia. She was the oldest of seven children of Legate Varus Caesar and his wife Varia. The family was middle class due to Varus's rank in the Imperial Legions, and was a close friend of the Imperator. However, Vesuvia did not see much of her father for the first few years of her life. In 1927, the Foederatis (Lettonian Fascists) staged a march on Nova Roma, the capital city. Despite being driven back from the capital, the Foederatis openly declared war on the Lettonian Government, beginning the Lettonian Civil War.

Since her father was a high ranking officer, Vesuvia saw little of him throughout the civil war as he quashed Foederatis resistance throughout Asia Minor. In fact, the family was forced to flee their home in Nicomedia for Sinope as a Foederati Army attempted to lay siege to it in 1930. In 1931, however, her life would change as word spread like a wildfire across the realm: The Imperator had died without an heir, and Varus, the highest ranking commander of the Legions, with Asia Minor secured under his grip, marched on the capital, and took it without casualties. To prevail with monarchism and stability, an emergency royal council had crowned Varus imperator on September 17, 1931. Vesuvia Sabiniana Caesar overnight went from an ordinary five year old girl to the crown princess of Lettonia.

### Heir to the Roman Throne

Suddenly being the heir apparent took a strange adjustment period. Her father crushed the civil war by the beginning of 1932, and then came the most abrupt period of her childhood. Before 1932, Vesuvia was an only child-and she quite liked it that way. Over the next six years, Vesuvia didn't just lose only child status, but became the eldest of seven children. The changes and lack of her mother's attention made her a tough little girl, though she began trying to spend much more time with her father which didn't go well either. While the Lettonians had begun growing to trust their new emperor, who juggled the rule of law, military business and justice reforms, Vesuvia was in private school dealing with mathematics and Latin Language Arts. Vesuvia has remarked that she didn't spend much quality time with either of her parents, which left an impression on her.

As she became a teenager, she had become enthralled with diplomacy, politics and history, and threw herself into her studies. However, by now, Europe had erupted into war once again following the German Invasion of Poland. Due to Lettonia's marketing as a safe haven for Jews, Roma's and Gypsies, as well as the Caesar family being Jewish themselves, they were already a marked enemy on the list of Adolf Hitler. Benito Mussolini as well was eager to try his hand at snatching Greece - their occupation of Albania had caused much protest by Lettonia in the League of Nations - though this did little. Yet, their protests would soon come to fruition as war arrived on their doorsteps sooner than expected.

#### The Second World War I: The Spectator

In October of 1940, Italy took the Lettonian Legions by surprise by launching an invasion into Greece. The Italians advanced all the way to Ioannina before supplies and conditions deteriorated for the invasion. Vesuvia during this time read newspapers and listened to radio reports frequently, and her teenage mind became enamored with the idea of the military further. While she read books and wrote essays for school, she cheered when the Lettonian army drove the Italian invaders back across the border into Albania, then pursued into the occupied country. They pushed north to Milot, and took Tirana before in April 1941, the Germans invaded and crushed Yugoslavia in a week... but they didn't stop at Yugoslavia.

The Wehrmacht punched into Greece, driving the Legions back. Despite waging a fighting retreat, the Lettonian people were shocked that the advance didn't halt until the Legions fell back to the line of heavy fortifications between Preveza and Volos. In the East they pushed to the gates of Nova Roma, and Vesuvia and the royal family began fearing for their safety. The first German bombs began falling shortly after. However, Varus chose to stay while the rest of the family left for their estate in Sinope to keep the city in good working order, and lead the defense himself. Vesuvia, admiring her father as usual, boldly declared her intentions to stay in the capital with him.

She was in Sinope five days later.

She was annoyed as she watched hundreds of thousands of young men go off to fight, to die in the fields of Greece, or the streets of Nova Roma or Thessalonica which was under siege. She wanted to help, but she was stuck writing essays for boring teachers in Sinope. Her friends were stuck in Nova Roma, and she couldn't reach them. The crown princess was frustrated beyond all belief.

She couldn't bear to see the Germans almost take Nova Roma, only to get stopped because they couldn't cross the Bosporus. She couldn't bear to see the Greek fields stained with her brothers blood. She wanted to help... she wanted to *fight.* This fire in her heart and soul only continued to fire up in December 1941 when Athens fell - and the rest of Greece by the end of January 1942. She was infuriated at being unable to help when Crete fell in March. Yet she continued biding her time.

So in December 1942, just after her sixteenth birthday, she slipped past the guards and made a break from the estate. She was caught, and grounded, though she refused to tell her mother why she left. Her second attempt just a week later also resulted in failure, and now three guards were posted outside her room at all times. She was clever, and she planned her next escape for over a month. On January 26, she sprang her plan. She waited for the guards to fall asleep, then jumped into the laundry chute in her room, which she managed to fit her tiny slender body into. She slid into a large laundry basket, which a staff member who she had bribed brought her to the staff quarters, where she was then able to use old secret passages to escape to freedom.

#### Second World War II: The Royal Legionnaire

Her family didn't notice she was missing until the following morning, by which point she had already made her way to the nearest recruitment station. The men there struggled between allowing the 5'2, 16 year old into service, as she didn't fit any of the physical qualifications, nor the age requirement. But the war effort was desperate, and worse exceptions had been made for the sake of stopping the German and Italian onslaught. Plus, she had a totally not forged note from her father, the emperor, which gave his totally legitimate approval for her joining the Legions. This part, while confusing the officers as to why he would do this, was accepted, as they didn't dare question a direct statement that supposedly came from Varus Caesar himself. So Vesuvia was in. She trained from January to April of 1943, and while it was rigorous and brutal, she made it through. She fought to receive the same treatment as her male counterparts from both the male soldiers and officers during this time, though she did receive a bit of a free pass given she was the emperor's daughter.

Her first active combat operation was Operation Lighthouse - the Invasion of Rhodes. First launched on May 3, 1943, 10000 legionnaires stormed the Italian positions on the island. While outnumbered 2 to 1, the veteran invaders quickly took almost the entire island within the course of a week. The Italians, being under-supplied, under-equipped, and unprepared, surrendered soon after, and Vesuvia herself saw minimal fighting on the island except for a few skirmishes. But what was a fact was that she hadn't seen *real* war yet.

By this time, Varus had become aware of his daughters actions, and personally visited her maniple in Greece to lecture her and bring her home. But something strange occurred when he saw her, dressed as a soldier, wearing a galea ferro, standing tall and proud with the other soldiers he felt an odd sense of... pride. Vesuvia defended her actions and position ferociously, not as rebellion but as doing her duty to her country. By the end of a very long (several hour) long argument and debate, the emperor formally granted her the right to fight-but made preparations for her sister Annia to take the position of heir apparent if Vesuvia were to die in combat.

##### The Invasion of Crete

Her next major assignment was the Invasion of Crete set for July 5, 1943. However, bad weather postponed it by a day due to poor weather. When the operation finally kicked off, it was 75,000 Germans and Italians against 40,000 Roman troops. Vesuvia was tasked with her legion to take the port city of Agios against an entrenched enemy outnumbering them 2:1. The battle was her first experience with real war - and it was the shock of a lifetime.

She nearly got her head blown off by a howitzer, shredded apart by a German machine gun, and was forced to kill a man by stabbing him with her bayonet. As her legion fought through Agios and eastern Crete she found herself in numerous suicidal charges, nasty battles against a determined German foe. Yet despite the enemy's staunch resistance, the Romans kept fighting knowing that the Germans numerical superiority would be their downfall. The Navy had the island blockaded, and the Germans had no supplies coming in. The supplies they had stockpiled were quickly dwindling. By late July after the eastern and western sides of the island were secured, the Germans and Italians were bottled into the Malia and Heraklion salient. The Legions closed in, but the Axis troops fought like a cornered animal, the Luftwaffe able to regularly get through to engage in bombing runs.

Vesuvia still remarks that she wakes up some nights - the siren of Stuka bombers screaming in her ears.

The fighting at Heraklion involved brutal close quarters fighting, storming German entrenchments and forts as they slowly worked their way forward. Thousands of her brothers and sisters in arms died over the next three weeks before the exhausted Germans finally surrendered on August 25. Vesuvia, following the battle was unsure if she wanted to continue the fight. Even though Crete had been liberated, she had seen violence she had not expected to see. War, she realized now, was not the adventure she thought it was. She began to question if this was really what she signed up for - especially with plans to next invade mainland Greece already in the works. A soldier in her legion named Avienus Melodus talked her down, assuring her that despite the cost, they were fighting for the liberation of their country, and for their very existence. She had already been developing a romantic attraction to Avienus for some time, and after the conversation, and drinks were drank, the two began a romantic relationship soon after.

##### The Peloponnese Campaign

The buildup for the main invasion of Greece was long in the works before Crete had even fallen. Once it became apparent the island would fall, Varus and the High Command began preparing for the invasion. It was meant to go along a two pronged offensive - a seaborne from Asia Minor and Crete, and then a ground offensive in Thrace in conjunction. The invasion was scheduled for October 5, 1943, but plans were abruptly pushed forward to the 1st of October when Italy surrendered and the Germans took over the Italian occupation sectors. The Germans were deploying more troops and cycling out the Italians, and these were crucial few days.

So the Legions ramped up their preparations, and boarded their ships on the night of the 30th. To aid their efforts, 10,000 ANZAC troops from Africa had arrived to bolster their numbers of the initial invasion to 90,000 legionnaires. The Germans and Bulgarians had anywhere from 200,000 to 250,000 occupying troops, but their intelligence reported that they were *praying* no major assaults occurred during the terribly timed Italian surrender.

On October 1, 1943, Vesuvia and her Legion stormed the beaches at Kalamata where the German defenders were entrenched and prepared in the rugged terrain. The fighting was some of the worst the princess had ever seen, but her presence raised their morale. They slugged their way forward across the beach for hours that day, and Vesuvia saw dozens of her close friends ruthlessly gunned down by machine gun fire, or blown up by howitzers. This included her now secret partner, Avienus, who she saw get shot in the head after briefly moving out of cover. She herself would be nearly killed when a man stepped on a mine five feet from her, and the shrapnel from the blast tore her left hand clean off. But she kept pushing, and by the end of that afternoon, her brothers in arms and herself were clearing German bunkers, which was the most desperate part of the fighting. Vesuvia recalls using the butt of her rifle as a club, and using grenades in close quarters combat-and a few times where she needed to use her rifle as a vice to strangle an enemy soldier to death. By the end of the day, the beaches were secured, and the following day, Vesuvia was promoted to Centurion, and received a prosthetic hand replacement soon after to help her return to the field when she flat out refused to go home.

Roman forces had landed at Patras and Corinth as well, completely cutting off the 40,000 Germans in the Peloponnese. Yet for the next few weeks, even as the cold winter began to settle in, Vesuvia and her troops fought on to Sparta, Tripoli, Vytina and Trikala before the region was declared secured on October 27th. The land offensive in the north had also succeeded and pushed the Bulgarians back to Thessalonica and the pressure was on the Axis now.

##### The End of the Line

The Roman forces simply didn't stop there, and pushed onto Athens and Thessalonica simultaneously with Vesuvia taking part in the battle to liberate Athens before the city fell on November 15. But they were not stopping, the Germans and Bulgarians were fracturing in their resistance and so the Legions hit them with everything they had. Vesuvia endured days without sleep and hardly any food and water as the Romans advanced across northern Greece in the most successful offensive since they had retreated two years prior. Their advance dragged to a halt once more at Ioannina, and they were bogged down once more in the brutal war. But they had given the Germans a scare, that was for sure and by February 1944, the Axis were preparing a full withdrawal from Greece and back into Yugoslavia. To get one final slam dunk on the Axis Powers, the Roman Legions launched Operation 'Bloodhound'. This offensive lasted into March of 1944... and saw the Roman forces drive the Germans and their allies out of Imperial lands forever. The final major pitched battle at Ioannina however had a profound affect on Vesuvia.

For while fighting through the Penteli District on March 10, 1944, she was ambushed by a German squad and along with a handful of her regimental comrades were taken prisoner. They were marched north into Yugoslavia to Skopje where the Germans finally learned her identity. Realizing who they had in their possession they realized they couldn't just send her to any old POW camp - for if Hitler - someone who vastly admired Rome and its accomplishments (and viewed his current war as an unfortunate one) found out that the heir to the throne was mistreated, heads would roll. See, Hitler also bought into the idea that Varus spread that he and his family were long aged descendants of the original Julius Caesar, and Augustus. So... yeah chances are he'd be pissed off. So there was only one place she could be sent.

Castle Itter.

##### The Fairytale at Castle Itter

Vesuvia arrived at Castle Itter in early May and became acquainted with the other political prisoners. Some French prime ministers, a French tennis player she grew up adoring, French generals and others. The German guards were extremely friendly to all the prisoners, and took care of them. However there was one prisoner she became especially close with. Victoria Toussaint, the 21 year old French daughter of an important Vichy collaborator with familial relations to the Parisian elites - thus the Germans viewed her as worth keeping as a potential hostage. Ms. Toussaint despised Vichy and her father for working for it.

Vesuvia, 17, and Victoria quickly became friends... but over the many months spent at Castle Itter, that friendship began to blossom before by the end of the year, the two young women had entered a romantic relationship. Vesuvia had never previously expressed any sort of attraction towards women, both before or during the war, but there was something very special about Victoria. The way she treated her as less of a princess and more of a normal person - as though she didn't care about her title or who she was in some royal household of Europe, only that she was there with her. Both were smitten for one another, and it was likely the guards and other prisoners knew it too.

Vesuvia described the twelve months and one week at Castle Itter as a fairytale, and the best of her entire life. She learned to paint, play chess, and took lessons in governance from Paul Reynaud and Duvalier as prep for her eventual ascent to power. She and Victoria made many grandiose plans to travel the world together after the war, and even if they would have to hide their relationship from the world, they were willing to do it. They planned their dream wedding that would never come, walked the castle grounds and gawked over the history of it, watched the stars on stunning cloudless nights, and to describe her experiences, Victoria helped Vesuvia write a memoir about the war. By April 1945, they were practically inseparable and set to spend the rest of their lives together. They seemingly were in blissful ignorance of the fact that when Vesuvia ascended the throne she would be expected to marry a **man** and have children with that **man**.

Then the war began to come to a close, and the German guards fled the castle. When word reached them that the Waffen SS were planning on coming and executing the prisoners, they sent for reinforcements from the nearby Americans and they were soon enroute. They prepared, and the Americans under Jack Lee soon arrived. When the Waffen SS attacked on May 5, the Americans, Wehrmacht, and prisoners held off the SS for several hours before reinforcements arrived and the siege was relieved. Victoria and Vesuvia were relieved, and three days later, the war ended in Europe.

Victoria and Vesuvia returned to Nova Roma, where the former was introduced as a friend from Castle Itter - thus not to completely lie.

### Before the Crown

After returning home, Vesuvia and Victoria would travel across the region over the next few months together. They visited Egypt, Iran and India amongst other places. They fell more in love as they studied the east and continued their fantastical dreamscape of an adventure. They visited Australia, and Paris, and Norway even. There seemed to be nowhere they couldn't go, nothing they couldn't do, and through all of it, they had each other.

Then the dream was shattered.

See, due to the stress of the war, Varus has developed a drinking problem-combined with his poor eating habits and intense stress was a powder keg waiting to explode. Sure enough, on October 3, 1945, while getting up from the dinner table, Varus dropped his wine glass, clutched his chest, and dropped dead of sudden cardiac arrest.

Without warning, Vesuvia was now Queen of Lettonia and Empress of the Romans.

## 217th Emperor of Rome

Right from the get go, the unprepared Vesuvia established an administration and council, and accepted all of the current governors and politicians submission to the Phoenix Throne. She quickly outlined several goals for her reign, and what she hoped to accomplish, with the limited foresight she had. Victoria was by her side, helping her whenever she needed it. Rome helped found the United Nations as one of its first member states. She helped establish a Roman guided mandate in Libya set to expire in 1951. She poured money into reconstruction, proving to be a quick thinker and swift to take action. This combined with her determination for neutrality and bipartisanship in the growing divide between East and West, as well as status as a war veteran made the country eager to see where she would lead them.

# **TO BE CONTINUED**

## Personality

Vesuvia is typically very quaint, reserved and quiet. She will make her opinion known if need be. She never speaks above others, always is courteous and respectful regardless of who she's speaking to. She never discusses her personal viewpoints on society except for in private, viewing it as unnecessary. She will always express hospitality towards guests at the first encounter, offering him or her a drink, food or something else. She always ensures guests are comfortable and feel welcome. When she's with friends or family she is far more open, carefree and the like. Due to her military experiences, she swears frequently even around guests.

Her personality extends to her dressing style. Vesuvia is typically seen wearing knee length skirts or dresses, blouses or long shirts. She prefers to cover up, and dresses modestly in public. This is also to cover war scars and her tattoo.

## Trivia & Niche Facts

### Niche Character Facts

1. Vesuvia and her family are both ethnically and religiously Jewish. She does frequently wear a dark colored kippah, though given her dark hair its often hard to see at first.
2. Vesuvia has hypotonia, which means the messages from her brain do not always reach the intended target. She will pick up a pen, then stare at it and wonder why she can't get it to write.
3. Vesuvia is an extremely picky eater and only eats the healthiest foods she can. She doesn't frequently drink or smoke, and combined with an intense army instilled physical exercise regimen helps craft the justification for her extremely long life (114).
4. Vesuvia is not only fluent in Greek, but English, French and Latin, and is able to carry a conversation in Arabic and Russian.
5. Vesuvia in this latter UDSRP installation is bisexual, though is very closed off about it (being the late 1940s)
6. Vesuvia is roughly 5'2 in height making her stature shorter than average.
7. Vesuvia has a tattoo on her upper right shoulder that all the soldiers (men and women) in her legion got during the war with the number of confirmed enemy soldiers they killed during the war. While a bit morbid, the numbers range, and the idea fits in with the legion's motto from the war: "We Don't Kill Men, We Kill Fascists". Vesuvia's tattoo reads '**XVIII**'. She typically covers it up but also if confronted about it will say its "out of date" (likely referring to Castle Itter).

### General Facts

1. This is the third time Vesuvia has appeared in UDSRP. The first time she appeared Vesuvia was the leader of the Empire of Lettonia on Earth in UDSRP. Her personality is far more extreme, due to that timeline occurring during the Cold War. Unlike in FNRRP, Lettonia is an absolute, autocratic monarchy which rejects all attempts to democratize. She fought in World War II against the Nazis (she has been deemed in UDSRP in the Big Three as 'Nazi Killer' alongside Joao 'Big Man' Lemos and Carlos Delgado 'Chadbaud' Chalbaud), despises communism amongst other things. You can read that biography here.
2. She was mentioned in UDSRP: Interstellar in a previous set, and mentioned in UDSRP: Post-Apocalyptic Fiefdom. In both cases, she lived centuries prior, and saw the Lettonian Empire expand vastly, or become a beacon of worldwide power.
3. In all instances of Vesuvia, she will live for 114 years. In UDSRP she will live from 1926 to 2041, and in FNRRP from 1988 to 2103. In most scenarios, most of her children will have passed away before her, and so when she inevitably passes away, a grandchild, or great grandchild takes the throne.
4. Vesuvia is typically portrayed by British actress Jenna Coleman, which is also the faceclaim used for the character of Empress Josephine the Great of America.
5. Vesuvia's story was nearly novelized before the concept was scrapped by Jack for lack of progress, and having multiple other ongoing projects.
6. Before her new name was adopted, Vesuvia Sabiniana Caesar was known as Mackenzie R. Cole, who was the young inherited dictator of the autocratic hellish nation of Pahlavishan, which was also the original name for Lettonia before a switch was made.
7. As of the latest FNRRP reset, this is the twelfth iteration of the character, making her the most versatile of all of Jack's characters. Though technically only two ongoing iterations are canon, she can date her existence back to July of 2021.