Julios Cragen

**Julios Zebadiah Cragen** (December 29, 1972 - June 16, 2038) was a Bovido Hassian clergy member and religious leader who reigned as the second Bovido Imperator from January 4, 2036 until his impeachment on March 23, 2038, having previously been Cardinal of the Holy Clergy from August 12, 2028 until January 4, 2036, and as Patriarch of the Bovido Clergy from 2022 until 2028, serving briefly as Emirate of Jordan Has in 2022.

An instrumental figure in the rise of the Bovido Imperium and Jerusalem Bovido incarnations of Bovido Has, Julios Cragen led the Jerusalem incarnation of the Clergy as Patriarch from November 2022, having led the seceded nation of Jordan Has in late 2022 following a successful revolution against self-proclaimed Emperor Damacus Visus, before becoming Cardinal of the Bovido Imperium in 2028. In 2036, Cragen led a coup d'état against Anton Ujung, and became the Bovido Imperator, reigning from January 4, 2036.

As one of the few intellectual reformers within the Holy Clergy of Bovido Has, Julios Cragen was a driving force behind many of the post-Has Wars reforms to the Bovido Hassian remnant led by Anton Ujung, implementing sweeping changes to the operations of the body and effectively erasing the overly bureaucratic systems that had allowed the nation to crumble during it's only major conflict with it's major Asian rival, the Libirachi Empire. Cragen was a proponent of systems of governance used by previous Christian hegemons, such as the Holy Roman Empire and the Papal States, which had effectively divided up it's internal regions into more manageable bureaus; under the direction of Patriarch Cragen, the previous administrative hases were dissolved and replaced with a more centralised system of government, with the government of Cardinal Anton Ujung controlling the whole nation from Jerusalem. In 2028, Julios Cragen led the final reform of Cardinal Ujung's rebirth project, overseeing the transformation of the rump state into a new Bovido Imperium, and was instrumental in nearly every major aspect of the project, helping design the new nation's flag and organising the state into two distinct territories, Jerusalem State to be ruled by the Clergy and North Africa to be ruled by the military, which itself was reformed with the transformation to become the Maximo Exercitus Imperium.

As the Conquest of Africa enveloped the Bovido Imperium's other internal and external priorities, Julios Cragen became crucial for the war effort, chairing the Grand Council of the Bovido Imperium and coordinating the efforts of the regional prime ministers; by 2036 as the imperium began to lose the war to the Libirachi Empire, Cardinal Cragen was a crucial member of a coup d'état which overthrew Imperator Anton Ujung, and placed himself as the new Bovido Imperator. With his new powers, Cragen began to peruse peace with the Shanghai Pact, resulting in the Bovido Imperium agreeing to the Treaty of Beijing on April 13, 2036 on Easter Sunday. However, this Treaty of Beijing resulted in significant upheaval within Imperator Cragen's government and on April 14, 2036 Cardinal Justas Kolas resigned from his office as Cardinal of the Holy Clergy, forcing Cragen to appoint Nicholas Azure to the title. Peace would ultimately break down in summer 2036, sending the nation back into war as Prime Minister Torrent Koon defected and launched an invasion of the imperium from the west, whilst in the east, the Shanghai Pact renewed it's assault on the Bovido capital province of Jerusalem State.

Despite his role as the leader of the Bovido Imperium, Julios Cragen faced numerous challenges to his authority and remained a politically weak leader during his tenure. In an act of military desperation, in January 2037 Imperator Cragen authorised the usage of an underwater nuclear assault on the United States of America, which inadvertently allowed the USA and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to enter the conflict against the Bovido Imperium. Throughout 2037, the Bovido Imperium suffered a string of embarrassing military defeats at the hands of the Shanghai Pact, as well as the collapse of the regime's only ally in the North African Federation; as such, Cragen consolidated military power in the hands of Amar Sato but despite the transfer of power, Cragen continued to play a significant role in the leadership of the armed forces, consistently undermining the military aims of Sato. In January 2038, the Shanghai Pact successfully encircled the capital city Jerusalem, leaving Imperator Julios Cragen as a de-facto prisoner; with Cragen unable to lead, the Bovido Imperium began to fracture into factions, with Marisa Belacqua proclaiming the State of Pindorama to be a fully autonomous region of the nation on March 13, 2038, whilst Nicholas Azure resigned as cardinal on the 3rd of March, 2038.

Following the encirclement of Jerusalem, the Grand Council of the Bovido Imperium gathered in Brasilia in March 2038 and formally removed Julios Cragen from his position as Imperator of the Bovido Imperium, replacing him with former cardinal Nicholas Azure. Cragen refused to acknowledge the ruling and deemed it to be "unconstitutional"; in response, Cragen ordered that all prime ministers of the Imperium be removed from office and replaced with the Holy Salvation Government, which vested all executive decision making in himself. Despite the proclamation, the Holy Salvation Government only controlled the city of Jerusalem after the Bovido armed forces supported the appointment of Azure, with Cragen's isolation in an encircled province meaning he could not project his power. On June 16, 2038, Julios Cragen was killed by a hypersonic missile strike on the Jerusalem imperial palace.

## History

Born in Makassar in late 1972, Julios Cragen was sent to the Clergy at the traditional age of 14, graduating in 1995 as a member of the ambassadorial team to the Vatican City, where he came across Anton Ujung. Despite being several years his junior, Ujung quickly rose through the ranks, becoming the chief ambassador, with Cragen as his assistant, by 2006. With the severing of ties in 2008, both Ujung and Cragen were transferred back to Makassar and went their separate ways in 2014 when Ujung accepted a post as Emirate of Jerusalem. Taking up post as a member of the Home Creed in its Palestinian office, Cragen quickly rose through the ranks to become a Bishop in the Has, the second most senior of the Palestinian Has, which, like many other middle eastern provinces, didn't have an Emirate. With the outbreak of the Has Wars and the appointment of fellow bishop Damacus Visus to the post of Emirate, Cragen grew side-lined in the Clergy, joining forces with Anton Ujung in the fallout of the Invasion of Japan to bring down all the remnant groups that claimed to be the successor force to Bovido Has, infiltrating self-proclaimed Emperor Damacus Visus' administration before conducting a coup in 2022 and placing himself in charge, officially dissolving the Palestine Has and making it part of the new Bovido Has.

## Premiership

 Imperator

After 7 years at the head of the largest Bovido remnant, Cardinal Anton Ujung set about attempting to build his forces into a new superpower nation capable of besting the Libirachi Empire in conflict and re-building Bovido dominance on the global stage. Beginning with an internal reorganising, Bovido Has became the Bovido Imperium, literally meaning Bovido Empire, and Ujung had himself crowned as Imperator of the regime. A vast re-armament campaign was launched and the armed forces of the new government began to grow in power massively; meanwhile, the internal political structures were redrafted and the imperium became made up of two separate member regions, North Africa and Jerusalem State, which had their own Prime Minsters appointed by Ujung, whilst North Africa became a region controlled by the military. With Anton Ujung as Imperator, Julios Cragen received a promotion to become Cardinal of the Bovido Imperium. In November 2030, Imperator Ujung negotiated a merger with the Holy Republic of ST Joseph's Devotees to combine the forces of the two national adherents to the Final Testament, bringing the devotees into the Imperium as the state of Pindorama with Magisterium leader Marisa Belacqua becoming Prime Minister of Pindorama under the new union, though she retained a high level of autonomy from the main Jerusalem based regime. Alongside the political restructuring of the nation, Julios Cragen set about integrating the Bovido Clergy and the Pindoraman Magisterium into a unified church of the final testament, framing the move as a demonstration of the purity of the Bovido religion and attempting to stoke division between the extremists of the Final Testament and the more mainstream followers of the Old and New testaments of the bible.

In 2031, Bovido posturing on the international stage caused the unstable Islamic nations of northern Africa to unite into the United Arab Republic in an attempt to ward off Bovido influence in the region, although in doing so the nations conveniently made themselves a target for the Imperium, with Imperator Anton Ujung ordering plans for a full invasion of the UAR to be ready for the second half 2033. Subsequently on September 1, 2033, Major General Torrent Koon led the armies of the Bovido Imperium into an Invasion of Egypt, quickly toppling the regime of the Egyptian Islamic Brotherhood by mid-November 2033. However, by October 2033 the Libirachi Empire had coordinated a united front of satellite states and puppet regimes to declare war on the Bovido Imperium to try to prevent their conquest of Africa. In February 2034, Operation Avestor was launched against the United Arab Republic and the Battle for Morocco began too, with armies launching across the Atlantic from northern Pindorama and landing on the west coast of Africa, storming through the United Arab Republic and securing several humiliating defeats against the Arab forces, before capturing the entire western coast of the nation, as well as securing dominance over the Gibraltar Strait, in the process damaging the international standings of Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

## Reign

 Cardinal

Following months of humiliating military defeats and a complete upheaval of the terms of war with the Libirachi Empire following the Decimation of Tunis on November 25, 2035, Cardinal Julios Cragen led a coup d'état to overthrow Imperator Anton Ujung on January 3, 2036; with the execution of Ujung on January 5th, Cragen was crowned as the new Bovido Imperator and immediately began making peace overtures to the forces of the Shanghai Pact, a move which infuriated many within the Bovido Imperium. Following the destruction of the United Arab Republic in 2036, the Bovido Imperium, Libirachi Empire and the Shanghai Pact collectively signed the Treaty of Beijing on April 13, 2036 in an attempt to bring an end to the Conquest of Africa; despite this, the heavy concessions agreed to by the new Bovido regime were viewed as untenable by many within the Grand Council, with Prime Minister Torrent Koon threatening to withdraw military support for the regime if it continued under the terms of the Treaty of Beijing, whilst Justas Kolas resigned his office as Cardinal of the Holy Clergy on April 14th in protest against the harsh clauses of the treaty. Similarly, Prime Minister Torrent Koon resigned his office and defected to the North African Federation, becoming it's president in June 2036.

As tensions with the North African Federation boiled over into conflict, Imperator Julios Cragen made his infamous July 13, 2036 speech that the Treaty of Beijing was now "null and void", resulting in the North African Federation under the leadership of President Koon launching an invasion and capturing the western coast of Bovido occupied Africa, whilst in August 2036 the Shanghai Pact re-opened its invasion of Jerusalem State. In October 2036, the Bovido Imperium was removed from the United Nations Security Council following the arrest of Ambassador John Francis, resulting in a diplomatic crisis between the United States of America and the Bovido Imperium. As a result of the diplomatic crisis, Julios Cragen permitted a controlled nuclear detonation in the Gulf of Mexico on January 20, 2037 in order to assault the United States, causing significant damage and inflicting mass death tolls upon the USA. In retaliation, western allies of the United States joined the Shanghai Pact's invasion of Jerusalem state in February 2037.

During the early months of 2037, the Bovido Imperium suffered significant military defeats as the Shanghai Pact swarmed Jerusalem State; in March 2037, Cragen dismissed the armed forces leadership and Prime Minister Pius Campeggio, placing general Amar Sato as praefectus of the armed forces and prime minister of Jerusalem State. Despite a radical reshuffle of the armed forces, the Shanghai Pact was able to make further ground across the state, forcing further recalls of soldiers to fight in the Jerusalem region, an act which ultimately left the Bovido Imperium unable to defend it's ally Jean Bagasauo during the North African Civil War; in August 2037, the North African Federation was dissolved and replaced with a Libirachi backed government. In October 2037, allied forces launched an assault against the state of North Africa and managed to drive a wedge between the two halves of the state through an invasion from the northern Shanghai Pact Administrative Zone in Africa and the southern Free Republic Southern Sahara - in response to the invasion, Cragen ordered the armed forces to send additional forces to North Africa, inadvertently allowing the Shanghai Pact forces in Jerusalem to completely encircle the Bovido capital city by January 2038.

Following the encirclement of Jerusalem, the Grand Council of the Bovido Imperium gathered in Brasilia in March 2038 and formally removed Julios Cragen from his position as Imperator of the Bovido Imperium, replacing him with former cardinal Nicholas Azure. Cragen refused to acknowledge the ruling and deemed it to be "unconstitutional"; in response, Cragen ordered that all prime ministers of the Imperium be removed from office and replaced with the Holy Salvation Government, which vested all executive decision making in himself. Despite the proclamation, the Holy Salvation Government only controlled the city of Jerusalem after the Bovido armed forces supported the appointment of Azure, with Cragen's isolation in an encircled province meaning he could not project his power. On June 16, 2038, Julios Cragen was killed by a hypersonic missile strike on the Jerusalem imperial palace.

## Gallery

Imperator Julios Cragen in 2036Cragen as Cardinal of the Holy Clergy in the 2030sJulios Cragen in 2022Julios Cragen announces an end to the brief peace in the Conquest of Africa