Lord Regent Daniel Lavoie

> "*To those who would secede us and abandon our Empire, and dishonour the memory of our Empress, I offer nothing"*
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## The Final Regent, The First Emperor

Daniel Lavoie, a man of select talents; talents that would prove instrumental to his career and Empire.

Born in 2276 to a family of Irish descent and high stature in the Eternal industry sector, Lavoie's family afforded the highest education and 'enhancements' that had been carefully introduced to high society.

In his young age he broke from typical family tradition and ran his family's industrial businesses through a network of hired administrators rather than personally; instead spending more time networking with (and rising up) the Imperial Court, ingratiating himself with its "Courtiers" with favours and industrial/financial support. For while most heavy industry of the Empire was state owned those who held high positions within them like Lavoie and his family were still extremely affluent, and they could arrange special contracts or custom orders for those they supported.

Lavoie became highly favoured by the Royal Imperial Admiralty and Imperial Court, financing Admirals' commissions for warships and prioritizing their orders, repairs and upgrades.

After the resignation of Lord Regent Jacob Williams Lavoie became the Lord Regent, his position as a supporter for so many had made him a dependable choice which promised his continued support.

As Lord Regent he supported the expansion of HM Armed Forces and navy, largely through supporting select individuals within the institutions and expanding the industry of The Eternal Empire; by the time the Empress died Lavoie had accrued the political support of almost every person worth some margin of significance within the Court.

That support paid in dividends. With the death of the Empress Lavoie immediate proclaimed himself Emperor, ordering the execution of his closest rival Admiral Darius Ney, and was recognized by the leadership of the Empire as Emperor; this swift recognition and backing of power eliminated the looming power vacuum that could have destroyed the Empire, his early years as Emperor were spent eliminating resistance to his throne and to the Empire.

Due to his actions the Empire remained a single unified nation, not to say there were not separatists but before his reign was over the Eternal Empire remained a single unified nation with no split between planets and all no internal faction disputes.

Understanding that the loss of the Empress was a massive cultural wound and major demoralization of his subjects, Emperor Lavoie would spend much of his reign reaffirming public belief in the ideology of the Empress and her memory; branding any who challenged his throne as traitors to the Empire and Empress.

He reformed the Eternal Empire into an Imperial Elective government where the Emperor would be selected based on merit, created a secret intelligence agency (The Greystone Agency) to act as the nations internal security, founded an organization of political commissars to ensure the loyalty of the Empire's leadership and also a propaganda institution to keep the public loyal to the throne and the memory of the Eternal Empress.

Emperor Daniel Lavoie died of a heart attack, though his death is put down to his old age; he left behind a stabilized and strengthened Empire with a successful system of succession, another Emperor was elected the day after Lavoie's death and the Empire continued to function without him.

## Industrialist & Politician

Daniel Lavoie was Born on the 22nd of March in the year 2276 to a family of high standing in the industrial industry of the Eternal Empire, the wealth of his family funded his prestigious education and he finished his education with degrees and bachelors in economics and politics. He was also one to benefit from genetic enhancements during his teenage years as the Eternal Empire took its first steps in genetic treatment, having life prolonging and cognitive enhancements woven into his genome, few at the time had these enhancements in the Empire as even basic enhancement was expensive.

With his education finished it would have been expected of him to begin a career of industrial management like the rest of his family, this was Daniels first career though it would not be his last. Always looking to improve the production lines Daniel spent much time finding ways to reduce running expenses and increase efficiency of the factories, however he saw that a major limitation to industry was the limit of viable extraction sites. Eternal space was already heavily industrialized and planets had only so much resource to extract, there were many millions of small asteroids in space with extractable material but the cost of mining stations themselves often outstripped the total value of the resources found.

Lavoie funded specialists in extraction and ship design to create a mobile carrier for mining droids, the purpose of the ship being to extract all the unexploited small mineral deposits while circumnavigating the cost of transporting such small amounts of minerals back to planets. What was designed was a ship of truly large and complex proportion.

### The Rig

The product of the specialists was a large carrier ship outfitted with mining droids and furnaces. The ship would move to asteroid belts and enter their orbit, once in orbit tuning off its engines and other non vital systems; droids with simple mining routines would then be launched to extract minerals and bring it back to the ship where the raw metal would be melted down into liquid. The metal would only be melted when there was enough of it to fill an entire cargo ship, by melting the metal into liquid it was the most space effective way of filling ships (rather than simple rocks where gaps between every rock would have left unfilled space).

Special bays for purpose built cargo ships would await molten metal to be loaded into them, when full flying away to the nearest planet or mining station where it would be delivered to refineries and then heavy industry.

While initially the ship was only barely cost efficient after the running costs and crew wages were paid later improvements in technology made the vessel reliably profitable, while it never made much money itself it was a major boon to industry; with these ships in use the damage of local deficits and shortfalls could be reduced or mitigated by the arrival of these ships to boost raw material input, these allowed refineries and industries to continuously produce ships and goods without fear of instability or stock shortfalls.

Lavoie sunk the family fortune building the first of these ships and as a result personally owned the Rig, not normal practice in the Empire but he had promised to hand the ship over to state ownership once his finance had been secured; with the promise of metals to several leading heads in the industry sector Lavoie also secured financial aid from them, even members of the admiralty had taken interest in this opportunity.

After supplying planets with surplus metal when needed for production or to make up for deficits the Rig proved an effective industrial aid, with Lavoie credited for its creation his name became quite a well regarded one; many also owed favours he'd handed out whilst the Rig was in his personal control, when the Rig was handed over to the Eternal Empire and more ships began production Lavoie was already owed many favours.

### Politics

With newfound influence Lavie easily secured and expanded his hold over the industrial sector, with all Rigs still his intellectual property he collected profits from them all even when not owning them; his wealth was put into technological upgrades and the financing of expanding everything under his families control. Of course all in service to the Eternal Empire, what benefited him was as much profit to him as it was the Empire.

Making himself known as a man who could supply anything in a short time-frame Daniel Lavoie became a dependable contact to get ships or materials from, such was his sway on Eternal industry; supplies could be taken from other stockpiles in a pinch or shipwrights worked overtime for urgently needed ships.

As a man depended on for his industrial services his influence within the Imperial Court grew, he began to call on favours he'd amassed

## The Emperor is dead

In his death he is remembered as a ruthless schemer, centuries after his passing historians carefully mention their beliefs in books that Daniel Lavoie as Lord Regent had predicted (or at least prepared for) the demise of Empress Queen Victoria VIII; whilst publicly supporting the war against the Commonwealth and clearly in his mind having no intent to cause his Empress's demise (The Eternal Empress being psionic would have sensed any treacherous intent) he was extremely well placed to take her place... many coincidental deaths occurred before his ascension, many political opponents who'd have challenged his rise had died in conflict ether in space or on the ground... while there is no proof he arranged this there wouldn't actually be any, for his influence ran deep into the military and navy and his commands could have been secretly passed down to anyone and everyone to arrange the deaths of many opponents in the navy/military.

Despite this shadier cloud hanging over his head Danial Lavoie is well remembered and loved by the public, a real true Emperor worthy to act on behalf of the Empress; statues of him besides the Empress are commonly seen and alongside the four statues of all the Lord Regents ever to serve the Empress his is the only one to not have his right hand placed across his heart.

Instead his right arm is extended forward with his palm facing towards the sky, and in it he grips a fine metal chain from which hangs a locket; the locket is sealed shut by careful welding so no-one can open it, Daniel Lavoie was never seen wearing any sort of pendent or necklace, it is assumed the pendant in the statues hand was the Empress's. In it a picture of her daughter.