Cato Tullius Nars

**General Cato Tullius Nars** was a talented young general in the Second Fialta Imperium with a history of miracle wins, who commanded a small but strong and loyal force during the First Coalition War. After revealing his royal heritage and briefly casting himself as an outside bet for the Imperial Throne following the death of his grandfather Mithranatus during the Fialta Succession Crisis, Cato accepted a settlement orchestrated by Prince Octavo and the Churches of Dalthad and Valdos, whereby Cato would recognize Emperor Bruscius in return for amnesty (for technical high treason) and an appointment as the Fialta Imperium's new High Marshal.

## Personality

Cato was an idealistic and passionate man. He advocated changing military style to minimize civilian loss, and in his capacity as a Prince with dominion over a half-dozen worlds, did not allow his civilians to own slaves.

## History

### Early Life and Heritage

Cato claimed, with evidence obtained (under false pretenses) from the Bank of Valdos, to be the bastard grandson of the Emperor Tiel'Fialt. The precise nature of the relationship was known only to Cato's mother, the half-elf Olympias, who knew that she was the daughter of the Shantaran Archpriest Sylettis Alantaris (then in female form), who seduced Tiel'Fialt (then still Mithranatus) in the guise of a camp courtesan during the early Fialta-Shantine War. Olympias, being female and visibly elvish could not hope to claim the Fialta throne, but she resolved to position her son(s) (Cato had an identical twin brother kept hidden from public knowledge) to claim the throne in her stead (indeed, Cato himself lived in fear that his mother might have him assassinated or imprisoned and replaced with his slow-witted, pliable twin).

When Olympias came of age, she was positioned by Sylettis to marry one of the new Imperium's grandees, one of Tiel'Fialt's younger generals. After the birth of her children, Olympias conspired to have the Crown Prince of the Imperium, Constantinus son of Tiel'Fialt, assassinated. The assassination was successful, but the Emperor's spymaster, Prince Rogers, used his connection to Othal to discern the cause of the assassination: rather than report it to the Emperor, however, Prince Rogers confirmed that the incident was an accident (thus also tacitly placing some responsibility on Imperial Prince Octavo, the Emperor's brother and chief engineer) and, believing that Olympias's husband was responsible, proceeded to blackmail him into ceding his lands and resources to the Rogers dynasty. Olympias, disgusted at her husband's weakness and feeling herself to have been manipulated by Sylettis and the Shantaran Church, assassinated him (the matter was made to resemble a suicide) before faking her own suicide and disappearing into obscurity, hiding herself even from the Shantarans.

Olympias emerged some years later under an assumed name, having seduced and married a minor prince of the Imperium; she then proceeded to steer her new husband's territorial and political expansion until shortly before her sons came of age, killing her husband and placing Cato on the throne of a new dominion.

### Second Coalition War

*Main article: The Grand Strategy Campaign*
Cato was a supporter of Emperor Asterion prior to Asterion's disappearance, though he afterwards swore allegiance to the newly-crowned Emperor Phillip Neptos.