Ario di Monsanto

## Overview

**Senator Ario di Monsanto** is a **Monegasque-Byzantine** politician and general, and close confidant of **Lady Sierra of Monaco**, who currently serves as a **Imperial Senator**, and the leader of the **Loyalist Faction** in the **Byzantine Senate**. He is the true power behind the throne of the exiled **Emperor Brenden I**. He is officially the Emperor's Chief Advisor and Commander-in-Chief of the **Imperial Armies**, however he and the Senate hold all real power, due to the Emperor's **Disabilities**.

## Notabilities

**Senator Ario** rose to prominence early in the reign of **Emperor Isaac XVIII**, as an important courtier and attendant to **Lady Sierra** **of Monaco**. He grafted his way into the supervising boards of many of Monaco's banking and investing firms, padding his own wealth and influence, eventually buying his way into the **Senate**.

## Personal Life

**Senator Ario** was born in Monaco in AD 1649 under **The Tower** birth sign. He was born into the modestly wealthy **Monsanto** banking family, an established Monegasque dynasty with ties to the Ruling **Princely** **House of Monaco**. Growing up, he was a close friend of **Sierra of Monaco**, a close relationship that persists to this day. Throughout his upbringing and into his adult life, he was a suspected Polyamorist, with numerous scandals involving himself and alleged partners of both sexes, however such scandals were always kept quiet and predominantly covered up. In Tarynstinople, his professional relationship with **Emperor Isaac** was at best cordial, respectfully yet fundamentally disagreeing on many of the Empire's most pressing issues. However, personally, the pair's interactions were exceptionally strained, and kept to an appropriate minimum. The Emperor was known to exclude the Senator from many meetings and committees that he otherwise should've been deeply involved in.

## Politics

As a senator, he favored a generally pragmatic albeit politically conservative point of view. Following the **Timurid Invasion**, He opposed expansion of urban infrastructure into the eastern banks of the **Bosporus Strait**, siting budget concerns, as well as fearing that it might serve as a catalyst for an influx of **Muslim Turkish** citizenry into the predominantly **Christian** and **Greek** regions of **Thrace** and **Morea**. He once again opposed the Empire's **Islamic** Population by, on three occasions, voting against sending aid to the **Arab** and **Turkish** communities in cities such as **Baghdad**, **Jerusalem**, and **Alexandria**, who were disproportionately impacted by the **Timurid** and **Mongol** Invasions, as well as the **Moorish** Communities within the City of **Carthage** during the first **Italian Wars**. This has made the Senator the subject of many accusations of Racism, Islamophobia, and Corruption - accusations that he has vehemently deflected.

He went on the record in late AD 1670, responding to the rumors, saying: "YOU MILLENIAL LEFTISTS, WHO NEVER LIVED ONE DAY UNDER MONGOLIAN THREAT, CAN NOW REFLECT UPON YOUR 'WOKE' SKY!". When questioned as to the meaning of *anything* that he had just said, he laughed replied: "You made quite a 'non-binary' fuss, to save the world from intercontinental ballistic 'tweets'!". Attendants once again asked for the Senator to provide a definition for his unintelligible dialogue, to which his only response was the word "Nanomachines". It was at this point that the attendants began getting angry, yelling at the Senator in distress, exclaiming that he wasn't making any sense and never actually responded to the questions. As his colleagues dragged him off the stage, he shouted "CANCEL CULTURE STRIKES AGAIN, JACK!". Miraculously, his political career was relatively unharmed and recovered completely within weeks. What "Cancel Culture" is, and who "Jack" was, has yet to be declassified.

## Fig and the Communist Revolution

When **Emperor Isaac** died instantaneously following a kick to the chest by his horse, **Arexsvenn**, the Senator and his colleagues held an Emergency Senatorial Session to accomplish two goals - firstly, to officially condemn Arexsvenn for the murder of Emperor Isaac, and officially sanction the turning of the horse into glue - and secondly, to approve a successor. The senate voted unanimously in favor of the execution of the Horse, but was surprisingly hung on the issue of succession. In order to ensure a smooth succession, the senate needed to vote in a 2/3 majority in favor of a single candidate. However, the senate was just barely split, with a 6/10 plurality favoring the bafflingly crippled and incapable **Prince Brenden 'Lackloins'**, and a 4/10 minority supporting the late Emperor's half-wildling bastard, **Fig Snow**.

Fig's supporters sited his apparent superior ability to lead, and military accomplishments, as basis for his position as the better candidate, opposed to Brenden, who's claim was sullied by his inability to produce neither an Heir, nor a complete rational thought, thanks to his **Castration** and **Lobotomy**. The Prince's supporters, **Senator Ario** among them, sited his hereditary seniority to Fig, as well as his inability to produce an Heir, nor a complete ration thought, once again on account of his **Castration** and **Lobotomy**, and detracted from Fig's claim by siting his Wildling heritage, calling him a "Barbarian" and a "Mongol". An Empire with Brenden as Emperor would, in the eyes of his most vocal supporters, functionally return power in the **Byzantine Empire** to the **Senate**, potentially ending nearly 1,700 years of Imperial Rule, and restoring the legacy of the **Roman Republic**.

Deliberations lasted weeks. As is tradition, the candidates were to be present should either one be proclaimed Emperor, and as such **Fig** was invited to Tarynstinople. However, when word reached the Senate that Fig was coming accompanied by a small wildling army, rumor quickly spread of a looming **Coup d'État**. The Senate enacted emergency powers, and overriding the typical process, proclaimed the ascension of **Emperor Brenden I Webb** by simple majority. Brenden was crowned, and the Senate immediately began preparations for a defense for what many feared would be another **Eastern Invasion**, however corruption and ineffectiveness rampant in the Byzantine Army prevented the formation of any real defense. As Fig neared Tarynstinople, having already ripped his way across the countryside, swiftly capturing the cities of **Adrianople** and **Syrallo**, the newly proclaimed "Loyalist Faction" had **Brenden** smuggled out of the Capital. **Senator Ario** was close to the leaders of this new political faction, and volunteered to personally bring him to safety his home province of **Monaco**.

**Senator Ario** and **Emperor Brenden** fled to **Monaco** under the protection of **Archbishop Brandon of Sicily**, who was also an adamant supporter of the Loyalist Faction. Back in Tarynstinople, Fig arrived, with a large army of Siberian Steppe Nomads and Peasants. The Loyalist defense was lackluster yet sturdy, but was not enough. They were quickly defeated, and Fig marched into the city unopposed. The Senate was forced to proclaim Fig as **Emperor Figamus Isaac I Webb-Xanadu**, however, as his first command, Fig dissolved the Byzantine Empire, and ordered the immediate execution of all Senators, Loyalists and his own supporters alike, for the crimes of "Corruption, and the operation of a Feudal Monarchy". Fig's personal advisors commented: "Incredibly 'Based', and Fuck-The-Senate-Pilled". Many Loyalist Senators were able to escape the purge, and made it to **Sicily**, **Naples**, and **Monaco**, where Fig was unable to easily exert his Influence. The Senators that stayed behind or fled east were caught, and killed.

Soon, Fig would proclaim the creation of the **United Socialist States of Byzantium**, a **Communist State** which would stretch across the territory of the old empire. Many people across the old empire embraced the ideals of the new state, but the majority outside of Greece and Western Anatolia remained opposed to the new regime, or simply seemed not to care. That said, the **Byzantine** holding is **Italy** were the only territories to properly resist incorporation, and remain as the last vestiges of the **Byzantine Empire**. After the Revolution, **Senator Ario**, now the leader of the Loyalist faction, with **Lady Sierra** and **Archbishop Brandon** at his side, swore a sacred oath to defeat all **Communism** and restore the **Empire** and **Senate** to their former glory.