Doge Nicholas of Venice

A painting of the Doge at age 39, before everyone hated him.

Doge Nicholas of Venice ruled Venice from 1417-1509. He was born on September 16th, 1400 to his parents, Queen Petunia and Doge Leonardo. When Nicholas was 17 years old, and his father was approaching 80, his father stepped down from the throne, making Nicholas the Doge at just 17 years old, the youngest Doge in history.

His rule was a tumultuous one. He started off as a well respected ruler but slowly and surely declined in rule. Doge Nicholas immediately tried to provide his citizens with social and health reform. He tried to reform the caste system to be more equal between all people, and for a time installed a balanced system of universal healthcare. He had reached the highest point employment percentage in Venice in the past 100 years, and the people were happier than ever. However Doge Nicholas had one major flaw, and that was in his lack of ability to maturely and adequately handle criticism. In the year 1450, a group of people known as "The Aristocrats" said that while the changes Doge Nicholas had made to society were very helpful, he had not tried to institute a single new policy since his universal healthcare policy. A vast majority of the population ignored The Aristocrats. Society was doing fine, and if there was no changes that need to be made, why needlessly shake things up? The citizens of Venice largely sided with Nicholas. However this criticism got under his skin badly, and in an attempt to prove The Aristocrats wrong, he attempted to enact a new calendar. This would have 40 days in every month, a week would consist of 10 days. There would also be 13 months in the year. When he was questioned as to why he made these radical changes he responded: "The people demanded change, so I gave them change!" He could not overlook his minor negative reception from The Aristocrats, despite being loved by everyone else. Needless to say his new changed upset many people as it would take all sorts of adjusting to daily life. For example, what would be the weekend, and when would be work days? When would seasons start and end? Without accurately knowing the season, how would farmers know when to plant and harvest? The list went on and on. The public outrage to his was extreme and only upset Doge Nicholas further. He banned all talk of the new calendar and told people to just get used to it. By 1455 people were still not adjusted to the calendar and mad as ever. Doge Nicholas had begun jailing those who spoke out against him, and finally in punishment, he took away all healthcare to the people. In weeks deaths skyrocketed as people could not afford adequate medicine, and disease began to spread as people figured it would be easier to wait out the sickness rather than pay to be treated. The public was even more furious now than even before and several open revolts started across the country. Not even his own army would obey him. He was only able to get them to quell the rebellion by promising he would reinstate healthcare for every soldier who fought for him. The army quickly agreed and squashed the rebellions.

After word of this selective healthcare spread around, people became jealous and demanded that he reinstate it for all! However, now that more people than ever were sick, the government literally would not be able to afford to pay the medical bills for everyone. Instead he promised more change, because as he would say in 1462: "The people want reform, they shall have it!" He ordered a purge of all people considered to be overtly sick by his army. They did it, because they needed the healthcare and the money. Families had their children slaughtered, parents slaughtered, grandparents, cousins, friends, anybody that was too sick was killed. The army was unwaveringly loyal however because they desperately needed the benefits and the people were not strong enough to form an armed rebellion against them. Instead they boycott and stayed home from all of their jobs until Doge Nicholas would revert things to the way they were in the 40's. He refused, being to prideful to lose to "a bunch of haters", as he called them. The boycott lasted until 1463, when Doge Nicholas saw the economy was truly beginning to be destroyed and poverty skyrocketed. Despite people losing their homes and starving to death, they would not return to work. Doge Nicholas told the people he would rather they die than give into them. He said that when they wanted to go back to work for him they were more than welcome to. This lasted another year, and due to starvation, disease, and general poverty the population of Venice was cut in half. Doge Nicholas finally conceded and brought back the universal healthcare. This satiated peoples desires but brought about new problems. For example, there was little to no work going on in Venice for nearly two years. There was little to no money being collected by the government because of this. Therefore when he returned healthcare to the people, he could not afford to pay it all. This caused the government to go into debt for the people, meaning their wages could not be paid, and so they still refused to go to work. Many fled the country for literally anywhere else; even Emperor Chen's China was considered a superior alternative, despite his Great Shame.

By 1475, the population of Venice was down to a quarter of what it was when Doge Nicholas came into power. The only people left in the country were those who were literally too poor to leave. All civilization ceased to exist, and the once flourishing communities of commerce and residence were turned into barbaric hunter-gatherer tribes. Since there was not enough money to give the army their promised healthcare, they all left Doge Nicholas as well, joining tribes. Doge Nicholas remained in power, figuratively, in that while nobody opposed his leadership anymore, nobody listened to him either. He was really just there, and remembered by everyone to be the cause of the end of civilization as they knew it. Tribes lead many raids on his castle, but due to the great size of the castle he lived in(and the lack of employees to fill it), he was able to hide and survive each of these raids. He survived like this for 25 years, until 1500 when things began to change. By the turn of the century the tribes had begun to have enough of this life. Small tribes formed coalitions and took on moderate tribes. They defeated and took over other tribes and grew. They made peace with larger tribes. Eventually, by 1509, the scattered barbarians of Venice had formed one giant coalition of angry, mistreated citizens. They stormed the castle they knew Doge Nicholas to be hiding in and tore it to shreds. They burned it, set off tnt, and smashed everything they could whether with tools or by hand. Doge Nicholas was soon discovered. The citizens of Venice were about to kill him when he set off a stick of tnt and collapsed a wall, causing a diversion that allowed him to flee the castle. He ran and ran until he was across the border of Venice and out of the sight of the citizens. His crown dropped behind him, and he stole a rowboat. He sailed himself to the only country he knew nobody would dare check, Emperor Chen's China. He changed his name to Smith Nicholson, and now lives out his days as a sharecropper for a wealthy family in China.

### Trivia

* Due to the absolute disaster he caused in Venice, the Knights of Templar took interest in Doge Nicholas as one of the acolytes of destruction. However, after he was run out of Venice by common people and forced to become a peaceful sharecropper, they decided he was probably not an acolyte and just a very bad politician.