Vincent

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The Emperor of the Aurian Empire from 1779-1799 PE. Son of the Elfslayer Vincent's early reign was dominated by dealing with his father's legacy.

## Appearance

Vincent has his father's impressive height, a notably weak chin, soft eyes and a liked to dress very fashionably which contrasted with his father's more military look.

## Traits

Vincent was known as a negotiator but that was mainly due to the contrast he struck with his stubborn and immovable father. He had a melodious voice and was known as a smooth tenor. His dislike of elves was known but was kept subtle and controlled. In the Aurian Empire of his era he was only anti-elf enough to be acceptable and not apparently a hair more. This was typical of Vincent that he was quietly confident and often hid his true thoughts behind of political and diplomatic front. He had the ability to come off as controlled and genuine though and was well liked by the nobility and the Senate.

## Events

Important events in Viktor's life include specifically the War of Ears.

1761PE: Viktor Vincent's father was crowned Emperor, this began a change in the Empire against the elves of the Oakland Forest. The ear bounty was introduced and anti-elf laws were passed in the Empire.

1766PE: As crown prince Vincent followed in his father's footsteps by serving in the military as a youth. He was set to serve under his father's old friend the High Ranger but his mother intervened directly to keep him out of the War of Ears that was being engaged in unofficially by the Green Protectoran. So he served as a Blademark in the Red Protectoran as his father had.

1767PE: Vincent accompanied the negotiators including the Commander in Chief for the meeting with the horselords resulting in the cessation of hostilities between the Empire and the Alkar called the Plains Treaty.

1767-69PE: Only 18 years old, Vincent was promoted to General and sent south with his personal legion the 13th Red Legion. He was placed in command of a 8 legion group of Border Guards repelled raiders long the Elygian border. It was very likely Vincent's mother was behind the assignment as most of the imperial military were engaged in the north-east.

1770PE: Vincent moved from active service in the military to working with as the military attache to the Audit Corporation.

1774PE: Vincent started working as royal liaison to the Senate financial committee.

1776PE: The conflicts known as the War of Ears gets worse and worse. Notably the Aurian deathtoll spiked in this year and the expenses had mounted to critical proportions. Vincent as someone representing the loyalist faction in the Senate had to defend the expenditure and worked with Senator Senadal Voech the lead of the War Committee to do so. It was during this year that Vincent became part of his father's feud with Aurakas Milo the Senator who lead a co-ordinated resistance to the Emperor's aggressive policies in the elven forest.

1777PE: Aurakas Milo gained new prominance as the head of a pro-peace faction in Tor Honarik. Milo focused on anti-Emperor rhetoric noting the death toll and the limited benefits of this ongoing conflict. The Emperor relied on allies such as Senadal Voech who argued on behalf of the Emperor's policies. Yet the constant deaths and financial losses caused had made the Emperor's polices less and less popular and Voech really struggled to argue his points. Vincent tried to defend his father's policies by supporting Voech but they took the wrong approach trying to logically support the unofficial war Emperor Viktor had engaged in. If they had gone for scare mongering and build upon only the popular themes of fear, hatred and revenge build by a decade of war they may well have succeeded. Yet Milo was too skilled to be outfought on the battleground of logic and statistics. The Empire had no new gains, gold and blood were draining out in the thousands.

So after the failure of Vincent's approach Viktor pushed Voech to lean on the bitterness and loss of the war instead of the glory and riches, which normally worked so well with the Aurian public. Viktor refused to stop the bounties or disband the guilds despite his son's words of caution. This led the royal family into conflict with powerful families in the Empire and the key factions of the Sapphire Wizards' Guild and the Church of Celer. Under his father's direction Vincent was assigned to be the bearer of bad news (Possibly as a punishment for his failed strategy with the Senate argument). So Vincent was used to go and tell the church and the wizards' guild that their funding was to be cut. This caused a rift that outlasted his father's reign and haunted him through his own time as Emperor.

1778PE: Emperor Viktor took ill probably due to the stress of his failing war. Vincent, though loyal throughout his father's reign, started to politically manoeuvre to get out of the elven genocide conflict. He distanced himself, and the crown, from the Bounty Hunter Guilds like the Blood Coin and negotiated with Milo to limit the embarrassment of ending the conflict. Fortunately the Plains Treaty had already forced the country to refrain from openly waging war on the elves. This allowed Vincent to preempt the inevitable fallout of ending the War of Ears.

1779PE: Viktor died and Vincent was crowned three weeks before his 30th birthday.

1780PE: Vincent ended the 'ear bounty' and removed imperial funding from the Bounty Hunters' Guilds essentially bringing an end to the War of Ears.

1783PE: Upon the death of the old Imperial Vizier Vincent appointed Voech as his Imperial Vizier.

1784PE: Aurakas Milo the political enemy of the royal family throughout the last ten years was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. Later in the year Vincent assigned his son Nikolay to the Audit Corporation unlike his own experience as a youth assigned to a military commission.

1785PE: Vincent officially sanctioned the archmage Whistlermist. The wizard had flouted the military accords by refusing to send sarrifs to fulfill their applications. The Sapphire Wizards' Guild were pressured by the Emperor and in retaliation they obfuscated their advancements and abilities to force the Emperor to relax his prohibitions.

1799PE: Vincent died in his bed surrounded by his family. Knowing he was fatally ill for over a year he had already carefully transferred all power to his son Nikolay. This was one of the smoothest transfers of power in Aurian history.

## Legacy

Problems with the Sapphire Wizards' Guild

His son Nikolay was in a good position to undermine the Plains Treaty as Vincent had avoided costly military conflict and was seen as only really considering internal problems. The Alkar were caught off-guard when Nikolay put his plan into action.