Cornelius li Vespasianus LXIII, Duke of Eslilles

Penelope ne Odetta

Hadrianus ri Vincentius

Proserpina se Delphina

Cornelius li Vespasianus LXIII (228,309 Anno Judicii-228,654 Anno Judicii) was the Duke of Eslilles. He was his father's 5th son, but inherited the estate upon the most unfortunate deaths of his older brothers.

## Early Life

Cornelius was born in the Summer Palace in Eslilles, a decent structure a few miles out of the capital city Casius. He was oddly not expected to be born, which is why he was not born in the Cathedral palace. As the 5th child of the Duke of Eslilles Vespus ve Aristodemus CXIII, Cornelius was thrusted from birth into the nightmarish world the Iustinium line had created for thousands of years. His father, Vespus, was the head of the Dynasty and was thus determined to eliminate any risk of Cornelius overshadowing him or his other children. Vespus and his wife Agrippina (who was also his sister) mutually decided that they would only allow their 5th son of 13 total children to be educated by Vespus's only surviving brother, the childless Agapitus tu Achilleus.

Under his strict and rigorous tutelage, Cornelius learned the ways of fighting and the ways of politics, all of which Agapitus was more than willing to teach in order to get revenge upon the Duke of Eslilles at the time. Upon maturity, Cornelius was married off to Regulus re Aeneas, a cousin who was raised by Vespus. His new spouse was very supportive of him and his indepedence from the Duke, who had grown increasingly cruel -in once instance he starved one part of the planet because he thought they were keeping rations illegally. No one was quite sure of what would become of Cornelius, and all were shocked to find the result of his life.

## Becoming the Duke

By age 40, Cornelius had made a pact with his oldest brother, Gregorius re Icarus, that the two would not attack each other unless they were the last two jostling for power. Cornelius only had to wait before doing anything, watching as his older brother successfully killed 2 of the brothers between them. However, he had other plans, outside of this pact. Cornelius succeeded in killing his mother as well as his 2 aunts, thus taunting his father by parading their corpses around the palace on strings and in holograms. His father never found out that it was indeed Cornelius who had done it, as he had pinned it on the 4th son, Artemidorus do Basilius. Vespus responded by poisoning Artemidorus and throwing his wife and children into the river, where they drowned.

After successfully killing off 7 of the other siblings and their families (a startling total of 30 family members, the 8th sibling was Gregorius's wife), all that remained were Cornelius and his spouse as well as Gregorius and his family. In a 50 day standoff in the space just outside the planet Eslilles, Gregorius's ship was shot down, crashing into the ocean on Eslilles's surface and killing all onboard. Gregorius's wife, Roxanna na Sabia, out of revenge, attempted to poison Regulus, but failed and poisoned her only surviving son by mistake. This drove her to nearly the point of suicide, but Cornelius put her on his ship and forced her to stay in her cell, where she was unable to acquiesce to her own wishes.

Vespus grew intensely paranoid of his now 50 year old son, who had forced Gregorius's wife (also Cornelius's and Grigorius's sister) to remain in his household. This made him outwardly appear insane, and that was used to Cornelius's advantage. Cornelius was granted permission to run Eslilles as Regent, seeing as his father, who truly wasn't insane, was proven to be incompetent. Vespus was sent to Rocan on the slowest ship in the galaxy, to be given a psychological evaluation. Conveniently, there was a bot leak in the hull of the ship, releasing millions of microbots, who proceeded to consume Vespus's body to the bone. This left only Cornelius to be the Duke of Eslilles.

## Growing family

By the time Cornelius became Duke, he had already fathered a son with Roxanna, which he named Calixtus ca Fortunatus. Though the two never officially married, Roxanna was the actual mother to Cornelius's 5 children. Though this was true, Cornelius had no physical interest in the woman. While she was moderately beautiful, Cornelius's eyes in heart belonged solely to his true spouse, Regulus. He considered the production of heirs to be a duty, and both Regulus and Roxanna recognized such. After mothering a total of 5 children, Cornelius offered to free Roxanna, which she greatly appreciated, but she denied his offer. Roxanna resolved to remain in his household and, while she took to several more husbands (most of which she outlived or even killed) and had a set of 3 children of her own, she remained loyal to Cornelius out of respect.

Meanwhile, Cornelius and Regulus blossomed their relationship. The years that were filled by their happiness seemed to be an omen of eternal peace for Eslilles. Cruelty was at an all-time-low, and the couple spearheaded a movement to alleviate some conditions of the poor segments of towns. Regulus treated the children like his own, and Roxanna was still allowed to be involved in their childhood. Cornelius remained effective into his 90s, until tragedy struck the household

## Death of Regulus and Later Life

When Cornelius was 96, he suffered the loss of his husband, Regulus. Previously, Cornelius was in control of everything in his life, but at this point he realized that there was one thing he could not control: death itself. Cornelius refused to see anyone for almost a year. He shut out his family, his friends, and his advisers. During this isolation period, Cornelius went through an obsession with his body and how far he can push his body without dying. He would starve himself for several days, only eating when he went ravenous and forced himself to eat. Over a period of 2 years, Cornelius had reached the point of being almost skeletal, barely alive at all.

Cornelius soon went further into his madness after his daughter Penelope was murdered by her own son. Cornelius went into mourning and eventually doing the opposite of what he had done before. He went into violent eating binges followed by purges. The Duke would eventually go into a stage of hatred as his body began to wither.

As Cornelius eventually began to stop the binges, he quickly began suffering fits of violent rage and vengeance against his own family. For killing Penelope, Cornelius's grandson was executed in a particularly brutal manner: he was skinned to the point that he may still survive for a short while and then dropped in a vat of low-grade hydrochloric acid. When it was discovered that his son Hadrianus was killed in an accident, Cornelius ordered that Hadrianus's family be buried alive with him.

At 149 years old, the broken Cornelius had lost 2 of his children and the love of his life. His next loss would be that of Roxanna, the mother to his children, at his own hand. In an ensuing argument that had lasted for years, Cornelius threw her from the roof of the Ducal Palace, which was then burned down. This loss, however, is the death that finally grounded Cornelius. His happiness was perpetually gone, but he must cease in his violent ways should he wish his bloodline continue.

Cornelius slowly became more and more closed off from the world as he began to grow older. On his 250th birthday, he was announced the longest ruling Duke of Eslilles in the Iustinium Dynasty. Amongst all the celebration, the Duke masked himself, wearing elegant black robes and a white mask. His oldest son, the 194 year old Calixtus, reported that Cornelius was "very pale, sunken in. He looked almost ghostly to the rest of the crowd."

He stopped speaking to all of his family following the celebration, focusing all the energy he had on business. By the time he turned 300, the people of Eslilles began to even think that he was dead. He was, however, far from it, and was instead regulating all aspects of internal affairs from his Summer Palace. In the Summer Palace, Cornelius was frequently treated for his poor health, which only began worsening, being mostly submerged in days-long therapeutic water treatment baths.

Cornelius's closed off nature was often overlooked, as he he kept it well hidden behind a boisterous facade. He quietly remained at court as some ancient relic, seemingly. Being one of the oldest nobles in court, Cornelius was seen as an old obstacle for many, which fortunately for him made them more easily convinced of his uselessness. That being said, however, Cornelius was still just as cunning as he was before.

## Health Failure and Trade Scandal

Cornelius kept his health under such severe secrecy that only his eldest son knew the extent of his body's structural failures. His health was in such decline that he had to install a bathing tank similar to the model at the Summer Palace in his Cruiser, so that he may not need to commute as frequently. Towards the end of his life, he began to install small sponge packets of the waters so that he may move more freely. This had some positive effect, though it made Cornelius smell of cave roses. The young-appearing Cornelius began to give in to the concept of his own demise as the bathing tank began to lose the effect it formerly had.

As his health continued to decline and his body was prematurely giving way to cellular death, Cornelius had a life support system as well as a mechanical voice box and several synthetic organ mechanisms to prevent his body from complete collapse. By the age of 340, Cornelius was in constant pain due to his body being slowly destroyed by itself, portions of his body being supported by synthetic materials. To hide scars from hundreds of operation, Cornelius dyed his skin and wore very high collared things.

The final blow to Cornelius's health was that of a massive trade issue with the ITC, a massive trade federation that spread across the galaxy's trade routes. The Viceroy of the trade federation was very particular in support of his contracts and doubled the quotas required from Eslilles to continue trade. Cornelius, seeing his people starve, saw the stockpiles for sustenance being emptied, and immediately acted. He abruptly left Rocan to return to his home planet to deal with the issue himself. Trade to the ITC from Eslilles was almost instantaneously halted. The Viceroy then moved to blockade the Planet. Cornelius's hand was forced, and he had to escape the planet in a secret operation. After a lengthy senate debate, which almost led to more blockades on other planets, Cornelius was able to come to a compromise: He would pay for means to increase production safely personally, at 30 times the marked price, so that the quota may be met without the possibility of starving workers. Most courtiers argued that this was indeed the ruin of Cornelius and his family, however it was all instead part of a plan of revenge for Cornelius.

Within the contract signed, an entailment listed that upon the death of either or both parties involved, the contract would be nullified and a new contract between the successors or survivors would be drafted after an agreement is made under legal terms. Not long after the contract's signing, Cornelius's plan began to be set into motion.

Knowing that he would die soon, Cornelius began hurrying his plan along. He sent word to several nobles and government officers that he was indeed soon to be rid of this world, and requested audience with many involved with the ITC on the planetary level. This led to the organization of a meeting being arranged.

The meeting was an attempt to find ways to end the restraints that the ITC implemented. Unfortunately, it had no resolution that could solve the issues at hand. While in attendance, Cornelius announced his plan and thus the warning that for the time being one should wait until further action is needed. These announcements fell on somewhat deaf ears, as few listened to what he was intending, and were instead implying other options.

## Death and Aftermath

Very shortly following the meeting, Cornelius returned to court. His health took a very violent turn for the worse when he decided that he was not to be bathing in his mineral tank for the time. He instead decided to attempt injecting and ingesting what fluids he could that contained similar properties. He eventually drank far too much, thinking the drinks were not working. The drinks did their job, unfortunately too efficiently. The minerals in the drink corrupted Cornelius's body on a cellular level, destroying what mechanical hardware was working. All of this, while sitting at court, began to be very evident.

His eye contacts were the first to fail. They malfunctioned in the middle of a conversation, causing his eyes to change colors in very rapid succession for no reason. They then switched from solid black to solid white in a flashing succession, thus blinding Cornelius. This however, was the least of Cornelius's worries.

While Cornelius remained calm during this event, which occurred in a terrifyingly short amount of time, more of the mechanisms began failing due to the sudden clog from his mineral drinks. This led to very intense pains across his body, and he could no longer hold objects due to spasms. The mechanism that regulated his adrenal glands suddenly failed, leading to waste and materials to begin forming around what few pores still worked, and thus would flow out in black liquid, staining his clothing.

Almost as soon as he finished a sentence while trying to remain calm at court during all of these events, Cornelius's voice box shut down, causing a loud screech to escape from his mouth. The court was somewhat shocked, but when asked if he was alright, Cornelius nodded. While the rest of the court left for the meeting, the 345 year old Duke of Eslilles did not go with them. For the first time in 295 years, Cornelius missed a meeting.

His servants carried the dying Cornelius out of his seat, and helped him into the cruiser. Unfortunately, by the time he reached the cruiser's medical bay, he was too far gone to be saved. As he stood to enter his tank, his body completely gave out. While in tremendous pain, Cornelius hit the ground, dying moments later as his brain liquefied. The cause of his death is completely unknown, though it could be implied that radiation, crystallization of the internal organs, and abscesses may be involved.

His death was notified to his son, who was representing Eslilles at the Senate meeting in his absence. The notification was then relayed to the senate meeting, but not before a massive debate involving the ITC, resulting in the secession of the ITC from the Senate. Eslilles was freed from the contracts with the ITC, and there was a potential new duke.

Cornelius was interred temporarily in the Cave Room of the Summer Palace, where he was born.