Gromulus

Gromulus was an ancient nobleman who lived on the island of Arcopolis, a few hundred years before the Rat God Era, and would be famed for being the co-founder of the Loquati Empire, alongside his brother Gremus.

## Origin

Gromulus alongside his twin brother Gremus would be born to a noble-class family in the ancient city-state of Loquatia on the island of Arcopolis. Loquatia at the time was a small but wealthy city, home to an impressive for the time 50,000 people. Under the rule of the despotic Oleus, it was easily the most populous city on the island, but was deeply corrupt and mismanaged with bureaucracy bogging down any real progress and nepotism greatly kneecapping any source of good leadership. Truly the only thing it had going for it was the booming fishing industry, having been blessed with some of the most fertile coasts ever, and it was with a wealthy fishing family that Gromulus and Gremus would be brought up, and it would be in these circumstances their great stories began.

## Living in Loquatia

Before he and his brother founded what would become a glorious empire, they worked in their family fishing empire. It wasn't a literal empire, but their fishing fleets had control of nearly half of the fishable waters of Loquatia. Being born with the gift of intelligence, Gromulus was trained to become a successful businessman and taught the finer details of running the business, while his brother Gremus was born with the gift of strength and taught to lead the many fishing fleets of the company.

All this would change when one day, the "leader" of Loquatia at the time Oleus forced all fishing companies to be consolidated under the government, as well as any attached assets. Officially this was an attempt at gaining income for the city to pay for expansion and infrastructure, but everyone knew that Oleus was jealous of the wealth that the many so called fishing families had and wanted to take it all for himself. And it worked too, as he and his troops would seize the assets of anyone with any involvement in the fishing industry and resumed operation under state control. Since the people most effected by this were very powerful and wealthy elites, to add insult to injury Oleus had those people exiled from the city as well.

## The Plan

When the many fishing families of Loquatia were exiled from the city, there were now a couple hundred people with next to nothing to their name who believed their city had completely turned their back on them (unbeknownst to them a great number of residents resented this action of Oleus, and many revolts were beginning to take place.) It was at this point that Gromulus took this opportunity to make a stance, and in an inspiring speech he united the many disenfranchised fishing families together to a common cause - taking down Oleus.

Gromulus would then work with Gremus on a plan to take back the city. Firstly, the fishing families of Loquatia were smart, nearly all of them had a small stash of their wealth outside of city walls in case something like this ever happened. They would pool their funds together and use it to recruit and arm an invading force. A direct land assault was nearly impossible, as the only thing that halted previous invaders was the powerful walls that guarded all the land portions of Loquatia. It was decided then that a naval assault was to take place, with a small detachment of soldiers to pretend to attack the front land portion, and draw troops away from the port side of Loquatia. They would rely on the support from the commoners on the inside to make it far into the city, taking out arms depots and and sneaking up behind Oleus's forces.

## The Battle for Loquatia

After nearly a year of preparation, The Battle for Loquatia would begin. For several months, Gremus had used his connections to covertly recruit various fishermen and boat builders from inside the city itself. He was very well respected by commoners and nobles alike, as was known as a great captain and leader to all those who worked under him. Using these recruits and the pooled funds from the fishing families, they would secretly build war boats outside of the sight of the city under the cover of night, and arm those sympathetic to the cause as well as purchasing mercenaries from neighboring cities. With these troops, a small detachment was sent to approach the walls of Loquatia at night lead by Gromulus, drawing attention from the troops of Oleus. Gremus would then lead his fleet of soldiers around to the back portion of the city, and start taking the city by storm. The meager forces left guarding the ports were no match for Gremus's men and fell quickly. The support of the common-folk would help the troops further up the city with little resistance. Halfway through the city, at the city center, Gremus would end up losing his arm against a general of Oleus, Crolla the Devious.

Despite having lost his arm, Gremus would triumph over Crolla, and march his way up to the gates of Loquatia, fighting Oleus himself in a glorius battle, which didn't last long for Oleus because despite his opponent only having one arm he was a horrible fighter.

## Founding the Loquati Empire

After the success of The Battle for Loquatia, nearly all the citizens of Loquatia hailed the brothers as their saviors, and crowned them both as their kings. Under their rule, they would found the Loquati Empire, bringing prosperity to all who resided in it. Gromulus would be known for passing some of the most popular laws and reforms in Loquati history, and Gremus lead a powerful army that utilized naval combat unlike any other on the army, successfully leading to the conquering of several nearby cities on Arcopolis, expanding the boarders of their empire.