Long live the Emperor | Long live his Empire

[Tide1 4535]

 

“From Winburgh’s ashes to man’s great throne, the dragon of Burgundy, an Emperor grown.”

Spoiler

 

✠ HEED, LEAL SONS OF HOREN

I, Tiberias I of the House Horen, write these words not as conqueror, nor sovereign, nor judge - but as a man nearing the twilight of his labours. The time has come for my reign to end, and for my firstborn son, Hadrian, to inherit the mantle I bore through war, exile, and providence.

 

Before I place the Crown of Godfrey upon his brow, I set quill to parchment to speak plainly of the road that carried us from diaspora to home, from orphan to Emperor, - not for vainglory, but that none may forget the price paid by a few for the many.

 

 

 

---

 

I.

I was but seven summers when Winburgh burned.

 

The Covenant’s banners surrounded my city, the air choked with soot, and the shouts of dying men filled the streets. My father, Gaspard, disappeared in a cloud of smoke; my brother fled with what siblings he could gather. I remember the forest more clearly than the city - the cold, the hunger, the silence.

 

No mercy was shown to us.
No clemency.
No offerings of peace.

 

And from the ashes of Winburgh, I learned: there would be no clemency - ever, only purpose.

 

---

II. 

At twelve, I watched as my kin were slaughtered at Portoregne during what was meant to be a duel of honour. Like ghosts, they had drifted into that city, with some forlorn hope that perhaps in the hearts of men did honour yet exist. But on the orders of the King and Queen were such hopes snuffed out.

My brother fell that day, and my preconceived notions of honour fell with him.

I fled again, now alone, seeking refuge.

 

---

III. 

In Aaun, I lived as a guest in name, and a prisoner in truth. My cousin Amelya sheltered me as best she could, but even her benevolence could not outshine the shroud of malice that had long been draped over the Aaunic courts. Plots grew around me like thorns.

And when they could not strike me, they struck one beside me -
James Marcel Whitespire, my closest friend, was murdered for no crime but kindness.

His death taught me a second lesson:
should wickedness be allowed to rule, innocence will always be its first victim.

 

---

IV.

I disappeared from the Heartlands. I had journeyed to Koyo-Kuni.
There, for the first time, I found peace.

I prostrated myself before the Shugo and his clan, who housed me, and treated me as if I were one of their own. They forged me in a fire different from war - the fire of discipline and patience. I was taught to master myself, not only my weapon.

It was in this time, too, that I served as the strong arm of High Pontiff Caius II, and partook in the war on a would-be Demon Lord Gashadokuro, and conducted for Caius II whichever holy mission he would set me upon. I earned with the Church, favour and currency, of which I brought much with me when the time had come to depart the southlands.

 

---

V.

I returned to the Heartlands, resolved and untested.
The realms of men brewed with conflict, and as was my family tradition, I reinvigorated the Blackvale Vrijkorps in search of fame and fortune. It was here I found penance, and humbled myself before His Holiness, High Pontiff Deunoro I. He professed before me that the world needed an Emperor, and that no regnant Canonist Prince proved worthy of such a mantle. His determined nature rattled me, and in a moment of clarity, I embraced this plea for destiny.

I proclaimed the King of Aaun a pretender. For the murder of James Marcel Whitespire, I would have my deluded cousin’s throne. The Princes of Ravenmire would back my claim, and with the aid of personal ties, I had amassed a frightening host.

In response, the King had sent assassins and saboteurs my way. 

I lost an eye in the defence of Illation. I gained purpose in its place.

Through diplomacy, battle, and toil, I helped deliver the Kingdom of Aaun into a Church regency and carved a foothold for order in a land long choked by scheming kings. It was the beginning of my service to the Pontifical Host, and the beginning of a faith the Church had placed in me.

 

---

VI.

I was honoured with the town of Grense, and lauded as Captain-General of the Church, a position I did not take lightly.

It was here, atop the Lemon-Hill, that St. Raguel came to me.
Not in vision - in presence.

He charged me to restore balance to the realms of Man, to end corruption where it festered, to raise again what had fallen. Once more, I was reminded of Deunoro’s mission.

As Captain-General, I marched beside nations united under the banner of the Robertine Crusade. Together we broke the Trade States, freed captives, and purged practices the Canon could not abide.

Wherever I raised my blade, realms were set ablaze with Holy Fire.

When my task was done, I vanished for the best years of my life - a pilgrimage I shall not chronicle here. Let it suffice that I returned a wiser man, my patience tested, my resolve unbroken.

 

---

VII.

When I returned to Aevos, all stood ready for my arrival. I was welcomed, as though my coming had been promised. My ancestral enemies, each and all, had stewed in complacency, and after all these years, my time - our time - had come.

The Horenic Covenant quickly took shape - the descendants of those who had burned my home, slain my kin, and sought my death in all these years. And in reply, we formed the Holy League, a gathering of all who had suffered a Covenant before. It was the culmination of over two hundred years of warfare.

But hear these words clearly:

I offered each of them mercy.
I offered clemency, titles preserved, and peace without bloodshed.

I chose to be better than the world into which I was born.

Some accepted.
Others refused.
And those who rejected mercy were slain, while those who accepted it are seen today as loyal subjects of the Empire.

From Haense to Balian, from Reinmar to Petra, I upheld the same principle:

If a ruler lays down his sword, I shall not raise mine.

 

---

VIII.

I was entrusted with the temporal authority of the church as King of Burgundy.
At my coronation, I drank from the Holy Grail, and the Grail restored what time had taken - not to glorify me, but to prepare me for the final labour:

The restoration of the Empire of Man.

The Covenant fell.
The Kingdom of Numendil pledged eternal loyalty to the ideal of a united Humanity.
And I took up the Blessed Crown of Exalted Godfrey as the rightful heir to the stewardship of mankind.

Thus, the house of Horen, and the Empire was reborn - not through terror, but through unity.

 

---

IX.

I have carried the Empire to stability.
I have restored what was shattered.
I have created the peace I was denied as a boy.

But no empire should be built on the shoulders of one man alone.
And no realm should wait to see its sovereign falter with age.

My son, Hadrian, inherits a world unbroken.
He inherits peace where I inherited ashes.
He inherits trust where I inherited lies.

I give him the Crown not because I am weary,
but because my work is complete.

 

---

X.

If history remembers me, let it be truthfully:

Not as a tyrant, though I have conquered.
Not as a saint, though I have been guided by the divine.
Not as a butcher, though I have fought in a hundred battles.

Let it be remembered that:

I was a child shown no mercy who chose to give mercy.
I was a man shaped by ruin who chose to build rather than burn.
I was an orphan of shattered realms who chose to unite them.

May Hadrian rule with clearer skies than I ever knew.

 

 

 

---

 

 

H V M A N I T A S    I N V I C T A

IN NOMINE DEI,

 

HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY, Tiberias I of the House Horen, by the Grace of GOD, 

Emperor of Man, Holy Imperator, King of Burgundy, Seventis, Salvus, Renatus & Oren, 

Duke of Middelan, Helena, Lorraine, Sunholdt and Reutov, Protector of Grense, Protector of the Heartlanders, Patriarch of House Horen & the Tiberian Dynasty, 

Captain-General of the Church, Defender of the Faith.

 

BVRGVNDIA IMPERIVM

 

A letter is also privately addressed to Hadrian I. @Werew0lf

 

Spoiler

Hadrian, my son. As I set aside my crown, I find the last thing I wish to write as Emperor, not a decree, but a letter to you. 

 

You were born not merely of my blood, but of my hopes for the future. I have watched you grow into a man who tempers courage with restraint, ambition with humility, and judgment with rationality. You do not rush to command; you listen, you learn, you answer deliberately. 

 

A throne is not made heavy by its gold, but by the choices it demands.
I have seen you make these choices - and I have seen you choose rightly.

Know then this: there is no man alive more suited to take up this crown than you.

If I am remembered as the Emperor who rebuilt the world, let you be remembered as the one who perfected it.

Your father, always before your Emperor,

Tiberias

 

 

 

 

[OOC]; To those who have been with me on this journey, from the very beginning or thereafter, I thank each and every one of you for having provided me the means to embark on such a narrative. There are obviously details missing from this story, and may the individuals be immortalised in some other chronicle, for they were hardly named. But I have not forgotten a single instance of RP with any of you.

I thank my foes for making it so difficult, and I thank all of my friends for having made it that much easier. To the ones I have betrayed, I am really sorry. To the ones I have uplifted, you are welcome.

This is not my departure from human roleplay, nor the Empire, but it is the last time Tiberias reigns. Long may it last.

 

[cadazio 2105]

The winds changed course, for the old Archchancellor, that entire week; though his friend remained alive, to see him gone was a soft agony. He had stood by Tiberias since the beginning, and had been witness to him as architect of the present, and the future. For the first time in decades, he lit a cigar, for the Restorer and Hadrian his heir.

[TaraJess 2853]

The blood curdling screams of a child still echoed in the palace.
What was history, if not a circle?

[Sarven 2619]

The Reinmaren Herald smiled softly as he read the missive, it was through the Honorable Tiberias that the Tribes of Gelimar and Theoderic once more had bountiful fields on which grazed their herds and plentiful bounties from which once thrived their ancestors.

 

Theodemar would only hope that successor prove himself worthy as did his father.

"Hail Chief of Chiefs!"

[yeeter2k 247]

"Hail to the Chief of Chiefs!" While hearing of the news from the confines of his keep, Aerik von Wesenburg lifted his spear and shield upward as one last hurrah to the Emperor Tiberias I. He then began to pack a bag for a future visit to the capital to pay his respects.

"And now, hail to his heir, Hadrian Tiberias."

[Nestro_Miner 589]

The Imperial Jeweler read the missive and immediately stood to ride for the Capital, a shroud of sadness forming within his beating heart.

[wolfdwg 2677]

✠

The Grand Knight sat amidst the Knight Hold within the back of the city of Rittersberg. He recalled the many battles he had shared with the Emperor. How he as a young boy looked up to and admired the one eyed man who had risen from ashes, to become the unifier of man. He remembered when the Master of Mankind had granted him the title of Sir, then Chaptermaster, and then the Grand Knight of the Emperor, the enforcer of his will. In that time of peace after the Cataclysm of Aevos, Sir Arn saw the Order of the Red Dragon re-envisioned, and swell with young blood. 

"Tiberias, you are a great man. It was an honor to serve as your fist. Perhaps it might be time to allow a new generation to helm our project. Flame guide you, my friend."

 

Sir Arn sat there in that office, he was truly the last now amongst the old guard. Of those who shaped the Empire.

 

Spoiler

So long cowboy @Tide1 you'll always be my emperor.

 

[Nectorist 12871]

Galar Ithelanen, from his home in Caurost, receives word of the Emperor’s abdication. With none to speak to, he takes to his own thoughts.

 

He wreathed himself in the mantling of the Pertinaxi, his ancestors. I was raised among them, and I knew each and every one…

 

Men may say that Tiberias is no Aurelius. I would be inclined to agree.

 

He has surpassed him.

[tasty_cheesecake 2298]

Enrique poured over some documents, in preparation for a church meeting, having himself retired mostly from the rigors of statecraft, when an assistant brings to him a notice of his once-colleague’s retirement. He thought about sending a fruit basket, but he forgot which fruits were appetizing enough to be gifted. 

[Lortime 1153]

Parzival Frowned. He felt a deep sadness in his heart, though not for any particular love of the now Emperor-Emeritius. He was a fine enough Leader, a decent man in general. His sadness was only a transitory emotion, for it soon gave way to fear. A deep fear of what the Empire would now become without its clear-headed leader. 

A fear of what he knew was coming, and a greater fear of what was to come that he couldn't comprehend. He sat in Castle Fritzbrook, sipping on Azor Red, sitting in silence as he dwelled in the mire of his emotions. He pondered what would come next for the Empire.

 

Time would tell. 

 

[annanicole__ 2802]

Somewhere across the lands, Lorelei lit a candle and murmured a quiet prayer. “You did well, better than we ever imagined. Long live Hadrian, and God save the Empire.”

[Aeus 2653]

Adriel read over the missive from his new forest home. The charred sanctuary was now filled with the music of nature and life restored by his hand. He sets the letter down, starting his way through the ruins. He recalled the years in which a young Tiberias took refuge within his sanctuary. When he and his sisters came to Adriel for advice, when they were hurt, when they were joyous. He had become a sort of father to them in his eyes. He could not help but feel pride at the news of Tiberias' ascension to the Imperial Throne. Adriel fought for Tiberias' father, for his brother, and now he was able to fight alongside the boy clad in white, feeding fish at the shore of the Raell'uvuliran with a much younger Adriel. A boy who became more than just a man, an Emperor.

 

"God bless you and guide you, Tiberias van Aert." The elf whispered to himself as he disappeared into his forest.

[Hom 1988]

The memories of a man long dead linger too, in the fire and smoke of Winburgh. It is curious to have one action namelessly immortalized, again and again, as the domino which set off a series of events none could have foretold. A symbolic domino, really. The true origin of the Empire as it now stands was likely the signing of a pen, or the raising of a sword, far before that city ever burned. And yet, the genesis is marked in living memory by a singular act of true hatred. One can only wonder what a man may think, to be carried through history by his fire. To know that in a life of loves, and losses, and prides, and falls, it is that day of desperate anger which exists as his true thumbprint in history.

Maybe he would be fascinated by the existence of a phoenix. One may never know.

[Rig 17591]

"For peace, stability, and justice!" proclaimed Inquisitor Germanicus, before he resumed his duties. 

[kuerbis 3802]

In a rare moment of clarity did that only other surviving child of Gaspard look upon her older brother. She took off her jester cap for the last time and set it aside with a humble sigh. "It is time to enjoy what you have created, Tibb." 
 

Far from the capital, Madelief offered but a humble prayer for Tiberias, long may he be able to enjoy his retirement. She took to her strict bedrest after having concluded her stay at the myrinian chapel.

Within the capital, the now almost-grown Valentiná, who was a ward to Tiberias, bowed her head low in respect to her aging mentor. Many things had he taught her, many lessons had she learned from a man greater than all others. She looked to the new Emperor and the Crown Prince with anticipation, ready for a new era.