Emperor Barabbas

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Called: the Mariner

Early life and Election

Emperor Barabbas was a Highborn man who grew up hearing stories of Atun and Atuman and became obsessed with the sea at an early age. He was a charismatic, strong-willed man who developed a following in the Senate while serving as one of the Highborn generals. In his mid-thirties he parlayed his reputation and various alliances into a political career, and eventually to the throne.

Writers of the time described him as surprisingly open and friendly; he undermined the stereotype of the dour Highborn, without ever giving the impression of being impious. During his life he was praised for his Ambition, Pride and Prosperity, although as the theologian Bishop Eulaile de Tassato is said to have remarked after his death "He was as brave as he was ambitious, as proud as he was prosperous, and as wise as he was able to regurgitate whole lobsters."

Reign

Barabbas was elected in a time of expansion, and while he served adequately as the director of the land armies, his real desire was to extend Imperial control over the entire Bay of Catazar. At this time the Grendel were particularly active, launching several concerted raids against the southern coast of the Empire.

Barabbas spent a fortune funding exploration, pouring money into the coffers of the Freeborn shipbuilders. He sought to build an Imperial Fleet capable of conquering nations overseas, to spread the Empire to Surann, Skoura and ultimately to the destroy the threat of the barbaric Grendel by conquering Attar. He soon realised that he lacked any real skill as a shipwright, but that did not stop his raw enthusiasm for the mariner's art infecting those around him.

He supported the Freeborn expansion into Segura, but his focus was not entirely on the Brass Coast; he encouraged mariners and sailors of all nations to look beyond the borders of the Empire. He was not solely a warmonger, despite some attempts by his political enemies to paint him as such. He actively encouraged trade with foreign nations whose attitudes and politics were not entirely opposed to those of the Empire. A number of trade routes that still exist today were established by Barabbas' pioneers. He also encouraged the Senate to spend money expanding many settlements with good harbours - Siroc, Sarvos, Meade, Trivento and even Bastion all benefited from his maritime spending.

While his enthusiasm allowed the Empire to build a solid fleet, his failure to conquer Attar destroyed the majority of the Imperial warships as well as the fortunes of many of those he had convinced to invest in his ambitious project. Since then the Senate has shied away from any naval projects on a similar scale.

Death and Legacy

Consequently Emperor Barabbas is perhaps best known for the manner of his death. He was lost when his Barabbine fleet ran into stormy seas two days south of Joharra, resulting in the first, biggest – and most expensive – naval disaster of Imperial history. Their intention was to build a foothold on Attar and begin a war of extermination against the Grendel. TBC

The only enduring legacies of his reign are the naval defences along the Bay of Catazar, and the ships of the Freeborn corsairs. The Freeborn took shameless advantage of his generosity towards all things maritime, using the endowments and investments he encouraged to build the solid core of Freeborn ships that defend the bay to this day.

Emperor Barabbas rests uneasy beneath the sea; the memorial obelisk that bears his name in the Necropolis sits above an empty chamber. Over the years after his death three distinct stories about his end began to circulate. In one, Barabbas is born again as an albino (or black) dolphin who aids stranded mariners in the Bay of Catazarr. This story is likely fanciful, and a development of the more traditional stories about dolphins told to Freeborn children.

The second story suggests that Barabbas, denied burial, is unable to pass through the Labyrinth and instead continues a tortured existence as a restless shade. According to rumour this ghostly spirit has visited Emperors, Freeborn dhomiro and Highborn generals to warn them of raids along the coast by the Grendel and other enemies of the Empire. No reliable evidence to support this claim exists.

Finally, there is a story that Barabbas' flagship, the Basilisk's Daughter, was attacked at the height of the storm and dragged beneath the waves by a kraken of tremendous size. Given that two-thirds of the fleet was lost in the storm, some eye-witnesses certainly survived, but this story did not come to the attention of Imperial historians until some thirty years after the Emperor's death, making it's provenance suspicious.

Only one of the ships that set sail with Barabbas survives today; the Lazy Basilisk, an inn on the quayside of Sarvos is made from the remains of the last surviving remains of the Barabbine fleet. It is believed to currently be owned by one of the wealthier (and most secretive)Reckoner guilds. Perhaps unfairly, to this day, to call a ship a “Barabbine tub” is a grave insult to the ship’s crew, and is often thrown at a Freeborn corsair crew by jealous League rivals.