Emperor Ahraz

Called:The Liberator

Early Life and Election

In 322YE, The Orc Rebellion began in Varushka, By 324YE, the Senate was desperate to end the rebellion. Following very public promises by the Freeborn senators that they would end the rebellion, they elected a Scrivener named Ahraz i Tamerlin i Guerra to the throne. The only Freeborn emperor to date his reign would be short and unhappy and marked by violence and internal conflict.

Reign

The Emperor led a force of Brass Coast forces and troops from other nations that had supported his election in pursuit of the rag-tag orc armies. Unknown to those outside his immediate circle, he had already begun negotiations with the orcs using contacts established earlier in the rebellion by Freeborn merchants. Several meetings took place, where Ahraz reiterated his people’s antipathy for slavery and desire to see the orcs freed. The Emperor offered full citizenship to any orc who would swear to serve the Empire and committed to achieving freedom for all orcs enslaved by the Empire. After weeks of protracted talks, Ahraz was able to convince the orcs of his sincerity and extracted from them an oath to serve the Imperial throne. Marching to Anvil in a calculated show of strength, the Emperor presented the agreement to the Senate. Partly through his own personal charisma, but mostly through the hard work of his allies, Arhaz was able to get his proposals ratified by the Senate.

After the end of the Orc Rebellion, Arhaz was called before the Synod and questioned about his actions and the motivation therof. In a passionate speech he expressed the shame he felt that so much of the Empire he loved had been built on the back of slavery. He argued that every coin in the Imperial Treasury had been paid for with orc blood, and successfully defended his actions in the name of each of the virtues in turn.

Arhaz' reign was marked by upheaval and rebellion. He survived three assassination attempts from those ruined by the loss of the orc slaves, one of which claimed the life of his beloved daughter. His actions were openly criticized as having lead to the Freedom Heresy that began during his second year on the throne, despite his protestations. His decision, supported principally by the Navarr to refuse to send the army after the secessionists was seen as a sign of weakness, despite his repeated claims that the anarchists would prove their own worst enemies.

Death and Legacy

After the barbarians sacked the secessionist stronghold, Arhaz stepped down from the throne and lived out the rest of his life in seclusion in mountains of Kahraman. He died shortly afterwards, and reports at the time say that he looked like a man easily twice his actual age of forty-seven. His body was interred in the Necropolis in an understated black marble tower.

In 342 YE, a legion of Imperial Orcs were apprehended attempting to break into the tomb of Emperor Arhaz. While initially mistaken for tomb robbers, they made no effort to resist arrest. Investigation of the tomb indicated they had touched nothing, but had left behind the body of three dead orcs wrapped in shrouds. The dead orcs had been among the negotiators who had first met with the Emperor and been swayed by his arguments. Having recently died, the legion had decided to inter them alongside the Emperor who had brought them into the Empire, When questioned further, they simply maintained that they felt it was inappropriate for Emperor Ahraz to be alone in death. Despite some initial resistance, the appropriateness of the move found supporters in both the Synod and the Senate, and over the next twenty years the tomb was re-opened another seven times. Emperor Arhaz' tomb now has an honour guard of ten dead orc heroes.

"What price their freedom? Better to ask what price their slavery! What price for the spread of contempt from those who lead to those who follow? What price for indolence and opposition to innovation becoming commonplace in the halls of power? What price to the suffering of those innocent-born for the unjust gain of another? You speak of price, and Freeborn though I be, I will put no price on these things. I cannot, I will not sell the Empire's ideals so cheaply.

Have we learned, I say, have we learned nothing from the fall of the Highborn patricians? Any system predicated on corrupt practices is inherently unstable and doomed to fall. And furthermore, I might add, slavery itself is totally antithetical to the founding principles of our Empire, where from the earliest days we saw the virtue of anyone being able to achieve even the highest offices in the land solely based upon their own merit and determination."

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