Emperor Walter

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Called:The Ham-fisted

Early Life and Election

Emperor Walter Upwold was a Marcher naga of the Sweetroot Marrowdene family. The child of wealthy parents, he was allegedly a spoiled child. While his grandfather, mother, and two of his aunts all served as aldermen of Sweetroot, he had little interest in hard work. Rather, he possessed a confidence trickster's ability to get other people to trust him with their own money - money he invariably squandered. Indeed, over the course of his short-lived career he wasted the majority of their money, leaving his surviving family penniless (and shunned thanks largely to his irredeemable behaviour).

Reign

He was a catastrophically incompetent Emperor who never went into the Senate during his short reign. Even at the time it was widely known that he bought his election, simply throwing money at enough Senators to ensure he stood unopposed, while spouting meaningless platitudes to the Empire about the need for unity in the face of increased orc aggression. As soon as he was appointed to the Throne, he abandoned or actively reversed almost all his empty promises. He openly sold his favour to whoever wanted it, and primarily ignored the various processes of state - apart from to keep a close eye on the Synod to ensure he was not Revoked.

Death and Legacy

He left the throne after a comparatively short time, during a lavish banquet paid for by one of his cronies with Hand of the Chancellor. It is widely believed he was assassinated. According to eyewitnesses he became incoherent over the fish course - initially mistaken for a surfeit of fine Dawnish wines. When he broke a half-empty bottle over the head of the Senator for Upwold, Gareth of Ashill, and began to attack the guests it was clear something out of the ordinary was occurring. The Emperor died a few minutes into his apparent drunken rampage, allegedly suffering a fatal stroke.

He is interred in the Necropolis in a small white granite tomb screened from view by a thick stand of yew trees. He was not missed. Following his death, many Marchers began calling him "Walter the Rat'.

It is not an exaggeration to say that if Walter had remained on the Throne for much longer, he might well have brought down the Empire with his incompetence. During his reign every foreign nation closed their embassies with the Empire in protest, for example. The barbarian orcs rampaged barely checked across the border territories, and the Synod and Senate alike were riven with in-fighting and open hostility in the face of a man who actively appeared to be fanning the flames of conflict for his own amusement.

After his death, there was a short-lived attempt to claim he was possessed, or a servant of a malign spiritual power but such claims were categorically refuted by the [{Cardinal]] of Pride. In a well-known speech, the Cardinal denounced attempts to paint Walter as anything other than he was - a perfectly mundane, corrupt monster who played on the weaknesses and venal nature of others to get what he wanted, and an object lesson as to what happens when the Synod and the Senate abandon their responsibility to the people.

In some ways, Walter's ill-starred reign opened the way for Empress Britta. Even during the reign of Empress Giselle, the sheer self-serving corruption of the Senate had been at least partly concealed. Under Walter, some of the worst senators put aside their masks are revealed their true agendas making the need for some sort of reformation if the Empire was to survive.

Emperor Walter in Play

Walter was a venal, corrupt, incompetent, narcissist of a man largely disowned by his own nation. He represents the worst failings of the Imperial system, and serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of a Senate and a Synod that lose sight of their responsibilities to the people of the Empire.

He lived and died only recently. It is acceptable for player characters to have met him, to have opposed him or suffered at the hands of his cronies - or even to have supported him or to benefited from his twisted patronage.