Sir Reglas

Sir Reglas is the most famous knight serving the Koa Republic. During Nasser Graham's Rebellion, he turned against the Koan Empire and joined the Pride to overthrow The Undying Empress. In the war's aftermath, he was instrumental in rebuilding his country into the Koan Republic, introducing many reforms such as returning power to the elected knights of the Koan Senate, abolishing the caste system dividing the Koan plebian and patrician class, and enshrining protections for speech and expression of political views.
Some of Reglas's reforms have proven controversial. His decision to adhere to provisions of the Chimera treaties limiting the size of the Koa's navy and instating a reparations program to compensate victims of the Empire across the spheres have drawn criticism from some Koa, who believe Reglas sold out the Koa to appease his friends in the newly-formed Chimera Alliance. Nevertheless, Reglas has enjoyed soaring popularity among the Koan people, which has helped the Koa accept even these controversial reforms.
Reglas's regime faced its greatest challenge when Prince Lucas, the son Nasser Graham, was accused of destroying the Koan moon, Aspidie. Many believed the Koa would break away from the alliance in response to the incident, or worse, declare war. However, deft manuevering on Sir Reglas's part managed to avert the crisis by proposing marriage to the Homyn princess, Eleanor Halle Graham. While the princess accepted his proposal, he found more difficulty winning some of his own people to reconciliaiton with the Homyn Kingdom. As Reglas prepared for the wedding, he discovered a conspiracy carried out by a group called the Blue Frogs--who sought to use the wedding to their own ends to overthrow the republic and restore the Koan Empire.

Early Life

Born into a well-to-do patrician family, Reglas grew up sheltered from the Koan Empire's crimes and misdeeds. With no reason to distrust the Empire's propoganda machine, he wholeheartedly acccepted his family's wishes to become a knight. His talent and dedication quickly saw him rise above his peers and caught the attnetion of The Undying Empress's First Knight, Sir Phaedrus. During his early career, Sir Reglas served as Phaedrus's squire alongside another squire named Sir Latro. The two young aspirants' personalities clashed at first, with Latro's recklessnes serving as a stark coutnerpoint to Reglas's discipline. However, over time the two developed an unlikely friendship that would endure for the decades to come.
The most formative relationship during Reglas's early career was the bond he formed with Phaedrus himself. The empress's first knight found himself falling in love with his young protoge. By the time Sir Reglas ascended to knighthood in his own right, they were engaged to be married. Even though Reglas came from a prestigious family, his soon-to-be husband dwarfed his wealth and station in society. Nevertheless, Phaedrus doted on Sir Reglas despite the judgment from his elite peers. Reglas's relationship with Phaedrus opened many doors, while closing others. His clout allowed Reglas to ascend the ranks of knighthood and gain honors in the senate well-above his station. However, the first knight's favors and nepotism also spared Reglas from having to confront the moral compromises and gruesome realizations that typically came with working for the Koan Empire. While many knights extoled the codes of honor and chivalry as part of the empire's propoganda machine, Reglas--for better or worse--truly believed them.

The Pride's Rebellion

Reglas's worldview faced a reckoning when a growing rebellion emerged on the fringes of imperial territory. Though the Empire wrote off these foes as insurrection led by a barbarian pirate from the Rim, that explanation held less and less water as more of the empire's subjects joined the cause. Eventually, the rebellion found its way to the Koan homeworld, and the empire dispatched Reglas to capture the fugitives leading it. The chase proved less taxing than he expected, as Nasser Graham surrendered immediately. Apparently, the rebel leader had learned that the Koa guarunteed a trial to all their prisoners and wanted to use his own public trial to prove the empire's crimes. Always eager to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and intrigued by Nasser Graham's offer, Reglas arrested the rebel leader peacably (although to strenous protests of the Pride's other members).
As Reglas set out to prove Nasser Graham's guilt, the rebel leader instead convinced him of the Koan Empire's. However, in the end, Reglas could not keep his promise to provide Nasser a public trial. Rather than give their enemy a platform to air his grievances, Sir Phaedrus--at The Undying Empress's direction--introduced a bill of attainder in the senate that would allow an execution without a trial. Given that the senate was little more than a puppet of The Undying Empress during this period in the Koa's history, everyone expected the bill to pass unanimously and without debate. However, after much soul searching, Reglas upset those expectations by taking up his spear against the bill. As a single knight, he stood no chance of defeating every knight in the Senate. Instead, he fought defensively to filibuster the execution, buying time for the rest of the rebel forces to arrive. After a battle, the Pride invaded the city and freed their leader. Now labeled a traitor, Reglas joined the Pride, leaving his country and a heartbroken fiancee behind.
Nasser Graham surprised Reglas once again when he announced, on the eve of the final confrontation between the rebel forces and the Koan Armada, that the Pride would be moving ahead of their army to confront the empress on their own. With Reglas's aid, the Pride snuck into the Imperial City and defeated The Undying Empress before the two navies squared off.

A New Republic

With The Undying Empress defeated, the Koa's future remained uncertain. Nasser Graham's surprise strike on the imperial palace meant the empire no longer had a leader--but it still had an army. Many imperial sympathizers viewed The Undying Empress's death as a mere assassination rather than a decisive end to the war, and believed it was only a matter of time before the Koan Armada returned to "liberate" the captured imperial territories. However, outside of the patrician elite, most Koa suffered under imperial rule and had little appetite to return to it. Reglas was already popular among the masses given his anomalously clean record as a knight, but his stand against the Empire led most of his kind to see him as a bona fide hero. When establishing the Chimera Alliance, Nasser Graham asked Reglas to rule over a new Koan government that would become a party to the treaties. After much consideration, Reglas turned down his friend's offer. He believed placing power in a single individual would risk the new government falling into the same pitfalls that the empire did. Instead, he created a republic that returned power to the senate's elected knights. In doing so, he hoped to create a government that served the people's interests, the kind of governemnt that ruled the Koa before the rise of the empire, the kind of governemnt Reglas thought he served before Nasser Graham opened his eyes.
In establishing the Koan Republic, Reglas championed many reforms that improved the lives of the Koan people. Most notably, he abolished the caste system and eugenics programs that divided the Koa between patricians and plebians. In doing so, the republic outlawed the use of "egg farms" where menial workers in the plebian caste were bred and raised on an industrial scale using external fertilization. Freedom of expression also proved to be a cornerstone of Reglas's new government. Rather than tear down the Rostrum where the empresses would deliver their decrees to the people, he converted it into a town square where any member of the public could take the stage to express their views.
While Reglas championed the people domestically, he also balanced their interests against those of the empire's former subjects in the newly-formed Chimera alliance. Many of the members of the alliance viewed the notion of treating their former (and conquered) oppressors as equals with disdain. Reglas took it upon himself to earn the trust of the other nations on behalf of the Koan people. As part of the Chimera Treaties, he brokered agreements to limit the size of the Koan navy to only as many ships as necessary to defend themselves against Sera's leviathans--including capping the number of submarines and outright banning the use of imperial dreadnaughts that had been used as tools to oppress the people of the spheres for so long. Reglas also championed a reparations program to compensate the empire's former subjects for his crimes. Although controversial, he attracted popular support for the measure by extending the beneficiaries to the Koan underclass and as well as Koa who suffered losses for aiding the rebellion. This move meant that even though the Koan economy as a whole suffered from sending money and resources to foreign spheres, most individual Koa benefited from the reparations program.
That is not to say Reglas's reforms came without cost. Many Koa found difficulty adjusting to sharing the cosmos's resources with other spheres--especially the valuable nectar that Source produced. The elite members of society were forced to cut back on the use of nectar power machines. Eventually, the republic made the difficult decision to sink one of their floating cities, Magnikar, due to dwindling nectar supplies. While Reglas gave residents plenty of forewarning and assistance with evacuation, many still saw the loss of a city that was once called the jewel of the empire as an ominous sign.
As the dust settled on the rebellion, Reglas receded from international politicking to focus on his work in the Koan Senate. Although, even in this new era he often found himself at odds with his fellow knights in the patrician party. After deliberating the matter, he made the difficult decision to switch his affiliation to the plebian knights--as even though he was not born into the plebian caste, Reglas believed he would find more ideological allies among them than his former party. His assessment proved accurate in the end, and Reglas grew the plebian party into the dominant poltiical force in the Koan Senate. While the patricians continue to enjoy a solid hold over a sizeable minority of seats, even these knights eventually gave up their imperialist rhetoric in the face of public opposition and adopted more democratic positions that still tried to advocate for Koan nationalism and exceptionalism.
Reglas spent most of his child-rearing years as a bachelor, dedicating his entire life to rebuilding the Koan republic. However, he found a successor sorts whom he hoped might carry on his legacy in a young squire, Titus. The son of the republic's patriarch, Vespasian, the young lad showed great promise in combat that, combined with his family connections, might one day take him to even greater heights than Reglas reached.

The Koan Engagement

Reglas found the peace he'd dedicated his career to building in grave jeopardy when Nasser Graham's son, Prince Lucas, destroyed the Koan moon Aspidie during a dispute with the Corsairs. Acting quickly to quell demands for war or retribution, Reglas traveled to Source for the Homyn Princess Halle's nineteenth birthday party where he could gain an audience with the royal family. Luckily, he already had a reason to be abroad when the attack occured, as Titus had planned to travel to Source in order to take the corsair exam.
At the party, Reglas gathered a small group into the queen's chamber and asked for the Homyn Princess's hand in marriage. He hoped that her acceptance would provide a sign of good faith that the Homyn did not intend to act aggresively, as the princess was the heir to the Homyn throne. Her presence on Sera would discourage acts of aggression by the Homyn and would help reunify the two peoples by encouraging a greater Homyn presence on Sera.
But the proposal did not assuage everyone who took umbrage against the Homyn. A growing movement among the Koa advocating separation from the Alliance. These separatists were led by a wealthy Koan citizen named Flavian, who had announced his candidacy to unseat Sir Reglas in the Senate--the first person in decades to challenge the popular knight's seat.
To make matters worse, Sir Reglas’s squire, Titus, had gone missing since returning from Lion City after failing the Corsair Exam. Titus was also the son of the current leader of the Koan Senate, Vespasian. Given the controversy surrounding the destruction of Aspidie, Vespasian was planning to retire after the coming election and pass his leadership role to Sir Reglas. Vespasian had suggested the marriage proposal to Sir Reglas hoping that a marriage between two future leaders of the Homyn and Koa would bring the nations together.
After asking the Corsairs to investigate Titus's disaeppearence, they learned that the young squire was investigating a secret organization of assassins loyal to the Koan Empire known as the Blue Frogs. Evidence seemed to suggest they were collaborating with Flavian in some way, so the Corsairs asked Reglas to accept an invitation to debate Flavian at his mansion so as to provide them cover to sneak in and look for evidence. Reglas accepted the debate, although found himself losing credibility agreeing to entertain someone who was previously considered a fringe candidate, especially on his own turf in front of a crowd of his adoring supporters. While Reglas's electability may have suffered a bit, the investigation proved successful and the Corsairs uncovered a vast conspiracy between Flavian and the Blue Frogs that involved kidnapping and brainwashing the squires of knights loyal to the republic.

Sunken Empire

With the help of Reglas's old fiancee, Phaedrus--now serving a life prison sentence--the cosairs discovered the location of the Blue Frogs' base, located beneath the waves in the sunken city of Magnikar, In order to reach the sunken city, the Corsairs would need to enlist the aid of a submarine of their own. They visited the admiral of the Republic Navy who happened to be a big fan of Sir Reglas. Once he learned the Corsairs were working with the illustrious knight, he readily agreed to send three of the Republic’s submarines to assault the Blue Frog’s headquarters.
Arriving at the sunken City, Sir Reglas asked to accompany the corsairs—as his honor prohibited him from remaining idle while they helped rescue his missing squire. Before departing, the admiral gave them a secret codeword: “mistletoe” that would signal the Navy to attack the tower once Titus and any other innocents had been secured.
After many battles against the Blue Frogs' defenses, Reglas and the corsairs found and freed Titus while he was in the process of being tortured and brainwashed by a crazed imperial film propogandist named Voden. Traumatized by his treatment, Titus lashed out and killed Voden as soon as he was released.
Finally, the group reached the docks at the top of the tower and found a large group of Blue Frog soldiers and assassins gathered in front of their submarine. Inspecting their leader in greater detail, the corsairs realized that—unlike the others—he was not wearing a mask, but his skin was naturally blue. It appeared that the modern-day Blue Frogs were led by none other than Corvus Vile: the original founder of their order from three-hundred years ago who helped the first Koan Empress overthrow the original Koan Republic by purging her enemies during the Night it Rained Blue Frogs.
The Blue Frog forces were too strong to take on directly, so Itthis enlisted Jaime’s help in sneaking over to a radio to try to divert the soldier’s attention while the rest of the party moved toward an escape pod. But Itthis was detected as he was trying to grab a set of dossiers the Blue Frogs had left out in the open. With the stealthy approach having failed, Reglas told the others to run for the exits and then asked Titus to recount what a squire’s duty was when the knight he served falls. Titus replied that a squire’s job is to assume the responsibilities of the knight he serves. Reglas then threw himself into the fray, sacrificing himself so you and Titus could escape. As the Blue Frog Soldiers and Corvus Vile swarmed Reglas, he grabbed his radio and spoke the phrase “mistletoe.”With the signal being given, Wukong and Titus headed toward the walls of the tower while Thurmacc and Ryld provided cover fire. Itthis managed to snag the Blue Frogs’ dossiers before the navy’s torpedoes blew the Ziggurat Lofts to smithereens.
Once they surfaced the navy recovered the survivors, arresting the Blue Frog soldiers and providing medical attention to those who needed it. The admiral was utterly crestfallen at the news that Reglas hadn’t made it back. But before they could mourn the fallen knight a shadow appeared inside the rubble.Corvus Vile appeared inside the smoke carrying Reglas over his shoulder. He disappeared after dropping the knight off. Apparently, the Blue Frogs still ahd plans for him.
The group returned after their successful mission not to the adoring public they hoped for. Instead, Flavian had gathere a group of his own supporters to boo and jeer the returning heroes for going on "vacation" while the Republic was in need. Finally losing his patience after so many ordeals, Reglas smacked Flavian upside the head with the back of his spear and returned to the Senate.

The Bachelors of Alteri

With most of the evidence linking Flavian either lost to the seaa or locked away in his private residence, efforts to convict him using the judicial process proved unavailing--especially with many of the judges in the Blue Frogs' pockets. To deal with the issue, Patriarch Vespasian proposed an unorthodox solution. The same process for introducig a Bill of Attainder that was used to convict Nasser Graham without a trial remained enshrined in Koan law. While no doubt a power subject to abuse, if any circumstances justiifed the use of such harsh legislative measures--it was these. Surprisingly, Reglas did not dismiss the idea out of hand. However, he knew that even with his popularity, passing such a bill would be a tall order.
In the meantime, he had received an invitation to a bachelor party from his old friend, Sir Latro. Unlike most districts in the Koan republic, Latro's home of Alteri has no traditional voting populace. Instead, the district is awarded to whoever can keep the island’s rampant mutants in check. Sir Latro is a powerful ally to the ruling party of the Republic since he is a strong fighter and has no voters to answer to. However, his district is dangerous, and he is not known for being cautions, so Reglas had reservations about putting his marriage and political mission in jeopardy by risking his life for a party. Reglas reluctantly agreed to attend the party under the Corsairs' escort in hopes of recruiting Sir Latro to help fight the Blue Frogs in the Senate.
However, Reglas soon discovered that there was more to Latro's legislation than met the eye. His squires were secretly plotting a coup against him, after an argument led his eldest squire, Silis, to lose faith in his ability to control the island's mutants. Silis wanted to activate a bomb that would destroy the entire island and prevent a mutant outbreak across Sera. Latro brought Reglas and his friends to to the island in hopes that dragging them into the dispute would deter Silis or at least provide him allies against the coup. After the squires attacked, he infected the Corsairs with the alteri virus and dropped them off on the island, hoping that they would benefit from the island's powerful mutagnes and become strong enough to take on the squires. Meanwhile, he locked Reglas away in the castle dungeons for his own sfaety.
Latro's plan worked to a certain extent. The Corsairs returned more powerful than before and having defeated on of Latro's squires. However, that power came at great cost, as the Corsairs lost their beloved companion Anh during their assault on the castle. After freeing Reglas, the Corsairs were able to convince Silis and Latro to set aside their differneces to help combat the greater threat to the Koan republic.

The Night it Rained Blue Frogs

Reglas returned to find that Anh wasn't the only friend his ordeals on Alteri island might have cost him. Jin Bei had been friends with the venerable corsair since his childhood, and his loss caused a rift to form between the two former members of the Pride. Jin Bei blamed Reglas for refusing Nasser Graham's offer to rule the Koa, and believed the Republic's liberties and legal protections were what allowed the Blue Frogs to flourish and manipulate their society in the first place. He increasingly saw the troubles on Sera as a distraction from what should have been the Corsairs' true mission, finding the missing Nasser Graham, one that had now cost Princess Halle's freedom to choose her own spouse and now Anh's very life.
Nevertheless, Reglas and the Corsairs saw no option but to proceed in their efforts to combat the Blue Frogs. After gaining more support in the Senate, he finally introduced his Bill of Attainder against Flavian. Shortly before the vote, the leader of the Patrician Party and Reglas's longtime friend and rival--Sir Cassia--visited him to express her disappointment that he was resorting to the empire's own tactics in order to defeat his opponents. However, given the control the Blue Frogs exerted over society and the damage Flavian had caused, he saw no other choice but to proceed.
Unsurprisingly, Flavian found a way to insert his own opinions on the matter by getting a resolution passed that allowed him to speak right before the vote under the pretext of eulogizing Anh. What did surprise everyone was that Flavian had enlisted the aid and support of Anh's father, Vih Edonia. The elder Edonia was an enigmatic crimelord who struck fear into the hearts of those who knew him--especially Sir Latro. His sudden appearence in the Senate changed the tenor of the vote fo the worst, but Reglas still prevailed thanks to the Corsairs' battle strategies and the knights they had rallied to his cause.
With the wedding finally upon them, Reglas took to the Rostrum in hopes of assuaging his people amidst the recent tumultuous events. However, during his speech a runaway leapfrog mech crashed into the Rostrum sending the crowd into a panic. With little doubt as to who was responsible for the attack, Reglas realized that his upcoming wedding night would indeed be a long one.