Polonius Avon III
Emperor
The former emperor of the Elflands Empire from 431 - 896 of the 4th Cycle. He helped forge the Elflands-Gamerian alliance with King Constell II, and he withstood the tiefling invasion of the 740’s by using dragonborn and orcs as cannon fodder. This led to the revolt and independence of the dragonborn tribes in the Bahamut Mtns., but Polonius learned his lesson and prevented any other races from following suit. The denizens of Thork remember him for the brutal crackdown on protests he oversaw in the 790's. His death from natural causes in 896 led to instability in the empire, igniting both the Characters Revolution and the Sunken God's Reign of Terror.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Imperial Years
Emperor Polonius III came to power in a time when newly-formed human kingdoms were challenging centuries of elven hegemony all over Pescaliat. The Kiri-Kawa wars of the Northern Territories had grown more intense, and the nation of Gameth was looking to expand its borders into Southern Pescat. Fearing Gameth's young ruler King Constell II would set his sights on the Elflands Empire, Polonius developed a two-pronged plan to preserve the empire: accommodate regional rivals to discourage them from invading while at the same time mercilessly suppressing any signs of unrest in the Empire to keep his kingdom united in the face of foreign threats.
The strategy proved successful in dealing with Gameth, the two nations forging a treaty in the late 400's of the 4th Cycle as King Constell chose to focus on conquering Glace and Rakka. Halfling students at Mulane College in Noggin protested early on in Polonius' reign for better representation in government, but they became the first faction to face the brutality of the Emperor's suppression tactics. In contrast to previous leaders of the Elflands, no tribe or ethnic group managed to successfully secede from the Elflands in his first 300 years as Emperor.
Polonius' greatest challenge came in in the 740's when Rakka declared an all-out war against the Elflands, the first major Elflands/Rakkan conflict of the 4th Cycle. Still bitter over the deal the Elflands made with Gameth, the tieflings of Rakka organized a pincer-shaped campaign to invade the Elflands from both ends of the Bahamut Mtns. The centuries of peace had given Polonius time to organize a defense plan against a Rakkan invasion, sending hundreds of thousands of dragonborn and orcs to their deaths to overwhelm the tiefling armies. Soldiers were threatened with the destruction of their entire village if they chose to abandon the fight, elven generals sometimes causing more destruction to the Empire's orcish and dragonborn regions than the invading armies. The war would go down as one of the deadliest in the Empire's history (modern estimates suggest that 33% of the nation's dragonborn and orcish populations were lost during the war), but Polonius' merciless tactics had broken the invading army and kept the Empire secure.
This strategy did not come without its consequences. Raised on stories of the Elflands' merciless tactics, a new generation of dragonborn rose up and declared their independence from the Elflands. The movement quickly gained popularity among all segments of dragonborn society, and the Empire's elven forces proved incapable of mounting an extended campaign against rebels in the rugged terrain of the Bahamut Mtns. By the year 766, Bahamut was recognized as an independent kingdom by the Elflands and the other nations of Southern Pescat.
Paranoid that the independence of Bahamut heralded the end of his Empire, for the last century of his reign Polonius cracked down hard against any signs of unrest. People accused of simply attending a political rally found their businesses burnt down and their families imprisoned, sending a clear message that no form of dissent would be tolerated under Polonius' regime. To push the point further, when the orcish town of Thork experienced weeks of protests the Emperor threw the entire force of the imperial army against the city. Three quarters of the town left in ruins and tens of thousands executed for treason sent a clear message to the Empire's inhabitants: choose obedience or death.
By the 800's Emperor Polonius was frail and near the end of his life, but his suppression tactics ensured that no one dared rebel against the senile ruler. As preparations were made for Polonius' daughter Ophelia to take the throne in 890's, so too did rebel factions make plans to revolt in the wake of Polonius' passing. The Empire was always weakest after the death of a monarch, and Polonius' suppression tactics left its inhabitants with decades of pent-up grievances. The Characters Revolution in the months following Polonius' death would go down as the largest in the Empire's history.
Relationships
Species
Life
159
896
737 years old
Circumstances of Death
Died of old age
Spouses
Children
Gender
Male
Comments