Sextana Hadriana Raruos (/səkstana heidriana roros/)
Basilea Sextana Hadriana Basila Rauros
Empress Sextanta Hadriana Rauros was an Aeillan Empress who served in the Late Imperial period and was the foundational leader of the Rauros dynasty and is credited for bringing an end to the Fifty Year Crisis that nearly brought about the end of the Aeillan Empire. She was a capable military leader and an exceptionally gifted administrator. Her reforms did stabilize the Aeillan Empire and right it's economy after at least a century of decline, and because of this she, in many Aeillan social circles is regarded as one of the greatest rulers in Aeillan history. Modern scholarship has made this image somewhat more controversial, however, as some have criticized her reforms of the bureaucracy and foundation of the Exarchate system as leading to the collapse of the Empire after the death of Alexios III.
Personal History
Sextana Hadriana Rauros was born in the town of Tosiblis in EA 442, during the Fifty Years of Crisis. Her family was an ancient noble house that once ruled the local city-state until the establishment of the Ilosi Republic, and that had long since fallen out of prominence after the formation of the Aeillan Empire. She was the sixth child of her parents and thus was largely neglected by them, despite the auspicious sign of a Celestial planar marking that she bore. Instead, a young Hadriana was educated by the head of the family's bodyguards. Hadriana proved an adept fighter, becoming a skilled warrior by the time she had become an adult, and when she had reached the age of maturity left her home to pursue a career as a mercenary, helping the Empire fight several hosts of raiders from Huria. Hadriana rose through the ranks of her mercenary band becoming a commander by the age of twenty-five. It was as a mercenary commander that she obtained a number of books on administration and battle tactics which she consumed voraciously and quickly put into action, dramatically improving the logistical infrastructure of her company, and building it into a deadly fighting force. It was also sometime during this period that Hadrian acquired several important Yulan-Tai artifacts including the Argent Blade In AE 469 her company was employed by the Empire to put down a major rebellion in Sisophonia. Using the skills she had acquired, the managed to bring the siege to a successful conclusion in a matter of mere months. In exchange, the ruling Emperor Garios II Katsikoulos offered to directly commission her company as a Tourma in the army and to give her a generalship among the regulars, which she accepted. Hadriana was given military command of the Transoria region in AE 470 and managed to restore the area to relative peace by the end of the year. This enabled her to keep her privileged position through the first coup against Garios occurring in her direct service to the Empire. However, the overthrow of someone she believed a relatively capable emperor over a matter of petty politics convinced her to begin calling on political allies for support. When Garios' successor Heraklios Ilosos assassinated Garios in 471 and declared himself emperor, dismissing or executing many important politicians, including Hadriana, she seized her moment. At the end of AE 471, Hadriana and a cadre of military officers from Apepsos overthrew Hereklios and executed him the following day. Seeking to finally put an end to the political infighting wracking the upper echelons of the Empire, Hadriana spent the rest of the year enacting a bloody purge of all high-ranking officials that were not loyal to her or her allies effectively putting an end to the endless series of coups and assassinations that had ravaged the Empire for fifty years. Though the New Empress had put a stop to one form of political instability, much work remained to be done to right the ship of state. As a result, Empress Hadriana carried out a great many ambitious reforms of the administration. She broke the power of the Consuls who had frequently been the source of rebellions, and reorganized the territories of the Empire, culminating in the establishment Exarchate system in AE 373, which did away with legally empowered Consuls, who often had their own power bases within their constituencies, and replaced them as head of Imperial provinces, with Exarchs, military governors whose loyalty was first and foremost to the Empress herself. This move was unpopular with those Consuls, many of whom rose in rebellion, or attempted to assassinate the Empress, however, rebellions were quickly crushed by the end of the 380s. Realizing that the time was passing for Hadriana to have kids of her own, she briefly re-established the system of succession by adoption that had been believed the source of the Empire's strong rulers in its heyday. The next phase was a series of military reforms intended to reduce the financial strain of the army on the Empire. She established the Acritae, a group of semi-professional soldiers that were responsible for their own equipment and who would be paid by the Exarchates instead of directly by the Empire, in exchange for being required to perform relatively lighter duties. Under this new system, half of the army was predesignated Acritae, while another, now referred to as Penandroi was retained as professional soldiers. Despite some issues concerning the loyalty of territorial armies, the new system proved effective at reducing strain on the Empire's economy, and eventually, by the 390s the Empire's armies had been reformed into a new more stable state. Last, and regarded as most important by herself were crucial economic reforms meant to curb the inflation caused by decades of currency debasement and bring the tax laws into the modern period. Under her orders, most debased coins in the Empire were seized and destroyed. The bureaucracy was reconstructed from the ground up, reorganized around the previously instated Exarchate system, and established a formal bureaucratic hierarchy, not dissimilar from the Feloran model. Tax codes were re-written and tax collectors were given Empire-wide codes for how to assess value as well as given the authority to publicly report each individual's tax contributions. These reforms, for the first time in years, brought the Empire's coffers into the black. Starting in the 410s AE Hadriana began to slowly withdraw from the public, turning much of the day-to-day running of the Aeillan Empire over to her adopted son Marcus Trajan Rauros. Instead, she focuses on historical writing, including publishing her own biography. She died in AE 420 and was mourned by many. Placed in a coffin that would preserve her body she was displayed in the state for over a year before finally being secreted out of the public in AE 421. In her honor, Trajan ordered the construction of the Imperial Mausoleum which she was interred in upon its completion in AE 432.Mental characteristics
Gender Identity
Feminine: She/Her
Sexuality
Bisexual towards Masc and Fem
Alignment
Lawful Neutral
Species
Conditions
Ethnicity
Other Ethnicities/Cultures
Previously Held Ranks & Titles
Date of Birth
28 Kataigída, EA 341
Date of Death
12 Cháriangélou, EA 420
Life
1377
1456
79 years old
Circumstances of Birth
Born with a Planar Mark (Celestial)
Birthplace
Tosiblis, Aeillan Empire
Place of Death
Apepsos, Aeillan Empire
Children
Eyes
Amber
Hair
Long, gray
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Light Olive
Belief/Deity
Pandroi, Aeillan Pantheist
Aligned Organization
