Taras Shiroko (TAH'rahs Shee'ROH'koh)

Emperor Taras Shiroko

Taras is the current emperor of Eoion and the latest in the Shiroko Dynasty. He is the product of many centuries of inbreeding, which was instituted in order to keep the secrets of the Ilyannoi in the family. This resulted in his powerful magical abilities as an aliq-esh, but also paranoid delusions and auditory hallucinations. At 10, he chose a personal slave, Erasure, with whom he later developed an intimate relationship. After murdering his uncle, Andriy Shiroko in 1070, he ascended the throne, married Erasure, and began a bloody revenge against those he felt were responsible for his childhood suffering.

Taras and his tsirin, Makar

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

He inherited the the white hair and violet eyes of his family. Generally, his hair is done in intricate braids as is tradition for nobility and royals.

Physical quirks

He has several scars across his back from abuse sustained under his uncle. There is also a large stab scar just above his left hip.

Special abilities

His family is famous for their magical ability and he inherited that talent. In particular, his is proficient in both light and heat essence  magic, having been born a semi-rare Aliq-esh. He was also taught to create the Ilyannoi by his mother and uncle.

Apparel & Accessories

He wears ornate versions of the fashion seen commonly among Eoion's upper class. His colors tend to be in either white or light blue. Larger robes are more formal and tend to only be worn during celebrations. For day to day wear, the robes are closer to the body. He became fond of jewels sewn into clothing as a display of wealth.
Two rings lay on a chain around his neck. The first is his family ring and a symbol of their authority. It is a gold band with a tsirin  engraved into it. The second is his wedding band, another gold piece that houses a diamond at the center and a pair of amethysts on either side.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

From birth in 1051 he was taught that others would try to depose him in the future or try to manipulate him by sneaking their way into the family, a belief that was common within the family and the main source of the centuries of inbreeding. For the first years of his life, he was brought up as any high prince was, with his parents loving, but distant due to their busy work schedules and responsibilities ruling the empire. While they cared for him in the evenings, his primary caretakers were wet nurses and, later, nannies who watched over him and the other young children of the royal family.
In 1057, his parents were killed in a plot orchestrated by his uncle who became Emperor Regent Andriy Shiroko/ However, the official story told to the public was that they were killed by a splinter group of the Bracan da Libre on their journey to visit their mother, former empress Inna. After their deaths, Taras was raised by Andriy. These years were filled with physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, along with increased isolation from both his family and the Eoin nobility. This caused the beginnings of a severe rift between himself and the wider family. Without the usual friendship fostered during the heir's formative years, he grew to see even people his own age as among those who ignored his suffering.
At age 10 (1061), he chose a personal slave, Erasure, who became his only confidant through the next nine years. Their first meeting was tense and Taras barely spoke to the teen out of fear. However, he soon found comfort in the one person who never abandoned him. The two grew closer over that time and began a sexual relationship when Taras was 16. Despite their growing love, the extreme power imbalance in the relationship remained. This, along with neither having a positive role model for romantic couples, led to the relationship taking an increasingly codependent tone, with Taras seeing Erasure as his only point of stability and becoming extremely possessive. 
It was around 1066 that his first psychotic symptoms began, particularly auditory hallucinations and the beginnings of paranoid delusions. Even when he was alone, he would hear the voice of his uncle berating him. These voices changed over the years to become whispers of conspiracies and abusive criticisms of his actions. At first, he was confused as to what was happening, but with no one to turn to for help aside from his lover/slave and no treatment, he grew more inclined to believe they were real, an issue that still plagues him. These delusions and hallucinations are partially responsible for his violence against the royal court, although they are not the primary reason.
He strangled his uncle at 19 during an attempted rape by Andriy and despite being technically too young to inherit the throne (Eoin people reach adulthood at 20), with his birthday less than two months away, the coronation was set anyway. It was directly after his ascension that he declared he and Erasure were to be married over the objections of the nobility, which saw many of them killed for ‘treason’. The loving yet increasingly codependent relationship he had built with Erasure was the main impetus for his decision, although some in the royal family, particularly his great-uncle Kyarlo Shiroko, held that he had only married a slave to spite them.
As revenge for his feelings of abandonment during his abusive upbringing by both his wider family and the nobility, he exiled or killed two thirds of his remaining family. Along with this, he has begun a campaign of abuse and humiliation against the aristocracy of Eoion that continues to this day. The daily abuses he heaps on them are both physical and emotional and he has become particularly adept at using fear and internal competition to keep his court compliant.
Like all of his main family, he learned to create the Illyanoi, using them more frequently than past generations and often working until he passes out to create more due to his paranoia.
He only fully trusts Erasure, something most of the court finds strange given the Shirokos’ general distrust of those outside of the family and their history of incest. Their dynamic is a twisting series of knots around husband-husband and master-slave. While he wants the wider court, his remaining family, and Erasure himself, to acknowledge his husband as the Royal Consort, he is also comfortable with the master-slave relationship they share.
The rising tensions with Yzel are an nuisance to him and he would much rather not deal with a man he considers a glorified figure head, Kaelo Sranten II. However, avoidance of war will allow him to continue his revenge and thus he is more willing to determine the cause of the issues.

Mental Trauma

Rage born from fear and resentment is his main source of mental instability. However, he also inherited his family's increased chance of illness, which resulted in paranoid schizophrenia, just as his great-great uncle had. He suffers from paranoid delusions and auditory hallucinations, along with PTSD induced trauma from over a decade of abuse.

Morality & Philosophy

He sees the world with a highly black and white morality system. In his mind, the abuses he heaps on the court, particularly his family, are justice for their failure to act during his childhood. 
Despite the violence, he is still inclined to rule the general populace in a productive way and knows he needs the court and his family to do so. Keeping them in line and doing their jobs is important, which annoys him as he cannot rule alone. Instead, he prioritizes loyalty and results over everything else in terms of job performance. 
In his romantic relationship, he understand sex as a form of control, except with Erasure. Andriy was fond of passing him around among his friends and he learned early on that intimacy could be used to manipulate others and establish dominance over another person. Pleasure seeking and indulgence take place often, particularly on the Kovyioka. He does not see these intimate acts as breaking his marriage vows because he does not love the people he sleeps with, however.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

He is motivated almost entirely by revenge against the people he feels did nothing to help him during his abusive upbringing. This has led to a purge of the nobility and his family along with an increasing amount of daily abuse heaped on those who remain. However, he is also attempting to be a competent ruler in terms of administration as he does not blame the wider population for his trauma.

Likes & Dislikes

Likes: Erasure , Makar , theater, administrative work, torture
Dislikes: His family, boredom, traveling, loss of control,

Virtues & Personality perks

Strong sense of justice, determined, artistic

Vices & Personality flaws

Sadistic, stubborn, controlling

Social

Family Ties

He is married to Erasure and is the head of the Shiroko family.

Religious Views

Bolugama is the dominant religion of Eoion and he has a cursory belief in it. Most of his interaction with religion is the sect that worships his family.

Hobbies & Pets

Before his coronation, he made a tsirin as per tradition. He has named it Makar and has kept it by his side since it was finished. Over the years, he has continued to make more Ilyannoi, bordering on breaking the latest treaty with Yzel. He has become particularly good with small bird or insect-like versions, using them to spy on the nobility, his family, and Yzel.
He also has a love of theater and goes often.
The Kovyioka were built in second year of his reign and serve as places for him to relax and indulge himself. They are a particular favorite of his to visit.
Taras tends to enjoy finishing his work as early as possible after lunch before attending the games until dinner and then engaging in debauched acts and humiliation of nobility until such time as he decides to go to sleep

Speech

His voice has a soft, breathy quality to it, but a lower tone than one would expect from his androgenous look, approximately baritone. Something gentle overlays the words, but there is a knife hidden just below.

Relationships

Taras Shiroko

Husband (Vital)

Towards Erasure

5

5

Frank

---

Erasure

Husband (Vital)

Towards Taras Shiroko

5

5

Honest

---

Nicknames & Petnames

Despite his official title of Royal Consort, Erasure still acts as a slave to his husband. He still refers to Taras as 'jantsavela' (master), while rarely using Taras's name. Taras will either use his husband's name or call him 'slave' or 'servant', although saying Erasure's name is much more common. When alone, they

Relationship Reasoning

Erasure was gifted to Taras when Taras was 10 and Erasure was 15. They have been together since then and Taras has come to rely almost completely on Erasure as a support system. Taras married Erasure because he loves him and to snub the family.

Shared Secrets

During their intimate moments, Erasure is the only person Taras allows on top of him. This is because he is the only one he trusts not to take advantage of the position.
Taras is the only one who knows that Erasure is capable of rudimentary essence magic. To the rest of the court, Erasure presents himself as completely without magical ability. His use of Kyu Zesvet is explained as purely based on the infusion of magic and the bond the two share allowing Taras to 'give' some of his power to his husband. While this is partially true, if Erasure truly had absolutely no aptitude with magic, he would be significantly weaker with the blade.

Legal Status

Husbands

Andriy Shiroko

Uncle (Important)

Towards Taras Shiroko

-3

-2

Subversive

---

Taras Shiroko

Nephew (Vital)

Towards Andriy Shiroko

-5

3

Subversive

---

History

Andriy saw Taras both as a substitute for Olha and Yakiv. His need to have a piece of Olha after her death let him to sexually abuse his nephew. On the other hand, his desire to dominate and subjugate Yakiv caused a great deal of emotional abuse toward Taras. As Taras grew into his early teens, his became more powerful in magic than Andriy, which further increased the man's resentment. Andriy's view of Taras continued on its warped path as he ultimately saw himself as merely a placeholder for the one the rest of the family wanted on the throne instead.
Taras was originally fine enough with Andriy while his parents were still alive. However, those feelings turned to terror as the abuse began and escalated. He withdrew into himself and the lack of help from the wider family or nobles generated horrible resentment and rage in him. His fear of his uncle culminated in him strangling the man during an attempted rape by Andriy after a total of thirteen years of abuse.

Taras Shiroko

Grandson (Vital)

Towards Inna I Shiroko

5

3

Honest

---

Inna I Shiroko

Grandmother (Important)

Towards Taras Shiroko

5

5

Honest

---

History

Inna was with Olha Shiroko when she gave birth to Taras and spent the first year of his life in the palace, splitting her time between advising Olha and helping to care for her grandson. After Andriy came to power, he lack of trust in him let to her attempts to have Taras live with her. However, she failed and was forbidden from returning to the palace. Throughout her life, she loved her grandson dearly.
Taras spent two weeks every other year with his grandmother in one of the summer palaces. She taught him to use his magical abilities and offered an escape from the abuse at home. However, his fear of Andriy led to him never telling her about what was going on. He held, and still holds, great affection for her and wishes he could have spoken up about what was happening through his childhood.

Olha II Shiroko

Mother (Vital)

Towards Taras Shiroko

5

5

Frank

---

Taras Shiroko

Son (Vital)

Towards Olha II Shiroko

5

5

Frank

---

History

Olha and Yakiv had been trying to conceive an heir since before their marriage. Taras was born one year after they were married, but was premature (30 weeks). Due to this, she was away from court for several weeks personally caring for him rather than leaving the task to wet nurses or nannies. Through this, she developed a particularly strong bond with her son.
After Taras was able to be cared for as a normal royal baby, she separated herself from him during the day to continue ruling the empire, but made a point to take over his care during the evenings.
As he matured, mother and son were very close throughout the remainder of Olha's life. Unfortunately, she was murdered when Taras was six.
He still holds cherished memories of his time with her and visits her grave in the family mausoleum once every two weeks to be close to her.

Nicknames & Petnames

Olha began calling him 'fresh snow' (roadetsin uepa-> roh'ah'deht'seen oo'eh'pah) due to his premature birth and inherited white hair (family trait). As he grew older, the nickname was shortened to 'tsinpa'.
Taras referred to his mother as dictated by Eoin royal family social rules, calling her 'majesty' (zasheka) or 'lady mother' (tayúova -> yúova meaning 'mother' and 'ta-' being a prefix used to denote a high status) when in public. In private, he called her 'mommy' (ova).

Avel Shiroko

Cousin/Uncle (Important)

Towards Taras Shiroko

-3

5

Honest

---

Taras Shiroko

Cousin/Nephew (Trivial)

Towards Avel Shiroko

-5

-1

Frank

---

Yakiv Shiroko

father (Vital)

Towards Taras Shiroko

5

5

Honest

---

Taras Shiroko

son (Vital)

Towards Yakiv Shiroko

5

5

Honest

---

History

While Yakiv was rarely present for the first few months of Taras's life, he dearly loved his son. Once he and Olha had returned to their original duties, he took over a great deal of his young son's magical education and imbued in him a love of the arts, especially poetry, which he read every night to Taras before he put his son to sleep. 
Taras has very fond memories of his father and has turned toward supporting the theater as a way to honor his memory.

Current Location

Gandenye

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Master and ruler of the Eoion empire, commander and creator of the divine Ilyannoi, and lord of the Imperial Seat

Age

23

Date of Birth

10 Rae 1051

Birthplace

Gendenye

Parents

Olha II Shiroko

Yakiv Shiroko

Spouses

Erasure (Husband)

Siblings

Current Residence

Gandenye

Gender

male

Eyes

Violet

Hair

long, partially braided, white, decorated with ornaments

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Pale white

Height

5'4"

Quotes & Catchphrases

"I love you and I could cut your neck whenever I want." "Those who defend the guilty are also evil."

Owned Vehicles

• Kovyioka

Aligned Organization

Eoion Overview

Known Languages

Eoin and Yzelian.

Ruled Locations

• Gandenye