Born to an emperor (in around 100AC) named Crecius Velelia and his second wife Serina Velelia (Queen concubine) his name was Ian Velelia. He was the second Prince (preceded by his older brother Claus Velelia) of the Velian Empire. Even though he was the second Prince there was little chance of him being in the running for heir, as his brother was 10 years older than him and the child of the first Empress. So instead of him being trapped in an endless cycle of classes and being raised by a nursemaid, like his older brother, he was allowed to spend most of his time with his birth mother. Serina was a stark contrast to the Emperor's late wife, who had been known to be absolutely vile even to her husband, as she was kind-hearted with a gentle temperament. She absolutely adored her one and only child but still treated the first Prince as if he were her own. Through-out Ian's earlier childhood his father's empire was constantly at war with the surrounding empires due to the lack of resources in their area. As he got older his brother, who was well into his teens, was often sent out to lead the charge of war. Normally siblings of separate mothers who held power hated each other due to their natural rivalry to be the next heir. However, Ian never cared to be the heir so he loved and admired his older brother dearly and his brother, in turn, cared for him. Which turned out to be for the better as Ian found himself to almost always be in poor health, coughing and feeling weak. So having his family love him, even though he had a weak constitution, made his childhood all the better.
At the age of 10 was when Ian's life started to take a turn for the worst. His brother, who was soon to be crowned emperor, was slowly becoming increasingly ill. It had started with small fits of coughing that he'd covered up as a cold, but as time went on his older brother began collapsing and seizing at random intervals. Soon enough, Claus was forced into permanent bedrest as he was almost too weak to walk on his own. Doctors came and went from his brothers quarters but none could find an answer, no medicine they had could cure or alleviate him, and only a few weeks later Ian, his family, and the empire were mourning the loss of their dear Claus. Even though the Imperial family was in a state of painful mourning the Empire still had to continue on. Much to Ian's dismay his father appointed him as his heir, and his leisurely life was suddenly ripped from him without a chance to protest. His days of strolling in the gardens with his mother were gone, the gentle urging to remember to read his books each night gone, and were replaced by strict professors and stacks of papers and books to read hourly. It was too much for a normal 10 year old to handle, but his father was already in his fifties and it was only a guessing game how much longer he'd, last especially with his brother's mysterious death. Ian used the grief of losing his brother to force himself to take on these new responsibilities, his brother had done it before and excelled at it but now he wasn't here, so Ian took it upon himself to honor his late brother. If Claus couldn't become the next emperor, like he was meant to be, then Ian would do his best to fill his shoes.
Five years passed with Ian being crammed with nothing but learning to be the next emperor. There was no time to do anything besides study, eat, and sleep, yet his mother always found away to mark herself into his schedule. Without her the young boy may have truly went insane, but she served to be his grounding rod as only a mother could. He saw his father less and less as time went on due to the constant wars going on that he now had to attend to. It scared Ian never knowing if his father would return home, thus forcing him to be placed onto the throne prematurely, but that was simply his life. Though only a few weeks after his father returned from war, victorious, he started to fall ill. As soon as his father started the same coughing fits his brother had, Ian was blinded with fear. This time around Ian forced his father to take bedrest much earlier and summoned the same doctors who had worked on his brother, hoping they could cure his father this time. Unlike last time the doctors provided a fruitful but heartbreaking answer, the Imperial family had been being poisoned by a common plant used for tea brewing. The plant could be used to make the black tea they commonly drank so long as someone experienced knew how to cook the plant first, otherwise it turned into a slow acting but powerful poison. Even though they came to such a conclusion they could not reverse the damage it had done to his father already, and just like his brother, Ian watched as his father died slowly and painfully. With the death of his father, and the ban of the tea plant, Ian was crowned Emperor at the age of 16.
Being Emperor wasn't easy. Ian often didn't sleep due to the amount of work that was required to be looked over by him and some days he found the trivial task of eating to be a useless waste of time. The once cheerful and loving second Prince that the Empire had adored was now cold and stone-faced to even his family's most loyal cabinet members. His mother, however, did her best to be the beautiful flower of the Empire still. While her precious son was busy engrossed in work she made sure festivals and fairs were flawlessly executed within the Empire regularly. It was her gentle hand that kept the Empire from growing to despise their young and inexperienced Emperor. Ian often wondered if he really ever had to take a wife so long as his mother was around, but he supposed he needed a heir to take on the Empire so his brother's and father's lives weren't wasted. As a few years passed and Ian celebrated his 20th birthday he finally found his footing as Emperor and, with his mothers help, ruled over a prosperous Empire that was built on much bloodshed like his father. As peacetime rolled in for his Empire Ian started looking for Empress candidates but peace was not something he knew for long in his life. Just as he was starting to settle himself into his life as Emperor, his mother started to fall ill. Instead of coughing and seizing, like his father and brother, she threw up blood and coughed up black sludge. Ian thought his whole world would shatter without his mother, she'd been there since his birth and both familial deaths, what would he do without her? Just like with his father Ian forced her to bed rest while he barked orders at every doctor available to find out what was wrong with her - even going so far as to cook meals and purify her water himself to ensure it wasn't another round of poisoning. Yet she still did not get better, even though he stationed most of his knights at her door to keep watch and tended to her himself, blood still came up in her stomach contents and black ooze remained in her lungs. Through it all though the greying woman still smiled at her son, that she thought was so precious, blood covered lips curled into a smile befitting of an angel. Desperation set in as Ian went so far as to summon a high priest from a foreign land to exercise her, in fear that she was possibly possessed by a demon. By the time the priest had arrived it was too late as the Empress's lungs were now well-coated in inky black sludge but Ian sat by her side the whole time, with every struggling breath she drew, he wished she could simply close her eyes and go off in peace.
After his mother's death Ian became even more withdrawn from his Empire than he was after his father's death, but this time he had no one to smooth over the cracks he created within his Empire. Not that he cared, as he locked himself in his room and refused meals. All he could think about was slaughtering anyone who could have had any hand in causing any of the deaths of his family. He wanted blood for what they had taken from him. His brother and father were poisoned by uncaring hands and his mother died to a mystery illness that the greatest doctors could not figure out the cause of. The death of his mother was the final stone that caused him to drown in insanity as Ian Velelia beheaded twenty servants in front of the people of his Empire. No longer did he care for their gratitude or praise. No longer did he want them to think him a kind and caring Emperor. He wanted to watch them beg for mercy as he slowly slaughtered off anyone who could have had a hand in killing off his family. A tyrant, some had screamed at him, a demon, others had cried. They would all pay for what they took from him. The once prosperous Empire quickly fell into destitute and impecunious conditions as Ian took everything from them. But it didn't fill the whole he still had in his heart, he got back at the people who killed his father and brother but his mother remained unavenged. She had been given an illness not from her own people, as no one else in the Empire had the same illness, but by outsiders and the only ones they had were mostly merchants and traders from the neighboring Empires. It was war then he decided. At the age of 22 Ian set off with a few hundred of his own soldiers to collapse the surrounding Empires for their wrong doing. Oddly enough it had been all too easy to watch as he slaughtered each Empire one by one. Apparently peace times meant military work was at an all time low so most people didn't even harbor weapons in their homes. The only people he spared during his outrageous slaughtering fest were women he thought were beautiful to the eye, and even then they weren't safe as he'd take them against their will even as they screamed for mercy. Only when he watched the third Empire be swallowed by flames and the woman who lived there were bound and shackled before him did he feel the dark void in his heart fill finally. They had all been avenged. It took him 5 years but he finally showed the world that they should be sorry for taking what was his. However, karma was quickly served to the tyrannical Emperor. He'd been away from his home for three years and during that time, while those who were loyal to him and his insanity followed him, he had made many more enemies than allies. Upon his return he came home to a silent Empire, but it didn't matter to him he'd rebuild it just as his mother and father had did years ago. He never got to see that wish through though, because only a few days after his return, at the age of 25, Ian was killed by the hands of all his personnel in his palace. Yet, even as the Empire handed over power to the cabinet they laid their tyrannical Emperor to rest with tears in their eyes as they deemed him the "Forever Mourning Prince"
Going to try and update this a bit since I've very much neglected it
.jpg)
