Theodosius IV

Theodosius IV was a Guant born on Aurea 86 years before Rhys invaded Aurea. An ethnic Rizaurian, he was born in a small, remote farming village in the Pagomenos Mountains called Puruscianda. Theodosius was not a name he would take until much later in life, being born with the Rizaurian name Armamuta Pariziti. He spent most of his childhood milking and butchering the cattle his family herded, and received the bare minimum education for a youth in the Aurean Dominate, his parents forcing him to drop out of school at fourteen years old to help out on the farm. Feeling trapped there with no prospects, Armamuta enlisted in the Aurean legions at seventeen, as soon as he was old enough. Armamuta showed promise, rapidly rising through the ranks, demonstrating valor and cunning in several skirmishes with Aurea's foes, most notably against a Haxamanian invasion and a brief Tangolian rebellion. While in the army, Armamuta made many friends, particularly Flavius Theodosius Minotaurus, a fellow Rizaurian who had adopted an Aurean name. When he reached his forty-second birthday, he retired from the legions. Around six years prior to this, he had married Hera Politakou, a wealthy Centralian woman he had met while stationed in Centronesia. They had three children: a girl named Ariadne and twin boys named Ioustinianos and Tiverios.

With his career in the military over, Hera encouraged him to run to represent his homeland in the Aurean Senate, as Armamuta told her he felt guilty about abandoning his people to poverty. He ran for and was elected to a rural district comprising the lands between the cities of Iconium and Civitas Sicofantia, including Puruscianda. While in the Aurean Senate, he opposed much of the legislation of Majorian IX, the current Dominus who was very pro-aristocracy. Armamuta became very frustrated with Majorian's refusal to advocate for any legislation to assist Aurea's poor, as well as his blatant discriminatory policies toward non-Aureans such as Rizaurians. Despite Rizaurians having been Aurean citizens since the Dominate's founding over three millennia earlier, Rizaurians were still treated as "barbarians" by most Aureans and Centralians, with their language being banned from schools for example.

Only a year into Majorian IX's reign, war broke out in much of Aurea's south against the Hoc Nostrum, a massively powerful group of organized crime families primarily operating out of Nicopolis, the Aurean Dominate's largest city. Due to his prior military experience, Armamuta was appointed to reenter the military as a Legate, a Senator given command over a legion. He served under his friend Minotaurus, who by this time had worked his way up to Dux of the Pagomenos. Armamuta was sent to deal with a Hoc Nostrum family that had established itself in Iconium, and he rooted it out so effectively that he was put on the fast track for promotion. After pushing the Hoc Nostrum out of the city of Cercapese, Minotaurus vacated his position as Dux to accept a promotion to Magister Peditum, or master of all of Aurea's infantry armies. Armamuta in turn filled the former's position as Dux of the Pagomenos, and fought tirelessly to keep the Hoc Nostrum out of his homeland. This was not an easy task, as the mountainous terrain gave Hoc Nostrum insurgents plenty of places to hide, but as a Rizaurian from the area, Armamuta knew the terrain well, and thus knew exactly where to find them. 

Despite progress in containing the Hoc Nostrum in these areas, however, the Hoc Nostrum's influence spread elsewhere in the Aurean Dominate like wildfire, and as a result, Majorian's popularity began to plummet. Additionally, as much of Aurea's military was tied down suppressing the Hoc Nostrum, the rebellious Tangolia Province saw an opportunity and revolted, and the Haxamanians attacked the Aurean Exarchate of Tifinagh with a massive invasion force. Seeing the effectiveness of Rizaurian officers such as Minotaurus and Armamuta where others had failed, Majorian began promoting Rizaurian officers en masse despite his personal distaste for their culture, making Minotaurus his Magister Militum (head of the entire Aurean military) and making Armamuta his Exarch of Tifinagh, on the condition that Armamuta change his name to something more Aurean. Inspired by his friend, Armamuta chose the name Gaius Minotaurus Theodosius, which he would use for the rest of his life.

As Exarch of Tifinagh, Theodosius led a large army of several legions against the Haxamanians, crushing them at the Battle of Lilybaeum and capturing Kavadh, their Spahbed (general) alive. Around the same time, Minotaurus was killed in battle against the Tangolians and the position of Magister Militum was left vacant. Majorian responded by appointing Theodosius to the position. While saddened by the death of his friend, he accepted, despite the two being from opposing political parties. As Magister Militum, Theodosius knew that time was of the essence before the Tangolian revolt would spread to the entire province, so he decided to tackle that problem first (although some sources disagree and think this decision was motivated by revenge for the death of Minotaurus). He defeated the Tangolians at the Battle of Old Saray and rapidly reestablished control over the Ferum and Hsia Rivers, both keeping the revolt from spilling over into Argentolia Province and keeping it contained to central Tangolia. However, an attempt to quash the rebellion completely at the battle of Uihae ended in failure when Theodosius's force was ambushed by Tangolian horse archers on the plains outside the city.

Meanwhile, Majorian was having worse luck against the Hoc Nostrum, losing three entire legions in an insurgent ambush in downtown Nicopolis. Among those killed was Ariadne, who was serving as a brand-new recruit in the legions at the time. She was only seventeen years old. When Theodosius confronted Majorian about it, Majorian retorted that he didn't think women belonged in the military anyway, which made Theodosius explode with anger and physically assault him before being restrained by bodyguards and fired. As the next year was an election year, Theodosius decided to run against Majorian for Dominus. 

As the situations with both the Hoc Nostrum and Tangolia worsened without Theodosius in charge of the army, Majorian's approval rating continued to plummet. On the campaign trail, Theodosius lambasted Majorian for his military mismanagement, while Majorian called him an "uncivilized" Rizaurian and touted the tax cuts he passed earlier in his reign. At one speech in the city of Ultima Thule in Zebusylvaniana, Theodosius yelled "Dominus Maiorianus, filia redde!" (translating to "Dominus Majorian, give me back my daughter!") and the crowd erupted in applause. The line quickly became a powerful chant used by supporters of Theodosius demanding justice for those killed by Majorian's military incompetence. Signs with sketches or even full mosaics or paintings of Ariadne's face on them became fixtures at Theodosius's campaign rallies, and parents who lost children in the disaster in Nicopolis began holding signs depicting their own children as well. Theodosius defeated Majorian in a landslide election, becoming the first Dominus to defeat an incumbent in decades.

Majorian did not take this defeat well, baselessly insisting that Theodosius won via mass voter fraud. The elected governors of all the provinces supported Theodosius, but the Exarchates, whose Exarchs were directly appointed by the Dominus and thus were Majorian loyalists, sided with Majorian. While Theodosius had wisely chosen to remain in the capital during the election in case Majorian tried this, Majorian was off on another failed campaign against the Hoc Nostrum, the army he had with him getting annihilated at Argerna the day after the election. After this, Majorian fled to the Aurean Exarchate of Tifinagh to assemble another army to challenge Theodosius for the throne. Theodosius on the other hand simply stayed where he was, was crowned as Dominus, and prepared Astras's (the capital) walls for a siege. For his Magister Militum (in this case Magistra Milita due to her being a woman), Theodosius chose Nasazi Hilamaddu, a fellow Rizaurian who had served under him at the Battle of Old Saray. Upon accepting the position, she changed her name to the more Aurean-sounding Nassenia Montana. A few months later, Majorian arrived outside of Astras with a massive fleet and a huge army embarked. The army surrounded all of the city's gates and the fleet blocked the harbor, but failed to make even a dent in the city's walls or morale. Eventually, Majorian's force started to run out of his supplies, many of his soldiers and generals defected en masse to Theodosius, and he was forced to pack up and sail back to Tifinagh.

Theodosius followed him to Tifinagh with a large fleet and army, while Montana kept the Hoc Nostrum and Tangolians contained. When Theodosius arrived in Tifinagh, he found that the Haxamanians had taken advantage of the civil war to invade again, and had taken the vast majority of the Exarchate with a massive fleet and army. Majorian was trapped in Tifinagh's capital of Carthadasta, which was under siege by most of the Haxamanian fleet. Theodosius set about retaking the Tifinaghian mainland, which was entirely under Haxamanian control at this point. He scattered much of the Haxamanian fleet off the coast of Hadrumentum and landed much of his army in that city. He defeated the Haxamanians twice more on land in the battles of Ouarzazte and Tataouine, but the campaign stalled when he lost to them at Rusadir. Theodosius appointed Syagrios Komnenos, a capable Centralian officer who had introduced him to his wife Hera years ago, as the new Exarch of Tifinagh, gave him command of most of his army, and tasked him with retaking the rest of the Tifinaghian mainland. Meanwhile, Theodosius sailed to Carthadasta to challenge Majorian and the main Haxamanian force.

With his far better armed fleet, Theodosius scattered the Haxamanians besieging Carthadasta and began his own siege of the city. Starving and having voted overwhelmingly against Majorian in the election, the citizens of Carthadasta revolted against him, and snuck messages to Theodosius, offering to open the gates to him in exchange for Majorian as a captive. Theodosius accepted, and that night, the citizens of Carthadasta brought Majorian in chains to Theodosius's ship. For the crime of insurrection against the Aurean Dominate, Theodosius personally executed Majorian on the spot, beheading him with his sword to the cheers of all on board. Within a week, the other Exarchs supporting the rebellion stood down in exchange for clemency, and the civil war was over. However, Komnenos would fail to completely reconquer the Tifinaghian mainland from the Haxamanians, who had deeply entrenched themselves in the mountains and would reappear a few years later with a much larger force.

Now finally able to focus on administering the vast Aurean Dominate, Theodosius set about doing what he had entered politics to do in the first place: improve the lives of Rizaurians and other impoverished citizens. Despite his tremendous battlefield successes, however, Theodosius lacked the political know-how to work with the Aurean Senate very well, and as a result, he was often outmaneuvered by his opponents there. His proposal to unban the use of Rizaurian in schools failed, for example. However, he was able to secure other victories on this front, such as protecting peasants from exploitation by mining companies that operated mostly in Rizaurian-majority lands, as well as reversing the several cuts Majorian had made to the empire-wide food dole. Most notably, he passed a law banning the rampant housing and employment discrimination that Aureans and Centralians had for millennia imposed on ethnic minorities, especially Rizaurians and Tangolians.

The latter policy in particular helped appease the revolting Tangolians, returning much of the Tangolian peasantry to the Aurean fold and leaving disgruntled nobles and minor Khans as the only Tangolians still in revolt. By the fifth year of Theodosius's reign, the Tangolian revolt was confined to the provincial capital of Tengribalik, which Theodosius and Montana put under siege. After around three weeks, Arslan VI, the Tangolian Khan and the ringleader of the revolt, gave up hope of succeeding and ended his life with arsenic. The gates of the city were opened to Theodosius and the Tangolian revolt was finally over. Arslan's teenage son Qajeer was crowned the new Tangolian Khan, swore his oath of loyalty to Theodosius and the Aurean Dominate, and Tangolia was reinstated as an Aurean province. Unbeknownst to Theodosius however, Qajeer would go on to cause a far bigger headache for the Aurean Dominate than even his father did a few decades down the line, but Theodosius would be long dead by that point. Additionally, around this time, Theodosius and Montana won several victories against the Hoc Nostrum that pushed them out of Tiorangi and Centronesia entirely, containing the insurgency to Nicopolis and its surroundings for the first time in years. Nevertheless, the two then suffered an embarrassing defeat by the Hoc Nostrum at Cnidina that prevented them from eliminating the problem entirely.

The next year, Theodosius's wife Hera contracted malaria and died. Theodosius was distraught and did not leave the palace for days. His surviving children, Ioustinianos and Tiverios, both fourteen years old, were devastated as well. Hera, who had been a champion for women's rights throughout her husband's reign and even earlier, was mourned throughout the Aurean Dominate, and her funeral in Astras was a massive public event with all businesses in the city being closed for the day. She was cremated in a massive pyre on the bank of the Capitoline River, and her ashes were placed in an urn kept by Theodosius. Despite this, Theodosius soon fell in love with an Aurean noblewoman from Olinthasea named Camillia Valens, and the two married three years later. 

In the ninth year of his reign, Theodosius had a daughter, Fabia, born to Camillia, and had been desperately searching for a way to finally crush the Hoc Nostrum. This came that year when the Ishga King Robert VI approached him with an offer. When Theodosius and Montana contained the Hoc Nostrum a few years back, many of them escaped to Ishga, where they found a niche in Ishga's vast criminal underworld and started causing problems there as well. Robert VI offered to assist Theodosius in wiping out the Hoc Nostrum, in exchange for Theodosius ending the Aurean Dominate's last few centuries of self-imposed isolation and opening itself up to Ishga trade. Theodosius attempted to sell this to the Aurean Senate, but due to the xenophobia deeply ingrained into Aurean culture, some Aureans already distrusting Theodosius because of his Rizaurian heritage, and the Aureans' overwhelming fear of the Ishgas and their vastly superior technology after hearing of the havoc they have wrecked on other worlds, merely suggesting this prompted massive backlash.

Despite this, Theodosius, desperate to finally put the last nail in the Hoc Nostrum's coffin, continued to advocate for the deal. While the Aurean Senate never agreed to the full deal, Theodosius counteroffered a compromise to Robert VI, in which a joint Aurean-Ishga force would enter the Nicopolis area and subdue the Hoc Nostrum, in exchange for the Aurean Dominate creating a Senate committee to investigate the benefits and risks of increased diplomatic and economic engagement with the wider galaxy. Both the Aurean Senate and the Ishgas would begrudgingly agree to this, and this agreement would set the stage for later events such as the beginnings of the Aurean Dominate's industrialization and the end of isolationism, both of which would begin during the reigns of Theodosius's successors. Within three months of the Ishga force's arrival, the Hoc Nostrum had been shattered and its leaders, most notably its founder and ringleader Beyin Epivoulos, were arrested. While the Hoc Nostrum did not fully disappear, civic and economic life in the Nicopolis area was able to return to some semblance of normal for the first time in two decades and the war against it was essentially over.

Theodosius then celebrated a massive triumph, featuring the captured Beyin Epivoulos, as well as high-profile prisoners from Majorian's insurrection, the Haxamanian Invasion, and Arslan's Tangolian Revolt. Although most Aureans wanted Epivoulos to stand trial on Aurea for his crimes, he was soon extradited to face trial on Ishga, both because of the crimes carried out under his orders there and because Theodosius considered keeping him on Aurea too risky. Despite Theodosius's foresight, however, Epivoulos would eventually escape Ishga prison, change his appearance via plastic surgery, assume a new identity, and return to Aurea, where he would have a daughter named Gorgo Gualtera who would go on to cause gigantic problems for Theodosius's successors.

The next year, Theodosius sailed to an easy reelection, defeating an unpopular Legate from Tiorangi named Marcus Horatius Faunus by double-digit margins. That same year, he and Camillia had another daughter named Valeria. 

In the first year of Theodosius's second term, however, the Haxamanians, led by a new, more aggressive Shahanshah Bahram VII, attacked Tifinagh again with a much larger force than the first time. Komnenos assembled a massive force to challenge them at Kairouan, but the Haxamanians' new Spahbed, Bacha Hilazai, hit them with a clever flanking maneuver and Komnenos's army was annihilated. All of mainland Tifinagh was lost and Komnenos was seriously wounded. Taking advantage of the Aurean Dominate's newly reduced strength on the planet, Bahram launched massive offensives on all other Aurean territories on the Planet Awal, seeing rapid success in all of them. The Aurean Exarchate of Carmania fell first to a land invasion, the Haxamanians easily overwhelming the undermanned border defenses. Next was Caria, an Aurean Exarchate comprised of nearby volcanic islands that was easily taken by a small fleet. The Aurean Exarchate of Nova Aurea, by far the most populous Aurean territory on Awal besides Tifinagh, fell soon after to another fleet. Its Exarch, Alexandros Trivonianos, attempted to resist with the Exarchate's two field armies, but was crushed by a force led by Bahram himself and killed in battle. Kilikia, Meroe, Adua, and the Imazi Tribal Lands, the three Aurean Exarchates sharing Awal's southern continent of Aurasia with Tifinagh, were taken by a Haxamanian force under Bacha Hilazai swiftly after. In only two months' time, Aurean power on Awal had been completely annihilated with only the island of Hermaeum, home to Carthadasta, remaining under Aurean control there. 

Alarmed by the rapid loss of almost a third of the entire Aurean Dominate to the Haxamanians, Theodosius assembled as many fleets as he could spare and sailed for Hermaeum. Upon his arrival, he scattered a Haxamanian fleet attempting to besiege Carthadasta and, together with Komnenos, crushed a small Haxamanian force attempting to land on the island at the Battle of Vasoli.  Over the next few months, Theodosius and Komnenos's fleets were able to retake all of Tifinagh's islands, but an attempt to liberate mainland Tifinagh ended in disaster at the Battle of Malaca, when the Haxamanians under Bacha Hilazai sent unmanned ships full of explosives at the Aureans, utterly decimating their fleet and forcing them to abandon the campaign. Theodosius himself nearly drowned and he was only rescued when an oarsman on a nearby ship recognized him and pulled him out of the water. While he would reconquer a scrap of it towards the very end of his reign, Mainland Tifinagh would mostly remain in Haxamanian hands until only being retaken years later by Theodosius's successor. The other territories on Awal would be retaken by his successor only briefly before being returned to the Haxamanians permanently as part of the eventual peace deal. For the rest of Theodosius's reign, the war with the Haxamanians would continue mostly as a series of inconclusive naval skirmishes on Awal and in space, with land combat resuming only at the very end of his reign.

Two years after Theodosius's reelection, a deadly disease known as the Blood Bleaching would begin spreading throughout the galaxy. Originating on the Planet Vigam, the disease would arrive in the Aurean Dominate via the Aurean Exarchate of Vigam, a small Aurean enclave there comprised almost entirely of Caputus Vigamius, the largest city on that planet. Domestic shipping spread the disease to Aurean ports rapidly. While Aureans had no knowledge of or access to the means to treat the disease, they had a basic enough grasp of Germ Theory at the time for Theodosius to enforce social distancing guidelines, which saved countless lives. The pandemic would go on to last a total of seven years, claiming the lives of somewhere between 10-15% of the Aurean Dominate's population. Aurea was far from the hardest-hit nation, however, with places such as Iteru or Arturia suffering from far more poverty and lack of sanitation than Aurea losing the majority of their populations. The disease was caused by the Sanguis Extinctor bacterium, which fed on the hemoglobin of its victims' blood, turning it pink or white and giving it its name. Eventually, most of its victims would suffocate to death without treatment due to there not being enough hemoglobin left to get oxygen to the brain. It also clogged the blood vessels up with thick pus that obstructed the flow of nutrients, resulting in victims feeling extreme hunger in their final days.

Four years into Theodosius's second term, the Hoc Nostrum resurfaced in the form of the Great Nicopolitan Scandal, in which almost a fifth of all officials, elected or unelected, in the Aurean Dominate were found to be taking bribes from the Hoc Nostrum and either impeached on corruption charges or forced to resign. Montana and Komnenos were both implicated in this and forced out of office, as was Quintus Floridius Longinus, Theodosius's Consigliere (2nd-in-command/heir in case of death or resignation). Theodosius was upset by all of these, but felt especially hurt by Montana. He had considered her a close personal friend and, on occasion, even had her babysit his children in the palace. He was also aghast that someone who had dedicated so much of their life to helping him root out the Hoc Nostrum would take bribes from them the moment she thought she could get away with it.

Theodosius replaced Longinus with Galerius Decimus Tranio, a young Senator from Occidens. While Tranio had little military experience, only serving briefly in the legions during the war against Beyin Epivoulos and never being promoted, he had much of the political acumen Theodosius lacked, and helped him pass a few more reforms, such as loosening trade regulations in Olinthasea, the one Aurean city that had always been exempt from isolationism. Most importantly, he helped Theodosius fill some of the positions that had been left vacant by the scandal. Gaius Caesonius Theodosius (no relation to Dominus Theodosius), a young Legate from a mining village near Farcus, was made Magister Militum, although he would suffer after Theodosius's death due to Tranio's military incompetence. The new Exarch of Tifinagh was Marcus Septimius Massgaba, the former Dux of Carthadasta and the first Exarch of Tifinagh to actually be from there. 

Around a month before his death, Theodosius saw an opening in Haxamanian defenses and, together with Massgaba, managed to successfully land troops in Tragoli, near the western edge of mainland Tifinagh. The campaign went well at first, with them successfully routing a Haxamanian force sent to repel them at the Battle of the Olive Orchard, but fell apart during a disagreement between Theodosius and Massgaba. Massgaba wanted to push deeper into Haxamanian-controlled territory and siege the city of Nicopolis Novum, while Theodosius recognized they did not have the resources for that at the moment and wanted to wait behind a few months to consolidate their gains and for reinforcements. While Massgaba acquiesced at first, he eventually grew restless, disobeyed orders, and sieged Nicopolis Novum, which he managed to take. However, it was a trap, as the Haxamanians knew Massgaba would likely pull something like this, so they had emptied the city of resources and hidden a large force nearby to immediately besiege the city if Massgaba took it. Soon, Massgaba and his army found themselves trapped inside Nicopolis Novum's walls with no food or supplies, and Theodosius had to bail him out. Using deception tactics to trick the Haxamanians into thinking his army was far larger than it was, Theodosius was able to scatter the Haxamanians surrounding Nicopolis Novum without a fight and rescue Massgaba. As he was drafting a letter to fire Massgaba, Theodosius caught the very illness he had dedicated much of his reign to fighting off.

At the age of 68, one year after the Great Nicopolitan Scandal, Theodosius contracted the Blood Bleaching while in the city of Nicopolis Novum and died, Tranio immediately replacing him as Dominus and taking the name Gavicus XXIX. Theodosius's body was taken to Astras and cremated in a massive state funeral. His ashes were placed in an urn, which would be stored in the Mausoleum of the Domini in Astras.