Emperor Theodore Suleiman
The current Emperor is Theodore Suleiman, who has reigned for five
years since the death of his father, the Emperor Tam Suleiman II.
Theodore may also be the last of the direct line, for as yet he has
expressed little interest in marriage and regards the droves of
eligible noblewomen paraded before him by hopeful advisers with bored
indifference.
This is unusual behaviour for a man of the Suleiman family, who
normally pride themselves on their virility (besides his twelve
legitimate children, Theodore's father acknowledged twenty-seven
bastards during his reign and probably sired many more) but Theodore
is an unusual Emperor in many respects. The youngest of seven royal
brothers, he was born with crippled legs and a rare stomach disorder
that makes it impossible for him to ingest protein, defects that have
forced Theodore to rely on walking aids and sustaining drugs since
childhood.
Theodore's physical afflictions met with little sympathy from the rest
of the Imperial family, who from his birth regarded him as a genetic
accident. His own father made no secret of the fact that he was
embarrassed by Theodore and thought him a living insult to the
Suleiman reputation for producing strong healthy males, openly
deriding him in front of the Imperial Court as 'the runt of my
litter'.
Starved of affection by his parents (his mother, the late Empress
Constanzia, was so horrified by his deformities she refused to
acknowledge his existence) and alternately mocked and bullied by his
siblings, Theodore endured a nightmarish youth. He briefly found
solace in a homosexual relationship with a young nobleman named Count
de Villiers, until his father discovered the affair and sent a platoon
of Amber Guardsmen to drag the Count from Theodore's bed and butcher
him before his helpless son's eyes.
Following his lover's brutal death Theodore became quiet and
withdrawn, much to the relief of his family who dreaded the thought of
him appearing in public. But though he seemed to be devoting his time
to music and learning, Theodore was in fact plotting revenge against
his hated relatives. He focused on building up a complex network of
professional assassins and used them to murder every one of his
brothers, all from carefully contrived explicable causes such as death
in battle, sickness or accident.
Theodore saved his final and worst revenge for his father, who he
slowly poisoned over years using a slow-acting odourless poison that
hardened the old Emperor's arteries and induced symptoms deceptively
akin to the onset of chronic rheumatoid arthritis. At last, when all
his brothers were dead and his father lay virtually paralysed and
speechless, Theodore entered the dying Emperor's chamber and whispered
the truth into his ear. His last words to his father, as the old man
writhed feebly on his deathbed and attempted to call for his guards,
were 'See, father: your runt is the head of the litter now'
It might be expected that Theodore would make a disastrous Emperor,
but this twisted and embittered young man could be the Empire's best
hope for the future. He is desperate to prove his worth and pours all
his considerable intellect and repressed emotional needs and desires
into the business of ruling and expanding the Imperial territories.
A worrying development is the growing influence that the ISSC has over
him, for the organization appeals to Theodore's belief that Imperial
security is best insured by covert State control over all aspects of
Imperial life. The ISSC also offers an alternative to Theodore's
difficult relationship with the more democratic Senate. Intelligent
and highly educated but incapable of trust, the young Emperor has the
ability of a great ruler but the inclinations of a petty tyrant. It
remains to be seen which aspect of his character will prevail.