Wulfick Civilius V, the Iron Emperor

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I know the pain this empire was built upon better than anyone who has ever lived. I see the blood shed out in the streets and the feuds from before my throne. I shall restore strength to our people, and with renewed vigor, in the Cosmic Warrior's name, we will rise and our glory be proclaimed across the land!
~ Wulfick Civilius V ~

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Wulfick Civilius V was the emperor over the powerful land of the Tenelean Empire. This one man, through his rule alone, plunged the Westerin continent into an age of war on religion and prophecy. Every corner of the land knew his name, and when Tenelea subdued it, feared.
To think so powerful a man could have such a quiet birth.

Bedside Birth

Wulfick's mother, Zara Civilius III, the current empress at the time, had fallen pregnant with her son. His birth was to be a momentous and joyous occasion, as the future heir would be welcomed into the world from within the Cathedral of War. But, her birth came much earlier than anticipated, and it wasn't high priests of tradition, but Zara's palace maidens who helped deliver the infant Wulfick on the queen's bed in the dead of night, shy of his birthing cries.
A new celebration was planned, and the infant heir was anointed before the Tenelean people in roars of joy. That day was rife with song, but the baby's birth night was quiet as a mouse.
Oh the power an elf of such a humble birth was to possess.

Wulfick was raised as any other Tenelean was under the Book of Swords, the text of Tenelea's ancestral god, Zanreer. A love for such a god of war. Honor for his people's long-standing history leading all the way back to their ancestor, Teneleas', revolution. A natural Endolish hatred. All of it was instilled into the mind of the boy who would one day take his mother's place.
If only the land would have seen how.

Little Sister is Born

Ten years later, Wulfick's little sister, Zara Civilius IV was born. Even decades into their elven years

— a process that, even though it happened at the same rate as humans, naturally emphasized a great deal of patience — Wulfick had a sour relationship with her. She was much more timid than he, and where Wulfick enjoyed thorough weapons training and discipline, she looked more toward compassion and peace-keeping.
Where Wulfick trained day and night in Tenelean training grounds, earning more scars in his youth than most legionnaires earn in their lifetime, his sister, even a kid, cared for others more than herself and babied the wounded, including those Wulfick drove into the ground.
It was like idiocy for Wulfick, because the only gain that would be had was Tenelea's. In philosophy like her's, he only saw a frail empire, and a disgrace to the Cosmic Warrior.

Wulfick Conquers Denusii

For a century, he'd been raised in the shadow of only his mother — he'd only seen portraits of his father, who died before he was born in a war against the then Denusii city-state. A campaign Zara had lost, costing him his life. Wulfick always grew up with a bitter taste about this memory, particularly toward his mother for letting it happen, but especially against the city itself. He would enact vengeance, which is why after his adult inauguration at the age of one-hundred, Wulfick thought it completely sensible to request command over his very own legion, to the whole shock of his mother, sister, and the entire Court of Civilius.

He was denied such a demand to a lack of anyone's surprise, even reprimanded by his mother in private for seeking something so naïve and reckless. Everyone thought him a fool, but by now, he was one of Tenelea's best warriors, even just in training, and most of all, he was the Crown Heir.
He would have his vengeance, and he wasn't about to let even the blind ideals of the Empress stop him.
Throughout several nights, Wulfick amassed a

legion's amount of followers loyal to him and as ready for another war, which included Iron Lord Rupphrect Bladebreaker, one of the three great generals of the empire. Under falsified orders from the Iron Lord, Wulfick snuck away from the capital of Enendale with this legion, the Iron Lord close at his side for advisory. No one realized war began until Wulfick reached Denusii's walls. Even then, Wulfick kept a tight perimeter in the region. No word of this ever seeped out, especially not to the capital.
Wulfick's disappearance caused a terrible fright in the capital, but it subsided the day he and the legions returned, prisoners in tow, plunder upon the horses, and the city's king subdued in surrender. He had conquered Bahst under everyone's noses, and the streets rose in cheers, for they believed it was a sign of the Cosmic Warrior's presence in him.
Having done what the Empress could not, in the later days Wulfick demanded she relinquish her throne and let him step up, but a divide now growing between the two, she refused.

Wulfick Pleads a Second Time

All it took was time to pass, and Wulfick's name was in the warrior hearts of the people. Even some within the Court of Civilius began to harbor secret loyalties that superseded the Empress'. And when rumors one night arrived that assassins from the subjugated Denusii had stolen away into the Imperial Palace, it was these people who heard it first, and it was Wulfick who was informed.

He had magical wards placed throughout every door and window opening, and a large force assembled. The palace alive with activity, the Empress tried to dissuade such action Wulfick was taking, advocating such a thing was only rumor, but had no influence over the situation and was forced to go along with him, who ordered civilians and legionnaires alike into hiding, and all movement ceased, and it was so.
Once the wards — in Wulfick's bedchamber, to his surprise — were tripped, the palace sprung to life and quickly cornered the assailants. Wulfick was

hailed for his tact. Later on, following this success, he demanded once again for the Empress to give the throne over to him, but commanding respect, she refused yet again.

Wulfick Becomes Emperor

The year was 1,419 AC. A century and a half had passed in Wulfick's time alive. Twice he'd suggested Empress Zara hand over the throne, and twice she refused. To Wulfick, she seemed a doomed leader, with only pride being what held her to the throne. The city chanted Wulfick's name. The court had Wulfick's support. The legions saluted the Crown Heir, but they could not influence the throne. Only the Empress could.
And she would never give it up. Not to him. Especially when he caught word that, very soon, his sister would be made the new Crown Heir.
Wulfick faced reality. There was no drive for the Cosmic Warrior in the Empress. She was incompetent, a small shell to Wulfick's accomplishments. But, if anything else, she clung to the throne just so he could not have it. Tradition said the eldest would rise, but she would break it out of envy for him. Twice she had ordered him to do one thing, only for him to get his way anyway.
Just like then, he'd have his way now.
It was late one night. All it took was a minor disturbance in the palace foyer that Wulfick tricked his way into causing — a scuffle between two Court Chairmen of different houses, enough noise to attract guards from all over the palace and spark a trivial House feud — and he snuck his way into the Empress' unguarded bedchambers. In her sleep, he gave her an eternal one with a dagger through the chest.
Then, he ran out in a fright, finding a lone guard and expressing a terrible illness the Empress had fallen under. The guard hurried to the room to check on her, but the moment he pulled away the sheets and saw the truth of her demise, Wulfick shoved the guard into her blood, shouting bloody murder and framing the poor soul whose body was now covered in the Empress' crimson red.
The supposed assassin was executed days later, and the empire mourned Empress Zara's death.
Wulfick was the only one who shed no tears. Instead, on the day of his coronation, he smiled. Like before, what he wanted, he got.

The Iron Emperor

Wulfick was now the reigning Emperor. Its responsibilities fell to him, of course. But, more importantly, Wulfick now held absolute authority, and he vowed to wield it like the Tenelean Iron that graced the armor and shields of the most decorated legionnaires.

His word would be absolute, his might unquestioned. Such would be his living offering to the Cosmic Warrior's glory.
In his reign, the military was elevated and innovated. Military service became the merit of society. Weapons of all sorts and ever increasing efficiency graced the hands legionnaires from the west to the east, and south in the Shepherd's Isle, wyverns began being captured and brought back in order to begin training the first wave of the famed Wyvern Riders.
The land gave Tenelea's military a name. The Iron War Machine.

Many times envoys from the east, west, and north arrived to discuss such action, and many times Wulfick gave them his false word nothing would come of it. But, he knew something was to. The hated provinces of Endolin were to his west, and the powerful kingdom of Ravenna was to his east.
Revenge was the only thing that mattered to a Tenelean, even centuries later, and Wulfick knew there was only one way such revenge could be realized.

The War of Turmoil

In 1,520 AC, Wulfick unleashed the Iron War Machine in the time's deadliest and most terrifying display of destruction. Endolish cities like Lucodonus were attacked and occupied without warning. Ravenna's settlements of Gravenbest, Podun, and Saltna were devastated, along with Port Soldul and Christoforus being raided by the empire's Iron Armada, and Ravenna's navy decimated.

Wulfick sent Endolin all the way back to the meridian line between Thalia and Windergone Bay in the west. In the north, Wulfick ravaged the province of Wirenth. It stood no chance and was defeated in months. The great monasteries of Mount Heart were surrounded and a harrowing campaign waged against it that leveled its ancient seven-span walls. In the east, a bloody siege was waged against Podun to strike into the Ravennian heartland, while down south in the Silver Piece Islands, the Iron Armada, led by Iron Admiral Kaeso Kominious, landed on and subdued Daphne Island.

By the end of the war in 1,525, Wulfick had annexed a third of the entire continent when the Treaty of Podun was signed between himself, the Ravennian King, Jamesyn Mendago, and the two remaining Endol Elders, Ithronel, and Arbelladon. Elder Gormar had been killed in the war.
The empire chanted Wulfick's name. The land despised him, but it mattered little to him. He had only signed the treaty to allow his armies time to regroup and arm themselves with greater things in years to come. In a time when just like before, he'd unleash his war machine in an unstoppable wave.

House Boulderdash

Of the noble houses of Tenelea, House Boulderdash had always been an enigma to Wulfick. Often it was obvious whether a family member liked or despised another. But in House Boulderdash, trust and deceit clung to the shadows like a waiting killer between everyone.
Rupprecht Bladebreaker, the Iron Lord who had since long passed away, had in fact been one of the progenitors of the house, and his son, Richard Boulderdash, and grandson, Frederick Boulderdash, were of particular interest.
Richard was an Iron Lord, and the Wyvern Prime over the Wyvern Riders, but he was a man who let his conscience question the Emperor on many occasions, even sympathizing with land of the enemy's and adopting three orphaned Ravennian children as his own. In him, Wulfick saw his little sister, and he would not have such weak will at the head of the war machine. But, Richard always denied these things, claiming full loyalty to the empire.
It was loyalty Wulfick would have tested soon enough.
Frederick, on the other hand, was young and malleable. He excelled in espionage, and Wulfick knew he'd be of great use. In 1,550, Frederick stole his way into the higher end of Ravennian society to slowly dismantle it from the inside, with updates given regularly. However, Wulfick purposefully had those messages cut off, and nothing was known about Frederick's activity for months. The silence caused rumors within House Boulderdash and the Court of Civilius, and Wulfick played along too.
Frederick was labeled a deserter, and Wulfick had a secret order sent to Richard, his test of loyalty. A Tenelean put empire above all else, but when Richard received the secret order to find and kill his son, Wulfick already knew the choice that would be made.
Richard disappeared, and Wulfick declared him a criminal on the count of high treason. His second-in-command, Blaire Bivalur replaced the old man, and that was that. But Wulfick always knew where Richard ran to. He knew the day he defected to Ravenna.

Assault on the Royal Spires

However, Wulfick's interest in Frederick was not done there. He had a fascination with the boy. Spies continually kept an eye on Frederick, spies that he sometimes caught and disposed of, which only made Wulfick enjoy his skills even more. Frederick knew Wulfick wanted to play him like a chess piece, and Wulfick knew the boy wanted to do the same thing.

But, Wulfick had eyes on Frederick. It was never the other way around. He would never know Wulfick's next move, but Wulfick would know his, and he could read it in the stars. The year by now was 1,560. Frederick assembled a group of powerful people, including his great uncle, the former Iron Lord, Wilhelm Boulderdash.
Together they all infiltrated the Royal Spires where the Ravennian King resided. On that day, Frederick assassinated King Jamesyn, forced to fight and defeat his own grandfather.
Wulfick was fully prepared when, moments later, the group of them teleported into the throne room of the Imperial Palace, Richard's

unconscious body with them. Perhaps Frederick was hoping to show up the emperor in some way. Wulfick didn't care, everything was going how he wished it to.
Power, Cosmic Warrior given, rushed through Wulfick, and in a single slice in the air, Richard's head came toppling to the floor. Pardon was proclaimed to Frederick, and Wulfick prepared for the brink of another war.

The Great War of Westerin

Frederick Boulderdash's name was a well known one throughout Westerin, given House Boulderdash's infamy. When he was concluded to have caused King Jamesyn's death, it was no different than any other Tenelean committing such a crime. All eyes turned on Wulfick and his empire. Armies were mobilized once again, and a new united front went to war.

The land had faced Tenelea before, and this time they put up a tougher fight. In some areas, Tenelea started losing ground. But, in preparation of this, Wulfick had assembled for himself a group of highly skilled individuals, known as the Tenelean Incursors. Small in number, they were great in power, and alone, they took on some of the toughest assignments the Tenelean warfront had to offer, whether physical or verbal.
With a smile on his face, Wulfick watched as their efforts alone kept the war tipped in the empire's favor.

The first and most fatal crack came with the fall of Podun. The Ravennian city gone, the Iron War Machine's momentum carried them through Imbractus and far into the Ravennian mainland. Wulfick himself even visited the broken city, remembering its defense back to the first war. A statue to the land's first king, Daymen Christoforus still stood. With Wulfick's iconic Hammer of Woe, he smashed it to pieces.
After the fall of Podun, strength on the side of Tenelea's enemies faltered, until the day came when the empire had seized control of Mendago and Amla Lenora, the capitals of Ravenna and Endolin.
Wulfick and the masses rejoiced as the war came to an end. All of Westerin had been brought down to its knees. Everywhere else had peacefully subjugated.

Greater Tenelea

The land was under Wulfick's iron fist, fit to be reshaped as he so desired. He thought there nothing that could have pleased the Cosmic Warrior more.
Lands were annexed, and others puppeted as he wished. It was a slow process, and Wulfick held his patience. Dissidents rose from one corner one day, and another the next, but they were always dealt with. He would have order.
Citizens believed the war had been the very Sword Prophecy the Cosmic Warrior always prophesied about, though Wulfick knew better than that. The Sword Prophecy, Zanreer's conquest of all life, would be something far greater than even a war such as was this, and Wulfick wanted his empire to also become greater. It would expand. It would grow. Whatever lands beyond the sea. Whatever planes beyond the sky. Zanreer's name would be proclaimed through it all.
In 1,570, Wulfick made the public declaration, dissolving the Tenelean Empire. In its place, Greater Tenelea. It was a continent of centralized power, surrounded by occupied peoples who lived — suffered — under Wulfick's rule. A new name rose up for him. No longer was he the Iron Emperor.
He was the Iron Tyrant, and he would have order, because what he wanted, he got.

Wulfick V and Greater Tenelea continue to quench the land of its freedom, turning it into a factory that continues to supply his Iron War Machine. Music and art are banned — bards are thereby persecuted — and no longer is Tenelea a society based on merit, but on Tenelean citizenship. Elves, citizens or not, are forced through cropping, with those refusing suffering heavy punishment. A legionnaire is any man's common occupation, and second to that physical labor workers that help supply them.
But, underground movements slowly organize, awaiting the day — their first and only chance — to rise up and do away with the Iron Tyrant. Great in number, they await the day their leader, Paidrag MacArdal, will send the word and begin the day everyone calls Westerin's Final Prayer. Tenelea and Westerin. No matter the ending, one will die for good.

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For the Cosmic Warrior, my rule is iron. For my people, I make the choices no one else can.
~ Wulfick Civilius V ~

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Alignment

Neutral Evil

Species

Elf

Ethnicity

Tenelean

Year of Birth

1298 AC

Aligned Organization

Tenelea