Ilya IV Shiroko
Emperor Ilya IV Shiroko
Born in 601, Ilya IV originally geared his rule toward continuing the charitable work of his mother, Zora II Shiroko. However, the revolt of miners in the western area of the empire, a conflict known as Micah's war, instilled in him a rage against those who criticized the dynasty. He enacted a series of laws and fierce punishments against any who spoke against the dynasty and government. His most famous punishment was peeling skin with hot knives and he became known in history as Ilya the Vicious.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Ilya IV was born in 601 to Zora II Shiroko and Ilya III Shiroko. Most of his life was spent in the Gandenye with his mother as his father's mental capacity continued to decline. While he did learn some things from his father and developed a close relationship with him, he was much closer with his mother. Her busy schedule ruling the empire and consolidating her power after Ilya III stepped down kept them apart in his early years, thus his time spent with his father then. However, as he grew older, he began learning about his future role as the baejan (emperor) from his mother.
His Attunement Test revealed that he was a lu-esh and this solidified his place as the tajanji (high prince). Zora II taught him the family magic, Stitching, and how to make the Ilyannoi. He began working to create small ones and Zora II encouraged him to work with Ilyannoi that could deliver supplies and information over vast distances. At first, he agreed and intended to use them in order to keep news moving through the empire, particularly to assist his mother in her charitable work.
Into his teen years, he became extremely skilled in small flying Ilyannoi, infusing them with air magic in a continuation of Natalay I Shiroko's work and saw her, along with the rest of his family, as benevolent leaders of the empire and its citizens. His belief in the monarchy's authority was strengthened by his mother's moniker among the populace, the Kind.
Under his mother's direction, he married his sister, Kariin, in 621 and took the throne of Eoion two years later. His first years were largely peaceful, however, he increased the taxes, particularly on the highly profitable mining industry, in order to help pay for the charities and social programs his mother had started. Despite the good they did, they did not bring money into the empire and instead drained the treasury. In order to replenish it, Ilya IV sought to increase imperial revenue. Gold and diamonds were highly sought after both inside the empire and in their rival nation, Yzel.
Merchants and mine owners decided to spread the cost of the new taxes to their employees and decreased pay. This led to the miners revolting under the leadership of Micah Oran in 630. With the start of the rebellion, Ilya IV turned his creations to spying, the first time Ilyannoi had been used exclusively for this purpose, and paired them with the human spy network, the Wenunùdzì. Through these channels, he was able to gather a great deal of information on the revolt's plans and leaders, causing a swift, brutal end to the rebellion in less than a year.
He had the leaders brought to Niuus and publicly tortured them through the peeling of their skin with hot knives, a punishment he would become famous for. Once they were dead, he brought those who were left into the Gandenye and sat down with both the workers and their employers. The fear seeing their leaders tortured and dead had instilled in all present made negotiations easy and Ilya IV's new regulations were only minorly changed. His words carried a poisoned honey and this was the first time he was able to make people thank him for cruelty and leave thinking he had been kind to them.
After all his mother had done for the empire, he saw those speaking out against the dynasty to be inherently evil. This started the enactment of a series of laws the tightly restricted what could and could not be said about the royals and the government. Depending on the severity of the infraction, a person could face fines, imprisonment, torture, or a combination of any of these. While outright execution was banned, Ilya IV got around this by simply torturing them until their body gave out, deciding it was simply a side effect. Over the next thirteen years, Ilya IV continued his tight control over the media within the empire and kept the human and Ilyannoi spies watching the populace as much as possible.
Those he caught were encouraged to pinpoint others who were hostile to the dynasty as well. This was where he earned his moniker, the Vicious. His use of torture was extensive and he was skilled in the manipulation of prisoners, turning them to his side through a combination of pain, gaslighting, and capture-bonding. When and if a prisoner was allowed to be released, they were often so manipulated that they believed Ilya IV was a kind man protecting the empire. The famous nickname was allowed only because Ilya IV himself thought it was a good reminder to the populace about what would happen should they fail to be proper citizens.
Before his sister/wife's death, they had four children, two sets of twins: identical Ilya V Shiroko and Kataya in 621 and fraternal Svante II Shiroko and Inna in 622. Kataya was stillborn. After Kariin's death, he married one of his cousins, but refused to attempt for more children, afraid of the heartbreak of another dead child. Instead, he concentrated completely on solidifying imperial control.
In the later years of his reign, he turned his attention to the schools set up by Timof I Shiroko, redoing the curriculum to not only keep the languages and history of the former kingdoms away, but to steer the students toward acceptance and praise for the monarchy. His thought was the Timof I was correct in that changing the attitudes of the young would benefit the empire in the long term rather than only dealing with the present. Punishment for children who questioned the monarchy was also lighter and more directed toward explaining why their views were incorrect and leading them to the proper conclusion.
Ilya IV retired in 643 when Ilya V was twenty two, and handed control of the empire to his son and moved to a small villa in Sariiga. However, he temporarily returned power in a regency role after Ilya V died from illness in 649. He remained in the Gandenye to assist his second son, Svante II, in his abrupt transition to ruling. After Svante was fully prepared to rule alone, Ilya V retired fully, but did not leave the palace. He died there in 673 and was buried in the Shiroko family mausoleum.
Relationships
Life
601
673
72 years old
Birthplace
Place of Death
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Gender
male
Eyes
half lidded, bright violet
Hair
half braided, dull white
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
pale cream, pink undertone
Height
5'10"
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