Vasyl II Shiroko

Emperor Vasyl II Shiroko

Born in 665, Vasyl II succeeded his brother, Fedir I Shiroko, who died during an accident while out hunting. He is most famous for establishing the modern twelve governmental departments of Eoion and for changing the rules of arena combat for greater bloodshed.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Vasyl II was the fifth child of Liviu I Shiroko. He grew up alongside his older brother, Fedir I Shiroko, and learned a great deal about how to support him. As one of the younger siblings, he was not meant to rule, but instead was educated in how to assist the eventual ruler. His younger sister, however, was also groomed to be Fedir's wife, as was standard among the Shiroko Dynasty. Vasyl II was expected to marry one of his cousins as there were no other sisters within his immediate family.
While his father was an extremely devout man, Vasyl II took more toward practical matters than the magical. He spent much of his youth moving through each of the various governmental departments, learning how they functioned and who was the most influential in each. During his Attunement Test, it was found that he was a pyr-esh like Fedir and the two were trained in the creation of the Ilyannoi together.
Upon his older brother's ascension to the throne in 692, Vasyl II gained authority as the baejan's (emperor's) younger brother and he and Fedir set to work in their grand plan. Both believed the governmental departments were becoming cluttered, often overlapping in their roles which caused tension and confusion. They respected the system put in place by their ancestor, Sava I Shiroko, but as the empire grew, it needed to evolve.
Before they could properly begin their work, Fedir was killed during a hunting trip after a rock slide. His body was returned to the Gandenye to be buried with the rest of the monarchs in 693. As he was the next oldest of the royal children of his generation, Vasyl II was crowned baejan. He immediately married his younger sister and worked to produce heirs to avoid a possible succession crisis. He also created a Tsirin to show his new status as emperor and his worthiness to rule, just as all new baejan had done before him.
Over the course of his reign, he and his wife had four children: Krystanya (698), Inna (699), Ilya (700), and twins Katarin and Boran (702). In 720, he married Kystanya and Ilya to one another so the next generation of heirs could begin before a new baejan was crown after his retirement.
Rather than change course, Vasyl II was determined to continue the work he and Fedir had started. Originally, all departments had been under the close scrutiny and management of Ilya Shiroko, the founder of the dynasty. Upon his death, his son, Sava I Shiroko, took the throne and reorganized the government into six departments so that they could run without the micromanaging of his father. These sections had been enough during the early days of the empire. However, with expansions and an increase in population, there was a need to separate certain responsibilities to keep the government running efficiently, both for those employed and for the baejan to receive accurate, useful information.
Vasyl II determined that twelve departments were a suitable number. This was double the number of essences and he saw a symbolism in it as more effective for management and piety. Despite not being as devout as his brother, he was still attached to Bolugama and wanted to have the number of his new system has some significance.
In the end, he created the modern twelve departments as follows: treasury, foreign affairs, conquest, law, public health, state affairs, defense, architecture, education, workers and agriculture, public programs, and historic significance. This new system added historic significance and architecture as separate departments. Vasyl II also split both state affairs and public health, along with conquest and foreign affairs, which had all been only two departments previously. His new system led to the streamlining of governmental duties. Along with this, the new departments caused the nobility to vie for positions in them. Vasyl II decided to staff these with both members of the Shiroko family and those outside of it. This was done in order to bring more of the family into government and to allow the nobility to be satisfied with their role in the empire, thus they would have no reason to sabotage his new system from under his family.
Aside from his reorganization of the government, Vasyl II also turned his attention to the public games. Arena combat was popular and many spectators enjoyed the fighting. However, most games involving combat were not particularly bloody as a goal. Fighters took time to acquire and train, thus making them valuable. Many were free people who had chosen this career and only about thirty percent were slaves who had been ordered and trained to fight. Both groups had fans and it was in the best interests of the games to keep them alive.
However, Vasyl wanted to see more bloodshed and thus changed several of the rules. First, he declared that matches would go until at least one fighter was unable to continue, whereas before a fighter could surrender without a loss of honor or prestige. This led to longer, more brutal bouts. The exception to this rule was fighters who were in the top ten ranked combatants, a system devised by Vasyl II and still in use. Only these most successful and popular fighters could surrender. Secondly, mismatched fighters became far more common as the rules stated that at least one such fight needed to be put on per show. Previously, fighters using the same weapons were placed together in order to show their skills. Instead, Vasyl II used mismatches to show how clever a fighter could be.
At the age of sixty-five, Vasyl II retired, passing the crown of Eoion onto his oldest daughter, Krystanya I. He spent his retirement in the Gandenye, assisting his daughter and, once she was well established in her own right as the baejan, watching the games. He spent a great deal of time with his granddaughter Lyrasa I as well, teaching her how to wield magic and tutoring her in how to rule, education to supplement what she learned from her mother. He died at the age of seventy-seven in 742 and was buried in the family mausoleum.

Life

665 742 77 years old

Birthplace

Gandenye

Place of Death

Gandenye

Parents

Liviu I Shiroko

Siira Shiroko

Children

• Krystanya I Shiroko

Gender

male

Eyes

violet

Hair

long, white, many small braids

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

pale

Height

6'0"