Reign of Emperor Artus II

Life, Career

The second Emperor of the Gratic Empire. Known for his wide reforms to the Imperial government and the Imperial Army and his defense of Gratic City from the undead hordes of Fasnei.

Artus II inherited his father's growing empire at the age of 20 and set out to complete his father's work. His first action was to rename the Empire from the Kingdom of Gratica to the Gratic Empire. He envisioned a strong nation that stretched across all of Endaman, with him and his descendants at the head, and "Kingdom" would not do for such a strong state.   He then plunged himself into completing his father's reforms of government. Artus I had planned that each town and village would have a Magistrate that would be a local representative of the Imperial Council. The younger Artus found this plan to be incredibly useful, and began appointing Magistrates for all of the local towns and villages.   A problem arose when one particular such Magistrate, Fasnei the Destroyer, turned out to be an evil sorcerer who planned to use his town as an experiment in undeath. Killing the townspeople of the village and torching it, he led them out of the Deranti Forest to march on Gratic City. His horde of dead villagers were intercepted by Artus II's expert swordsmen at Dzaklak and destroyed. For their bravery, these swordsmen became the core of what was to be the Imperial Army. The general of this army, who was Artus II's younger brother Geort also became the first General of the Imperial Council.   Realizing that the various Magistrates needed oversight to prevent such a catastrophe occurring again, he set up a council of Magistrates that would convene once a year and elect a Head Magistrate to represent them on the Imperial Council. This was the precursor to the later Provincial councils. He also introduced tax reforms that helped make people in the Empire not have to pay so much tax to the Emperor. As a consequence of this, he appointed a Treasurer to the Imperial Council, whose job was to keep track of tax revenues and imperial finances.   Not long after his reforms of the government, small wars and diplomatic relationships caused more and more small city-states and villages to join the Empire. By the time of his death in 29 I , his Empire had reached the White Guard Mountains in the east, the coast of the Gulf of Grasiun to the north, and a southern boundary at the river Elb. This corresponds to borders of modern Gratica Province.   In a landmark move in late 28 I , he set up a system for choosing the Emperor; the eldest child of the current Emperor would become the new Emperor. This caused issues later when Artus V died childless, but it stabilized the line of succession. As per his rules, his daughter Entelia became the first Empress of the Empire.