Ashravan

Ashravan
Family Spouse Kurshina Siblings younger brother
Titles	Emperor of the Rose Empire
Birthplace	Ukurgi
Ethnicity	Grand
Homeworld	Sel

Ashravan of the Eighty Suns was the 49th Emperor of the Rose Empire and a member of the Heritage Faction. At the time of his injury he was forty years old.

Appearance and Personality

He was described as having a "strong face." He had golden hair, a firm chin and a prominent nose.

Despite being known to have a temper, he was a humble man, and an idealist, at heart. He loved to write horrible poetry and having a good debate. He was arrogant, but secretly wished he could be something other than what he was. He also hated fish.

History

Early Life

He had a younger brother who died when Ashravan was six. He idolized his brother, but kept his feelings secret due to a belief that his brother would have made a better emperor. His brother’s fondness for green is the reason it is Ashravan's favorite color.

At some point Ashravan began to keep a private journal, perhaps to reflect on the choices he had made. He left instructions to have it burned on his death.

Life as Emperor

“I have decided, at long last, to agree to the demands of my faction. I will offer myself for the position of emperor, as Gaotona has so often encouraged. ”

—Excerpt from Ashravan's personal journal

After the death of Emperor Yazad, Ashravan was chosen to lead the empire.

According to Gaotona, Ashravan originally became emperor out of a desire to change the empire such as the favoritism shown to the Grands. Over time however, his desire waned. Ashravan was swept up in the bureaucracy of an empire that worked, if not perfectly, than well enough. He focused more on the beauty of it all instead of its problems and gave the arbiters more and more control.

Despite the urgings of Gaotona, his mentor, being a significant factor in his becoming emperor, Ashravan eventually grew to resent Gaotona because he felt inadequate.

The Emperor's New Soul

One night a group of assassins, agents of the Glory Faction, broken into the emperor's rooms and attacked him and his wife, Kurshina, who was killed. He sustained an injury to the head and although a Resealer was able to heal the wound, the emperor was left brain-dead. The arbiters of the Heritage Faction kept the emperor's status a secret by saying he had sequestered himself during the mourning period for his wife. The arbiters then tasked the Forger Wan ShaiLu to create a new soul for the emperor before the one hundred days of mourning were over.

Shai used a number of sources for the Soul Forgery, such as official histories, Ashravan's personal journal and interviews of his friends and family. The arbiter Gaotona volunteered himself as a test subject for stamps of minor portions of Ashravan's soul.

On the ninety-eight day of the mourning period Shai succeeded in creating a soulstamp to replicate Ashravan's soul which he would have to be re-stamped with each day. Buried in the stamp were certain triggers that Shai added to help nudge Ashravan into becoming the emperor he had always dreamed of being.

Notes

Preceded by Yazad

Emperor of the Rose Empire 49th

Succeeded by incumbent