Kaeron I

Kaeron I ka Alar-Soras, known as Kaeron the Rash or Kaeron the Martyr, was Emperor of the Elyrians from 1250 until his death. Succeeding his father, Daeron the Great as monarch of the restored Elyrian Empire, and ruling over the personal union of the crowns of Achysia, Ichoria and Kathia, Kaeron inherited an empire at the apex of its glory, but also one that was severely weakened from within. With an economy destroyed by nearly a century of war, a hostile aristocratic class and rebellions in Kathia and Edury, Kaeron was forced into a war to defend his realms from the moment of his ascension. His empire quickly lost control of Kathia and Edury, but before he was able to march, Ichoria, the integral part of the personal union and the realm where his father was raised, also revolted against his rule. With his forces weakened, Kaeron gathered everything that he had for a campaign in Kathia, an invasion popularly known as "Kaeron's Revenge". His forces split into two upon entering the country in order to live off the land more effectively, but his northern force, composed mainly from mercenaries and led by the Eduran general Anne van Nijkamp, disobeyed his orders and try to attack the near defenseless Kathic capital. The Battle of Ravonne ended with a decisive defeat for the mercenary forces, with the city guards massacring them in the city itself, after the mercenaries had broken into smaller units to loot and pillage. With only half of his army left, Kaeron faced his enemies in the Battle of the Four Nations, where his army was dealt a crushing defeat, and Achysian dominance of the continent was shattered. Retreating with his remaining forces, Kaeron and his guards were caught in a skirmish close to the Achysian border, where he was shot in one of the most mysterious moments in history, either by the enemy or by one of his own men. His death brought an end to his father's empire, as the Treaty of Hyleodon brought an end to the Wars of the Faith.

Kaeron has a complicated legacy. He is remembered as a tyrant in significant parts of Aurora, due to his autocratic and centralizing policies as well as his wars in defense of his father's conquests, but he has been viewed positively by those countries that had benefited from an united empire, and he has even been sometimes named as a spiritual father to the idea of a united Aurora. In Achysia, he has been treated as a martyr, who sacrificed himself for his people and who was betrayed by his own subjects, leading to many attempts to officially canonize him.