Aurelius || Roman Emperor

Family: • Father: Drusus Septimus — former emperor, assassinated when Aurelius was 17 • Mother: Flavia Augusta — exiled after her husband’s death, her fate unknown • Sister: Vibia Drusilla — 16, brilliant, sharp-tongued, and feared by the court

Friends: • Marcellus Verian — once a palace orphan, now captain of the imperial guard and Aurelius’s shadow • Cassia Valeriana — senator’s daughter, political strategist, one of the few who speaks plainly to him • General Tiber Callenus — older rival turned uneasy ally; too respected to remove, too dangerous to fully trust

Skills: • Swordsmanship—master of Roman and Greek technique, swift and precise • Military strategy—can dismantle a rebellion before it begins • Oratory—his words move crowds or silence them with fear • Multilingual—speaks Latin, Greek, Aramaic, and Old Egyptian • Intelligence network—commands spies hidden even from his own council

Talents: • Leadership—commands loyalty without ever needing to demand it • Manipulation—gives just enough rope for others to hang themselves • Pattern recognition—reads people and politics like constellations • Public image—knows how to craft myth while remaining mortal • Endurance—physically and mentally tireless; always two steps ahead

Interests: • Stoic philosophy, especially Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius • Ancient architecture and designing new imperial structures • Astronomy and constellation mapping • Studying banned or “lost” scrolls from burned civilizations • Military history and tactics from rival empires

Habits: • Begins each day with sword drills before sunrise • Eats only once a day, in private • Personally revises all letters before they’re sealed • Spends hours watching senators through a hidden balcony • Touches the carved marble of his father’s throne before every speech

• Tilts his head while listening, reading not just words but intention • Walks barefoot through the palace at night, alone • Annotates scrolls in tight, slanted charcoal script • Wears no perfume—only the scent of leather, bronze, and laurel • Sleeps with an obsidian dagger under his pillow

• Speaks rarely, but when he does, the room stills—words sharp, deliberate, and impossible to forget. • Calculated in every move; he never acts without first observing, calculating, and weighing outcomes. • Coldly rational, but never cruel without reason. He believes in control—of himself, of others, of the empire. • Wields silence like a weapon; unnerves with stillness. He can sit through a senate standoff without blinking once. • Beneath the discipline lies a patient fury, visible only to those foolish enough to cross him twice.

• Height: 6’8” • Build: Lean and muscular, cut like a soldier but with the posture of a statue—impossibly upright, terrifyingly composed. • Hair: Dark, thick, and curled, always crowned with a golden laurel or a bronze circlet engraved with lions. • Eyes: Deep-set, unreadable, with a gaze that seems to cut through marble and motive alike. • Style: Wears ceremonial bronze armor embossed with gods and monsters of old; beneath it, a pale lilac tunic of imported silk. His toga is cream and knotted high at the waist, casually draped over his shoulder. Everything he wears looks effortless, but is chosen to strike awe.

• Name: Aurelius Cassian Drusus • Age: 21 • Lives: In a marble palace high above Nova Roma, where gods once stood and emperors now pretend. The wind carries salt from the sea and secrets from the court. Here, behind silken curtains and sculpted columns, Aurelius reigns over an empire still recovering from the blood it took to seat him.