Tarasius of Ephesus
Tarasius of Ephesus was a character played by server founder ToiletLad_, it was his first character and loosely based off Augustus Caesar with a strong hint of his real life personality and beliefs. His character first appears in writing as Petros on the 1st of October 2024, with the name of the character changing to Tarasius of Ephesus later in the month. Tarasius was leader of the Ascëans, and later the Princeps of Messenia, ending his character whilst being a co-Diarch within the Commonwealth of Sanéa. Tarasius was retired on the 20th of March following an assassination.
For the sake of easy readability the name Tarasius will be used for this character's entire lifespan, though it should be noted his name was Petros of Ephesus until the Ascëan tribe resettled in what is now Alaetia.
Character Card info
Name: Tarasius of Ephesus
Race: Human
Subculture: Messeno-Ascëan
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Age [upon death]: 40s
Gender: Male
Religion: Pyrannist
The life of Tarasius
From Ascëa to Parakascëa
Tarasius was the leader of the Ascëa tribe, a tribe who hails from the northeastern lands of Cinder. Tarasius led his tribe into the Ascëan valley, whose namesake is the tribe. His guidance of the tribe led to brief union of Ascëans and Arannans in a short-lived union known as the Confederate States of Aranna. After the failure of this union the Ascëan tribe resettled further south along the coast, renaming themselves to the Parakascëans (Coastal Ascëans in the Ascëan language). The movement of the tribe meant that they now bordered the Tsagaan Khanate. At the time the Khanate was a great power and as such the tribe placed themselves under informal overlord-ship of the Khanate. Tarasius started work on the Tarasian walls of Ephesus to protect his tribe against the mighty horde. Behind the wall he slowly started to build up the city of Ephesus, with the Temple of Ephesus being the first building to be completed.
Tarasius found himself befriending the Danouvians, signing onto the Sanéan Defence League in an effort to protect his people from the Khanate. Signing onto the SDL was only made possible due to the reorganization away from a tribal structure into a Despotate. Now Despot Tarasius, he continued to develop not just Ephesus, but the entirety of his new Despotate. expanding into the modern Thémata of Parakéa and Mustyria. During this time the Despot was quite friendly with leading Revolutionist thinkers, actually having produced an unpublished manuscript on whether Revolution against Revolutionism could be considered Revolutionism, though the content of this book has sadly been lost to time. It is also clear that at this point Tarasius had converted to Pyrannism, the religion he would follow until his death, having been personally converted by Pope Swonki I of the Grand Papal States. After his conversion the decision was made to rename the City of Ephesus to the City of Alaetia, a name that locals started using for the city.
From Parakascëa to Sanéa
It was not long after the conversion of Tarasius that he would be introduced to Luís Kazymir, who had recently fled Danouvia after its revolution which exiled the young prince. Tarasius would informally adopt the young prince to teach him the art of statecraft, so that he might return to Danouvia to reclaim its throne in the future, but instead of Parakascëa gearing up to aid in the future reconquest of Danouvia for the Kazymirs, the state - and by extension Tarasius - would find itself peacefully annexing the remains of Danouvia after its collapse, as the remains of the Danouvian government requested integration into the Despotate.
Upon the unification of Kórsia (the left-overs of Danouvia) and Parakascëa, Tarasius and the best minds in the nation sat down to create a constitutional system for this new Messenian Principate. Tarasius would serve as Princeps, whilst the nobility would serve as his Senators. As Princeps Tarasius would attempt to establish a democratic oligarchy within Messenia