Arete Family/Averyll
| Full Name: | Averyll Arete |
| Age: | 25 |
| Class | Cavalier |
| Realm/Island: | rogue, South-East |
| Honour/Prestige: | 118 / 31 |
| Title(s): | |
| Former Title(s): | Pontifex of Toren Countess of Jerelin Marshal of the Army of Tor Fiduciary of Toren |
| History: | Began her career in Toren (07.06.06) Appointed as Countess of Jerelin (09.08.06) Appointed as Marshal of the Army of Tor (11.29.06) Elected as Fiduciary of Toren (12.27.06) Elected as Pontifex of Toren (3.17.07) Banned from Toren by Gheros. (07.26.2007, Reason: overthrown by a rebellion) |
Averyll began her career on the South-East Islands in Toren, far away from her family in Abington. Like Aeryn, Averyll is very studious, but whereas Aeryn is passionate about the religious affairs of her realm, Averyll is passionate about military affairs, and so, on the recommendation of Sir Phear, Averyll decided to leave her ancestral home for more war-torn realms. In Toren, she met Pontifex Phear, the brother of Sir Phlex, and he appointed Averyll to the command of Jerelin after only two months in Toren. Shortly afterwards, Averyll became Toren's one and only mentor. Many of her students later became very successful in Toren, and eventually Averyll's lessons became the canonical texts of Aristoi Academy.
Averyll's reputation grew quickly. She was appointed as the Marshal of the Army of Tor, and thus became part of Toren's Military Council. Later, she was elected as Fiduciary of Toren, and thus became part of Toren's Advisory Council. Through the combination of these two titles simultaneously, Averyll became intimately familiar with the effects of takeover strategies, and successfully coordinated several takeovers of her own. Her most famous victory, or rather infamous, was the takeover of Lesthem, which earned her the reputation of being a brilliant military strategist, but the unprecedented brutality she demonstrated there also earned her the nickname "The Butcher of Lesthem". But the infamy she earned in the takeover of Lesthem was not only due to her brutality, but also due to the outcome of the final battle, for it was the battle that ended the life of the heroic Pontifex Phear, and thus brought an end to a glorious era.
Despite her infamous reputation, or perhaps because of it, Averyll was immediately elected as the new Pontifex by the extremely narrow margin of only 3 votes (over Cyperus, Duke of Toren Stronghold), and shortly thereafter retired from her positions as Countess of Jerelin, Marshal of the Army of Tor and Fiduciary of Toren, citing a conflict of interest in both writing policy and implementing policy at the same time. Doing so also created new leadership opportunities for other nobles in the realm. However, the legitimacy of her rule was immediately questioned by a member of Averyll's own Advisory Council, who pointed out the fact that Cyperus was imprisoned, along with most of his supporters, during the same battle that left the throne empty, and thus he was unable to effectively campaign for the position. Gheros, serving as Haruspex Maximus, initiated a referendum calling for a re-election. The referendum closed in Averyll's favour, thus concluding the debate over her legitimacy, but opposition to her rule continued to grow nonetheless. One noble even called Averyll a "wretched whore", and eventually this discontent grew into a rebellion, which came to be know as The Toren Civil War.
When Averyll was elected as Pontifex on March 17th, it was obvious to everyone on SEI that Averyll, with all her titles, was an extremely influential person in Toren, but no one outside of Toren had every heard of her, let alone had become familiar with her policies. This caused a great deal of stress in foreign realms, particular the rulers of those realms. When Averyll made it clear that she would honour the precedent set by Phear to support the treaty with Ikalak, King Cronos of Taselak began to coordinate his efforts with the underground rebellion that had been growing in Toren. On April 14th, less than one month after Averyll's election as ruler, the Seperatists declared rebellion. The declaration was timed with the onset of two takeover attempts by Taselak, thus forcing Averyll to choose between defending her realm and defending her crown. To make matters worse, despite Averyll's proclamation of her commitment to the Treaty, even in the face of open-rebellion, Prime Minister Maximus of Ikalak doubted her commitment and so he ordered his troops to cease-fire for the during of the rebellion. This forced Averyll to defend not only her realm against two takeovers and herself against open-rebellion, but also to do so without the assistance of allies as promised by the Treaty she supported.
Out-numbered with fewer resources and diminished morale among peasants and nobles alike, Averyll choose to defend the realm before herself, and she ordered the troops to defend the regions being taken over by Taselak. Fortunately, enough Loyalists returned from the battlefront in time to overcome the rebellion. Unfortunately, both takeovers were successful, in part due to the absence of allied forces, in part due to all of the rebels in the capital instead of on the battlefield. Moreover, two dozen nobles were lost from the ranks of Toren, some for being rebels, others left because they were convinced Toren was going to lose. Even though the rebellion was over, Maximus did not lift the cease-fire. A referendum was called in Ikalak encouraging Maximus to take advantage of Toren's weakened state, betray the Treaty, and end the "boredom" by conquering the island without delay. Averyll convinced Maximus to at least enter into negotiations first.
With the loss of the legendary Phear, as well as two dozen other nobles, having suffered a rebellion and the withdrawal of their ally from the conflict, these were truly the darkest days yet seen in the history of Toren, and yet the darkest had yet to come. Eventually, Maximus agreed to abide by the treaty and even signed an amendment requiring a greater involvement of his forces in the war against Taselak, and so Averyll managed to retain the spirit of the treaty and keep Toren alive. She than declared martial law (i.e. she dictated military strategy instead of the general), retook the lost regions, as well as a couple new regions, and even raised morale, loyalty, and production from the single digits to the mid-nineties in all of the regions that had been decimated by the brutality of the volley between Taselak. Things were starting to turn around for Toren. Than, on June 15th, Maximus announced that he intended to break the Treaty a second time.
