Novalyst.
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character

Nero Au Augustus

the ArchGovernor · Augustus

The ArchGovernor who names Darrow his heir, then is unmasked as his monstrous son's lifelong victim and murdered by him.

Story so far

Nero au Augustus, at the height of his restored power, privately offers Darrow not a Praetor's post but adoption as his heir and husband to Mustang, confessing his true creed: order above all, the Reformers to be imprisoned or executed once Octavia au Lune falls, for he believes only rigid Color hierarchy can save mankind from extinction. But his son the Jackal springs a coup at the Triumph feast. Confronted and bound, Augustus learns the full horror: the Jackal, whom he once exposed on a rock as an infant for being weak, murdered his beloved firstborn Claudius as a child by hiring Karnus.

When Augustus spits that he should have strangled him in his crib and disowns him—'You are not my son'—the Jackal shoots him in the head, over the Sovereign's objections. The cold ArchGovernor who won Mars through betrayal dies by his own blood's.

Appearance

An imperious older Gold with a hard aquiline face and cold golden eyes, golden hair; then shot dead.

Role

ArchGovernor of Mars; murdered by his own son at the height of his restored reign.

Relationships

The Jackal — His son, whom he exposed as a baby and disowns, and who murders him.
Darrow — His named heir, whom he means to bind to his family and rule through.
Mustang — His daughter, whose heart his and the Jackal's deeds would break.

Earlier in this series

Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:

Sources — 8 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 1
  • The cold ArchGovernor of Mars who claims Darrow as his prize and welcomes his own ruin into his house.
Chapter 13
  • The ArchGovernor who blesses Darrow's duel, dreams of a crown, then loses his ward Leto to the Jackal.
Chapter 20
  • The ArchGovernor who, target of a sleeping-assassination, spurns Pliny's peace and commits Mars to war.
Chapter 26
  • The hunted ArchGovernor, fleet scattered and cities besieged, weighing retreat against Darrow's audacity.
Chapter 29
  • The ArchGovernor who wins his throne through betrayal and now forbids Darrow any whiff of reform.
Chapter 32
  • The ArchGovernor, his Ganymede raid failed, captured in Pliny's coup and delivered toward the Sovereign.
Chapter 44
  • The ArchGovernor, freed and restored as master of Mars, now weighing an alliance with the Reformers.
Chapter 52
  • The ArchGovernor who names Darrow his heir, then is unmasked as his monstrous son's lifelong victim and murdered by him.
Character portrait