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Cornered on his own bridge as his invincible armada falls, the Poet chooses death over prison, garroting himself rather than betray his Society.
Roque au Fabii conducts the battle of Ilium like an orchestra from the bridge of the Colossus, subdividing the Sword Armada into twenty nimble divisions and very nearly winning—crippling Mustang's Dejah Thoris with EMPs and railguns even as Darrow's clawDrill assault burrows toward him. But he is outmaneuvered on every axis: betrayed by his own Pink valet Amathea, who opens the bridge door; forced to watch Darrow overload the dying Pax into a bomb that annihilates his destroyers; and finally shown Sevro's hidden host pour from the moon Thebe to devour his fleet from within. Confronted by Darrow and Victra, he refuses in conscience to order a stand-down, coldly telling them Mustang 'chose her fate' and that duty is sometimes the cold.
He and Victra trade the war's rawest grief—she naming his betrayal (the boxes, the torture, the year of hell), he insisting his oath to protect the Society was never about the tyrants he served. Declaring 'I have lost the invincible armada' and refusing to be a prisoner, he strips off his Imperator badges, tells Darrow 'we were brothers, but I would kill you if only I had the power,' and wraps his own razor-whip around his throat—dying with the words 'I am the Gold' as his famous fleet burns behind him.
Lean as summer wheat, high-cheekboned with warm golden eyes gone sorrowful, dark-gold hair; in a black-and-gold Imperator's uniform he strips of its badges, barefoot on his dimmed bridge.
Antagonist and Darrow's lost brother; the undefeated Poet of Deimos, broken at Ilium, who takes his own life rather than survive the loss of his Society and his honor.
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