Novalyst.
Spoiler-aware compendium Sign in
Library/ Red Rising
Compendium Story so far
Reading position Whole book
Whole book
← The Compendium
Original Novalyst illustration
Earlier appearances

Portraits revealed through your current reading position.

character

Nero Au Augustus

the ArchGovernor · ArchGovernor Augustus

The granite-faced ArchGovernor of Mars — Eo's killer and the Jackal's father — who rigged the game, then claims the victorious Darrow as his lancer.

Story so far

Nero au Augustus, ArchGovernor of Mars and the man who hanged Eo, finally stands before Darrow in the flesh at Olympus — a face carved from granite, deep-cheeked and contemptuous, reeking of power, his eyes made from the embers of a dying sun. He admits, coldly, that his wife begged him to help their son, and that he bent the Proctors to rig the game for the Jackal. Darrow's evidence of that bribery could ruin him — so he buys the Reaper's silence not with gold but with patronage: the Academy, funds, an introduction to the Sovereign, a place as his lancer and aide-de-camp.

He cares nothing for blood purity, only strength, and openly rates his dead eldest son — killed by the Bellona brute Karnus — above his surviving children Virginia and Adrius. Darrow kneels and forswears his name to become Darrow, Lancer of House Augustus — swearing his purpose to the glory of the very man he means one day to destroy for the Sons of Ares.

Appearance

A powerful Gold with a granite-carved face, deep cheeks, straight nose, and tough manly skin — not beautiful but radiating power; contemptuous eyes like embers of a dying sun, a thin unemotive mouth.

Role

ArchGovernor of Mars, Eo's killer and the Jackal's father, who claims Darrow as his lancer.

Relationships

Darrow — The victor he blackmails and recruits as his lancer, unaware he nurtures his own destroyer.
the-jackal — His son Adrius, for whom he rigged the game yet whom he judges weak.
mustang — His daughter Virginia, whom he says he should have backed instead.
Eo — The Red girl he hanged, whose death set Darrow on his path to this throne room.
Sources — 4 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 1
  • The Gold ArchGovernor of Mars, supreme Society authority over the planet, invoked but unseen.
Chapter 4
  • The Gold ArchGovernor of Mars, a Peerless Scarred lord who coldly orders Eo's hanging as a spectacle.
Chapter 15
  • The Gold ArchGovernor of Mars, who welcomes the Institute's students with a creed of supremacy and mocks Eo as a dim girl.
Chapter 45
  • The granite-faced ArchGovernor of Mars — Eo's killer and the Jackal's father — who rigged the game, then claims the victorious Darrow as his lancer.
Character portrait