Crown Kreistophos Antaxes
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Return to Akaeia
Kreistophos Antaxes, son of Edros Antaxes, holds a barony in Sicinia as well as the Crownship of Akaeia. Born in Tyrins on the House estate in 1698, Kreistophos Antaxes spent his childhood Dauvanatris where his father served in the military administration following the Panselle War. He was educated in Dauvanatris and scored approximately 80% on the civil service admission test. After an angurement with his father he left for the east and spent several years in Kleotensis where he worked in the docks before traveling north across the Downs to Akaseia. he was recalled to Akaeia by his House in 1716 for the coronation of the new Crown. During the financial crises following the Panselle War most of the Empire had fallen into decay, a fact he found without denial in the ruinous state of Akaseia's great citadel, built a century before. In 1716, plague ravaged the Akaeian heartland, killing a significant portion of the population including the Crown Phaelep Iardaneios and his wife Ilia, leaving their son Ioshuad, 10, to manage the Empire.
In 1718, Kreistophos Antaxes enlisted in the Academy of Military Service at Dauvanatris and in 1720 became a commission officer in the 3rd Imperial Army, stationed at Pentekora. Rising quickly, he became Leiutenant Corporal in 2 years, but then was discharged because the Empire could not afford to pay him. He remained in Pentekora and served as a police man for 3 years. In 1725 he returned to Tyrins for his mother's funeral. After a year in Tyrins he moved to Eskinanthus, and opened a profitable trading company in Marandrosi. The Eskinaxas House began to get worried about his success as a trader and had the Orkoseid, the provincial parliament, sanction the seizure of his property and order him to leave the province for "disturbing the peace." When he protested, the courts landed him with 2 and a half years of forced labor.
Ioshuad Iardaneios, worried that strife between the Eskinaxas and Antaxes Houses could spin into a massive civil war between the different Houses that he could not control, urged Kreistophos Antaxes in a secret communique to invoke his right as an ethnic Akaeia to have his case heard before the Crown himself. The Governor of Eskinanthus, however, refused to acknowledge his right. Ioshuad Iardaneios, afraid to lead the Imperial Army agains this own province, backed down. In another secret letter to Kreistophos, he explained his fears that to lead the army against them would cause the rising nationalist sentiments of the various groups to explode into an Empire-wide revolution, one he did not feel he could successfully stop.
With the election of Kreistophos Antaxes' father Edros to the Secondary Speakership, efforts were renewed to do him justice and bring the province of Eskinanthus back under Imperial authority. As the situation increasingly edged towards the deployment of the 2nd Imperial Army, stationed in Noviron, in Eskinanthus, Sicinian forces prepared for the Three Day's War unbeknownst to Akaeia.
When Governor Tauen Skenosix declared Eskinantine independance for the first time, Kreistophos Antaxes was forced to work in the workshops of the Eskinazas and Skenosix Houses as a virtual slave. Loyalist forces, centered around the person of Danen Ianten, fought their way through the capital, liberating the prisoners. Kreistopohs Antaxes, having had some experience with military administration, organized the prisoners into a functioanl fighting force, using pipes, stones, sticks, guns, knives, and whatever else they could get their hands on to support the loyalists. With the capture of Tauen Skenosix and the arrival of several marine divisions, the provincial rebellion was quieted, but not eradicated.
After the Three Day's War, Kreistophos Antaxes retired to Tyrins to relax. Unfortunately, there would be more to come. When Eskinanthus rebelled for a second time, 3 full Imperial Armies were concentrated under the Emergency Powers by his father, Edros Antaxes, for the expressed purpose of militarily welding Eskinanthus back into the Empire. Marandrosi, it was declared, would be burned to the ground and salted. Without the Primary Speaker or Crown there to stop him, and despite the demands of the international committee, his father prepared to do what Ioshuad Iardaneios had long feared: militarily force the authority of the Empire on anyone who disagreed.
When the invasion of Eskinanthus proper was diverted by the return of the Primary Speaker, Onentos Menindabeles, Edros Antaxes proclaimed himself Crown with the support of the Crownguard. Defeating loyalist troops at the Battle of the Etrovein Gate, he took command of the invasion force and marched to Tyrins to gather more men to his cause. At Tyrins, Kreistophos Antaxes attempted to reason with his father, who had him beaten up and thrown in the basement for his loyalist sympathies. With the defeat of the rebels at Dauvanatris, he hurried east to meet up with the Crown.
Ioshuad Iardaneios II, who was at this point most definately dying, lay ill in Sicinia Salis at the estate of his former enemy, Tauen Skenosix. Kreistophos was going to marry the cousin of Ioshuad Iardaneios II but that marraige fell through shortly before Ioshuad's death. The Crownship thus fell into the hands of Ureian Atreiadeias, the Victor of Dauvanatris. At this point Kreistophos Antaxes had become convinced that Akaeia could not be saved. The countryside lay in ruins, three provinces had seceeded in the west, and the last Iardaneios Crown lay dying. Retiring, depressed, sick, and battered to his father's estate in Sicinia Salis, he took several months to recuperate.
When Ureian Atreiadeias made the mistake of dissolving the Prolekteion, and then the further blunder of declaring martial law in the capital, Kreistophos Antaxes had had enough. With promises from Sicinia to support him, he returned to Akaeia, where the Prolekteion instated him as co-Crown. With the unequivocal success of the Reform-Continentalist party coalition in the election of 1728, a convention for a new govenrment was convened in Dauvanatris and both Crowns exiled.
Kreistophos Antaxes, traveling north under Prolekteial command, arrived in Freeport in time for Easter. Continuing with a division of marines and several warships, he arrived in Acelinia and attempted to restore order there. Learning of the attack on Crown's Head, he sailed immediately for Skolus and thence to Hypereion. There he took command personally of the 50,000 man strike force being prepared and sailed for Crown's Head. Landing a distance away from the ruined city, he began construction immediately of a new city, named Koriander. Although diplomacy ended the conflict before any real fighting broke out, this was important because it put the Crown in personal command of the forces he would use in the civil war.
Although he was angry at his exile, he contained his anger and did not lead his men against the govenrment right away. Learning, however, of the attack at Elotanates, he set sail immediately to bring the state back into a semblance of order and stability. Landing at Hypereion, he defeated provincial forces at Pentekora and overwhelmed the loyalists at the Battle of the Golden Fields. And the rest is already well known.
Kreistophos Antaxes is belligerent. He is convinced he is the salvation of the Empire. He can sometimes be rash in his decisions. He is, however, well respected, from an honorable family, a hard worker, a decent administrator, and has seen more of the Empire than most Crowns put together. He has served the Empire in both civil and military positions and has an acute sense of the problems he must face. He is in love with Sophia d'Rozamond. Like most Akaeians, he has a strong respect for the past, but also has come to see the importance of reform if the Emprie will survive. He is loyal to our new ally, Sicinia, and knows we cannot stand without them. Time will tell if he succeeds as a Crown.
