Mstislav II, Neritsy Emperor

Mstislav II
Emperor of the House of Nerits
Reign	1925–1960
Predecessor	Mstislav I
Successor	none: throne in abeyance
Born	11 Conservene 1872 (V 2:98:4:27) Inetsograd, Azophin
Died	c. 20 Fabricad 1960 (V 2:188:5:9) (aged 87) Karanopol, Azophin
Dynasty	Neritsovid (Ostroborovid)

Mstislav II, born Androbor Boroslav (1872–1960), was the last Emperor of the House of Nerits of Azophin. His reign was dominated by, and almost co-extensive with, the Long War in Outer Joriscia and his name is synonymous in Azophine parlance with the last years of the Restoration government. In official historiography he is a symbol of all that was corrupt about the pre-Reconstruction order, although for much of his reign he enjoyed great popularity. His disappearance under unclear circumstances in 1960 has made him the central figure in many conspiracy theories and at least one attempt to restore the Azophine monarchy.

Early life and career

Androbor was born on 11 Conservene 1872 (V 2:98:4:27) in Inetsograd, the Azophine capital. He was a Duodecimvir of the Boroslav family and inherited a senior position in the enormous Boroslav steel adjoinment. This occupied most of his energies during his early professional life, although much of his early career appears vague in the public record, given some likely deliberate obfuscation in the later attempts to convince others of his right to the throne, Although loosely associated with the Machinist faction under Mstislav I, he was far less prominent as a public representative of industrialists’ interests than other figures within that group. Somewhat hagiographical accounts of this period have stressed his diligence as a businessman and administrator and his solid family life (he married Roslava Tarsevskaya in 1900 and fathered three sons – Mstislav, Vladimir and Mstibor – between 1902 and 1908).

The accession Debates

The death of the emperor in 1925 triggered a frantic scramble for position by competing interests. Mstislav had pushed hard to secure the succession for his son, Boromir Ebdely, and had emplaced the general Oromor Yorsipurov as lyubim to ease that transition. However, this plan was strongly opposed by the Machinists within the government; they had clashed repeatedly with Mstislav over his pull-back from a protectionist stance over Azophine colonies – a persistent undertone across the so-called “Decade of Dissent” which reached across Mstislav’s rule – and had fallen increasingly from favour as the emperor sidelined the Machine Board, which had been their main avenue of influence. Mstislav Roshmalenkov, a leading Machinist and himself briefly touted as a candidate, orchestrated a surge behind Boroslav as a youthful and “imperially blooded” alternative.

Debates convened in Metrial, but were riven by disarray as both of the major factions dug in behind their positions, and threats of a colonial blockade if Ebdely were refused began to circulate. Seemingly only a major matter would shift the impasse – and this came about, as Yorsipurov was killed by an unknown assailant on 1 Empery. Ebdely’s faction made a clumsy and panic-stricken attempt at a coup, only to be slapped down firmly by a promise by Terophan and other neighbouring powers to intervene if needed to stop civil war in Azophin. Ebdely saw discretion as the better part of valour and fled the country later in that week, allowing a managed succession in which Boroslav – styling himself Mstislav II to emphasise continuity – took the throne.

Ghost in the machine

During his first few years Mstislav showed every sign of being a pro-Machinist Emperor. While some of his positions were tinged by Bellophobia – perhaps unsurprising given the foreign influence on his accession – he announced plans to reintroduce selective taxes on colonial enterprises. This had been a Solar Ordinances-era policy designed to forcibly maintain the division of labour between resource-producing colonies and industrial metropole. But by the late 1920s, with his own position more secure, Roshmalenkov’s “Young Machinists” fading as a force. and Ebdely’s rump of support purged from the army, his government began to adopt a steadily more aggressive policy on the interordinate stage, reflecting a growing industrialist disquiet with Terophan’s rapid industrial development and a general sense of humiliation resulting from the 1925 intervention. Some of this can be laid at the feet of an increasingly bold military faction led by the general Oromir Malenchin Orotsk.

While initially pursued through diplomatic means – for example, sabotaging Terophan's attempt to revive the Prysostaic Debates in 1933 – increasingly it moved towards an out-and-out war footing in what became the War of Manoeuvre, a series of proxy wars that saw the inexorable redirection of Azophin’s economy and society towards military ends. While Mstislav was initially closely engaged in overall strategy discussions, much of this impetus seemingly fell away during Azophin’s dismaying showing in the Second Dekoral War (where it ceased to be a factor during 1940). He had never been noted as a hugely public figure, and largely withdrew from the regular business of government, leaving it in the hands of his generals and, increasingly, his three sons. This vastly strengthened the influence of a burgeoning “hawks’ nest” including the likes of generals Orotsk and Ostrobor Inevschin (and subsequently the younger generation of more radical officers such as Ikhvaley bes Adakh and Mezveitiprorka shelHoskout) and the three princes. It empowered the descent into full-scale warfare between Azophin and Terophan in the later 1940s.

Even the public humiliation of Prince Mstislav and the Southern Flank Faction in 1951, the Makoom event and a failed putsch against his younger sons failed to bring the emperor out of his isolation. Following the disintegration of the Azophine position in 1957 during the Sea of Flames and Terophan’s occupation of Azophin, he was taken prisoner by the Terophatic general Kvezous Nredasi after his drive on Inetsograd, and was formally deposed by the Silver Mountain Decree of Ediface 1958, with authority temporarily granted to a provisional military government led by Nredasi and no provisions made for the succession.

After the fall

Mstislav, an increasingly frail figure due in part to age and advancing osteoporosis, was initially kept under house arrest just outside Karanopol, but in early 1960 it was decided to remove him to the Terophatic colonies. When the Occupation Administration was dissolved and military forces removed, however, for unclear reasons Mstislav was left behind, and he disappeared on 20 Fabricad (V 2:188:5:9). His ultimate fate is unknown, and it has been alleged that he was murdered by the Normalisation and Order Forces or the Northern Columns in order to further their own political ambitions.