Vladibor V of the Lutoborsk

Vladibor V
Reign	1739–1780
Investiture	1739
Predecessor	Radogost
Successor	Vladibor VI
Born	1716
Died	1787
Dynasty	Vladiborovid
Religion	Vesnite

Vladibor V (Lutoborian: Volodibor 5), styled the Great (Velikiy), was Vozhd of Lutoborsk between 1739 and 1780. Along with his son Vladibor VI, he oversaw the period of rapid territorial expansion known as the Zenith.

Vladibor was a nephew of his predecessor, the short-lived Radogost, and was only 23 when he ascended to the throne as Vozhd, Polcovode, and High King in 1739. His investiture – by the Axopol-appointed Plenipotentiary, Yarodar Rozoevsky – marked the victory of the ostensibly pro-Restorationist (Terophatophile) faction of the nobility, bringing to an end the War of the Banner and ushering in an unprecedented period of political consensus. He used this consensus to lead Lutoborsk into a final brutal conquest of the questlands of Severnyy and Komandje to the north, the Peridot Wars (1745–1756), which ended in spectacular victory for Lutoborian forces. Having maintained an opportunistically pro-Terophite position throughout the 1740s, largely to maintain the favour of Mirokrai, he took advantage of the death of Borovest II to align himself with the Deuteroimperialist movement at home, staking his own claim to the imperial title in an Imperial Utterance generally known as In Nerits' Likeness (1750).

Although the conquests and the simultaneous acceleration of westward settlement via the Captaincy system won Vladibor the epithet 'the Great' and dominate popular Lutoborian accounts of his life even today, the last three decades of his reign were far less positive. Although this period saw southward expansion following profitable collusion with Lacre in the Last War of Great Doyotia, Vladibor was caught between the declining power of the Knyazy and the rising Knyazchiks and proved unable to resolve the constitutional dilemma to which this expansion gave rise (the War of the Dan). Though he struck against the Knyazy and secured the rights of the knyazchiks to their new conquests and estates, the rapidly growing power of these junior nobles that would shape the Plinth State, meant that he came to depend on the now-tamed knyazy instead. Between 1757 and 1770, his energies were largely focused on the suppression of non-Vesnites and the building of new Schools throughout his domains, particularly in the north. In 1752, the promise of major Terophatic diplomatic concessions and recognition as one of the great powers of Vaestdom induced him to give up on the imperial title, and it is a marker of how much noble support there was for him that he attended the promulgation of the Majestic Peace in 1754 in person, the first reigning Vozhd to leave his own domains for any purpose other than campaigning. With the Imperial War in 1771 he saw an opportunity to expand his country's borders once more, and he led an army south into the Graviate of Laukuna (modern Zemay). Encountering very little resistance in the north, the army quickly pushed down to Laukuna itself. But here they were met by an experienced Lacrean contingent under Zambo Erej, and the Lutoborian forces were systematically destroyed on the outskirts of the city at the Battle of Laukuna (13 Conservene 1772).

Vladibor himself was captured and taken back to Lacre. The destruction of the Lutoborian political elite at Laukuna allowed a faction around his son to take charge at home, although the lack of any established process for deposing a relative meant that Vladibor the Younger ruled until 1780 as his 'placeman' or regent rather than taking the throne himself. In 1774 a peace was signed with Lacre and the aging Vozhd was returned to his country early the following year. However – whether because he was genuinely very ill or because his son was unwilling to concede power – he did not resume his former position in public life. The knyazchik-dominated regime of his son combined with the final repudiation of the Polcovode title brought both effective and official ends to the era of Polcovodate Lutoborsk, inaugurating the era of Presidency Lutoborsk. In 1780, after a failed attempt to oust Vladibor the Younger in favour of his elder brother, Voivode Svorad Grinyi, he seems to have been forced to abdicate (the Grey Utterance), one of only a handful of Vesnite rulers to ever do so. Although he lived for another seven years, he never appeared in public again.