Tsar Nicholas

Tsar Nicholas was the ruler of the Rusviet Tsardom. He was close friends with his head of security Olga Morozova. His power was weakened, however, due to a revolt led by Grigori Rasputin, who ultimately betrayed him.

General Description[]

Unlike his cousin, Kaiser Friedrich of Saxony, Nicholas was a tall and handsome man with reddish brown hair, a slightly curled mustache and no beard. His uniform of office comprised of a forest-green coat with a high collar and gold-embroidered cuffs, lapels, all with a red sash. He also wore a series of medals.

When disguised, he wore a white shirt and black pants with suspenders and a cap.

Iron Harvest History[]

Born into Rusviet nobility, Nicholas rose to power in Rusviet sometime before the Great War. He married and had children, one of whom his wife arranged to have dance lessons with the mother of Olga Morozova. This acquaintance developed into a relationship of trust between the Tsar and Olga, whom he would hire as his head of security later on. He came to trust her with his life, even allowing her to chose the locations of his emergency safe houses. He would also take on Grigori Rasputin as his chief advisor, despite the rumors about the man including hints of debauchery with the Tsarina. Nicholas did not know, however, that the rumors were the least of his worries: Rasputin led an underground organization named Fenris, whose goal was overthrowing the nations of Europa and seizing power.

Great War[]

As the ruler of Rusviet, Nicholas strove to be a compassionate but strong leader; the horrors of the war eventually drove him to try and establish peaceful relations with his cousin, Kaiser Friedrich of the Saxony Empire. However, this dealt a blow to national pride and weakened his position, while Rasputin continued to undermine him. Murmurs of revolution began to grow across the country, aggravated by Fenris operating from the shadows.

In 1920, Nicholas succeeded in arranging peace talks in St. Petersburg between Rusviet, Saxony, and the Polania Republic. The talks were, however, interrupted by a brutal attack by insurgents who led an assault on the palace, which was all but defenseless with the loyal garrison having been poisoned. Colonel Lev Zubov held off the attack with his men; however, all of them, including Zubov, were secretly Fenris agents. The palace caught fire before Olga arrived and ran inside, narrowly rescuing the Tsar when, outside, Zubov used his mech's cannons to try and bring the building down. This failed, as Nicholas was safely extracted (although Zubov was not caught.) Despite the attack, the talks were successful, and a ceasefire was negotiated, finally ending the war.

The resulting security scandal forced Nicholas to publicly dismiss Olga as his head of security, but he secretly dispatched her to root out Fenris whom Nicholas was made aware of thanks to a letter from Nikola Tesla.

Revolution[]

In the following weeks before Olga would return, the situation in Rusviet worsened to the point where full-blown civil war erupted across the country. Thanks to misinformation from Rasputin, whom the Tsar was still not aware worked against him, Nicholas did not know just how bad things were. Zubov's assault on the factory was played off as betrayal on his part, as was Olga's alliance with the Polania Resistance and Saxony rebels. Even worse, Fenris collaborators posing as loyalist troops were raiding the civilian populace in his name, damaging his position further and energizing the revolution.

Nicholas decided to evacuate to a safe house outside the capital; once again, Rasputin secretly betrayed him to the revolutionaries before abandoning him. Fortunately, Olga arrived and drove off the attackers. Nicholas took some convincing, but decided to return to St. Petersburg to confront Rasputin and Zubov. He ditched his royal attire for common clothes to help avoid notice while they stole a boat to sail into the capital. As Olga's forces fought their way to St. Petersburg, Nicholas became truly aware of the state of his country, the poverty of his people, and the devastation of the war as well as Fenris's actions.

Death[]

Arriving in the harbor, Nicholas came up with a plan to use a radio tower to broadcast a message to the nation, offering the so-called loyalists a chance to stand down, exposing Fenris, and hopefully uniting the people in the face of this threat while avoiding bloodshed. While Olga's forces held off the Fenris collaborators outside, Nicholas got the tower working. However, Rasputin had been waiting for him, and just before he could start the broadcast he was murdered by his once-chief advisor. Olga, although devastated, knew it was too late to save him, and retreated with what was left of her allies.

Trivia[]

Tsar Nicholas loosely corresponds to the real Nicholas II, the last Tsar of the Romanov dynasty executed in 1918 with his wife and their five children by the Bolsheviks. However, physically, he looks more like Nicholas I, the great-grandfather of Nicholas II, than the real Nicholas II.
- His continuance as the Tsar, Rusviet remaining a monarchy, and the Revolution being delayed for several years represents a major historical branch.
- Unlike Nicholas II, he has no children specifically mentioned except at least one daughter, Anastasia, who is mentioned in a letter from his wife the Tsarina to Olga Morozova's mother, who was her dance instructor.
The title of Tsar is derived from the Latin "Caesar."
- This root is shared with the title of "Kaiser."
Nicholas is likely the younger cousin of Kaiser Friedrich, shown by his still-brown hair.