Baron Janudua, a character profile.

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“Before talking of Janudua the man, it is worth firstly reminding the reader of the species from which he descends and the Empire that united his race under a common banner. Kolaxans are a spirited race who are driven strongly by their heightened emotionality. They are filled with a passion for the Kolaxan form, health, art, music, vitality, and they worship the fires of youth. Because of this, an aged Kolaxan who has clung to their years by sidestepping the crucible of hardship and suffering is regarded with disdain, a figure marked by the faintness of spirit and of cowardice. Their survival is seen not as a triumph, but as a quiet, shameful surrender to the comforts of ease. Yet, an elder of the Kolaxans who has weathered the storms of countless trials, their body worn and scarred by the unforgiving tides of fate, is venerated above all. To reach such an age, having borne the weight of struggle and defied the odds time and again, is to be a living monument to the indomitable Kolaxan will, their very existence an anthem to resilience. Such a figure is exalted, their life a tale sung with reverence, for they embody the essence of honor — not in avoiding pain, but in triumphing over it. This Kolaxan zeal often drives them to ideological absolutes in their philosophical tradition. This zeal has become a well known Kolaxan idiosyncrasy and has been labelled as “Kolaxan idealism” within the Conglomerate. This term is bandied around in political debates as an indirect way of calling one’s opponent an extremist. Because of this zeal, Kolaxans are quick to violence. War is considered to be the highest and most genuine art form in Kolaxan society. War takes on an almost metaphysical quality as the field in which the Kolaxan form can best express its potential. It is in those liminal moments that occur in battle where a warrior expends all of his energy as he hangs in the balance between life and death that true grace is found. This, to the Kolaxan mind, is the encapsulation of beauty. War, when combined with their radical idealism, is transformed into a Darwinian struggle for existence with a poetic twist. This sentiment is so strong among Kolaxans that in their ancient past, there was a genocidal world war in which only one Kolaxan race was left standing on the surface of Romonia. This was the horrific way in which Kolaxans achieved a one-world government and was the soil from whence their hyper-militaristic interstellar empire sprang. 

Geneticists theorise that this accentuated trait of genetic chauvinism was actually amplified through the selective pressures endured during this genocidal campaign, where Kolaxans in whom this behavioural trait was less dominant were deemed traitors and were eliminated from the gene pool. Others psychologise that the aforementioned “radical idealism” was born out of internalised regret and collective guilt. Perhaps both can be true. 

The Kolaxan Empire is unabashedly expansionistic. They had already subjugated and made slaves of other spacefaring species, like the Aoe and some Yarkeenian sub-clades in this outward thrust. Next, they came into contact with the Velousians, who were at that time at war with their neighbours, the Conglomerate. 

It is in this tumultuous period that the young Janudua was born. Janudua was born into an aristocratic family on the island of Clacica just off the coast from the planetary capital of Romania called Faustinium. Janudua would go on to study at the most prestigious military school in Faustinium. He graduated military school with flying colours and became an officer within the Kolaxan army. He became a known figure after playing a crucial role in several battles, the most notable of which being the Battle of Ratanga on the planet Cerise. Janudua famously lost his right trunk during an orbital barrage at Ratanga, but continued on fighting to assume a leadership role after the death of the commanding officer, whereby Janudua led a decisive victory against the Velousians there. After years of climbing the ranks of the Kolaxan military, Janudua reached the prestigious rank of general and he is popularly remembered as the General responsible for victory against the Velousian Empire. 

The Velousians fought admirably, but they could not sustain the war on two fronts, this drove the Velousians to capitulate to the Conglomerate, they were driven into the arms of the Conglomerate because the Kolaxan Empire was offering no such terms of surrender. The Kolaxans continued expansion caused a situation where one entire half of the Kolaxan Empire was well and truly butting up against Conglomerate territory. The Conglomerate unanimously ruled that the Kolaxan Empire had violated the Conglomerate concept of “interstellar law” with their aggression against the now assimilated Velousians and their subjugation of other species. The Conglomerate declared that they would be launching a “forcible annexation” in order to dissolve the Kolaxan Empire and to assimilate the Kolaxan species into the Conglomerate. The citizens of the Kolaxan Empire would then undergo coercive mass reeducation, or “socialisation” as it is euphemistically known. This war effort against a worthy foe gave the Kolaxan Empire a renewed sense of purpose and direction.

The Emperor of the Kolaxan Empire himself called upon the Baron Janudua to assume the responsibility of temporary dictator. Baron Janudua was tasked with leading the Empire to victory against the assimilative Conglomerate so that the Kolaxans may forevermore remain sovereign and independent as a species. The Kolaxan-Conglomerate war continued on during the Human-Conglomerate war and went on even after the activation of the All-Mother. The pressure exerted by the newly arisen Imperium on the eastern frontier of the Conglomerate divided their attention and resources, allowing Baron Janudua to achieve many victories in his war effort against the Conglomerate. It was not until the Imperium opened up its flank to the west of the Conglomerate and Kolaxan Empire that the Conglomerate resorted to re-establishing  diplomatic relations with the Kolaxan Empire. The Conglomerate soon realised that it could not engage the Kolaxan Empire and the Imperium simultaneously and leveraged this common foe to plead for a truce. The Conglomerate made concessions to the Kolaxan Empire so that the truce could be made. Knowing that this would appear as a victory for the Empire, the Baron agreed and opened up a new front against the Imperium to their north-west. With his role in the Kolaxan Conglomerate war fulfilled, the Baron stood down from dictatorship and dutifully handed power back to the Emperor. 

With that, the Baron would never again hold any high position within the Kolaxan government and was forced to retire. He was rewarded handsomely for his service, with every possible request he could think of granted to him. Alas the Baron Janudua is a man of indomitable ambition and is ill-suited to such leisure. Janudua observed the massive movements of populations fleeing from the Imperium towards the Tandraxian Nomad Stars. The Baron came up with an ingenious plan to capitalise on the situation which would serve to set up his family as a dynasty of its own. With a number of Praetorian guardsmen still loyal to him from the Kolaxan-Conglomerate war, Janudua went about seizing the remainder of asteroids around the Nomad Star by force. He mined these asteroids for valuable resources and converted their hollowed interiors into habitation for his subjects thereafter. With little else left after the Tandrax had stripped the system for resources in the creation of their Dyson swarm, Janudua’s station became a superpower among the smaller trading outposts. Janudua station held on for a while as a solely Kolaxan operation, but the Baron had imperial ambitions and sought to monopolise control over the non-Tandraxian population around the Nomad Star. 

Due to the time dilation of travelling at near-light speeds for so long on the way to the nomad star, the Baron has had an extended lifetime (even for a Kolaxan) allowing for him to live through events that happened centuries apart like the Kolaxan-Velousian war, the Human-Conglomerate war, the activation of the All-Mother and the birth of the Imperium, the Kolaxan-Conglomerate war, Deicides rebellion, the Formation of the Galactic Union and the destruction of Chiron. It is safe to say that there are few figures who have had a greater impact on the history of the Orion-Cygnus spur than the Baron Janudua.”

Here’s a link to the rest of the infographics so you can catch up, you can also read all of the Humanity Lost comic on this post also: https://www.patreon.com/posts/infographic-for-119407823?

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