Fanon:Nero Auctorus

Nero Auctorus was the first and only President of the. He used life-extending drugs throughout his adulthood to keep himself from growing old, and thus avoided death until his elimination at the hands of the dying.

Early life
Due to the destruction of many of the records of Auctorus' early life after he became President, many of the finer details of his early life are unclear. However, it is known that he was born Lewis Pristen, and that his father was a soldier in the United States Army, and his mother was a politician who was a member of the US Congress. Her role in politics undoubtedly influenced her son greatly. It is also known, from genetic reconstruction, that he was born with light brown hair and green eyes. Writings have been found describing the young boy:

"...[Lewis] was quite the imaginative kid, though he preferred to keep to himself. He liked making up a lot of things...His father once brought home a map of the world. Then the boy picked up a pen and drew a large circle around a huge chunk of the map. He said, "This is my kingdom.""

- Unknown, rumoured to be a babysitter who once cared for the young Lewis Pristen

In 2026, when Pristen was nine, his father was killed in action while deployed in the Ukraine during SimNationian intervention in the Second Crimean Crisis. Being very close to him, Pristen was devastated by his father's death. His mother was equally traumatised. She withdrew, then quit from work, and became an alcoholic. Depressed, confused, angry and drug-influenced, Pristen's mother became very abusive, often punishing him severely for small matters. It could be this harsh and cruel upbringing that encouraged him to form the personality he had developed by the time he became President.

At the age of 13, Pristen was enrolled at the local high school, where he developed a great interest in political science. He was reportedly quite proficient in the arts, but developed a reputation for awkwardness and inappropriateness. He quickly became the subject of bullying.

Early career and Presidency
By the time Pristen graduated from Sim State University at the age of 24 with a major in political science, he had decided to enter a career in politics. 3 years earlier he had gotten married to Octavia Cladinia. Their first child, named Maya, was born in 2042. Pristen joined SimNation's Democratic Party. However, this quickly became a flop - he never gained a seat in Congress throughout his five years with the Democrats.

In 2046, tragedy struck Pristen in the death of his wife, Octavia, survived by him, Maya, and their son, Claudius. He resigned from the Democratic Party the same year and withdrew from public life. In 2047 he formed his own political party with a group of close friends with similar political views. This became the Conservative Party of SimNation, an extremely right-wing organisation.

In 2048, Pristen fell in love with Sabina Aurora, his secretary. The couple married in 2049 and Aurora bore him one daughter, Claudia.

At first Pristen and his Party attempted to gain seats legally through the elections. However, they became more and more desperate. In the lead-up to the 2052 Federal election, Pristen began to bribe members of the Election Assistance Commission to alter the vote count, offering them millions of Simoleons in return. As a result, he became President of the United States.

Using his new powers, he slowly began to dismantle the democratic systems of the US. First he assassinated the same members of the EAC that helped him get into power, subsequently dissolving the Commission under the pretext of investigating the cause of the deaths. Soon after many intellectuals were killed by the Conservative Party and other political parties were disbanded and banned from Congress for reasons of removing suspected parties from important positions.

Once the Conservatives were the only political party left, he began a brutal military campaign, often unleashing SimNation's nuclear arsenal upon enemies, bringing a quick and deadly end to the war. By 2058, the world had fallen under the Conservatives' leadership.

Sabina Aurora, disgusted and ashamed by Pristen's conduct, found she could no longer bear being associated to her husband, and so she committed suicide in the late spring of 2053. This struck Pristen hard, and thereafter he stayed single for many years. However, Aurora's suicide did not stop him from continuing to exert his power over his new subjects.

Pristen in 2059 changed his name to Nero Auctorus, as a symbol of his imperium.

Late career and the First Revolution
By 2075, Auctorus began to notice that he was becoming increasingly aged. Desperate to hold on to his power, he began searching for ways to extend his life. He found it in the medical geniuses of the Federal University in SimCity. Auctorus commanded the scientists at the FU to research a way to increase Auctorus' lifespan. They worked diligently, as failure to comply would quite possibly result in death.

In 2082, Auctorus started his life-extending treatment, which he would continue until the end of his life. The first few months of treatment reverted him to the age of 38. However, as treatment progressed, it became increasingly unable to revert his melanin levels, causing his hair to go permanently white. Auctorus used this to his advantage, and had his eye colour genetically modified to be red. His new look made him even more frightening to the population.

The beginning of the Great Drought in 2090 resulted in the planting of seeds that would become the instigators of the First Revolution. Aristocrats and members of the Government began to horde resources and food in order for them to live comfortably, leaving the rest of the world to suffer and starve. This angered the population, and in 2099 an explosive protest in Pleasantview resulted in the deaths of many. Auctorus ordered the revolt to be quelled, but by then the revolutionary feelings had spread all around the world. Despite this, though, it only took a year to destroy the Revolutionaries' military forces. The leaders were executed publicly in the spring of 2100.

In the summer of 2100, Auctorus devised a program of indoctrination which would continue indefinitely. Small children were taught to display absolute loyalty to the Government from the beginning, while older children were brainwashed before being sent out into the workforce. Adults who refused to submit to the Government were rounded and sent to labour camps or executed.

By 2120, all of Auctorus' children had died without any offspring of their own, leaving no heirs in the unlikely event of his death. He scrambled to find a new spouse with which to produce another possible replacement should he become incapacitated. His search led him to marry Natalia Pyotrina twenty years later. The only child they had was named - the only child as Pyotrina died soon after giving birth.

As much as Auctorus tried to indoctrinate his new daughter as his program had to all the other children, Koriana appeared to be strong-spirited and despite all her father's efforts grew to have a completely reversed moral compass from that of Auctorus. She became rebellious towards her father, and the two developed an increasingly rocky relationship.

The Second Revolution
In 2150, elements of a second revolutionary force began to emerge with the broadcast of 's speech and proclamation of the Liberation Army. Auctorus commanded his armies to crush the LA as soon as possible, but many young soldiers who had not yet been fully brainwashed deserted and joined the ranks of the new revolutionary forces.

The Liberation Army quickly declared war on the Government, quickly capturing Bridgeport and the city's surrounding area. Insurgents in Pleasantview, Willow Creek and other cities across the world began to 'liberate' cities and other major urban centres one by one. Auctorus' daughter, Koriana, quickly became attracted to the rebels. One autumn day in 2152, Koriana escaped from her father and joined the Liberation Army. This blow to Auctorus' morale would contribute to his eventual downfall.

In 2158, the Liberation Army advanced upon Auctorus' capital. Enemy forces converged upon the White House, liberating the rest of SimCity as they went. In the final confrontation, Auctorus met the driving force behind the Revolution: Miller,, and. While Faulkner and Hodgson were both killed in the incident, Auctorus also died at the hands of Hodgson before she, too, passed from her wounds.

Trivia

 * I based the character of Nero Auctorus off the real Roman Emperor Nero, who was considered insane and sometimes mean spirited. The names of two of Auctorus' spouses are also based off Emperor Nero's: The first, Octavia, was named after Claudia Octavia, the Emperor's first wife. The second, Sabina, had Poppaea Sabina as her namesake. Poppaea Sabina was allegedly murdered by her husband in 65 AD.
 * His assumed last name, Auctorus, was created from the Latin word "Auctor", from which the word "authority" ultimately evolved. His first name at birth, Lewis, is an American name meaning "famous in war". His last name at birth, Pristen, was created from the word "pristine".
 * The relationship between Nero and Koriana is loosely inspired by that of Admiral Alexander Marcus and his daughter Carol in Star Trek Into Darkness.