Acedic Autocrats

Chapter 1

December 22nd, 2150.

It was the coronation of Mea Magna Nepotem. The streets flowed with wine and every Comite in the empire came to pay their respects. Rex Salim prepared himself in his private chambers, if one counted sitting and standing in place whilst his servants did every task for him as preparing.

Princeps Salim was always an acedic pup. He never did anything for himself and often did the bare minimum when it came to his duties. As an adolescent he never even practiced using his elemental abilities or his magic which made him weak compared to his predecessors or even regular witches. Not only that but his wolf form was also weak by comparison.

Whenever Princeps Salim transformed into his supposedly more powerful form, many abnormalities were immediately noticeable. He remained five feet when in wolf form he should've grown an extra five feet and his coat had a strange black coloring to it, while gaining only twice the strength he had in his witch form.

This was very concerning to his Parentes, so they brought him to see Avunculus Hyperion. Upon presenting him to my titanfather however, he informed them that their son was heterosexual, and his ascension would bring about an age of darkness to the empire that would last for centuries, causing division amongst its witches through war, revolution, revolt, and discrimination.

This was a complete surprise for me because I'd initially assumed discrimination was simply an old mate's tale however, as Titanfather Meus informed me, that's not the case. In truth, discrimination did and does still exist, but he managed to minimize it with the assistance of the long extinct wolf packs, powerful beings which possessed the ability to manipulate the elements just like Propinquis Meis.

As for what happened to these mighty creatures, it's a rather unfortunate tale. It all began in the late 1600s when a young Imperator Chenghiz came to the imperial throne, a power-hungry Imperator who ruled through fear and oppression.

He saw the wolf packs as a threat to his reign so after a century, he successfully eradicated all the aether wolves in the empire. To protect their pack members, the former pack alphas instructed all of them to do the unthinkable – become heterosexual, or rather pretend to be heterosexual.

All werewolves were commanded to sever ties with their identity, and breed with the opposite biological sex to hide from the Imperator. The unintended consequence of this however was that their defiance of their nature was seen by the goddess, Ceres as a crime against creation.

To punish them, she asked her Pater and Fratrems to assist her in taking away the wolves' elemental powers, which they initially rejected. However, after speaking with the alphas, they agreed but decided to add a loophole. They also created the prophecy that one day the five packs would return and bring peace to the land.

I know that I kept using the witch version of the phrase which is LGBT but that's because I didn't know the wolf version of it at the time. As for what that version is it's actually FWEWA which stands for fire, water, earth, wind, and aether. Yes, that was the actual, unironic acronym used by the werewolves of the past.

"Do you truly think he's ready?" I asked, turning to Nepotem Meus. "No," Imperator Azurus replied. "But he's my Fillius and I'm willing to give him a chance." "If you say so." I remarked. That decision never seemed right for me, as, Salim was an Acetic pup, and Imperatorship required physical, mental, and spiritual Diligentia to keep the empire from collapsing.

While that knowledge was a legitimate cause for concern on its own, I had another reason to fear. Aside from having the Diligentia to actually accomplish their duties, a true Imperator must be able to show compassion for their subjects and use that compassion as motivation to improve their lives.

Therein lied the issue as his Accessio also made him very cold, and uncaring, unsurprising seeing as how he thought caring for others was too much work, often making the lives around him miserable if they made even the slightest mistake.

An example of this occurred just two days prior whilst preparing for the coronation. One of his servants left a seed in one of the cherries he was eating, a tiny mistake that was completely forgivable considering there were a hundred cherries in the bowl. Princeps Salim however showed no pity for the old soul and immediately had him imprisoned for attempting to choke him.

"Witches of the Hyperion Empire!" Pontiff Antonius exclaimed. "It's my honor to present, Imperator Salim Hyperius." The crowd cheered for their newly coronated Imperator as he made his way to the balcony to greet his new subjects. Despite him being a cold, uncaring, and Acetic he actually had a lot of support from witches. In all honesty however, that loyalty was mostly due to the fact that his Parentes had no other male pups.

Neither the healers nor I knew exactly what happened but all of Nepotem Meus' puppies were born heterosexual and all of Salim's Fratrems were females, so he was the only options for the succession. He did have four male "Tertio Cognati" but unfortunately, they'd already been crowned kings of their respective Regnums and were also the only male pups born into their Familias.

After the ceremony, the guests were brought to the gardens for what the celebratory feast. Two months prior, many assortments of meat, poultry, fish, and desserts were purchased from the four Regnums just for the occasion, as part of a tradition started by Nepos Meus, Imperator Gromeo II when he was coronated.

Unfortunately, whilst all the guests were already seated, Imperator Salim was nowhere to be found. As I mentioned previously, he was a rather acetic wolf so not arriving for events punctually was normal for him. However, since the feast can't commence without the empire's new Imperator, I left to search for him.

I began my search in his bedchamber under the assumption that he'd fallen asleep, but I was wrong. Then I checked the kitchen, assuming that he couldn't wait to eat, again I was wrong. It took me several minutes of searching but I eventually tracked him down though it quickly became apparent that he wasn't alone.

"Do we have a deal?" The hooded figure asked. "Yeah, you help me with whatever problem I encounter while ruling, and in return you're allowed to do as you wish in the mortal realm." "It's decided then." I felt rather uncomfortable in the situation, but it was the next part that horrified me.

The hooded figure disappeared in a flash of light, and when Imperator Salim turned around, I saw his eyes glow an ominous shade of English Violet. He then walked up to me and requested that we return to the feast. In the back of my mind, I knew something was wrong, but I ignored it and escorted him to the garden. Big mistake.