Karl XII of Karolina

King Karl XII (full. Karl Gustav Sigmar von Ritter) is the current King of Karolina, an autonomous planet-wide kingdom within the Mechyrdian sector of Texandria. Reigning since he was 15 years old, Karl has revolved his entire life around preparing for war. Like most people his age, Karl spent much of his childhood witnessing the destruction wrought by the radical revolutionaries of Karolina's southern continent. Naming themselves the Carolinan Commune, they sought to overthrow the von Ritter monarchy and establish a syndicalist oligarchy.

Having ended the civil war only 4 years into his rule, Karl XII started social programs to repair the damage done by the revolutionaries, as well has harshly punishing the leadership of the Commune for committing war crimes, acts of terror, and crimes against sapient life. He also radically changed the government, from an aristocratic quasi-feudal hierarchy to a centralized, authoritarian parliamentary state with an executive monarchy.

Early life

Karl was born in 190 UC (2830 AD). His parents are Karl XI Franz Ulrik von Ritter, the previous king of Karolina, and Margaret Erikasdotter von Ritter (née Margaret Erikówca Maximówa), a woman from an "old-money" financial dynasty from Mechyrdion. Karl XI married Margaret in 187 UC (2827 AD), bearing three children: a daughter Kaarina, a son Karl XII, and another daughter Jadviga. Karl XII, like his siblings, was given a standard, well-rounded education up until the age of 10, when the Royal Palace was bombed by Communard agents. Seeing the terroristic nature of the revolutionaries first-hand, Karl XII asked his father to teach him in the ways of war, and his father obliged.

Coronation

At the age of 15, then-Crown Prince Karl XII was volunteering to hand out food and supplies for people in the city of Frankenburg, which had recently been attacked and partially destroyed by Communard forces. Karl received a message telling him that his father was killed by a Communard assassin, and that he needed to return to the Royal Palace. The crown prince, however, refused to go, stating that the people needed his aid more. It was only after his mother begged him to return that Karl did so, traveling via secure transportarium. Upon seeing his father's lifeless form, Karl resolved to ensure that Communard forces would never be able to wage war again.

War and Aftermath

As the new King of Karolina, Karl XII pushed the war much harder than any of his predecessors. With his own military genius, as well as that of his generals, using a combination of his planet's own Karolean elite soldiery and the vast hordes of conscripts borrowed from distant planet Kozachnia, Karl was able to end the war merely four years into his rule. Upon the surrender of the last Communard forces, the Premier of Kozachnia, Boris Mikhailovich Nerov, personally congratulated the king, and showed up at the war-crimes trials for Communard leadership as an observer.

In the aftermath of the destruction wrought by planetary civil war, Karl set up various economic, political, and social programs to repair the damage done to cities and infrastructure. He created a public works program, made unemployment illegal (with violators being conscripted into the military), and established a Loyalty Credit system to prevent rebellious thought. To fund his policies, Karl purged the parts of the government that supported the Commune, confiscating their estates and selling them to the highest bidder. To prevent another destructive civil war, Karl centralized the Karolean noble retinues under his command and abolished the nobility entirely, creating an elected commoner Parliament in their place. The monarch, however, would remain the chief executive.

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