Octavia au Lune was a Gold of Luna and the Sovereign of the Society at the time of The Rising. She was very confident in speaking the truth. She is murdered in Morning Star as part of the coup that establishes the Solar Republic.
Personality[]
A tyrant, Octavia is a peerless who views herself as above "specks" like Darrow. This leads to her making decisions to wipe entire houses from the record. Despite this, she seems to have a genuine belief that the society is the best world mankind can have and has a strange affection for her subjects. She deeply loves her grandchild and fears that one day he would grow up to be like her father. She also fears the inevitability of age.
Appearance[]
Octavia is described as having an ageless face as a result of cellular rejuvenation therapy, with the mark of the Peerless Scarred on her right cheek being the only imperfection on her otherwise flawless face.[1]
Biography[]
Pre-Saga[]
Octavia was born on Luna in the early 640s PCE to Sovereign Ovidius au Lune and an unnamed mother.[2][3]
When Octavia was nine years old, she started a riot in Hyperion by throwing diamonds out the window of an aircar.[2]
At some point between the age of 16 and 18, she presumably attended The Institute and graduated with the rank of Peerless Scarred.[1]
Octavia eventually developed a hatred for her father and began plotting to overthrow him. In 696 PCE, she secured the support of Nero au Augustus by convincing her father to exterminate House Cylus and install Nero as the new archGovernor of Mars.[4]
In 701 PCE, she finally moved against her father and successfully overthrew him, presenting his decapitated head to the Senate and making her claim on the Morning Throne. In the aftermath of her ascension, the moons of the gas giants attempted to secede from The Society and declare their independence from The Core. In response, she dispatched a force under the command of her ArchImperator, Magnus au Grimmus, to put down the Moon Lord Rebellion. The war lasted until she gave the order to annihilate Saturn's moon Rhea in August of that year, frightening the Moon Lords into surrendering.
After the rebellion, Octavia established a secret nuclear weapons stockpile in the asteroid belt to house nuclear warheads of the same caliber used to destroy Rhea so as to have the weapons on hand in the event that she ever needed to repeat the destruction of a moon to keep The Rim in line.[5]
Over the next several decades, Octavia went on to rule The Society with an iron fist, and eventually gave birth to her daughter Anastasia. She also took Magnus's three daughters, Aja, Moira, and Atalantia, under her wing as her trusted confidants, with Aja becoming her chief bodyguard and Moira her chief Politico.
During her reign, Octavia commissioned a team of Carvers and Master Makers to develop technology that would allow her to view, alter, and erase the memories of others, resulting in the creation of the Pandemonium Chair, which she kept confined to the Crescent Vault in the Citadel of Hyperion when not in use.
At some point during her rule, Octavia ordered the Terran carver Zanzibar to develop the Oracles, and utilized them as lie detectors by playing a game of truths with a subject in order to guage their trustworthiness, doing the routine a total of seventy-one times before 741 PCE.[6]
In 725, Octavia ordered an increase in production quotas for the helium-3 mines on Mars.[7]
At some point before 737 PCE, she recorded a series of propaganda videos making speeches to the lowReds of Mars's helium mines encouraging them to work hard to help terraform the planet in order to maintain the illusion that their work remains incomplete.[1]
Red Rising[]
Though not shown during the events of the novel, Octavia learned at some point during 737 PCE that Anastasia was plotting a coup against her with the aid of Revus au Raa, Nero, and several Reformers in the Society government. In response, Octavia initiated a purge of Reformers in the Government sometime before December 27th.[8][9] The purge ultimately culminated in Octavia ordering the assassination of Anastasia and her husband Brutus in 738 PCE sometime before Darrow graduated from The Institute by having Atalantia and the new Love Knight, Kalindora au San, plant a bomb on Anastasia's shuttle.[10] To cover up the truth of why Anastasia was killed, Octavia blamed their deaths on an Outrider attack.[2][9]
Following Anastasia's death, Octavia attempted to erase all trace of her daughter from history, and utilized the Pandemonium Chair to erase her grandson Lysander's memories of his parents over the course of two weeks.[9] Octavia chose Lysander as her new heir and began training him to eventually take her place on the Morning Throne.
In 739 PCE, Octavia sent Atlas au Raa and the Legio Zero Pavor Nocturnus division of Legio Cohors Nihil to the Kuiper Belt to exterminate the Ascomanni in response to unspecified indiscretions following the deaths of Anastasia and Brutus. To solidify his exile, she quickly appointed a new Fear Knight to replace Atlas in his previous role. When Atlas reported a year later that all but one of his ships had been destroyed, Octavia ordered him to maintain radio silence until his mission was complete.[11]
Golden Son[]
Octavia took Virginia au Augustus on as a lancer at some point in late 740 PCE, and sponsored her attendance of the Politico academy on Luna.
At some point in 741 PCE, Octavia oversaw the Olympic trials to fill the vacant positions of Rage and Morning Knight after Lorn au Arcos and Venetia au Rein retired in the previous year.[12] She eventually appointed Fitchner au Barca and Cassius au Belona to the positions of Rage and Morning Knight, respectively, and tested Fitchner's loyalty by offering to have him play a game of questions with her oracles.[6]
In response to Nero's support for Anastasia's attempted coup, Octavia began planning to remove him as ArchGovernor of Mars and replace him with Tiberius au Bellona. As part of her growing support for House Bellona, she provided Karnus au Bellona with an extra ship at The Academy which he used to destroy Darrow's flagship Quietus and win the mock war for the Bellona family.[6][13]
To prevent Nero from turning Mars into his personal fortress, Octavia and the Bellona made preparations to assassinate him and his household during the closing Gala of the decennial Summit in December 741. To that end, the Augustus family shuttle was returned to orbit when the Gala began so that any survivors would be unable to escape the moon.
Their plans were derailed when Darrow jumped onto the Bellona table in the middle of Octavia's opening speech and challenged Cassius to a duel. Octavia oversaw the duel, and attempted to intervene when Darrow was about to kill Cassius, exposing her hypocrisy by changing the rules in order to protect one of her favorites. Though Virginia convinced Darrow not to kill Cassius, he succeeded in provoking the Bellona into open conflict, leading to a massacre at the Gala as Gold families openly fought against each other to support one house or the other.
Octavia was evacuated from the Gala by the Praetorian Guard when the fighting began, and dispatched Fitchner with a century of Praetorians to bring Darrow to her chambers and return the Augustan household to their villa so that Aja could bring another team of Praetorians to wipe them out, while she sent Virginia to take a census of the fatalities and relay orders to Praetorian command to ground all remaining ships, initiate a no-fly zone in orbit over the Citadel, and push back all family-owned capital ships beyond the Reubicon beacons in orbit until further notice.
Octavia attempted to convince Darrow to join her and become an Olympic Knight, and when he refused, played a game of truths against him with her Oracles. Darrow used the game to trick her into revealing her plans to assassinate Nero in front of Virginia, after which Octavia revealed that the Sons of Ares had carried out a series of bombings across Luna and Venus during the Gala, and explained her justification for Nero's death.
When Darrow and the Howlers kidnapped Lysander as a hostage to allow the survivors of House Augustus to escape into orbit, she spoke through Aja to warn Darrow that she will hunt him to the ends of the universe for his defiance, and gave the order for Aja to beat Quinn as bait to call Darrow's bluff on harming Lysander.[14][15]
In the opening weeks of the Martian Civil War, Octavia managed to ensure that her forces reached Mars ahead of the Augustan fleet.[16]
A month after the Gala, Octavia was contacted by Nero's chief Politico, Pliny au Velocitor, who sought to undermine Darrow and elevate himself by leaking House Augustus's plans to the enemy. In return for his service and convincing the other Augustan bannermen to surrender, Octavia agreed to elevate his position and provide him with legitimacy as the head of his own noble house.[17][18]
When Darrow called for an Iron Rain on Mars, Octavia travelled to the planet in secret with a host of Praetorians, planning to wait out the battle from a bunker in Agea and attend Nero's execution once the battle was won. Instead, Virginia and Darrow's forces took down the defensive shield over Agea, forcing Octavia and her bodyguards to evacuate aboard a cloaked ship.[19]
Darrow was able to board the ship at the last second and attempted to use an armed pulseGrenade to blackmail Octavia into landing. Octavia instead ordered the pilot to roll, stunning Darrow long enough for Aja to kick the grenade out the open hatch before it could explode. Octavia ordered Darrow's immediate execution, and when Karnus proved insufficient for the task, she assigned Fitchner to carry out the sentence, cutting through Fitchner's attempts to avoid complying before Fitchner finally defected in order to protect Darrow.[20]
At some point in the next two weeks, Adrius au Augustus contacted her with the revelation that Fitchner was the eponymous leader of the Sons of Ares and that Darrow was a Red spy who had been carved into a Gold. In return for her cooperation in installing him as ArchGovernor of Mars and her silence on his forces assassinating all of House Bellona save for Cassius and Julia,[21] Adrius helped Octavia coordinate a massacre at the Triumph held on March 14, 742 to honor the Augustan victory in the Lion's Rain, as well as three hundred other assassinations of her political enemies across the solar system, to be carried out by Boneriders and Praetorians.[22]
Morning Star[]
In the days leading up to the Triumph Massacre, Octavia remained hidden aboard Roque au Fabii's fleet,[23] and returned to Luna at some point after the Battle of Deimos. While she planned to have Zanzibar dissect Darrow to learn the secrets of how he was carved, she allowed Adrius to maintain custody of Darrow for the next twelve months. Following the outbreak of the Second Moon Lord Rebellion, she appointed Roque as Imperator of the Sword Armada and immediately dispatched him to Jupiter to quell the latest uprising.
Octavia remained on Luna for the duration of The Rising, but communicated with Adrius and others through Aja, Moira, Cassius, and Quicksilver as her intermediaries.
In June 743, Octavia reached out to Virginia through Quicksilver to propose a peace treaty in which Virginia and her Martian allies would be pardoned, Adrius would be replaced by Virginia as ArchGovernor, and reforms would be made in return for their cessation of support for the Moon Lords. The official reason that Octavia gave through Cassius and Moira was that it was due to the high body count and atrocities associated Adrius's management of Mars. But in reality, Adrius had raided her secret nuclear weapons depot on Asteroid S-1988 in March 743 following Darrow's escape from Attica and she feared what Adrius would do if given the time and opportunity to use them.[5]
Octavia dispatched Moira, Aja, and Cassius to negotiate the treaty on Phobos, only for the negotiations to fall apart when Quicksilver's penthouse was raided by The Howlers. The loss of Moira in the subsequent battle deeply wounded Octavia, and her next offer of terms to her enemies would be delivered through Imperator Fabii.
On Octavia's orders, Roque relayed her terms of peace to the Rim, offering to engage in talks in good faith regarding the reduction of taxes and export tariffs to the Rim, grant the Rim the same licenses for Belt mining that were currently held by Core companies, accept Romulus au Raa's proposal for equal representation in the Senate, revise the Sovereign election process after the appointment of the new Rim senators, and reform the Olympic order so that knights would be appointed by the vote of ArchGovernors rather than by order of the Sovereign.[24]
When the Rim and the Red Armada destroyed the Sword Armada at the Battle of Ilium, Octavia began preparing for invasion. At some point between September and October 743, Adrius informed her that The Rising was sailing toward Luna, and revealed that he had installed the stolen nukes across Luna with the aid of The Syndicate.[25] Adrius blackmailed Octavia into assembling the Senate to abdicate the Morning Throne to him once The Rising was defeated.
When the Red Armada arrived in Lunar orbit on November 4, 743 PCE, Octavia directed the war effort from her personal bunker deep beneath the moon's surface. When Darrow and Virginia are brought to her by Cassius, Antonia, and Adrius, she dismisses the Obsidians of Zero Legion from the room out of concern for their loyalty and sends most of the Praetorians in the bunker to deal with Virginia's claim of Rising Obsidians on the surface pressing for the Citadel.[26]
After having Antonia execute Aja for dereliction of duty over her role in the defeat of the Sword Armada, Octavia broadcasts to the Society as she prepares to let Adrius execute Darrow as part of their agreement. When the Jackal attempts to shoot Darrow, Cassius kills the remaining Praetorians in the bunker and reveals his defection to the Rising, releasing Darrow and Virginia from their restraints.[27]
Darrow attacks and fatally stabs Octavia with a hidden knife, leaving her to watch helplessly as Aja and her remaining guards are killed by Darrow, Cassius, Virginia, and the previously comatose Sevro. As she dies from blood loss, Lysander attempts to shield her as Darrow and company approach her, but she tells her grandson to stand aside. Cassius tells her his reasons for defecting while showing her the holo of The Jackal killing his family and the footage of the Burning of Rhea. In her final moments, Octavia begs her killers to stop Adrius as she finally succumbs to her wounds.[28]
Legacy[]
Relationships[]
Lysander[]
Octavia loved Lysander dearly and spent the majority of the boy's life grooming Lysander to be her eventual successor as Sovereign.
She did, however, use the Pandemonium Chair to alter his mind so that he couldn't see his mother in his memories due to Octavia's jealousy that Lysander loved her daughter more than her.
Furies[]
Moira, Aja, and Atalantia au Grimmus were the children of her greatest ally, the Ash Lord, and her closest confidants. She treated them like her own daughters, and they were highly loyal in return.
Virginia[]
Took Mustang under her wing upon seeing her potential.
Darrow[]
Does not understand him but covets his power nonetheless. In Golden Son, it was suspected by her that Darrow was a part of the Sons of Ares. She had been following his movements since the Institute.
Trivia[]
- Claudia Octavia was the wife of Nero, but he disliked her due to her aristocratic and virtuous nature.
- Octavia's face lies on a crescent currency worth 100 credits, known as a Lune crescent, that is still in circulation as of 753 PCE.[29]
Gallery[]
Quotes[]
- "No man can pursue any endeavor in the face of tribal warfare." - Red Rising, Ch. 22: The Tribes
Notes and References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Red Rising, Chapter 02
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Golden Son, Chapter 14
- ↑ Morning Star, Chapter 60
- ↑ Golden Son, Chapter 28
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Morning Star, Chapter 37
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Golden Son, Chapter 15
- ↑ Sons of Ares, Volume 3: Forbidden Song
- ↑ Dark Age, Chapter 21
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Dark Age, Chapter 90
- ↑ The Book of Lorn, Episode 01
- ↑ Dark Age, Chapter 37
- ↑ Golden Son, Chapter 08 graphic audio
- ↑ Golden Son, Chapter 16
- ↑ Golden Son, Chapter 18
- ↑ Golden Son, Chapter 19
- ↑ Golden Son, Chapter 25
- ↑ Golden Son, Chapter 31
- ↑ Golden Son, Chapter 32
- ↑ Golden Son, Chapter 42
- ↑ Golden Son, Chapter 42
- ↑ Morning Star, Chapter 62
- ↑ Morning Star, Chapter 10
- ↑ Morning Star, Chapter 20
- ↑ Morning Star, Chapter 42
- ↑ Morning Star, Chapter 63
- ↑ Morning Star, Chapter 60
- ↑ Morning Star, Chapter 61
- ↑ Morning Star, Chapter 62
- ↑ Iron Gold, Chapter 14