Praxis E. Aarexi III was the 5th prince of the Aarexian Empire and the 8th in line to the throne.
His father was the emperor and his mother was a prostitute. In Aarexia, it was not permissible to commit acts of adultery or to father children out of wedlock. Punishment for such a crime could result if a decade long imprisonment. If the circumstance around the crime were egregious enough, then it could led to potential hanging.
What punishment did his father receive for his actions? None. Rules were only meant for the common people, not the Emperor. The Emperor had the power to do as he willed. He was the supreme being in all in his empire. All were to obey him and this included the laws themselves.
While the official wives he could take was limited because of political reason, he could take as many courtesans, prostitutes, or women as he liked. While officially, he only had 3 wives, who birthed his seven other children not including Praxis. In reality, the emperor father dozens possible in the hundreds of children in his lifetime.
He would often spend his nights with his favorite courtesans, prostitutes or women that caught his eye. Strangely, it was only one woman a night, he would not take more than one. However, he always took one whenever he desired it. One of those women, a young prostitute that caught his eye.
To this day, that woman never existed. He neither has a name nor does she have a face. No one knows why she was a prostitute or if she even was a prostitute. She could have just been some random girl the Emperor picked from the streets. No one knows her family or if she even had a family. She does not exist and never existed. One thing does remain that points to her being real because nine months after the Emperor took her, Praxis was born.
Being an illegitimate child of the Emperor meant a certain death. There was no law stating such a child should be killed, however to the rest of the royals, nobles, and political players such a child was a danger. If allowed to live they could become a direct threat to any of their own claim to the throne. After an illegitimate child of the emperor was born, they would disappear.
Both the mother and child would be gone overnight. No one asked question as to why because the answer was always clear. They are a threat to the empire and that meant death.
It was certain that this would have been Praxis' fate, but when he was born, for some reason, the emperor pitied the infant.
"Let the child live. From this moment, this boy is a prince of the empire and shall be given the responsibilities and the hardships that come with the privilege."
Those were the Emperor's words and the only words ever spoken to Praxis. Sometimes Praxis imagines all the possible reasons why the Emperor let him live. Nothing ever make a vivid sense because right after he gave him life, the Emperor abandoned him.
With the recognition of the Emperor, Praxis was an official prince of the empire and given the protections all royals were entitled to. He was allowed to live because of the Emperor, but he lived under the shadow of the Royal Palace. He was a prince of the Empire, but he was always shackled and locked away.
Praxis eventually did discover that his mother had been killed. Her existence then erased.
Praxis was not allowed to ask questions about her and try to find out anything. If they even suspected him to doing anything, he was punished. Praxis is constantly haunted by the thought that this woman once lived a life and now she is dead all because of him. Because he was a prince and had to act the way they did, he wasn't even allowed to hint anything about his mother.
Praxis grew up in the world of the royals. He ate what they ate. He read their books and learned to speak like them. He was taught about their history and military supremacy, but never taught how to fight as they saw it as potential risk. A Prince that knows to kill can murder his way to the crown. And they did not want to take that risk.
He grew up along side and watched over by them, but he was always treated worse than an outsider. Outsiders were the commoners to these people, which meant ignoring their existence. They only provided for the nobles and royals, but they themselves were not important enough to care about. Praxis, on the other hand, was like a vermin to the royals.
He wasn't a person to them, but something that eats, sleeps, and takes from the Empire. Not a human, not a commoner, but a disease that should not be caught. He was beat, tortured, and riddle with scars of abuse throughout his body.
They made it clear that while he was allowed to live, he was never one of them. Even though he was a prince, he should never dream of getting the throne. The crown was meant for true princes and he was an parasite.
Praxis did just as he was told to do by them. He never thought of the throne or even wanted a place in it. The other princes and princesses came from the Queens and had wealthy backings and armies to fight for their claim. They also had the support of other nobles and powerful individual colluding with them in exchange for royal favors.
Praxis had nothing, but a mind and body full of scars inflicted on to him by these people. As he grew, he became apathetic about everything. He did not care about the Empire, about its people, about the royals, or even about himself. He just did as they told him to do and never talked back. He never thought about the throne or about anything else for the first 19 years of his life. He was a blade that was dull from birth and then hammered flat into insignificance.
He performed all his duties as a Prince and as an ambassador for the Emperor in many instances. While he could not fight, he learned how to talk and negotiate with others. He gained a lot of influence and diplomacy outside the empire. He did it because they asked him too and he did it too well. They saw him gaining power and they needed him gone.
He did everything they asked of him and they still chose to kill him.
An indescribable form of rage began taking form inside of Praxis.