Hasper

Hasper
King of Trellin and Emperor of Hysera
Reign	21 October 1876 – 19 September 1904
Coronation	29 October and 6 November 1876, respectively
Predecessor	Txerig III
Successor	Amadar IV
King of the Isles of Velar
Reign	21 October 1876 – 19 September 1904
Coronation	24 November 1876
Predecessor	Txerig III
Successor	Amadar IV
Born	17 December 1838 Martheqa, Trellin
Died	19 September 1904(1904-09-19) (aged 65) Martheqa
Issue	Amadar IV
Full name Hasper Enkrihnë Palægos
House	House Palægos
Father	Txerig III
Mother	Lusilia of Namija
Religion	Ladath Thaerinë

Hasper (Hasper Enkrihnë Palægos; 17 December 1838 - 19 September 1904) was the son of Txerig III and Lusilia of Namija. He was King of Trellin, Emperor of Hysera and King of the Isles of Velar from 1876 until his death. He was succeeded by his son Amadar IV.

Reign

The Proclamation of the Halith Republic

Inside Hasper's Arcade, 1901

Hasper was heavily criticised during and after his reign for his lavish lifestyle and separation from the general populace. After the catastrophic Halith Disaster destroyed the wealthy capital of Rezat, Hasper was pressured by his advisers into commissioning an official inquiry, which took nearly ten years to reach its conclusion and ultimately did very little to help the many citizens displaced. He showed a poor understanding of the financial realities of his empire, spending extravagantly on himself and his palaces while raising taxes substantially throughout the provinces.

As king, Hasper spent months at a time on tours or visiting other nations, oblivious to the rising discontent, and was even abroad on a tour of Nikolia during the 1892 outbreak of the Trellinese Civil War. He himself did little to gain support, regularly insulting his enemies and the people as a whole as 'disloyal'; his army saw tremendous levels of defections in the early months of the war, so that most of his supporters were in fact from outside the kingdom — in Arimathea, for example, or overseas.

Nevertheless, Hasper also sponsored significant, often extravagant, building projects, especially in the northwest, both before and after the civil war. These projects employed large numbers, often in the thousands, of labourers and were applauded in the domestic press for their rigorous safety standards which minimised the number of deaths. Hasper's Arcade, a high, glass-ceilinged indoor market in Martheqa, is one acclaimed product of this period. He also set aside a substantial fund for the rebuilding of the war-ravaged empire — a fund which was to be exhausted many times over by his son, Amadar IV.