Ioannes Glauketes

The discovery of flight in Tagmatium was, initially, driven by what was felt to be military necessity.

The internal combustion engine had come to the Megas Agios Basileia by the 1890s. It was regarded with a mixture of distrust by the conservative population and there had been some attempts to garner a religious ruling against it by some, although that had not gained much traction in the Church itself. The Tagmatine military saw it as something of a toy with little real application - after all, the horse had been paramount for thousands of years and there was no reason to expect that to change. The early automobiles produced really only were the playthings of the rich. The extensive rail network and world-famous roads were still good enough.

The Epistrategaion, the Tagmatine high command, would likely have left everything there, if a group of thinkers within it had not determined that the hot air balloon was obsolete. Seemingly inspired by the more lurid pulp tales that were popular amongst the lower classes of civilian population, these thinkers had claimed that there was no use for hot air balloons beyond as observation posts and even that was numbered as automatic guns started to rear their head.

Instead, they suggested the use of the internal combustion engine as a method of propulsion for a heavier-than-air flying vehicle. They envisioned that these could be used to perform reconnaissance missions faster than horse-mounted units could, and perhaps even be used in a policing role beyond the rail and road network of Arhomaneia. They were able to convince the Epistrategaion and the Ministry for War to grant a not-insignificant cash prize to the first person who could make such a thing viable.

Over the next few years, a stream of charlatans, failures and incompetents made both the high command and the ministry jaded and cynical towards the idea of heavier-than-air flight. In the end, the prize was quietly dropped and that group of free thinkers found themselves sidelined for promotion and assigned elsewhere.

However, a minor official in the Patents office, ultimately part of the Ministry for Internal Affairs, had been spending years using his position to "research" flying machines. Ioannes Glauketes had come from an aristocratic background, one of the families that made up the ruling classes of Tagmatium, he was able to use his wealth to fund attempts and paid estate workers as pilots. He envisioned himself getting that cash prize and becoming famous across Eurth.

However, repeated failures and accidents began to turn Glauketes' money-making scheme into an obsession. His research became much more serious and driven by the science behind it. Slowly, he got a reputation as a crank and an obsessive, and he found himself side-lined from polite society. By the point he felt he had a genuine chance at actually flying, he was almost something of a laughingstock. Even many of his workers had either moved away or had started to refuse to act as pilots.

Few turned up to witness it. A couple of reporters from the local papers and one from national newspaper Kronografia were present, as well as a Kentarkhes (captain) from one of the local Skoutatoi (infantry) regiments were there, as well as a smattering of the curious and idle. It was a far cry from the constellation of flash bulbs and rank badges that Glauketes had envisioned for this momentous occasion. The local press had even called his aircraft Ikaropoulos - the Son of Icarus - in mockery. When Glauketes found that out, he was furious.

However, the joke was on the reporters.

Ikaropoulos flew just under 40m, but several quick repeats established it as not a fluke. The witnesses knew the ground-breaking nature of what they had seen and scattered, trying to get to the nearest telegraph station to be the first to report it.

Glauketes didn't receive the prize money, as he had expected. The Epistrategaion just was not interested. The punishment meted out to those who had first advocated powered flight meant that the staff officers were nervous of seizing the opportunity, and Glauketes' reputation and position in the bureaucratic aristocracy made the military snobbish towards him. He became even more bitter and eventually became something of a recluse.

However, the Imperial Post Service saw the utility of flight, imagining that it would revolutionise the mail system and were able to successfully lobby the Imperial Government to award Glauketes the low-ranking courtly title of Strator, which gave him an annual stipend, not quite making up for all the money he had spent and expected.

The news of powered flight, however, quickly spread beyond the Megas Agios Basileia, spurring on development in Europa and across the New World. Eventually, Ioannes Glauketes did get international recognition, but his bitter attitude did not mix well with his new fame.