Aurelian Avent

Aurelian is the Crown Prince and Chancellor of the Sollan Empire, the eldest son of Emperor William XXIII, conceived on the day of his father's coronation more than a thousand years ago. Despite standing first in the line of succession for over a millennium, he will never sit the throne -- Imperial succession is by appointment, not birth order. Hadrian reflects that Aurelian is destined to be an oversight in history, overshadowed by his father, his siblings Alexander and Selene, and by Hadrian himself, yet he has served the Emperor with absolute devotion throughout his long life.

By the time Hadrian returns to Forum seventy years after his last visit, Aurelian is visibly ancient: bent at the neck, carrying a gilded cane, his once-red hair now white beneath a golden coronet, his once-emerald eyes now pale as beryl. He serves as the Emperor's proxy in William's absence. When Hadrian arrives, Aurelian insists the man cannot truly be Hadrian Marlowe and demands proof of identity and that he kneel; Hadrian refuses to kneel twice and threatens Forum's star system. Aurelian ultimately agrees to broker an audience with the Emperor.