Emperor Cartagia

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Babylon 5 character
Cartagia
Affiliated with	Centauri Republic
Race	Centauri
Home planet	Centauri Prime
First appearance	The Hour of the Wolf
Last appearance	The Long Night
Portrayed by	Wortham Krimmer

Emperor Cartagia, played by Wortham Krimmer, is a fictional character from the television science fiction drama Babylon 5. He is mentioned earlier, but his first on-screen appearance was The Hour of the Wolf, the first episode of the fourth season.

Contents 1 Character 2 Background 3 Cartagia's Reign and the Shadow War 4 Aftermath

[edit] Character

While Cartagia can be simply described as insane, that does not explain the depths of his madness. Though the whole details of his youth are unclear, by the time he is installed to the throne in 2259 by a group of Centauri politicians led by Lord Refa and assisted by Londo Mollari, he was essentially a powerless figurehead. However, he gradually came to control the situation. The true scale of his self-aggrandizement and madness were fully exposed in early 2261, near the end of the last Shadow War, when he willingly, even gleefully, brought Centauri Prime to the brink of annihilation by the Vorlons in an effort to secure his place among the gods.

His character appears to have been influenced by the Roman emperors Caligula and Nero.

[edit] Background

Cartagia was the nephew of Emperor Turhan. Londo Mollari had met him twice before he ascended to the throne: first, when Cartagia was an infant, and again, when he was a teenager.

When Turhan died while on a visit to Babylon 5, he left no direct heirs, as his son had also died recently in an accident. It was expected that his Prime Minister, Malachi, would be the next Emperor, but he was assassinated by forces loyal to Lord Refa and his group of allies. Several Centauri houses then vied for the throne, but were unable to secure a claim, enabling Cartagia, with the backing of Refa's agents, to make a claim on the throne. Serving largely as a figurehead for Refa and his agents, Cartagia was in favor of the military expansion of the Centauri, including the conquest of the Narn, and this quickly translated into the Narn-Centauri conflict of 2259.

[edit] Cartagia's Reign and the Shadow War

After defeating the Narn in a series of quick strikes aided by the Shadows, culminating in a direct assault on the Narn homeworld using illegal mass drivers, Cartagia's government undertook military campaigns against other races bordering Centauri space.

In early 2261, Cartagia had Babylon 5 Ambassador Mollari recalled to Centauri Prime, and appointed him to be his Minister of Internal Security. At first, Cartagia merely seemed flamboyant and self-indulgent, with his shocking lower-class hairstyle and numerous hangers-on. It did not take long for Mollari to realize that Cartagia was insane, especially after he learned from a disfigured Morden that Cartagia had allowed the Shadows, reeling from the events on Z'ha'dum, to establish a base on the Centauri homeworld. Mollari expressed his concerns to a member of the royal court, who explained that though the Centarum had tried to oppose Cartagia, all of his opposition had since disappeared, with the rumor being that Cartagia had hidden their heads in a secret room, where he spoke with them on a regular basis. Mollari later discovered this rumor to be true.

It was also around this time that Londo learned from Capt. Sheridan that the Vorlons were employing a new strategy against the Shadows: utterly destroying any planet with even the slightest taint of Shadow influence. When Londo informed Cartagia of this, he resolutely refused to evict the Shadows from Centauri Prime, explaining that they had agreed to reward his assistance by turning him into a deity. Cartagia then explained that the Vorlons would help his plans for deification by turning Centauri Prime into a massive inauguration pyre.

During these events, G'Kar was captured while searching for Michael Garibaldi, and brought to Centauri Prime. Cartagia proceeded to have G'Kar torture and punished, whose refusal to give Cartagia the satisfaction of a scream became an obsession, to the point where he had him lashed nearly to the point of death (which Cartagia personally oversaw). By this stage, however, Londo and G'Kar had come to an agreement: in return for G'Kar's assistance in his plot to assassinate Cartagia, Londo would end the Centauri occupation of the Narn and declare them a free people. As part of this ruse, Mollari convinced Cartagia to take G'Kar to Narn and execute him there, thus allowing Mollari to draw the Emperor away from the royal court, leaving him more vulnerable. However, before heading to Narn, Cartagia inflicted one more punishment on G'Kar: for failing to see his greatness, Cartagia ordered one of G'Kar's eyes plucked out.

When they arrive on Narn, Mollari told G'Kar that Cartagia planned to have him killed in front of local Narns to break their spirits, but that the chains on his restraints would be weakened, and that, when brought before the Emperor, he must break his chains and distract the Emperor's guards, without directly harming the Emperor, long enough for Londo to act. In the interim, Londo's aide, Vir Cotto acquired a device that would inject a poison into the Emperor, and brought it to Londo. This poison, Vir explains, is meant to be injected between Cartagia's hearts, and on doing so, would cause his cardiovascular system to shut down nearly instantly. Further, it was meant to be undetectable, so that an examining physician would only determine that the person died of heart failure.

Finally, G'Kar was brought before Cartagia. Despite the fact that Cartagia had detected the weakened chains and ordered them replaced, G'Kar managed to break them and begin fighting with the guards. Mollari escorted Cartagia away from the fight, and prepared to inject the poison into him. However, Cartagia went into a fit of madness about how this was not part of his destiny, and, reacting to being told to quiet down by Mollari, turned and punched him, knocking the device away. Cartagia grabbed Mollari in a stranglehold, ranting about how Mollari deserved to burn with the rest of the Centauri for failing to see his greatness. However, as Cartagia turns to walk away, he is injected with the poison by Vir, who has picked up the device while Londo and Cartagia struggled.

Shortly after this, the imperial guards find Cartagia, supported by Mollari and Vir. Mollari explained that the Emperor had collapsed, and that he believed the Emperor's hearts had failed. The Emperor's physician was unable to revive Cartagia, and pronounced him dead. At this point, Mollari kept his promise to G'Kar, by explaining to the court that the Centauri's dealings with Narn have now resulted in the deaths of two Emperors, and that Cartagia would interpret this as a sign from the gods to leave. After this motion is seconded, the Emperor's physician, citing the fact that there was little time to crown a new Emperor with the current Shadow/Vorlon threat, nominated Mollari to the post of Prime Minister, with the task of returning to Centauri Prime to remove the Shadows from his homeworld.

In the coming days, as the Army of Light planned for its final assault upon the Vorlons and the Shadows, Mollari systematically removed the threat from Centauri Prime, dealing first with the Shadow vessels, and finally, with Mr. Morden. However, as a Vorlon planetkiller settled overhead, blotting out the sun, Vir realized that there was one individual on Centauri Prime still touched by the Shadows: Londo. Distressed that the Vorlons were willing to destroy Centauri Prime just to kill him, Londo frantically begged Vir to kill him and tell the Vorlons that he too was dead, but Vir demurred. However, by coincidence, the Army of Light had called in the remaining First Ones to aid them in the final battle, and when they destroyed the Vorlon planetkiller outside Coriana 6, the Vorlons sent out the call for reinforcements, drawing their fleet away from Centauri Prime, preventing its destruction.

[edit] Aftermath

Following the death of Emperor Cartagia, the Centauri government decided not to name a new Emperor right away, hoping to prevent the possibility of another Cartagia assuming the throne. Indeed, a long-serving minister, Virini, remarked the royal bloodline was not what it once was due to inbreeding, commenting that, "...when you reduce a family tree to a family bush, you can't hide as much underneath". As an interim solution, then, the Centarum selected this very minister to serve as their Regent, until such time as a new Emperor was selected. However, the Drakh, allies of the Shadows, who had arrived on Centauri Prime shortly after the destruction of Z'ha'dum, began to execute their plans for the Centauri, and Regent Virini soon came under their influence when they attached a Keeper to him. In part related to this action, the Regent's health began to decline over the next year, and, in response, the Centauri government decided that Londo was to become the next Emperor, following the Regent's death.

Eventually, in 2262, the price to be paid for Londo's betrayal of the Shadows became clear. The Drakh, working behind the scenes unfettered for over a year, were eventually able to manipulate the Interstellar Alliance into attacking the Centauri, including a direct assault on a defenseless Centauri Prime. On this same day, the Regent was killed by the Drakh so as to provide an alibi to the incoming Emperor Mollari, who, threatened with the death of millions of his people by the use of fusion bombs across the planet, was forced into a situation where the Drakh could use Mollari for their own purposes. With this sacrifice, Londo allowed the Drakh to attach a Keeper to his body, and he began his reign as Emperor Mollari II.

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