Red Rising Saga · Character

Pliny au Augeus

Also known as Pliny, Pliny au Velocitor

Supporting
First seen · Book 1 · Ch. 36

Pliny is remembered as a ghastly tutor, a figure whose presence sounds more chilling than welcoming. There is something unnerving in the little the story reveals, though it gives no clear portrait of his face.

Gender: male
Age: adult
First appears: Book 1 · Ch. 36
Books: 3

Pliny au Augeus begins as a shadowy tutor to Virginia au Augustus before emerging as a sleek, feline Politico whose beauty masks a ruthless ambition. Across the saga his influence shifts from the classroom to the battlefield of high politics, where his betrayal of House Augustus and collusion with the Sovereign’s forces nearly topples Darrow’s campaign. By the time of the Ganymede trap, his name alone is enough to lure the Rising into a deadly ambush, proving that his lethal scheming has survived the fall of his patron and the rise of new regimes.

Description

The only visual impression the text supplies is of a ghastly man. His build, coloring, hair, eyes, facial features, clothing, and age are not specified, so a more detailed portrait would be invention. Pliny au Augeus appears as a beautiful, slender Gold with smooth skin as flawless as a Pink's and a thin but pleasingly muscular build that suggests grace over brute strength. His coiled and scented hair is bound in a tight complicated braid behind him. Large glittering golden eyes peer out from beneath extravagant peacock-like eyelashes that dominate his face along with a pointed hawkish nose and thin lips coated in muted or serious black lipstick that often form a reptilian smile. He wears a too-tight embroidered silk tunic or severe dark coat accented by a dragonfly pin, presenting an elegant, almost feline noble whose delicate kittenish appearance belies the ruthless political predator within. No physical traits are described for Pliny au Velocitor in the supplied chapter information. His build, face, coloring, hair, eyes, clothing, and manner are unspecified.

Connections

Family & partnersFriends & mentorsRivals

Nero au AugustusAdvisor-turned-traitor
Serves as a trusted Politico to the ArchGovernor before engineering his downfall in collusion with the Sovereign.
Virginia au AugustusFormer tutor
Initially her tutor; later becomes a political adversary whose schemes threaten her family’s power.
Darrow of LykosPolitico
Begins as a distant political threat; escalates to direct sabotage and betrayal during the Summit; posthumously endangers Darrow’s forces at Ganymede through planted intelligence.

Story so far

BOOK 1Red Rising
- Serves as Mustang’s tutor before becoming a Politico
- First mentioned to Darrow as a “ghastly fellow” whose influence is already unsettling
BOOK 2Golden Son
- Appears in full courtly splendor at the Summit, hair braided and lips painted
- Secretly advises Augustus while plotting with the Sovereign against him
- Attempts to sabotage Darrow’s mission and discredit House Augustus
- Revealed as the architect of the political trap that nearly destroys the ArchGovernor’s fleet
BOOK 4Iron Gold
- Intelligence attributed to Pliny au Velocitor (alias) lures the Rising fleet into the Ganymede Dockyards ambush
- His lingering network of spies continues to threaten the Republic years after Augustus’s death