Nero or Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus is a historic figure who was planned to appear in Tokyo's Haunted Mansion.
History[]
Origins[]
Nero was once the tyrannical emperor of Ancient Rome, he is notorious for his debaucheries, political assassinations, persecution of Christians, and massive ego which lead him to force his subjects to attend his performances of music and acting. Nero came into power by his mother having killed his father, having him adopted by the then emperor, and subsequently murdering that emperor by poisoning him.
In 64AD, a great fire spread throughout Rome for nine days and Nero did absolutely nothing to try and either stop it or to save the innocent, with most stories saying that he simply played his music in his palace, and some rumours even saying that he started to fire as to clear more land for palaces to be built. Whatever the cause of the fire was, Nero chose to blame the Christians living in Rome and he had many of them executed via burnings at stake, and dressing them up as animals only to have them torn apart by dogs.
In the place of the burned down buildings, Nero constructed several grand palaces dedicated to himself which were so expensive that the entire Roman empire became severely broke resulting in revolts across the empire. In the year 65, many Roman citizens plotted to assassinate Nero leading the paranoid Nero to order the deaths of several of his high ranking officials out of fear of betrayal. Instead of trying to fix things in Rome, Nero chose to flee to Greece for a long time, participating in games and activities only to be arrested upon his return home to Rome. Rather than face execution for his crimes and incompetence, Nero chose to try and commit suicide but became so scared that he tried to convince one of his few allies to commit suicide as well, and then forced his secretary to murder Nero so that Nero himself wouldn't have to do it. Nero's last words were, "Qualis artifex pereo" (What an Artist dies in me).
Burial Crypt of Famous Villains
Haunted Mansion[]
Nero was planned to appear in Tokyo Disneyland's Haunted Mansion as either an animated statue, or in a crypt of famous villains where he was to be shown alongside the tombs of Dracula, Jack the Ripper, Medusa, Attila the Hun and Bluebeard.
Trivia[]
- The Concept art of Nero's statue shows him holding a fiddle, a reference to the myth that, "Nero fiddled while Rome Burned", which is known to be false as the fiddle wasn't invented yet.
- Nero and Attila were the only villains featured in the Burial Crypt for famous villains who did not appear in any other form of the Haunted Mansion.