Late cousin of present day Tzarina Katarin, Alexander Bokha was known for being an inveterate gambler and infamous libertine. On a foggy night in Brauzeit, his carriage had been travelling along the Luitpoldstrasse towards the Street of a Hundred Taverns when armed bailiffs - acting for one of Altdorf's largest counting houses - stopped it outside the notorious Crescent Moon tavern. Owing considerable sums to these establishments, his pleas for clemency fell on deaf ears, the bailiffs throwing him into the nearest debtor's prison. Come the morning, those in power awoke to find such breach of protocol a considerable embarrassment. Unfortunately, this would turn to horror when they found Alexander had been violated and murdered by his fellow prisoners.[1a]
The discovery of his death fueled outrage in Kislev, despite the Tzarina secretly detesting Alexander. A letter of apology written and signed by Emperor Karl Franz did little to quell the riot that swarmed the Imperial Ambassador's entourage when they were summoned to the Bokha Palace, whose knights moved not an inch until they were finally ordered to intervene and save Kaspar von Velten.[1a]