House Malkerian



=Daniira Malkerian, born Navgarst= Daniira was a member of the Marnic nobility, House Navgarst, born in MY 599. She was originally in an arranged marriage with the future King of Drecitou, Glebaryuv of House Zenali. However, she fled Marnoz in Free Year 9 and openly declared Glebaryuv a craven for refusing to abandon the city and rally troops with Yenatar Malkerian in the northwest. She became a close advisor of Lord Malkerian after joining his army in FY 10, and later summoned her family to join the army after her father died (when his vessel, bound for Herarzä, was attacked and destroyed by orcish raiders) and rule over the House passed to her. Just two months after House Navgarst abandoned Marnoz, the orcs annihilated the city. Daniira married the widowed Lord Malkerian in FY 19 and passed rule of House Navgarst to her younger brother. Glebaryuv did not forget her slight, and did not speak to her again for the rest of his thirty-year reign over Drecitou. House Navgarst is now the ruling House in the city of Navyš, in southern Sraiyag Vacan. Daniira died in FY 80, at eighty-five years.

=Talvenat Malkerian= Talvenat was the firstborn child and son of Yenatar and Daniira Malkerian, born in Free Year 22. Gentlest of the children, he did not have his father’s martial ability, preferring instead to assist and lead those who were troubled. As the crown prince, he did not bask in the luxuries of his office, but spent many long hours alone in the library, studying the history and legal codes of the Federation and the nations that preceded it. From an early age, he closely followed his father’s governance at court, analysing his administrative decisions. As he grew older, Talvenat often advised his father on particularly difficult matters. Despite his gentle temperament, Talvenat was bull-headed, and after his father’s death in FY 73, he simply ignored the objections of the other Houses when he married the common-born woman Varcäye. He died in FY 115, at ninety-two years.

=Kutielrig Malkerian= Kutielrig was the second son and middle child of Yenatar and Daniira Malkerian, born in Free Year 25. He was the most emotional and energetic of Yenatar’s children, quick to laughter and to anger, and fascinated by his father’s tales of the Great Orc-Wars. When he was an adolescent, he became a student of military history and strategy, enlisting in the military as soon as he was of age and quickly growing to become one of the most able and respected officers of the army of Sraiyag Vacan. His reputation was cemented during the Rebellion of Kaleon by House Nuvrein in FY 51, which was decisively crushed only when Kutielrig led a charge of paladins and common soldiers directly into the burning city to save trapped civilians, and thus turning the serfs back towards loyalty to House Malkerian. He had no children, aggressively ensuring that he was far too often away from court for any noblewomen to pursue him. When his elder brother died in FY 115, the throne passed to Kutielrig, who reigned justly for seven years before his death in FY 122, at ninety-six years.

=Gilraen Malkerian= Gilraen was the youngest child and sole daughter of Yenatar and Daniira Malkerian, born in Free Year 27. It is commonly said that if Talvenat received his father’s intellect and kindliness while Kutielrig received his force of will, then Gilraen received Yenatar’s flawless charisma and diplomatic acumen. From childhood, she was the most charming of the three children, often conversing with diplomats from across Kerlonna on matters that seemed far beyond her years. She grew to be as beautiful as she was cunning, yet she refused any suitors that came her way, just as Kutielrig refused to suit any woman, and had no children, the same as he. She spent much of her time abroad in the lands of the Ishkula, Drecitou, and Idroslekh, negotiating and investigating in the former Federation as the crown’s ears and eyes. She died in FY 125, at ninety-eight years.

=Varcäye Malkerian, lowborn= Varcäye was a serf woman of Marnic blood, born in FY 55 in a village north of Oksyrs. She married Talvenat, the Lord-Commander of Sraiyag Vacan, in FY 74, to much courtly controversy. As the Exalt-General had forbidden arranged marriages (owing to frequent incest in the Marnic nobility), Lord Malkerian overrode the objections of the other Houses by ennobling Varcäye and her sole surviving family member, her mother, the same year, as part of House Malkerian. The other Houses swallowed their dissent when Lord Malkerian cemented political alliance between Sraiyag Vacan and Kemret, reopening the jade caravans between Kerlonna and the far west that had broken down sixty years before. Varcäye died in FY 133, at seventy-eight years.

=Vauduyat Malkerian= Vauduyat was born in FY 98, son of Talvenat and Varcäye Malkerian. In the vein of his uncle Kutielrig, he was of martial temperament and occasionally fiery mood, much concerned with the military reputation and exploits of his grandfather. As a child, he often visited his uncle when Kutielrig was at court, learning of how to wage war against orcs and men. As he grew older, Vauduyat became enamoured of military training and often lamented that he could not become an officer in the military because of his young age. At court, he met Aġrali Sakvaru in FY 113, becoming so smitten with her early poetry that he begged his aging father and the patriarch of House Sakvaru to allow their marriage, which occurred in 116. When Kutielrig died in 122, Vauduyat assumed the throne at twenty-four years, the youngest thus far of the Lord-Commanders of Sraiyag Vacan, and during a crisis: the Little Orc-War had begun a year before, and would last for nine more. During the war, Vauduyat led the battle on the front lines, leaving management of the nation to his regent and close friend, Italkus of House Norsayen. In 131, as the war ended in victory for Sraiyag Vacan, Vauduyat was clearly uncomfortable with simply sitting on the throne and the great game of diplomacy. He reformed and expanded the role of garrisoned soldiers within the nation, rooting out banditry and piracy with single-minded focus. He also spent much time with his wife in private because of her reclusive nature, as well as raising his son to be the crown prince. In his later years, Vauduyat gained a reputation for justice when he sent soldiers to depose the corrupt White Prince of Kivlepra, Besamku, and yet resisted his court’s urgings to annex the city and its territories. He became less vigorous after his wife’s death in 176, often spending stretches of the year away from court at the rural estate of House Malkerian, the Kutyätr. When his son was assassinated in Kemret in 195, Vauduyat seemed broken with grief, and within a month he died, at ninety-six years.

=Selladanzi Malkerian= Selladanzi, Lady Malkerian, Lord-Commander of Sraiyag Vacan, was born in FY 107, daughter of Talvenat and Varcäye Malkerian. When she was fifteen, she entered formal paladin training in the Sisterhood of the Endless Knot, the only surviving order of female paladins from the days of Marnoz. She quickly manifested her paternal grandfather’s astonishing willpower, rapidly ascending the ranks until, in 138, she became the youngest Mother of the Sisterhood in four centuries. She long travelled abroad in pursuit of orc-bands or crushing despots, earning a reputation throughout northern Kerlonna for her unbending sense of justice. The most famous story of her justice comes from only three years ago. When an agent of House Kailan assassinated her nephew, Prince Lorkañe, she rode alone to Kemret and demanded, as a paladin elder, the gathering of the Kemreti Court. Ten Sisters of her order barred the door of the chamber. Within, in full armour, Selladanzi described the recent political history of Kemret and openly accused House Kailan of the assassination of a man who was both a diplomat and a prince. When Peiranni, Patriarch of House Kailan, accused her of having no proof, she grated, “Blood calls for blood,” and beheaded him with her axe. She then demanded from the rest of House Kailan the person who had been the hand that slew Lorkañe. One of them, an adolescent named Vralha, stepped forward. She smashed his right hand with the blunt of her axe, crippling it. She then declared that either House Kailan would be stripped of its nobility, or Kemret could face open war before the year was out. House Kailan was abolished two months later. As ruler of Sraiyag Vacan, Selladanzi has been occupied with stamping out piracy in the Akulap Sea and protecting caravans bound for Drecitou. She has been famously silent on the problem of succession concerning Lorkañe’s twin sons, Drasven and Karnutel, often demurring that, “They must decide this themselves. If one is chosen, the other shall be slighted.” As of the present year, 198, she is at ninety-one years.

=Aġrali Malkerian, born Sakvaru= Aġrali was born in FY 95 in House Sakvaru, originally one of the High Houses of Marnoz and one of only three (of the original twelve) to survive the collapse of the Federation. House Sakvaru, the ruling family in the northwestern wilds of Sraiyag Vacan, would likely have faded away into a rustic lineage if Aġrali had not caught the eye of Prince Vauduyat Malkerian and married him in 116. She bore one boy in 125 that was stillborn and Lorkañe Malkerian in 140. She was a famous recluse and spent most of her time in the palace, writing poetry, while Lord Malkerian spent a decade (121 to 131) embroiled in the Little Orc-War that ravaged Sraiyag Vacan’s northeastern frontier. House Sakvaru quickly grew to become the influential force in the court it is today, despite its remote territories. Aġrali died in FY 176 at eighty-one years.

=Lorkañe Malkerian= Lorkañe was born in FY 140 to Vauduyat and Aġrali Malkerian, their only child. Despite his mother’s reputation for seclusion, she raised him with affection, and he saw his father often in the widespread peace that prevailed in Sraiyag Vacan after its victory in the Little Orc-War. Lorkañe was famously grave, rarely moved to any extremes of emotion, and was much concerned with peaceful resolution of conflict. His intellect was astounding, and he authored three philosophical treatises that are still topics of discussion and controversy among learned circles in Kerlonna: The Measure of Kings, an ethical-political work which argues that the justification for monarchical rule is that it is the most effective method of achieving justice; Presence within Presence, a deeply metaphysical reflection upon the Marnic gods and a famous polemic against the new faiths of Sahullam and Cagas Guapran; and The Water Bearers, a philosophical history which details the famously ascetic Kwariotic School and provides an apologetic for their belief in divine providence in the aftermath of their destruction during the Fall. Though he was kind to his wife, he seemed of little romantic inclination, spending weeks alone at the Kutyätr absorbed in his chief pleasures: reading philosophical and religious texts, negotiating with diplomats, and examining the legal codes of both Sraiyag Vacan and other nations. He is known as the Great Reformer, having successfully petitioned his father to ban the death penalty for theft and send soldiers to enforce this ban. Of all the princes of House Malkerian, he was the most distant from the commoners and, indeed, even from the other nobles at court, similar to his mother. In his later years, he became deeply concerned with the Kemreti succession crises, travelling to the city every few years and writing every other week to his allies, House Tvaľenas. He came to vigorously oppose House Kailan, whom he regarded as attempting to usurp House Tvaľenas’ rightful place upon the throne of the Daprakhos. In FY 195, he was assassinated by a youthful member of House Kailan, Vralha. He died from stab wounds to the stomach and chest in less than an hour, at fifty-four years.

=Ilrana Malkerian, born Rahud= Ilrana was born in FY 147 of House Rahud, ruling House of the Saalid Peninsula in the kingdom’s southwestern regions. She married Prince Lorkañe in 168, having been courted by him since they first met in 164. She was famously diplomatic as Ilrana Malkerian, spending much time in Drecitou and Cil Adasiga on behalf of her husband, who was too often occupied with reforming the legal codes and the severe succession crises that afflicted Kemret both before and after the reign of Daprakhos Tvaľenas VII (r. 179-194). Due to his unwavering opposition to the enemies of House Tvaľenas, House Kailan, in 195 Prince Lorkañe was assassinated while in Kemret. A month later, Lord Vauduyat Malkerian died at age 97, leaving the throne to Selladanzi Malkerian, his sister. Ilrana’s twin sons, Drasven and Karnutel, were born in 180 and neither will be eligible for the throne until the year 200. After her husband’s death, Ilrana became melancholic and withdrawn. Ilrana died of a fever in FY 197, at fifty years.

=Drasven Malkerian= Drasven is only barely the elder of the twin sons of Lorkañe and Ilrana Malkerian, born five minutes before Karnutel, in the summer of FY 180. Of the two, he is the more energetic, erratic, and brilliant, an avid reader of his father’s philosophical writings and much absorbed with records of the history of Sraiyag Vacan and the Federation and maintaining his own garden near the palace at Oksyrs. Many in court have noted that of his parents, he more closely resembles his mother in temperament. He is also the more cosmopolitan, having travelled to Cil Adasiga in 196 to familiarise himself with the Guild and its leaders. He is notably forceful in personality, occasionally sharp of tongue and fiercely protective of his family’s reputation. He is betrothed to Melyina of House Norsayen, planning to marry her when he comes of age in FY 200. Though a close friend of his brother, he regards himself as the more capable candidate for the throne because of his quicker intellect, his better grasp of diplomacy, and his more extraverted personality. He is less popular with the serfs than his brother, often seeming cool when he must meet with commoners for whatever reason. He was also the more deeply wounded by the deaths of his parents within two years: since his mother’s death a year ago, he has seemed gaunt and sickly, and he wept for days after his father’s assassination when he was fifteen. He is more often seen in court than Karnutel, usually sitting by his great-aunt and closely observing her method of governance without comment. The twins are, as of the time of writing, newly turned eighteen.

=Karnutel Malkerian= Karnutel, the younger of the twin sons of Lorkañe and Ilrana Malkerian, is also the more similar to his father in temperament, though not in intellect. Karnutel is somewhat simpler in mind, yet far less moody and excitable than his brother. He has a reputation of shyness and introversion, preferring to spend his time at the Kutyätr reading his grandmother Aġrali’s poetry, studying history, and doting upon his betrothed than at his great aunt’s court. His betrothed is Säwemdar of House Tohrek, notable because she is not of Marnic descent: she is ethnically one of the Janhlira, the race of humans indigenous to Sraiyag Vacan. He is well loved by the low people, having used his personal funds to build and maintain a hospital in Kaleon. He also paid a sizeable donation to the Great Temple in Oksyrs to restore the statues and sacred baths in its lower chambers, earning the respect of nobility and low people alike. He is noted for his distaste for formality and extravagance, often dressing in well-made but simple clothing that one might expect for travel, or even upon a conservative merchant. He thinks himself the better candidate for the throne because of his stable temper and his reputation: as he has wryly noted, “a popular king with a simple mind makes far less mistakes than an unpopular king with a brilliant one.” Though he is not as well-travelled as his brother, he is close friends with the crown prince of Drecitou, Lainna of House Zenali, whom he met when they were both children during an informal visit of the King of Drecitou to Oksyrs in FY 189. He respects his great-aunt highly, and though not of particularly martial persuasion, he has expressed great esteem for the armies of Sraiyag Vacan as well as an interest in studying tactics with Selladanzi.