Biographies: Aukar

On this page: Aukar • Olrich • Zôra Mœlaani • Veukar • Frith Selencau • Eltar Gireilon • Jûvor of Eugras • Kêu of Ilnœra • Xirna Tusloivau • Marot Valyandron

Aukar (56 BE – OA 17)

Aukar was the last ruler of the old Arêndron kingdom before the establishment of the Arêndron Empire by his son Masra. He was born in 56 BE to the crown prince Nairen and his wife, Khûna, a daughter of Seleŋk; Nairen succeeded to the throne two years later.

Aukar was married in 40 BE to Molôca of Urŋundra, also aged six cargôm; she died just two years later giving birth to their son Masra. Aukar is said to have been deeply attached to his wife, and never remarried. He instead devoted himself to religion and to the care of his son. He never expected to become king; Nairen was still young, and in any case his younger brother Veukar was much more involved and capable in political affairs, and was a much more natural choice.

Masra came of age in 23 BE, but Aukar refused pressure from his father to arrange a marriage for him, both because he wanted his son to be happy and because it was Veukar and Veukar's children who were expected to continue the royal line. But when it turned out that Masra's choice was his second cousin, Jessa of Selenca, Nairen made no opposition to the match.

But Veukar's daughter Merka had married Kêu of Ilnœra, and in 20 BE Kêu successfully overcame Orden III and reunified the kingdom of Vardeu. Furthermore, Veukar's son Agus had insisted on fighting in the war, in spite of being only six, and had been killed at Giltal. Nairen could not allow the Arêndron kingdom to pass into Kêu's hands, and so his councillors, on his instructions, declared Aukar king on his death two years later.

Kingship did not come easily to Aukar, and his habit was to defer important matters to others, particularly his chief advisor Olrich. Veukar was given charge of managing diplomatic affairs with Vardeu, and when Hêval declared Vardi independent in 12 BE and it was necessary to regain control, command of the army was given to Masra.

When full-scale war finally came in 2 BE, Aukar's response was characteristic: he holed himself up in Endros and ordered his troops to stay and defend the city. Masra joined Veukar and took charge of his army, much against Aukar's wishes, because he did not want him to risk his life on the field. But Masra was victorious, and when he returned and demanded that Aukar give up the throne to him, Aukar readily consented. Masra permitted him to retire to a quiet house in Laurêa, where he lived until his death in OA 17.

Olrich (? – 11 BE)

Except in school history textbooks, the colourless Aukar is now only remembered for his final act of surrendering the kingship to Masra. His chief advisor Olrich, on the other hand, is a name everyone grows up knowing, even if the legends surrounding him are much more widely known than the truth.

Olrich began as a travelling wizard, which is to say, a charlatan thriving on the superstition of the credulous. He was accompanied on his travels by a blind girl, Reunha, who he claimed was his daughter; popular rumour claimed otherwise. Some even said he made her blind deliberately to enhance the effect. She acted as his assistant and also as his oracle; when he wanted to give advice, he would have her go into a trance and pronounce for him. For some reason people were more easily convinced that way; perhaps because if the advice had come from him people would have questioned whether he had his own agenda behind it.

He made his way to the court of King Nairen in 26 BE, and although the king was less than impressed with his magical prowess, he established a hold over Aukar by claiming that, through Reunha, he could allow him to communicate with his dead wife. Olrich also helped Aukar oppose Nairen's plan to arrange a marriage for Masra – according to rumour, because he hoped Masra would marry Reunha when she was old enough.

This, of course, fell through, but Olrich had other plans up his sleeve. Aukar's chief advisor at the time was a man named Bûloŋ Tilnôthei, and Bûloŋ had supported Nairen. Olrich did not forget this, and soon after Aukar took the throne, he denounced Bûloŋ as a traitor to the king and the gods. Aukar held a public trial, and Olrich passed his hands through the ceremonial fire and called for Loreish's judgement, and Bûloŋ was consumed in a sudden blast of flame.

This made Olrich's reputation, and it was quite possibly largely thanks to him that in spite of Aukar's weaknesses as a ruler, there were no attempts at rebellion during his reign. Aukar also delegated to Olrich his role as dispenser of justice; for this too Olrich used Reunha to speak his pronouncements. He was widely known as a man of great wisdom, and advised the king well.

Olrich's downfall came suddenly in 13 BE. He had for some time been plotting to get the king to marry Reunha, by sending her to comfort him when he was sad in the hope that he would fall in love with her, and by having her drop vague hints in the messages she sent him from his wife. He was startled when Reunha, who was not nearly as foolish as she looked, upset this plan by running away with one of the palace servants, taking his magic “props” with her. The people began to call him a fraud, but Olrich announced that he would prove his magic powers with one last miracle: he would turn himself into a cloud of smoke and fly away to the end of the world. The appointed day came, and Olrich lit a huge fire and stepped into the smoke and vanished.

A year later he came back a changed man. The people chanted his name in the streets, and everyone wanted to hear the story of his travels, but Olrich refused to talk to anyone except his old friend the king; he shut himself up in a room in the palace with his books. He died in 11 BE, and his funeral was one of the grandest and best attended on record.

Zôra Mœlaani (70 – 5 BE)

Zôra was the daughter of a poor family in Zigônha, but was gifted with remarkable intelligence and capacity for learning, and was sent by her parents to study at the School of Endros. Arriving there at the age of six cargôm, she stayed at the School for the rest of her life, eventually becoming the first female Chief Librarian.

In her second year at the School, Zôra entered into a relationship with another student. They broke up a year or so later, but Zôra was left pregnant, and there was no question of getting married, as the child's father wanted to leave the School and take up a diplomatic career. Zôra's son, Deurix, was born in 52 BE and, as was the School's custom, was brought up by the Librarians. Zôra herself resumed her studies, and was taken on as a junior librarian in 49 BE.

The next two decades were not particularly eventful, except for one ugly incident that occurred in 35 BE. Zôra had never shown any interest in starting another sexual relationship, perhaps because she was too devoted to her work, but the then Chief Librarian, Naurus Fontino, lusted after her and one night attempted to rape her. She screamed, and her son entered the room and fought the man. As a result, he was dismissed from office, but as there was no-one really suitable to fill his role, an old librarian, Brœnor Lanrôgon, was elected, and Zôra herself was given the job on Brœnor's death in 27 BE. (Deurix had by this time married another of the School's students and gone on to join the priesthood.)

Zôra's importance in history stems from the fact that, after the Vardeu war of 20 BE, she persuaded Veukar to organise the purchase of a large number of Vardeu documents for the Library, many of which would otherwise undoubtedly have been lost when Vardi was destroyed in 12 BE. These documents are our main source of information on the Vardiscêan language.

Veukar (53 BE – OA 15)

Veukar was the second son of Nairen, born a year after his succession to the throne. His father married him in 38 BE to Merka of Urnathel, who was aged nine cargôm and already had two children from a previous marriage. The couple did not get on, and Veukar only stayed with her until they had produced an heir so that he would not suffer the indignity of his stepchildren inheriting. Their daughter, also called Merka, was born in 37 BE, and their son Agus a year later. Soon after that the couple separated; Merka returned to her father's house, where she is said to have taken the poet Sharix Trêlon as one of her lovers, while Veukar married again in 30 BE, to an Ilnœran girl named Akhis Aŋmara. This marriage produced two sons, Nordis and Yaryen.

Merka's father died in 29 BE, and Veukar inherited the title of Duke of Urnathel. He was a capable ruler of his own people, and showed his diplomatic ability by acting as an intermediary between Ilnœra and Endros. When Chelden, the ruler of Ilnœra, died in 23 BE, his heir, Kêu, proposed marriage to Veukar's daughter Merka. As this would in effect bring Ilnœra under Arêndron rule, Veukar readily consented, a decision he woud later describe as the worst mistake of his life. But Veukar was at that time expected to be made the next king after Nairen, and he could not make Kêu his heir, so he engaged his son Agus to Xirna, daughter of the Duke of Tusloiva, to keep the family line going.

In 20 BE, however, Kêu declared war on Orden of Vardeu. Veukar supported the war, as he hoped to bring Vardeu under Arêndron rule, and he lent Kêu a large section of his army. But Agus, who was turning out to be a disappointment to his father, being more interested in hunting and fighting than in learning about matters of diplomacy, insisted on joining the army, and was killed at the battle of Giltal. Worse still, there was a little scandal in connection with his engagement, because after his death it was discovered that his fiancée Xirna was pregnant, and it was not considered decorous for royals to sleep together before marriage. Veukar was able to hush things up, but he knew that he had lost his chance of becoming the next king.

Aukar inherited the throne in 18 BE. Relations between the two brothers had been fraught for some time, as neither approved of the other's lifestyle, but they maintained diplomatic communications while always keeping their distance from each other. Veukar was, in any case, kept busy by overseeing the affairs of Kêu's Vardeu kingdom and keeping the taxes flowing to Endros. He thought his brother a fool for placing so much trust and investing so much power in the charlatan Olrich, but he never said so to his face.

Veukar's first wife, Merka, died in 15 BE. His sons Nordis and Yaryen came of age in 11 and 9 BE respectively, and married the daughters of rich Vardûran families; as the children of a second marriage they were not eligible to marry into a royal family or to inherit the throne.

War with Vardeu broke out in 2 BE, and when Aukar refused to mobilise his troops, Veukar was forced to declare Urnathel independent from Endros. He is thus referred to by the title “King” in history books, even though he only kept it for a year. After Masra's victory, it was clear that the kingdoms needed to reunite in order to ensure stability, and Veukar first gave Masra the kingship of Urnathel before persuading him to ask Aukar to surrender that of Endros.

Veukar continued to live in Urnathel after the war, and played an important role as advisor to Masra in the early days of the Empire. His wife died in OA 4, and Veukar himself in 15.

Frith Selencau (52 – 1 BE)

Thalyar Selencau, the grandson of Seleŋk, married Acêla of Urŋundra in 54 BE. Frith was their only child; Masra's wife Jessa was Thalyar's daughter by his second marriage.

Ever since the fall of Beltar, Seleŋk and his descendants had had the role of keeping the province under control and acting as diplomatic intermediaries to keep the taxes coming in to Endros, so that Beltar became in effect almost a sub-province of Selenca. To keep things running smoothly, Frith was married to Kâla of Xavarta, aged seven cargôm, in 36 BE. Beltar, unlike Vardeu, was separated from the Arêndron kingdom by a sea, and it was uncommon even for royals of one nation to know the other's language, so the young couple did not have a common language when they first met. Because Thalyar wanted Frith to inherit the governorship of Beltar, their marriage broke the normal pattern of Arêndron royal marriages in that it was the husband who moved in with the wife's family, and not the other way round.

It has to be said that they got on very well – perhaps because neither was able to boss the other around! – and they had three children, Engis, Kaidis and Cossa. (There were rumours that Kâla was unfaithful to Frith in the early years of their marriage and that Engis was not really his daughter, but it is clear from his writings that Frith himself either was unaware of these rumours or did not believe them.) Frith did, of course, learn the Beladron language after a few years, and became a very capable diplomat. He also wrote poetry, and has the distinction of being the only Arêndron-born poet writing in Beladron who is still read today.

Kâla's father died in 26 BE, and Frith and Kâla inherited the dukedom of Beltar as joint rulers. In spite of Frith's Arêndron origin, their reign was peaceful to begin with, but tension rose to the surface when the Vardeu war broke out in 20 BE. The Beladron people then saw the Arêndrons as oppressors trying to subdue Vardeu, a civilisation they had a very ancient friendship with. Kâla wanted Frith to join the war on Vardeu's side, but he would not fight against his own family. In the end Frith was able to keep relations smooth by sending troops over to Vardeu as a “peacekeeping” force; they did not take part in the fighting but kept the Vardeu cities defended from looting and destruction by the victorious Arêndron troops. In this they were aided by Jûvor of Eugras, the brother of Orden of Vardeu; after the war Frith gave him the hand of his daughter Engis as a mark of his appreciation.

Frith's son Kaidis also moved to Vardeu in the years after the war, and married into a Vardeu noble family. His daughter Cossa was married in 13 BE to Korden Jaara, a promising young diplomat Frith had picked out as his successor.

Beltar did not immediately declare support for either side in the Argundran War of 2 BE. But this time public opinion was more favourable to the Arêndrons because of Kêu's aggression, and it became clear that if Korden declared for Veukar the people would follow him. Frith therefore passed the dukedom on to Korden, and joined the war halfway through as a commander in Korden's army. Beltar's intervention helped turn the tide of the war in favour of Endros, but Frith himself was killed at the battle of Carma. His widow continued to live in the ducal palace and was graciously looked after by Korden until her death in OA 6.

Eltar Gireilon (46 – 4 BE)

Jaadis of Ilnœra, Kêu's younger brother, became engaged to Frêdha Tusloivau (Xirna's aunt) in 27 BE. She was already seven cargôm old, but was still unmarried, because her father had hoped Veukar would take her as his second wife, but he chose Akhis. In the interval between then and her engagement, she became friendly with Eltar Gireilon, a travelling musician who had ended up at the Tusloivan court. It was Eltar who persuaded her to accept Jaadis's marriage proposal, pointing out that all she had to do was recommend him to Jaadis, and it would be much easier for them to see each other than before. The marriage took place a year later.

Eltar was, however, always jealous of Jaadis for having free access to his beloved, and in consequence wrote some of the most passionate (and still best remembered) love songs of the day. The two were nevertheless able to continue their relationship, and Frêdha's first son, Bûloŋ, was said by the historian Bêlor Malkôrei to have probably been Eltar's. Frêdha never really got on with her husband, perhaps partly because Arêndron was not his first language, but they did have a daughter together, Thûtra, born in 21 BE.

Jaadis went to aid his brother in the war of 20 BE, and Eltar tried to persuade Frêdha to fly with him, but she refused, saying that she had grown too attached to her comfortable life. Broken-hearted, Eltar abandoned her and continued his travels, crossing the Arkôran moutains into Tœnor. His fame had travelled before him, and he was graciously received into the Tœnôran court, where he married a local girl, Shôra Ralartau, in 16 BE. They had two daughters.

The shores of Tœnor were frequently raided by the Ljanairons, and one story often told of Eltar is that his family were captured in one of these raids, but that he persuaded their captors to release them by playing the most beautiful music they had ever heard. This story, however, is quite likely to have been invented by Eltar himself, who was known for his outrageous bragging.

Eltar was best known in his own time for love songs such as the perennial favourite Cazêra zurzeuganûl (“The black-haired girl”), but he also wrote charming folk songs such as Au lâdom zansaneth (“There is a place of happiness”) and religious songs such as Laura arzônatalâdei (“She sails from a very distant land”), a hymn to the goddess Kailya. He died in 4 BE of a sudden illness, and his wife was so saddened by his death that she died soon after. Because of his popularity, even though he was of humble birth the Duke of Tœnor adopted his daughters and provided them with a substantial dowry that allowed them to marry into rich families.

Jûvor of Eugras (44 – 1 BE)

Alver, the usurper of Vardeu, had two sons with his wife Cossa, Orden in 47 BE and Jûvor in 44 BE. Orden was married in 31 BE to Narga, the first daughter of Brukh of Arkôra; it was of course a diplomatic marriage, and neither he nor Alver had previously met the girl. Unfortunately she turned out to be sickly, and died less than two years after the marriage without producing an heir. Narga's father then gave Alver the option of marrying either of his two sons to her younger sister Trâga (then aged just five cargôm), but Orden was by this time infatuated with a male lover, Bêlor Shavûna, and declined the option, so Jûvor was sent to marry the girl in her place. The couple had just one child, a daughter, Narga, in 26 BE.

Arkôra was the most outlying province of Vardeu, and had to be constantly defended from incursions by Ilnœra and raids by barbarians coming down from the mountains. It was in one of these raids that Brukh was killed in 24 BE, and Jûvor inherited the dukedom. Alver, however, felt that Arkôra needed a more tested warrior in charge, and installed one of his generals and gave Jûvor the province of Eugras instead.

Jûvor played a mainly defensive role in the war of 20 BE; Eugras bordered the Arêndron province of Engileura, and to mobilise his troops would have left the border undefended. After the defeat at Three Cities, Orden sent messengers urging him to bring reinforcements, but he arrived at Giltal too late. He was, however, able to keep the Vardeu cities defended and prevent the destruction of many great works of Vardeu culture, in which he had the support of Frith of Beltar. As a mark of his gratitude, Frith gave him his daughter Engis as his second wife.

When Kêu took over the Vardeu kingdom, he allowed Jûvor to remain as Duke of Eugras, provided that he swore allegiance to him and married Narga to Kêu's brother Jaadis when she was old enough. Jûvor and Engis had two children, a son, Orden, in 17 BE, and a daughter, Keurus, in 16 BE. It is recorded that Jûvor's first wife, Trâga, for the most part got on pleasantly enough with his second, and helped her to bring up her children.

Jûvor fought for Kêu in the war of 12 BE, and it was largely his tactical skill that won the battle of Delthûm. After the war, Kêu installed his brother as Duke of Envallândra, and the promised marriage between him and Narga duly took place in spite of the difference in their ages.

Jûvor engaged his second daughter Keurus to one of Kêu's generals, Delker Tasmâra, but plans for the wedding were broken off by the outbreak of the Argundran war. Delker was killed at Khereuth, though Jûvor managed to turn that battle into a Vardeu victory. He then fought the battle of Ten Hills (the Arêndron kingdom's worst loss of the war) and pressed on to Selenca, but was killed in the defeat at Enring together with his son Orden. Both his wives survived the war, Trâga dying in OA 8 and Engis in OA 17. As for Keurus, Masra married her to one of his generals, Brœnor Malkôrei, who thus inherited the dukedom.

Kêu of Ilnœra (44 BE – OA 21)

After the Vardeu civil war, Cheldis of Ilnœra seceded from Vardeu and allied himself with Nairen. His wife was Jâker of Eugras, and they had two sons, Kêu in 44 BE and Jaadis in 42 BE.

Kêu caused a minor scandal in his teenage years when he formed a relationship with a girl from a poor family, called Êlis. When his father found out about this he intervened to break them apart, and Êlis was sent away to be a palace servant in Vardeu. Jaadis, meanwhile, married Frêdha Tusloivau in 26 BE.

Cheldis died in 23 BE, and Kêu inherited the dukedom. He was still unmarried, and proposed a diplomatic marriage to Veukar's daughter Merka to cement his alliance with the ruling family of Endros. The marriage was cold and loveless from the outset, and after the birth of their daughter Serissa in 22 BE they lived in separate rooms and seldom spoke to each other. Kêu was in any case too busy laying plans for war against Vardeu to pay very much attention to his marriage.

Kêu led one division of Veukar's army into war in 20 BE, the other being commanded by Veukar's son Agus. Kêu was a cautious general, and Agus's more daring tactics won the battle of Three Cities while Kêu's troops were still advancing on the town. But Agus got overconfident and went into battle at Giltal without waiting for Kêu's reinforcements. Kêu, knowing that Veukar would blame him if his son was lost, rushed his troops into the fray without having time to properly prepare. The result was a very bloody battle in which Agus was killed, but Orden of Vardeu was defeated and surrendered to Kêu.

Kêu took up the throne of Vardeu without bothering to return to Ilnœra to see his wife; he hoped that Êlis would still be at the palace, and indeed she was, but she was married to one of Orden's stewards and showed no interest in renewing their relationship. Kêu wrote to Merka, ordering her to bring Serissa to Vardeu so he could keep an eye on her. In 16 BE Kêu took a second wife, Urna, from the local merchant clans; they had a son, Balenhu, in 13 BE. Their relationship was quarrelsome, however, and she broke off from him two years later and returned to her clan, taking their son with her.

Before that happened, the second Vardeu war of 12 BE led to the establishment of a reunited Vardeu kingdom with its capital at Velêra. Kêu was permitted to continue to rule on condition that he married Serissa to Masra's son Ingar when both came of age. He agreed, though he was deeply resentful at the way he saw himself as being used. The marriage duly took place in 6 BE.

But Kêu did not show his resentment, and when the Sairyans invaded Envallândra in 2 BE, Veukar, still believing him to be trustworthy, gave him control of a section of the Arêndron army. After holding back the Sairyan invasion, Kêu broke his promise and used the troops to fight against Arêndron rule, provoking the Argundran war. The war went well for Vardeu at first, with Kêu's troops pressing into Arêndron territory as far south as Carma and Enring; but the intervention of Beltar on the Arêndron side finally turned the tide in Endros's favour. Masra finally defeated Kêu at the battle of Tjarlin, and he was taken prisoner.

Much to Kêu's surprise, his daughter Serissa pleaded for his life to be spared, and Masra granted her wish, because she was his son's wife. Kêu was forced to retire from politics, however, and decided to train for the priesthood. He was the first to preach about the Vardiscêan gods south of the Ileuran mountains, which was the first step towards their final acceptance into the Arêndron pantheon twenty-five years later. The religious influence must have improved Kêu's character, because he was at last reconciled to his wife Merka, and they lived together until her death in OA 10. Kêu himself died in OA 21.

Xirna Tusloivau (37 BE – OA 12)

Xirna was the oldest child of Naurus of Tusloiva and his wife, also named Xirna. They had two further children, Lôris in 33 BE and Sharix in 30 BE, before the older Xirna died of a fever.

In 22 BE, a few months before her coming of age, Xirna was informed by her father that she was engaged to Veukar's son Agus. As the prince was still just five cargôm old, the two had a couple of years to get to know each other before the marriage was to take place. Xirna went to visit her betrothed several times at Veukar's palace in Urnathel, and soon found that she was hopelessly in love with him, but that he did not love her in return. She didn't think he was in love with anyone else, but he liked to amuse himself by kissing and fondling the more attractive palace serving girls. Hoping to win his affection by showing the depth of hers, Xirna eventually allowed him to sleep with her, although she knew this was heavily frowned by among the royal family.

Because of the tie between their families, Naurus supported Veukar in the Vardeu war. He helped to bring about victory at the battle of Thûrax, but was later killed at Lêdaar. The news of his death reached Xirna only weeks after she heard that Agus had been killed at Giltal. She was by this time around four months pregnant, and was looked after by her father's steward, a man named Lanrog, until the birth of her twins, Lôris and Khûna.

On returning to the palace after giving birth, Xirna found herself a virtual prisoner. Four of her father's generals, returning victorious from the war, all hoped to force her into marriage and so inherit the dukedom. Xirna had no-one to turn to for help; the king, Nairen, was ailing, and in any case might not be too inclined to aid her after the shame she had brought on his family, and would probably only install his own duke and order her to marry him.

Xirna knew she was in no immediate danger, as none of the four generals could carry her off without being turned on by all the other three, but she feared in case the tension between them should break out into conflict. In the end she wrote to Fontin Kenrêa, a man of humble birth who had nevertheless been a good friend of her father, and asked him, in repayment for the many kindnesses her father had showed him, to come to the palace and marry her in secret. This done, she sent orders to her father's remaining generals to come to the palace for a public announcement of her marriage, so that they could prevent the four disappointed generals from making trouble. There might have been trouble nonetheless, but only a few months later Nairen died, and Aukar recalled the generals to help organise the defence of Endros.

Xirna and Fontin's marriage was neither especially happy nor unhappy; she always felt a little uncomfortable knowing that he was deeply in love with her and that she couldn't love him back in quite the same way. She instead devoted herself to caring for her children and governing the province; for whatever reason, she and Fontin never managed to have children of their own.

It was very unusual for a province to be governed by a woman, and Xirna had to deal with more than her fair share of protests because of this, but in general her reign was prosperous – so much so that Aukar's heir Masra married his second son Agus to her daughter Khûna in 3 BE.

The Argundran war took a heavy toll on Xirna's family: her brother Sharix, her husband Fontin and her son Lôris were all killed at the battles of Enring and Carma. Xirna might have been killed too, but her brother Lôris saved her by defeating a Vardeu army at Enring. After the war, Xirna retired from politics and continued to live with Agus and Khûna until her death in OA 12.

Marot Valyandron (c. 34 – 2 BE)

Marot was the leader of the Sairyan invasion that was one of the causes of the Argundran war. Little is known about his early life. As for his family, all that is known is that he had a younger brother, Shralrim, and that he was married but his wife died young, leaving a daughter, Khêla.

Marot's people faced starvation in the Great Winter of 2 BE, and he decided to lead them across the mountains into Slaudja. They fought and killed the Slaudjans to take their food, and Kêu retaliated by sending messengers to Veukar asking for the help of the Arêndron army. After suffering several losses against the Arêndrons, Marot was murdered by his brother Shralrim, who took command of the Sairyans. But he fared little better, losing the battle of Khereuth to Jûvor of Eugras. Shralrim fled from that battle and led the surviving Sairyans through Arkôra towards Endros, where he was finally defeated by one of Aukar's generals, Dhôrus Carmai. Marot's daughter Khêla was taken captive and was given to Dhôrus after the war.