#oc.dantalion

[anomaly00-archive]

WRITEBOARDWALK FERRIS WHEEL DAY 4: LOVE INTEREST

DANTALION AND ILLYSANDRE’S RELATIONSHIP WAS NOT BUILT ON LOVE. It was not even built on hate. Their’s is a marriage built on politics, indifference, and a mutual respect for one another. Though their union is not one of the more passionate or romantic ones to come about, almost eighteen years of marriage has brought with it stability, dependability, and even companionship. 

— Illysandre;

Perhaps she could have loved him, had actually fallen in love with him once upon a time. He is handsome, charismatic, and it is so very, very hard not to fall in love with a fairytale come to life when her entire family is urging her to catch his eye. And who would not want those burning eyes to look upon them? To have someone look at you like you were the sun, the stars, and all things irresistible?

It is a pity, then, when he proposed.  Her family milling expectantly in the background; her lady, the dowager queen, smiling behind her painted fan;  he on one knee and she with her arm outstretched in the foreground; a glorious painting of a romantic proposal. Staged. Practiced. A formality. His lines delivered soft and sweet with eyes so very dead. And oh how her heart ached, how the fires in her heart puttered out. A pity that this man, this man of love and legend, should not love her. 

And like many other noble lords and ladies, she gives in to this loveless eventuality. Resigned to duty, to destiny, to her family’s ambitions, she says yes. 

— Dantalion

Perhaps he could have loved her, actually might have fallen in love with her in another time. She is beautiful, charming, and her connections so very, very hard to ignore. But he could not. Can not. Not when She will forever linger in his mind. Not when She had carved so deep a place within his heart that no power on earth could ever force Her out. 

He was not in love with his new bride. Not when the courtship was so short— little more than a formality—and the engagement period even shorter. Not when she and the child they would have is a constant reminder of the things that could have, should have, been. But with time, he knew, he could come to care for her. When the years smooth out those sharp pains into something a bit duller, perhaps he could try to love again. But his heart aches at the thought; to betray Her once more even to soften his own longing.

He can only hope that this marriage, this union, would be kind to the both of them.

[anomaly00-archive]

WRITEBOARDWALK FERRIS WHEEL DAY 3: FOILS PARALLELS

DANTALION VI AETIER’S LIFE IS ONE CARVED BY HIS OWN HANDS. Born as the third prince of Aetier and fifth in line for the coveted phoenix throne, Dantalion’s destiny seemed set in stone; one day he would be given up to an advantageous marriage and spend the rest of his life supporting and advising his eldest sister, reilma-imperessa Areiona, when her time for queenship had come.  But for Dantalion’s mother, consort Ruona, this was not enough. She had dreamt of her son and his golden reign upon Aetier’s throne, and by hook or by crook, that dream will come true. 

When he was seven years old, reilma-imperessa Areiona was found dead in her room. Died of illness they said. Coincidentally, Dantalion was sent off as a political hostage to Taul. While there seemed to be little correlation to these two events, many were curious as to the sudden change of hostages from what was originally planned. 

Dantalion’s seven years as a political hostage among the Iskaavar, however, proved to be fruitful. Under their tutelage, he learned their ways of warfare, of the hunt, of their culture, their people, their magicks. He saw firsthand the lives and knowledge the masters and guards of the silk road had to offer. And most of all, it is in Taul that Dantalion first encounters his greatest companion (and other half), Titania. But though he loved the Taulan plains and adored the Iskaavar like family, he never forgot his mother’s promises. “You are destined to be king, my little lion. I have seen it, lived it, in my dreams; a vision from Vithail himself. My Dantalion will be king.”

His return to Aetier at the age of fourteen was the first step amongst many to his path to the throne. For twelve years, he labored to give himself every advantage possible to make himself a worthy candidate for the throne. He forged alliances, won favor, gained fame and fortune as a war hero on his father’s campaigns to the north, and capitalized on any and every connection his late-mother gave him. But all his planning came for naught when his father chose the first prince Aretos as his official heir. Scorned by this decision, Dantalion slew his father, usurped the throne, and enacted a decree that any of his siblings that dare lay claim to his crown be executed. Many of his half-siblings were executed or cut down where they stood— except for one.

Princess Astaria vi Aetier, the late prince Aretos’ twin sister and, by birth, next in line for the throne. She had fled the capital under the cover of night, and escaped to her territories in the north where she might draw upon her allies, and her husband’s armies in Allemand, to claim her crown.

Thus, it seemed, another King’s Game had begun. 

With the help of the might and mind of his brother, Andras, and beloved, Titania of Taul, and the defeat of his sister in the Siege of Konstanye, Dantalion’s crown seemed secure. He was free to usher in an age of prosperity and wealth to his citizens. From his expansion of maritime trade, to his great sponsorship of the arts, Dantalion had done many things to win the people’s hearts and minds to his side. In the end, consort Ruona’s visions came to fruition. Her son sat upon the phoenix throne uncontested, a golden king. And throughout the continent the people whisper his name in such fear, respect, and awe. Dantalion the great, they call him. The Lionheart. Favri-Deori. Areia-blessed. Son of Aetierya, son of fortune. For centuries to come, his name will ring in history as one never to be forgotten.

— In relation to Fenice

Contemporary historians have oft taken interest in the parallels of Dantalion’s history to that of his daughter, Fenice. Both were never meant to inherit the throne. Both were raised away from court in, what could be liberally described as “exile.” Both of their lives were heavily influenced by their relationship with Titania of Taul, as well as being in the center of other conspiracies. Ambitious, cunning, with an ever-shifting mask that could make the god of a thousand faces weep in envy, the similarities are hard to ignore. 

Only time will tell how similar Fenice’s path differs from her father’s. Or, perhaps, they will not differ at all. Perhaps Fenice truly is her father’s daughter and adopt her father’s most infamous epithet for herself. 

Kinslayer