Prince Alexander Caius of Aaun

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Alexander and his Sonlacher spaniel, c. 1970
Alexander Caius Alstion

Prince of Aaun

Race: Heartlander
Birth: 10 Sun's Smile, 1959, Apostolic Kingdom of Aaun
Death: Living
House: Alstion
Father: John I, King of Aaun
Mother: Amelya of Middelan

Alexander Caius (10 Sun's Smile, 1959 - Present), the fifth son and sixth child born to the union of John I, King of Aaun and his wife Amelya of Middelan, was a prince of the Apostolic Kingdom of Aaun leading up to and after its incorporation into the Heartlander Confederation.

Biography

Childhood

The dead of the Aaunish winter heralded the royal births of Alexander Caius and his sister, Calliope Analiese, a short five minutes later. Unlikely from birth to be pressed into the rulership of the realm, instead he was allowed to roam as he wished by his aging father, and though his mother oft attempted to press him into the tutelage of aged scholars, he took far better to her stories of knights and exotic adventures. Yet home was a boring place, where he was entrapped in an endless loop of prayer and study, and the recent end of the Aevos Coalition War had heralded the beginning of a realmwide peace - so few chances of hoped-for glory seemed on the horizon.

The cape depicting the Crowning of Godfrey, gifted to Prince Alexander Caius by his mother Queen Amelya of Middelan.

That peace, however, gave ample time with his family - and as Aaun's finances prospered, so too did the once austere royal family's budgets balloon. Whereas his siblings grew up within the confines of the Hand of Horen, Alexander was given the chance to see the reborn world with his mother and sisters; frequent travels west through the Petran valleys and into Haense were oft taken, and where they were not the family took to its retreat on St. Andrik's Isle, hunting in its small royal preserve and playing with myriad pets. On one trip to Haense, his mother Queen Amelya gifted him a cloak embroidered with the scene of the Crowning of St. Godfrey, the first and greatest of the Holy Orenian Emperors. On another trek, he stumbled across the shards of a relic Triumph, the sword of that same St. Godfrey that the conqueror of yore had wielded in the unification of his vast empire, or so legend has it.

Squireship

On one such journey to the neighboring Commonwealth of the Petra, he caught the eye of their queen, Catherine I whilst swinging a wooden sword amongst the weeds. Taking a liking to him, she offered him a practice bout; and when, to the river court's surprise, he prevailed, she offered him squireship[1] at her royal side. Thereafter far less of his childhood was spent with his family and their court of clergy and ministers, replaced instead by the lessons Catherine I would impart upon him whilst fishing and the poetry shared between the knights of the rapids.

Yet to be a squire is to invite danger, and oft such was the case in the Commonwealth, where brigands still roamed along the edges of what was once Veletz. So it was that, in the course of his squireship, he would fight dozens of brigands, and in turn grow embittered to battle like no tourney knight could know. Saving even the queen's daughter from a malefic beast in the north, he would build a certain reputation for skill at arms - yet this did not buy him the happiness he had been lulled to sleep with by his own mother, and so he for a time receded into the libraries and museums of the Temesch Crownlands.

Later Youth

When he emerged, Alexander was well-spoken and well-read, reassured of his talent but oft loathe in its use; rather than demanding a duel of raiders when they captured the Petran queen, he instead offered his princely circlet as ransom, and rather than begin a battle to save his sisters, he smuggled them out with careful planning.

This did not make him immune to the search of glory, however, for in 1970 he began to travel abroad more frequently; present for the comet that shattered Valdev, the act of scavenging its shards sparked his inner flame once more; and so he began to integrate himself within the foreign court. Besting half its army in an impromptu tourney beside Belisar Ruthern won him the funds, with his mother's assistance, for a manor to be shared with his sister Calliope (whom had been warding in the Haeseni palace) in New Valdev. It was whilst settling there he met Stefaniya Edvarda, a patrilineal niece of the king; they bonded over their shared whims and fancies, in adventures and the pages of old stories alike.

As the two bonded, he found fondness for her. In that year he fashioned from his starlight shard a pair of matching circlets for her and her royal aunt, and a blade of soft light for her royal uncle. In such ways, a Heartlander may have had the right to court, but in the Haeseni realms more was demanded. Afore the high nobility of Hanseti-Ruska, Alexander faced off against - and bested - Ivan VIII of Haense in a duel, a ritualistic test of mettle to determine his worth as a man. His devotion to her family was soon tested, for the King's justice on the assassin of the past queen, called too light by some, had drawn the ire of the nobility. The foreign prince's blued blade quieted the voices at his behest, and soon after he was called to the palace, whereupon they met for a firm hand shake, and the king offered his blessing with the fullness of his heart.

Adulthood

The Prince of Alstion donning his regalia.

In all the tournaments that Alexander participated in, he wielded his blade, Abyssal Light—his signature weapon, which he claimed from the clutches of the underdepths. This sword, wrought of Argentum, a silver-sheened metal resembling a blend of Lunarite and Aurum, was forged in the deepest recesses of the earth, likely amidst the wars waged against the perilous Mori’quessir warlords in the Underdark. Known for his grace in combat, the radiance of the luminous blade lent the young man a stable sense of self. He went on to use this artifact of bygone times to carve a legacy as one of the Heartland’s greatest duelists, all in pursuit of bringing prestige to his venerable house.

However, Alexander found that his time fighting in tournaments was wasted. It was rarely a contest, and even more rarely did anyone truly put their best foot forward against a prince. It was not true combat nor the pursuit of anything worthwhile that he craved. And so the prince was brought before the Templar of Malchaediel Sulcelia, and she initiated him as her student before all the Wood Elves of the Vale of Nevaeh'len. Anointed now with his life's mission, Alexander would pursue foes of a higher caliber to fight in order to satisfy his yearning for a challenge and his longing to be a part of a greater good. At this point, he had grown less concerned with the mundane affairs of humanity, still he kept his house and his family close to heart. It was around this time that he began to officially court Her Highness, Stefaniya Edvarda.