Lucien

Lucien was born to a very wealthy vampire lord, sired by her dutiful servant. He and his sisters, Rumorre and Dynos, lived contentedly for some time. Lucien and Dynos tended to be closer to their father, Diemos, while Rumorre was their mother's shadow. As the children grew older and learned more about their parents and the world around them, Dynos came to resent her mother for how the vampire treated Diemos. Lucien followed his sister loyally, and only Rumorre could prevent them from confronting Dynast. The three argued over whether or not their mother had the right to hurt their father, and eventually Dynos attacked her sister. Lucien could only watch with horror as Rumorre lay, motionless, on the ground. They heard footsteps down the corridor, and a panicked Dynos fled the scene, her paws and face marred with her sister's blood. Lucien hesitated for a minute before deciding to save his only sister. He quickly donned Rumorre's blood himself, that the coming dragon would believe he was the killer.

Dynast was startled and horrified to see her son standing over the body of her favorite child. She was filled with rage, and lashed at Lucien immediately. The frightened boy cowered and accepted each blow without resisting, knowing he was far weaker than his mother. He tried hard to hide his pain, but this proved a vain effort. If Dynos had not returned, Lucien would have been killed by his mother. As it were, the guilty sister rushed onto the scene once she realized what Lucien had tried to do. She forced herself between Lucien and Dynast and roared vengeance. The two lunged for each others' throats, but Dynast was faster. Diemos emerged into the chamber to be greeted by the sight of his lord leering over a trembling Lucien, his two daughters laying dead beside them.

Lucien pressed against his father for comfort. Diemos felt terrible himself, but he did his best to ease Lucien's grief. The poor boy had lost his sisters and his mother. Diemos raised Lucien as best he could, teaching him how to be a gentleman and trying to find ways to make vampirism seem less 'evil' to the young lord. Diemos had promised service to Dynast for the duration of his life; though he had slain her, he felt the need to 'finish' his duty by caring for Lucien, and often expressed the same sort of respect towards his son. He assured Lucien that lords didn't have to be intimidating, and as Lucien grew he was able to reconcile the nearby clans. They continued to offer him some tribute, including one incident with a young Guardian lass, though nothing to the extent that the old lord had demanded, but they no longer feared the violent punishments Dynast had instituted. Since (aside from the above incident) they no longer offered sacrifices, Lucien needed to find a new way to sate his needs. A vampire need not kill, so he eventually settled on a sort of contracting system; basically he paid for blood. Diemos suggested this solution.

Lucien felt compelled to leave his home suddenly. He wanted to live away from this barren region. Diemos elected to remain in the Icefield, unwilling to leave his home of centuries. Lucien went to stay at a location in the Viridian Labyrinth where Diemos claimed Dynast had built a 'vacation home' of sorts. Lucien arrived at a gorgeous castle, clearly built long ago. The entryway was framed by gorgeous stained glass mosaics of the late Lord Dynast. Lucien was a little put off by that, but not too much. The interior was wonderful, both elaborate and comfortable. It was quite hot compared to Lucien's icy homeland, but he considered it a nice change of pace. Surely he would get used to it before too long.

The castle was very large and held a lot of comforts. There was easily room enough to house Lucien, the above mentioned Guardian lass Arosmiir, and thirty other dragons, and that's with each getting their own bedchamber. Additionally Lucien found rooms for cooking, dining, mingling (he thinks?), and even a giant room filled with water. This room gets its water via a tunnel-pipe system through to the ocean. Due to the castle's long-standing status of 'abandoned', a school of maren were living in this room. The poor things were understandably frightened by his sudden arrival, and he was equally shocked by their presence. Things sorted out surprisingly peacefully, though. Lucien didn't particularly mind them being there as long as they weren't hostile, and they grew used to seeing him until eventually he was completely separate from the 'evil dragons.' They accepted Arosmiir just as quickly, since it was obvious that she lived with Lucien. Still, it is considered best that they spend minimal time around one another, with the exception of a maren seer befriending the lord to establish a physical embodiment of their truce.

Before long, Lucien found himself yearning for control. The clans around him often bickered over territory lines and resources. Some held laws that Lucien deemed oppressive or outright ridiculous. None were too keen on the new vampire, and he even encountered a murderer (self-proclaimed 'vampire hunter') sent from one of the smaller clans to 'get rid' of him. Though he wasn't happy about it, he was forced to slay the attacker. The hunter made for a good meal, at least. Lucien resolved to take control over these clans. He expected it would take a long time, especially as he intended to use persuasion rather than threat or force. Once in control, he could bring peace to the region.

In his regular trips around shopping for supplies, he tried to visit all of the clans equally in order to curry favor with the locals of each. On his first visit to a large riverside clan, he was amazed to see a truly indescribable beauty of a dragoness working in a jewelry shop. He couldn't help but approach her. She called herself Dremorai, and the two talked pleasantly for a while as she waited for a ring to be 'ready', whatever that meant. Lucien bought a jewelled band from the dragoness before leaving; it was impolite to take up a shopkeeper's time without offering patronage. He hoped to see her again.

Lucien decided to start with a relatively large clan to his north. He first established himself as an asset to the area, primarily due to his immense wealth. He was fairly open about his concerns with the rising violence and skirmishes with neighboring clans, and over time he gained popularity. The public looked to him for solutions before they sought their leaders. It was a bloodless uprising. Though the leaders were understandably miffed, the clan rolled into his paws easily. Lucien left the leaders in a generally strong position, he simply dictated on big matters. He removed needlessly obtuse laws and negotiated a settlement for shared ownership of the riverbank. This settlement was considered embarrassing to some, but it effectively kept clan resources up and prevented more violence, so to Lucien it was a win.

Lucien next attempted another large clan, the one right up on the river. He was already welcome there due to his purchasing habits, so he figured it wouldn't be that hard to win the hearts of the public. Plus it gave him an excuse to see Dremorai more. He usually visited her whenever he bought things from this clan, but he tried not to come to the clan just to see her (as much as he'd like to.) Though the public did like him, he found that they still did not want to be led by him. He would have to deal with the council directly. Perhaps use some more effective means to persuade them.

Through a combination of bribes, blackmail, and good logic he convinced the council heads to submit to him. They were still the council heads, of course, but he could take the reins if he deemed it necessary. The public was unaware of his identity, as were the heads; Arosmiir delivered his words. He continued to visit for supplies often and in this way learned that the public was unhappy with the new situation. The new heads had nothing but praise to say of him, but the dragons disliked the new change. Dremorai informed him that recent immigrants were harshly persecuted. When he revealed to her his identity, she was furious with him. He assured her that he would do everything possible to improve the situation, but she kicked him out of her den anyway. He left a dejected mess.

Revealing his identity to the public sadly did little to improve the situation. Lucien learned only afterwards that Dremorai had been attacked due to their history, her home destroyed. Clanmates had not seen her since the fire, but as her pearl was gone they assumed she had fled. Lucien was angry with the clan, but also terribly afraid for his love. He searched around the jungle for her until eventually he found her in an abandoned Parda's den. She chose to return home with him, and eventually their relationship reached romantic levels.

Lucien passed laws against discrimination in the riverside clan, and hired mercenaries to help Arosmiir enforce them. After several years, the clan grew accustomed to the laws and tended to follow them themselves. This was the first experience Lucien had where his rule caused bad things, but he felt that his solution made this fact negligible. The negatives were prevented by his action.

Lucien's maren friend, a seer called Avalin-Darcio, often gives Lucien advice on matters of inter-clan relationships. Should Lucien manage to gain control over enough of the Labyrinth's clans, the two plan to try and bring peace between local beastclans and dragons. Whether Avalin-Darcio is genuinely after peace is uncertain. Lucien's own goals expanding past his immediate neighbors is considered somewhat alarming by some of her mercenaries' judgements, most notably Deravos, but the young lord believes that his rule could usher in unparalleled prosperity and peace across all lands.

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Drakel gave in to his rule surprisingly quickly. Lucien had assumed that the tiny clan would be less apt to accept a new leader, but the clan actually surrendered immediately. Apparently the current ruler was rather inattentive. The laws governing the clan seemed acceptable and the clan had no quarrels with neighbors, though apparently rogue dragons caused trouble now and then. Lucien was a little unnerved by the high concentration of Imperials in the area, but he considered it inappropriate to intervene. A quick check around assured him that those few dragons imprisoned did indeed deserve to be; and if Lucien were more practical, he would have Durnikos killed. However, he determined that the detainment should be enough. The clan did not resist what few changes he made, though he realized before long that they had no intentions of paying him for his responsibility. When Arosmiir questioned them on this, Drakel's citizens admitted that the clan had no formal agreements or currency used within the clan: everything was free game for everyone. As such, Lucien was welcome to collect supplies from the clan, but they had no wealth to offer (though this was obviously at least partially false- they had a golden hoard.) Lucien was content with this arrangement, however, and quickly learned to favor Hiroka's wine above all others.

Lucien was aghast when he returned from an engagement with another clan to find Drakel in an uproar. He was horrified to learn that they'd been attacked in his absence, but tried to assure them that he still made for a good ruler. The clan, led by a ruffian called Agarru, demanded that he renounce any claim to rule over Drakel. When he cited that Desuto had voluntarily stepped down, Agarru countered that he was 'voluntarily' stepping up. Lucien simply turned away. He didn't want to have to fight, but he couldn't just let these rowdies push him out of the clan. He would send his warriors to deal with the riffraff.

Apparently Drakel's underbelly was tougher than anticipated, as his loyal guards failed to deal with Agarru and his sort. They returned badly injured, and Lucien was relieved that they'd thought to hide their identities. Still, this probably meant he'd have to accept the loss of the territory for now.



by Everowl