Description
King Aldric IX Solborn is a man in his early sixties with silvered hair that was once golden. He has the traditional blue eyes of the Solborn line and carries himself with practiced regal bearing, though close observers notice the weight of his crown growing heavier each year. He dresses in white and gold, with Elandria’s sunburst embroidered on his breast, and wears the Ring of Solborn—a signet passed down through every monarch since the kingdom’s founding.
Unlike the warrior-kings of old, Aldric is more administrator than soldier, with soft hands and a careful, measured way of moving.
Personality
King Aldric is a pragmatic ruler who prefers negotiation to warfare and compromise to confrontation. He is intelligent and politically astute, thinking several moves ahead before making decisions. Some see this as wisdom; others see it as indecisiveness.
In recent months, however, he has become increasingly paranoid and obsessed with his legacy. He speaks often of threats to the kingdom’s unity and questions the loyalty of those around him. Court whispers note he has grown weary, drinks more wine than he once did, and seems almost… diminished in judgment.
Background
Born in 1205 as the third son of King Marcus IV, Aldric never expected to inherit the throne. When plague killed his older brothers in 1235, he suddenly became heir at age thirty. Luminarch Theodric Brightspire personally mentored him for sixteen years before his coronation in 1251.
His reign has been marked by stability and prosperity, though tragedy struck in 1257 when his son and heir died in a riding accident. His wife, Queen Elendra, died in 1264, leaving his daughter Princess Mariella (who married and moved to Sunset Bluff) as his only surviving child. He has not remarried despite pressure to produce more heirs.
With Luminarch Theodric Brightspire away on a mission to Lusteris for the past several months, Aldric has assumed temporary leadership of the Church of Elandria in Solaris. He delegated most church administrative matters to Castellan Verin, who serves as effective head of the Church in the Luminarch’s absence. The Order of the Black Star’s Siege of Southaven represents the greatest crisis of his reign.
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King Aldric is being poisoned by Castellan Verin, a Black Star cultist. The poisoning has made him paranoid, obsessed with his legacy, and increasingly irrational. He believes Southaven is following Lusteris’s path and plans to secede from Kingdom of Solara. He is extremely skeptical of offers of help and sees conspiracies everywhere.
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