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Half-elven Prince Falkieri Amrothlin Artfielan was born to the King Falkieri (human) and Queen Averrestinil (elven) of Lyonia. Because he is half-elven, he can decide whether to look more human or more elven when he comes of age. From birth, though, he looked more like his human father (due mostly to his mother's elven influence). This wasn't a problem for their people, who are human and elven and the elven taig-sense is needed for their ruler, as Falkieri was betrothed to a full-blooded elf. So even if he couldn't use his taig-sense when he came of age, his wife and children would be able to. (The taig-sense lets elves sense each other, natural things, and the Taig, the tree of life.)
He and his mother were out riding one day; she wished to take him to elven lands to have his sword sealed to him. She was killed and it was thought that Falkieri perished with her.Lyonya was thrown into trouble because of this and the Elves and Humans started to distrust each other.
Falkieri was taken far away by priests of Liart and given to Baron Sekkady. Liart, who reigns over torture, and the Webmistress, who ever spins lies, were determined to see Lyonya fall into their hands and all of its people. Baron Sekkandy told Falkieri that his name was Kieri Artfiel Phelan and called him Artfiel.
Baron Sekkady was a cruel master and Kieri doesn't go into great detail about those years he was enslaved to him. He tells us: "What did he do? What did he not do, that an evil and cruel man could think of! Imagine your small sons, my lords, in the hands of such a man - hungry, tired, beaten daily, and worse than beaten." It's stated at another point in the book that Baron Sekkady sexually abused Kieri and rented him out to guests. Kieri used to be put on display for guests and the day came when one recognized the lost prince. Baron Sekkady was a wizard and he put silence on that visitor. He was able to make them silent and motionless and he dragged that unfortunate guest off to the dungeons to be tormented.
But that guest had power of his own and guided Kieri to leave. Kieri had tried to escape before this time and had been so badly punished for it that he lost hope of ever escaping and simply started hoping for death. Still, somehow this unnamed visitor took away Kieri's fears and sent him off to escape. He slipped out the window and ran until he came to the coast. He stowed away on a ship and made his way inland back to Lyonya, not out of memory but simply running away and working his way further inland over the course of half a year.
A woodsman brought him in to Aliam Halveric, one of the nobles of Lyonya. He'd been wandering in the forest and he wanted to work. The Halveric took him in as a laborer and soon enough started allowing him into the hall. One of the first things they noticed about Kieri was how neathanded he was at the table. They started to think he would make a good page. Side note: Given Kieri's age and looks, Aliam did suspect who Kieri was, but he had no real way of proving it.
The Halveric runs a mercenary company and he was negotiating a contract the first time Kieri was allowed in the hall and at their table. Aliam made an offhand comment and Kieri shrunk back from him in fear. It angered the Halveric because he never mistreated his servants and it was giving these people the impression that he did. His wife, Estil, took Kieri into the hall and she found out that he'd been at another's table before and that it was expected of him to sleep with the guests. Estil promised him that nothing like that would ever happen again and Kieri started to come alive inside again.
He was Aliam's page, squire, captain, and eventually took the status of Knight of Falk despite never taking formal vows. He could not as he felt there were other vows waiting for him somewhere. While serving in Aliam's cohorts, he met Tamarrion Mistianni. They fell in love and were wed. Kieri was granted a dukedom and Tamarrion bore him two children. His wife and two children were killed while he was on a campaign. His captains had been terrified to tell him because of how terrible his temper could be and none of them wanted it directed at them. One of them said they were surprised the ground did not burst into flames where he stepped. In response, he destroyed the orcs who killed them and said he would never remarry.
After his wife and children are killed, he spends the next ten years focusing just on the mercenary company. He finds a recruit in the 10th year who he takes an interest in. She was able to spot him coming before dawn, fought as well as any first year recruit, and tried to fight off an attack on the wagons bringing the sick and injured away from the battle while she, herself, was injured. She also, and so many people noticed, looked quite a bit like his wife and was his daughter's age. Her name was Paksenarrion.
He sent his company to capture a fort and, while they captured it, they were captured by Aliam Halveric's company. Because of the long-standing relationship between them - and because of a standing agreement between several mercenary companies of the North - the Phelan prisoners are treated well. They are basically prisoners in name only, as they are left to do what they like in the captured fort and befriend the Halveric soldiers as they like.
Siniava, aka the Honeycat, rounds upon the fort and captures it, killing one of Aliam's sons, and taking the soldiers at the fort prisoner. Three of Phelan's soldiers manage to escape, one of them (Paksenarrion), he has already taken notice of before because of how much she looks like his dead wife (he looks at her the way a father might; she's the same age his daughter would have been).
When she gets the information back to him (the other two dying in the process), he goes into something of a rage, chasing down where he's taken the prisoners and taking Siniava's fort. He manages to avoid them, but Paksenarrion starts to show ability as a paladin. He is made to promise by a Marshal that he will not stand in her way if she is called elsewhere.
Still, Siniava has to pay and Kieri promises that he will take no contract until Siniava is dead. He enters into a contract with Alured the Black, a pirate with dreams of Dukedom, that he will support Alured's claims if he helps them track down Siniava.
While they track down Siniava, the Honeycat captures Caliam Halveric, Aliam's eldest, and mutilates him. Kieri sends Paks, along with a couple others, to go and smuggle him out of the Honeycat's fort. When he realizes how Caliam has been mutilated, he goes into something of a rage. Caliam was just learning to walk when Kieri showed up in the Halveric home. The boy is something between brother and nephew to Kieri.
When they capture the Honeycat, he wants to behead him then and there, or even torture him to pay him back. This would have played in well to the mischief the Webmistress and the god of torture had in mind for his family, but Paks stopped him. If she didn't look so much like his wife and daughter, he wouldn't have listened.
After the Honeycat is dead, they have to show military support for Alured. Anyone who opposes him in his lands is executed and Kieri must stand by while Alured shows just what sort of a dictator he plans to be. He is oath-bound. The evil of this upsets Paks too much and Kieri offers to let her leave, telling her that the Marshals felt she had a destiny elsewhere (the canon follows Paks from here and away from Kieri).
Once Alured is installed as Duke, Kieri moves north again and has to work on new campaigns to build up his funds again. He learns that Paksenarrion had been taken by the dark elves. He was furious. They were supposed to protect her, keep her – this woman who had become like a daughter to him – safe. But again the Marshals failed to keep his loved one safe. He went after her and offered to make her a captain in his army; she declined but asked for his blessing. He told her that whatever she needed, all she ever need to is ask him.
But then Paksenarrion, being poisoned by a piece of dark elven metal inside of her still, slowly began giving into hate and fear. One of the Marshals more or less chased her away because she was treating Paks like dirt because she had been taken by the dark ones. She fell into cowardice and, expecting all the Marshals to treat her like that, fell off the radar. Kieri learned of this and he left out word to all of his allies that unless she rode up on a horse in full armor, they were to assume she was still in trouble and do everything to help her get to him.
By the time she came to him, she had healed and been chosen by several of the gods as a paladin. Over a meal, she managed to discover that his steward was an agent of the Webmistress and fight him, taking Tamarrion’s sword in the process because it was close. Kieri gives it to her after, because he swore to Tamarrion that he would never draw it and it seemed to like Paks well enough.
When she left, she ended up in Chaya, where the crown of Lyonya sits. The king is dying and he dies, telling her to take the throne. She cannot because she is bound to her gods but she promises to find them a ruler. One of the Squires recognizes the sword she carries as the lost prince’s sword and she goes to Aliam Halveric to learn where he got it from. From him, she learns his thoughts that Kieri is the lost prince and she goes back to learn from him. He thinks she’s just trying to give him something and refuses to accept it, but he goes with her to the council and tells them what he knows. When he draws the sword, it awakens his elvish powers again and forms to fit his hand, identifying him as the lost prince.
He is tricked into a trap, where Paks must remain with Liart’s followers for five days and be tortured by them. She was rescued at the end of it by a thief she had sort of befriended and she rejoined Kieri to help him battle his way back to Lyonya, as soldiers who followed the Webmistress and Liart were trying to stop him. They got him back to Lyonya, where he was crowned.
3 – Sister is born
4 – An elvish ceremony to awaken his powers and seal his sword to him is to be performed in Ladysforest; attacked en route; Mother is killed. Taken far away and given to Baron Sekkady; spends nearly 10 years as his slave.
13 – Recognized by a mage who uses his magic to calm his fears; escapes Sekkady. Arrives in Bannerlith (a city on the sea); Aliam is granted his holdings in Lyonya. Spends the better part of a year traveling further and further inland.
14 – Comes to Aliam Halveric and is taken in as a laborer; Aliam recognizes him, but is not certain and has torn loyalties about saying who he is. Father dies that same year; king’s cousin is named Regent to the princess. Becomes a page to Aliam and starts getting a late education.
15 – Becomes a squire
16 – Sister is married at the first legal age; dies in childbirth with the child.
20 – Aliam and Kieri (and Garris) are attacked at Dwarfwatch at Hakkenarsk Pass; Kieri nearly bleeds out while worrying over Aliam; takes a fever enough to think that Aliam is Sekkady or to have flashbacks.
25 – Attains the status of Knight of Falk but declines to take the oath as other vows awaited him, despite not knowing what they were.
28 – Weds Tamarrion Mistianni
29 – Daughter, Estil, is born
32 – Granted a Dukedom and his steadings in Tsaia
34 – Son (Aliam?) is born
37 – Tamarrion Mistiannyi dies in a battle against Orcs in Duke’s stronghold; children perish with her; Kieri blames the Marshal and sends them out of his holdings. He spends the next ten years just focusing on
47 – Canon book 1 start
52 – Canon book 3 end
He and his mother were out riding one day; she wished to take him to elven lands to have his sword sealed to him. She was killed and it was thought that Falkieri perished with her.Lyonya was thrown into trouble because of this and the Elves and Humans started to distrust each other.
Falkieri was taken far away by priests of Liart and given to Baron Sekkady. Liart, who reigns over torture, and the Webmistress, who ever spins lies, were determined to see Lyonya fall into their hands and all of its people. Baron Sekkandy told Falkieri that his name was Kieri Artfiel Phelan and called him Artfiel.
Baron Sekkady was a cruel master and Kieri doesn't go into great detail about those years he was enslaved to him. He tells us: "What did he do? What did he not do, that an evil and cruel man could think of! Imagine your small sons, my lords, in the hands of such a man - hungry, tired, beaten daily, and worse than beaten." It's stated at another point in the book that Baron Sekkady sexually abused Kieri and rented him out to guests. Kieri used to be put on display for guests and the day came when one recognized the lost prince. Baron Sekkady was a wizard and he put silence on that visitor. He was able to make them silent and motionless and he dragged that unfortunate guest off to the dungeons to be tormented.
But that guest had power of his own and guided Kieri to leave. Kieri had tried to escape before this time and had been so badly punished for it that he lost hope of ever escaping and simply started hoping for death. Still, somehow this unnamed visitor took away Kieri's fears and sent him off to escape. He slipped out the window and ran until he came to the coast. He stowed away on a ship and made his way inland back to Lyonya, not out of memory but simply running away and working his way further inland over the course of half a year.
A woodsman brought him in to Aliam Halveric, one of the nobles of Lyonya. He'd been wandering in the forest and he wanted to work. The Halveric took him in as a laborer and soon enough started allowing him into the hall. One of the first things they noticed about Kieri was how neathanded he was at the table. They started to think he would make a good page. Side note: Given Kieri's age and looks, Aliam did suspect who Kieri was, but he had no real way of proving it.
The Halveric runs a mercenary company and he was negotiating a contract the first time Kieri was allowed in the hall and at their table. Aliam made an offhand comment and Kieri shrunk back from him in fear. It angered the Halveric because he never mistreated his servants and it was giving these people the impression that he did. His wife, Estil, took Kieri into the hall and she found out that he'd been at another's table before and that it was expected of him to sleep with the guests. Estil promised him that nothing like that would ever happen again and Kieri started to come alive inside again.
He was Aliam's page, squire, captain, and eventually took the status of Knight of Falk despite never taking formal vows. He could not as he felt there were other vows waiting for him somewhere. While serving in Aliam's cohorts, he met Tamarrion Mistianni. They fell in love and were wed. Kieri was granted a dukedom and Tamarrion bore him two children. His wife and two children were killed while he was on a campaign. His captains had been terrified to tell him because of how terrible his temper could be and none of them wanted it directed at them. One of them said they were surprised the ground did not burst into flames where he stepped. In response, he destroyed the orcs who killed them and said he would never remarry.
After his wife and children are killed, he spends the next ten years focusing just on the mercenary company. He finds a recruit in the 10th year who he takes an interest in. She was able to spot him coming before dawn, fought as well as any first year recruit, and tried to fight off an attack on the wagons bringing the sick and injured away from the battle while she, herself, was injured. She also, and so many people noticed, looked quite a bit like his wife and was his daughter's age. Her name was Paksenarrion.
He sent his company to capture a fort and, while they captured it, they were captured by Aliam Halveric's company. Because of the long-standing relationship between them - and because of a standing agreement between several mercenary companies of the North - the Phelan prisoners are treated well. They are basically prisoners in name only, as they are left to do what they like in the captured fort and befriend the Halveric soldiers as they like.
Siniava, aka the Honeycat, rounds upon the fort and captures it, killing one of Aliam's sons, and taking the soldiers at the fort prisoner. Three of Phelan's soldiers manage to escape, one of them (Paksenarrion), he has already taken notice of before because of how much she looks like his dead wife (he looks at her the way a father might; she's the same age his daughter would have been).
When she gets the information back to him (the other two dying in the process), he goes into something of a rage, chasing down where he's taken the prisoners and taking Siniava's fort. He manages to avoid them, but Paksenarrion starts to show ability as a paladin. He is made to promise by a Marshal that he will not stand in her way if she is called elsewhere.
Still, Siniava has to pay and Kieri promises that he will take no contract until Siniava is dead. He enters into a contract with Alured the Black, a pirate with dreams of Dukedom, that he will support Alured's claims if he helps them track down Siniava.
While they track down Siniava, the Honeycat captures Caliam Halveric, Aliam's eldest, and mutilates him. Kieri sends Paks, along with a couple others, to go and smuggle him out of the Honeycat's fort. When he realizes how Caliam has been mutilated, he goes into something of a rage. Caliam was just learning to walk when Kieri showed up in the Halveric home. The boy is something between brother and nephew to Kieri.
When they capture the Honeycat, he wants to behead him then and there, or even torture him to pay him back. This would have played in well to the mischief the Webmistress and the god of torture had in mind for his family, but Paks stopped him. If she didn't look so much like his wife and daughter, he wouldn't have listened.
After the Honeycat is dead, they have to show military support for Alured. Anyone who opposes him in his lands is executed and Kieri must stand by while Alured shows just what sort of a dictator he plans to be. He is oath-bound. The evil of this upsets Paks too much and Kieri offers to let her leave, telling her that the Marshals felt she had a destiny elsewhere (the canon follows Paks from here and away from Kieri).
Once Alured is installed as Duke, Kieri moves north again and has to work on new campaigns to build up his funds again. He learns that Paksenarrion had been taken by the dark elves. He was furious. They were supposed to protect her, keep her – this woman who had become like a daughter to him – safe. But again the Marshals failed to keep his loved one safe. He went after her and offered to make her a captain in his army; she declined but asked for his blessing. He told her that whatever she needed, all she ever need to is ask him.
But then Paksenarrion, being poisoned by a piece of dark elven metal inside of her still, slowly began giving into hate and fear. One of the Marshals more or less chased her away because she was treating Paks like dirt because she had been taken by the dark ones. She fell into cowardice and, expecting all the Marshals to treat her like that, fell off the radar. Kieri learned of this and he left out word to all of his allies that unless she rode up on a horse in full armor, they were to assume she was still in trouble and do everything to help her get to him.
By the time she came to him, she had healed and been chosen by several of the gods as a paladin. Over a meal, she managed to discover that his steward was an agent of the Webmistress and fight him, taking Tamarrion’s sword in the process because it was close. Kieri gives it to her after, because he swore to Tamarrion that he would never draw it and it seemed to like Paks well enough.
When she left, she ended up in Chaya, where the crown of Lyonya sits. The king is dying and he dies, telling her to take the throne. She cannot because she is bound to her gods but she promises to find them a ruler. One of the Squires recognizes the sword she carries as the lost prince’s sword and she goes to Aliam Halveric to learn where he got it from. From him, she learns his thoughts that Kieri is the lost prince and she goes back to learn from him. He thinks she’s just trying to give him something and refuses to accept it, but he goes with her to the council and tells them what he knows. When he draws the sword, it awakens his elvish powers again and forms to fit his hand, identifying him as the lost prince.
He is tricked into a trap, where Paks must remain with Liart’s followers for five days and be tortured by them. She was rescued at the end of it by a thief she had sort of befriended and she rejoined Kieri to help him battle his way back to Lyonya, as soldiers who followed the Webmistress and Liart were trying to stop him. They got him back to Lyonya, where he was crowned.
4 – An elvish ceremony to awaken his powers and seal his sword to him is to be performed in Ladysforest; attacked en route; Mother is killed. Taken far away and given to Baron Sekkady; spends nearly 10 years as his slave.
13 – Recognized by a mage who uses his magic to calm his fears; escapes Sekkady. Arrives in Bannerlith (a city on the sea); Aliam is granted his holdings in Lyonya. Spends the better part of a year traveling further and further inland.
14 – Comes to Aliam Halveric and is taken in as a laborer; Aliam recognizes him, but is not certain and has torn loyalties about saying who he is. Father dies that same year; king’s cousin is named Regent to the princess. Becomes a page to Aliam and starts getting a late education.
15 – Becomes a squire
16 – Sister is married at the first legal age; dies in childbirth with the child.
20 – Aliam and Kieri (and Garris) are attacked at Dwarfwatch at Hakkenarsk Pass; Kieri nearly bleeds out while worrying over Aliam; takes a fever enough to think that Aliam is Sekkady or to have flashbacks.
25 – Attains the status of Knight of Falk but declines to take the oath as other vows awaited him, despite not knowing what they were.
28 – Weds Tamarrion Mistianni
29 – Daughter, Estil, is born
32 – Granted a Dukedom and his steadings in Tsaia
34 – Son (Aliam?) is born
37 – Tamarrion Mistiannyi dies in a battle against Orcs in Duke’s stronghold; children perish with her; Kieri blames the Marshal and sends them out of his holdings. He spends the next ten years just focusing on
47 – Canon book 1 start
52 – Canon book 3 end
