THE LEGEND OF MORGHAEN ZHAE

A PRINCE IS BORN(14 AGR-28 AGR)

In the 14th year after the great king Ghaeleon I had started his revolution on Star Isle, the monarch produced a son with his third wife, Solara Aprazna, the daughter of Doukhan Alamyeses Aprazna, whom ruled the city of Heraclenossa, which hugged the waters of the Stazon River. The city  was built upon a river island by the Alenvaari people some 600 years before the land became ruled by Ghaeleon.
     Alymeses had proven himself an invaluable ally to Ghaeleon, as he had been both the first to join him in his war to overthrow the High Harps, whose rule of Star Isle was unbroken for millennia and the first to grant him ships and soldiers in his wars of conquest . Thus, Ghaeleon endowed upon him the city of Heraclenossa. Originally known as Ioades by the Alenvaari , the city was a paramount center of commerce in the Qharyian Kingdom. Many from disparate territories came down or upriver in route to Heraclenossa and its strategic value could not be scoffed at. Polygamy had been forbidden as sinful on Star Isle , though Ghaeleon had required allies in his wars, leading to three contiguous marriages. In the first year before his revolution began, he married Tylena Tyshere, his first cousin and the eldest daughter of Tamaric Tyshere, who at that time was the Mayor of Hurokos on Star Isle, though he eventually became the Grand Prince of Tethys, when Ghaeleon's armies drove the Salenvaari into the sea. Remember the term Salenvaari, they will be very important later. Tylena, a slender girl of seventeen did not at first take to Ghaeleon, regarding him as too haughty . Though in time, she developed warmer feelings for him and bore him two sons Ghaeleon, who would later be better known as Ghaeleon II Zhae one year after his revolution began , with the second ,Jhayson following him two years later. After becoming king of Star Isle in 2 AGR, Ghaeleon married Giorgiana Levenes, the daughter of the last Aza, who had been the religious leader of the Qharyian people for some forty years, before Ghaeleon pierced him through his middle . This marriage was one of a more convenient nature, as it was an effort to ease those who still held sympathies and ties to the old order. There were many on Star Isle who had viewed Ghaeleon's uprising as the ultimate sin. Some even spoke that the gods themselves would descend from heaven to smite the heretical Ghaeleon. Ghaeleon had spoken of one God who ruled the universe . One he simply stated to be the One Above All.
      The union of Giorgiana Levenes and Ghaeleon Zhae proved to be an unhappy one. It was accounted by some servants, how one could not travel the length of The Glass Citadel without hearing bouts of screaming from the King and his "Bitch of a Queen", he would inaffectonally dub her in later years. The pair would have four daughters: Isenia, born in 4 AGR, Eudoxia born in 7 AGR, Kristofina in the spring of 10 AGR & Io in 11 AGR. Ghaeleon was said to have cursed her for not providing him with a son, while others account that she was a witch and terminated every pregnancy she felt to be a son, out of spite.
       In 13 AGR, Tylena Tyshere died of a chill. This loss sent the king into a enveloping depression, and his courtiers could often find the king in his drunken stupor within his chambers. He recused himself from duty , and the general management of Qharys fell to his aging uncle, Tamaric. Wishing to pull his nephew from his disappointing state, Tamaric wrote to Doukhan  Almyses, asking him to send forth his daughter to Qharria with haste. Solara Aprazna was known by all within the realm to be a beauty unmatched. She was tall , several inches beyond six feet, though her height did not stifle the grace in her step. Her eyes were big and blue as tide pools. She wore her black curls in a loose braid down her back, while her unblemished skin bore the shade of wet sand. She had denied a score of potential suitors by the time she had met the King. She wrote herself, of how  she became enthralled by him, and helped him recapture some of the joy he had lost with Tylenq. Ghaeleon wed her at the end of 13 AGR, while their son Morghaen, arrived  in the summer of 14 AGR.
      Upon his birth, the boy was sickly and small, not expected to survive the year. He had been born a month early, and some of the king's counselors had even advised him against becoming fond of the babe, lest his death drag him into depression once more . The king ignored his son for the first month of his life, until Solara threatened his manhood .
      "Would you make a joke of me to your subjects, my king? I am your wife and have borne you a son. These things should bring you joy, yet they do not. You give your ear to old men who tell you spending time with your new son is not in your best interest . If you love them more than me , you can lay with them and perhaps one may even bear you a son, you love more than mine."
    Ghaeleon henceforth set to spending every spare moment with the new prince , and his love for the boy was said to strengthen him. When the time came in which some had thought Morghaen Zhae would be dead , he was rising to take his first steps. By four, he had grown into an intelligent and diligent child, whose bravery was noteworthy, even at this early age. At three, he and his siblings played in the citadel gardens under the eye of a servant and four guardsmen . Those watching the Royal children were there to guard against assassins and others who would seek malice against them, though an enemy proved unseen in that garden. A viper slithered amongst the vegetation, silent in its investigation. The princess Io scampered past the serpent, startling it in the process. It is said, when the reptile lunged at the child, Morghaen, clutched its throat, strangling viper until life had left its body. Those that witnessed the event took to calling the prince Morghaen the brave.
     As he grew older, it became apparent that Morghaen had inherited his father's martial prowess. By twelve , he had bested three score boys his age and older in single combat. By fourteen, he was leading scouting parties against the Minotaurii tribesmen, who had been harassing trade caravans headed to Qharria. The leader of these tribesmen, Konferides, sought to lure the prince out, so he could slay him himself. The Minotaurii leader stood eight feet, with horns curling at the tips. He had the head of a great, black bull, while his body resembled that of a man. He carried a great stone ax wherever he went, proclaiming that whomever could take his ax from him would lead the Minotaurii after him. The Minotaurii had once possessed a great kingdom upon the coast of Enva, but it had fallen, when Ghaeleon Zhae beheaded King Aphastion IV, and conquered their capital of Breza in 9 AGR. Konferides had been the heir to Aphastion, and the destruction of his father's kingdom had sewn a resentment for all of Ghaeleon's bloodline into his being. He had sworn upon his ancestors and his father's memory, that he would be the one to kill Ghaeleon Zhae & destroy the kingdom he had built. Konferides's raids proved to be most vexing to the king, as many merchants had grown fearful of traveling to Qharria to sell their wares. King Ghaeleon would not bear this slight against his capital, and so alongside his three sons, and 2,000 horsemen rode into the Palmoxian wood , that lay just outside of Qharria. After three days ride through the wood, the king came upon Konferides and his host, who numbered some 5,000. It is recorded that Konferides ran about the battle like a raging bull, felling many horses and their riders with his stone ax. After four hours of battle, he chanced upon King Ghaeleon, then set upon him.
      "You that slew my sire, the one who has destroyed my kingdom and done innumerable grievous acts to my kin. It is you I have found here today . I have made a promise to my people, that if I am to encounter you, I shall spill thyne blood, and enact the destruction of the kingdom you have made. Well I have found you Ghaeleon Zhae, prepare to die."
     The Minotaurii whirled his ax in a fury, though the king held his own against his massive foe. Ghaeleon was older now, than he had been during his conquests and he would not be able to hold Konferides at bay forever. It was then, prince Morghaen burst from a bush upon his onyx stallion. He had caught Konferides unawares, driving a spear into the Minotaur's back. He howled in pain, as the wooden shaft snapped within him, lodging the bronze spear point deep into his spine. Konferides dropped his ax, allowing the king to drive his sword into the Minotaur's heart, killing him instantly. The death of their leader caused most of the Minotaurii to retreat deeper into the wood, though Ghaeleon's forces would pursue them, cutting down any Minotaur they could find. Upon their return to the capital, severed Minotaurii heads were paraded through the streets, and prince Morghaen had earned a new nickname. The Bane of Beasts.