Fidelia
From FiranMUX
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Contents |
Overview
Fidelia Ista Aldrik, Clan Leader of the Bear Clan, was born into what was considered a junior branch of the proud Ista Aldrik family. Her mother, Lady Bashari, is the granddaughter of Clan Leader Aldrik, and the niece of Clan Leader Sabine, but neither she nor her daughters were ever expected to be in the line of succession. Her father, Lord Truscot was a distant cousin of the Ista Aldriks, and he died in a summer war campaign when Fidelia was little more than a toddler.
The young Fidelia seemed to cause dismay in her Ista Aldrik relations wherever she went. At her Ceremony of Souls, she outraged her family by selecting to become a priestess of Unot, a god who had never been considered one of the Ista Aldrik patrons, and was more commonly served by male priests. When she decided her devotion to her god required her to shave her head, like the male initiates, she came very close to causing heart attacks. She soon gained a reputation as an impulsive tomboy in a family that was renowned for its icily proper ladies.
Fidelia left her native Nelanos for Anarinuell at the age of seventeen to help her aunt in her duties, and become known as a gifted healer, a skilled archer, a devoted priestess and for a doomed romance with Prince Sadin Elianik. She went on quests, enlisted seasonally, took an discomforting delight in funerals, and generally caused her aunt, sister, and cousins great dismay. However, when Sabine left with the Heroes and her elder sister Junia became ruling proxy, Fidelia was pressed into political service as Junia's proxy. When Junia fell very ill with the Mind Plague, Fidelia was left to rule the Bears alone. When her decisions precipitated the Kemet Massacre of 24 A.U., she resigned from the ruling proxyship in disgrace, her political career seemingly over.
Impressions were misleading. A few months later Junia, recovered from her illness, would lose her medallion in the Bear/Gold Dragon War. The House of Ista Aldrik would also be stripped of the staff of High Priestess, which Sabine had held for decades, and forced to endure the humiliation of a non-Ista Aldrik man, Taleo Teranzik, holding the medallion. The Fidelia who emerged from these events, whether it was from her family's shame or the execution of Sabinus Rissik (who had been her best friend and possibly a little more), was a changed Fidelia. She was colder, quieter, and no longer naive -- very much a typical Ista Aldrik.
When Taleo was appointed Viceroy of the Firan Realms and had to leave proxyship of the Bear Clan, he appointed Fidelia as his successor. Tragedy was not quite done with her yet, however, as only a couple of years into her proxyship she was struck down by a near-fatal illness (rumour says at the Clan Council table itself), and was left frail and mute. Although she eventually recovered partial use of her voice, to this day she cannot speak above a whisper, and is unable to make her own speeches -- a formidable handicap for a Firan political leader.
Early in 39 A.U., after Fidelia had been ruling proxy for over a decade and Sabine had been gone nearly twice that, the Clan Council voted unanimously to recognize her as Bear Clan Leader, a decision that the Bears accepted sombrely, most of them having accepted their beloved Sabine would never return. In September of that year, she was given the staff of High Priestess when Clan Leader Inaya Elikista of the Chimera Clan stepped down, thus regaining what the Bears had lost years before.
Family Life
Siblings
Fidelia was the middle child in her family, having an older sister, Junia, and a younger brother, Donos. Their mother is said to have favoured Junia, who was beautiful, charming and shrewd, in the classic model of an Ista Aldrik woman. Junia seemed marked for a brilliant political career, but suffered many setbacks, eventually being consigned to the Cockatrice clan after losing the Bear medallion. She made one more attempt to regain political footing as a proxy for the Cockatrice, seemingly attempting to start a war with her own sister, only to be have the Cockatrices turn on her, and be sentenced to death for treason by the Clan Council. Fidelia voted for her sister's death along with the rest of the Council, but asked that Junia, as an Ista Aldrik and former medallion holder, be given the dignity of a private death in the Ista Aldrik estate. Rumour has it that Junia died in her little sister's arms.
Fidelia's younger brother, Donos, is a dashing pilot and a devoted priest of Zin. He was married for several years to Clan Leader Zeysani of the Eagles, and always claimed that Zin himself arranged the match. After Zeysani's death, he served as Regent for his stepdaughter Ania before being replaced. He has recently returned to the Bear clan and remarried, to Lady Pia Teranzik, former Griffon regent.
Husbands
As far as the public is aware, Fidelia has had three husbands.
Her first husband, Halakeye Firgalik was part of a set of peace marriages arranged between the Bear and Gold Dragon clans. Fidelia went into the marriage notably reluctantly, and although she and her husband made their peace later, they were never exactly a loving couple. Halakeye died at war in 31 A.U., after a Bear healer, Odoni Istanar botched healing him. To this day, Gold Dragons still angrily contend the Ista Aldriks had Halakeye murdered.
Her second husband was the much older Jaran Iberik, whom she married hastily in the aftermath of the Hydra-Eagle wars. Jaran died of an heart attack at the wedding of Fidelia's niece, Gemella.
She has recently married Lord Docci Shadina, a pilot who was born into the Ista Barun family -- a family Fidelia did her very best to erase from existence.
Children
Fidelia has a great love of children and has often been heard to say that having only three of her own is one of her great sorrows.
She has a son, Aldrin and a daughter, Sabiana, by her first husband, Halakeye.
She has another daughter, Julea, by her second husband, Jaran. Julea was conceived after the illness that stole Fidelia's voice and much of her health. It was a difficult pregnancy that left Fidelia bedridden for much of it, and the clan was rather relieved their proxy survived it.
Perhaps in exchange for not having more children of her own, she tends to serve as a mother figure to all the children of her family, and sometimes even mothers her friends' children excessively.
Accomplishments
Staff of the High Priestess
Fidelia is a priestess of Unot, and therefore was eligible to become the High Priestess of the Firan Realms when Clan Leader Inaya resigned that post. Today, Fidelia holds the Staff of the High Priest/Priestess and is the Honorary Clan Council Leader for the Clan Council.
She is in charge of scheduling meetings and putting out the agenda for the Clan Council, as well as making announcements to the public about Clan Council Meetings.
Establishment of the Small Council
Long before the rabble was clamoring for "democratic reform," Fidelia re-established the Bear Clan Small Council. On it preside a number of important Bear Clan personages and ministers.
Ista Aldrik Heirs
At the time of Fidelia's marriage to Halakeye, the Bear clan was undergoing something of a succession crisis. Although there were a number of Ista Aldrik ladies, none of them had borne children while Ista Aldriks (Gellina and Junia had had children once they had married out). When Fidelia gave birth to her son Aldrin, there was general rejoicing despite his gender, as he was the first child born to an Ista Aldrik of that generation.
Although Fidelia would have only two daughters herself, Sabiana and Julea, she also brought her niece -- Junia's daughter -- Laurelia, into the clan, as well as her niece Gemella's daughters Ariella and Amelia. Before Aldrin's birth, the Ista Aldrik estate had no nursery. Now they have one full of Ista Aldrik girls, and the people are pleased.
Allies
Enemies
Nevra
Yasha
The Ista Baruns
Scandals
Early Youth & Rebellion
Although many younger people find it difficult to believe, Fidelia was a tomboy for much of her early life, who favoured tunics, disliked hairpins, was very skilled with a bow, and loved to hunt. The later two attributes were likely the cause of her early friendship with the Rissik family, who were later desposed as traitors; Fidelia apparently credited much of her skill with a bow to lessons from both Sabinus Rissik and his elder sister Eliana, who was briefly Queen of the Republic.
As a teenage Initiate of Unot, Fidelia shaved her head to follow the lead of the male Initiates, which came close to causing heart attacks in the Ista Aldrik household. Although her hair grew back, she defiantly kept it short for much of her teens. Indeed for many years Fidelia seemed in determined rebellion against the expectations of her family, ignoring etiquette, dressing as she liked and running off on quests and to war. Her friends included commoners and haffies, and she was generally considered both a political nonentity and a bit of an embarrassment to the Ista Aldrik family.
Fidelia began, rather reluctantly, to observe a little more propriety when first named proxy, and eventually, by the time of her first marriage, became as icily proper as any Ista Aldrik ever was. Her tomboy days are almost considered in the realm of myth now, although occasional reminders creep up, such as her winning the gold medal in archery in the Olympics of 36 A.U.
Betrothal to Sadin
Upon her arrival in Nelanos in fall of 18 A.U., Fidelia almost immediately fell deeply in love with her cousin Prince Sadin Elianik, the dashing son of Princess Selene and, so the princess claimed, the god Elik. They had a whirlwind courtship, and -- at least according to rumour -- soon considered themselves betrothed. Queen Sabine, on the other hand, was apparently unhappy with her grandson's behaviour toward her kinswoman and parted the couple. Prince Sadin soon thereafter married Lady Lucretia Firgalik, and when he was forced to divorce that lady for being found pregnant and nude in the whorehouse the White Dove, whispers said the Ista Aldriks were behind it in order to allow Fidelia to marry Sadin.
However, it was not to be. Soon after that, Sadin married Lady Bashona Istabannos, who had been Fidelia's particular friend, and Fidelia was so visibly upset at the wedding that Sabine had guards escort her from the wedding. Sadin's love life went on to be a tangled mess of marriage after marriage, complete with divorces, unburnt wedding necklaces, and affairs of accusations, but he never did marry Fidelia. Although what exactly happened is left to the imagination of scandalmongerers, to this day Fidelia appears rather bitter whenever Sadin's name is mentioned. On the other hand, he is now in disgraceful semi-exile in Scirlut. She is a clan leader.
The Cheese Riot
Logs, Letters & Speeches
Coronation Oath
Oath sworn by Her Honour Fidelia Ista Aldrik at her coronation on April 8, 39 A.U.:
In front of this throne, which is made of wood from Garusani, silk woven in Nelanos, and gold and gems from Eeshor and Nelabam; in the sight of the Bear clan and the people of the Republic; in the sight of all the gods and in the light of Unot, who I have served all my adult life, I swear this -- that all the sorrows and joys of my people shall come before my own. That when my people cry, I cry. When they bleed, I bleed. When they rejoice, I rejoice. I will be the mother bear, as fierce in defense as in loving. In darkness and light, in sickness and health, in the good and the bad, I shall lead with faith, honour, and wisdom, a leader of a people, and a servant to a clan.
