A character illustration for any fantasy -themed role-playing game setting. I made this for my own fantasy world of Cresia to be a temperamental but foxy adventurer one might encounter getting into trouble in southern Gruenroth or northern Witchlight Strand.
Also part of my Through the Ages series of illustrations.
Name: Baron Egor Malekov
Race: vampire
Location: Tarzhov, Zarnova
One of the ruling vampires of Zarnova, Lord Malekov is also one of the less known and deliberately reclusive of the bunch. He is a member of The Roskov Ring – a ring of ruling lords commanded by the Vampire Queen Anya Voorish. He would rather he wasn’t but his former close alliances with the vampire queen have locked his unlife existence with the fate of her. Lord Malekov seeks no fame and doesn’t really care what history books say about him. He doesn’t share the vampire queens’ thirst for ever more power. He is quite happy living in his remote castle surrounded by restless wild life, untamed sea and fear infused trembling villagers of the nearby villages.
Lord Malekov rarely travels away from his castle near the small town of Tarzhov which is the capital of the barony. And when he does he is most probably going to or from The Castle Roskov where the vampire queen holds meetings for the ruling lords of the land. Lord Malekov holds many enemies – some of his feuds span over centuries and are still active – but his few friends are immensely powerful providing him pretty much free reign in his daily activities. He was a fierce adversary of the country’s former ruler Lich Lord Tomas Vladovych whom Lady Voorish “replaced” and Lord Malekov’s assistance in that coup d’etat was inherently important. However, the former ruler still has a strong following (mainly consisting of a group of his disciples) just watching and waiting for a change at retaliation. Lord Malekov is thus quite uncomfortable while outside the confines of his castle and uses whatever measures required to mask his traveling schedules and identity and always has a few trustworthy aides with him.
Lord Malekov is properly old. He is one of the eldest active vampires in existence and as such possesses amazing powers justifiably feared by the local townsfolk and denizens of nearby villages. His powers easily match and even surpass that of the vampire queen but he has no interest in ruling a country and no desire to attain a position that attracts the attention of foreign nations. In fact, he has an agenda to protect her interests fearing that should she be thrown out of The Castle Roskov, he would be forced to step in.
Many times during the last century the villagers have tried to burn his castle with him inside but somehow he has always been aware of these attempts and subverted them with very rough and brutal punishments to the ones leading the people to these activities. Lord Malekov has always had well paid spies on every village nearby and consider these a clever early warning system against threats both domestic and foreign. He oddly likes to see the villages do well and while of course it is handy to have fresh bodies available to quench the thirst for blood, he also treats the nearby inhabitants much better than he would have to. In fact, by proxies he donates back to the communities some of the taxes he collects and while not all people know of this, many do and those happen to be important individuals with power over the others in their respective communities.
A good strategy to keep human emotions at bay. And he doesn’t actually need the money anyway.
Name: Marcheval Dufien
Race: Human
Location: Udynaesses, Groam
The city of Udynaesses located in the border region of Groam and Caheb has been a lawless pit ever since the area was ravaged by a devastating plague and while the region in general has more or less recovered, the city of Udynaesses unfortunately has not. With a long and glorious history as the once capital city of Caheb, Udynaesses was seized by Groam during the period of plague some 80 years ago and is the southernmost population center of Groam. Groam hasn’t had an interest in keeping the place in line though and mostly this is because it’s hard to reach from Groam – one would have to travel through dense jungles, cross snow peaked mountains or risk dehydration if reaching by desert.
The de facto ruler of Udynaesses is now Marcheval Dufien who is known and feared in the region less affectionately as “The Beheader” because beheading his enemies is his signature gesture of power. Marcheval lives in a small fortified desert castle (Villa Hargassah – in reality not a castle but a well fortified villa) just a few kilometers south of Udynaesses. His power in the region is partially backed up by groups of Caheb origin wishing to see the city revert back to Caheb and this goal can possibly be achieved by disrupting the nominal leader of the city – commander Remnor Galant. Galant is appointed and backed up Groam but in truth has little say in the day-to-day affairs of the city.
Marcheval is of mixed descendence himself having a father from Groam and mother from Caheb and he himself initially had no political motivation – he didn’t care which country called the city as it’s own – but things have changed since the day when he saw a possibility, grabbed it and became the feared ruler of the city by joining a few of the bigger outlaw groups and creating a unified force with him in the lead. Formerly he had made a name for himself by running various small-time crime operations in the region and gradually becoming a prominent crime ring leader. Since effectively taking over the city he has had ample opportunities to further line his pockets with coin and strengthen his presence in the region. He has no official intention of competing with the mighty countries Groam and Caheb – both of which countries haven’t shown much interest in returning rule of law to the city – but lately he has been contemplating with the possibility of forming an independent city-state and also seizing control of the harbor towns of Tash and Calemnor located in the south coast of Dhaira Bay. His plans are known only to a select handful of his most trusted men. Common people see him only as a violent opportunistic brute whose aim in life is to cause misery and pain.
As a man Marcheval is cunning and brutal. He believes that maintaining and attaining political and military power as well as coin actually requires the use of violence and that the brutality of the violence used must exceed that of the opposition – whoever it happens to be. Mercy and forgiveness are not words in his vocabulary. In a relaxed state he is actually quite jovial and friendly even but he rarely shows that side of himself in public; it’s strictly reserved to close friends and manifested within closed quarters.
It has been rumored that Marcheval is somehow linked to the so called Dhaira Cult and one of it’s leaders – the High Priestess Chya. The nature and intimacy of their relationship is subject to speculation, however, but apparently Chya has been spotted at Marcheval’s villa on several occasions when wild (and some witnesses would use the word vile as well) festivities have taken place. Whatever their relationship actually is, some of Marcheval’s backers are less than thrilled about it since Chya’s activities directly threaten many prominent families and the coastal city of Tash in particular. And since the city of Tash is firmly under Caheb control, groups that are friendly with Marcheval against the invading Groam are very wary not to undermine their own country’s power in nearby Caheb -controlled cities.
Name: Grom
Race: Orc
Location: Bloodspires, Witchlight Strand
One of the foremost leaders of the several restless and bloodthirsty demihuman tribes of Bloodspires (the mountainous wilderness in the North-East corner of Witchlight Strand), Chieftain Grom bows for no-one. There is no formal king among the biggering tribes of orcs, goblins, kobolds, hobgoblins and ogres and what-nots of Bloodspires, but if one would be appointed today, Chieftain Grom would be a strong candidate for such a post. Grom probably does not live to see himself rising as the King of Bloodspires since he is not particularly interested in uniting with anybody that’s not an orc and orcs are no more populous than their rivaling demihuman brethren. The orcs themselves are just a fraction – albeit a strong one – of all the inhabitants of Bloodspires and even the different orc clans have blood feuds and ancient rivalries running through their veins. The area called Bloodspires is practically devoid of humans and while most of the lands technically belong to Akron, the kingdom has long since given up efforts to maintain a strong presence there and has withdrawn their forces and outposts to the more hospitable coastal regions.
Chieftain Grom is ruthless, cunning and intelligent. He would be considered an intelligent person even if he was a human or an elf, but for an orc Grom is definitely exceptionally bright. However his conniving brain is constantly under attack by his impatience and bursting temperament that frequently cloud his judgement in all matters ranging from domestic affairs to warfare. Proof to that is his bastard son with the famed gold digger Hym Grog who seduced him to a six month long romantic affair a few years ago and that ended when Hym Grog got bored and caught herself a nice and rich gnoll warlord Gerom Sharg.
Grom has supporters in all the orc clans inhabiting the Bloodspires and several tribes of goblins and kobolds and other demihuman races, but he has not yet been able to show enough leadership to form a solid and wide ranging supporter base that would allow him to claim a more prominent position. Nevertheless he is not just a chieftain among chieftains anymore and anytime the orc chieftains hold meetings of any kind, when Grom speaks his mind, silence falls and his propositions are met with shy nodding and grunting signalling agreement.
Several authorities in coastal cities of Witchlight Strand have seen Grom’s growing power as alarming and a few unsuccessful assassination attempts against Grom have already been attempted. The Liaglades elves are, however, not at all worried about Grom as such, but the possibility of a united demihuman front is what makes the elves more cautious and even frightful. The elves see Grom as too violent and bloodthirsty to be able to form a cohesive union between the tribes and races, but eventually such a person is bound to rise among the demihuman ranks. The elves hope that as long as Grom stays as the alpha predator, rising usurpers – no matter how much potential they would have in forming a cohesive front – are in mortal danger and hopefully that delays the inevitable by a generation or two.
Humans on the other hand more generally acknowledge Grom’s possibilities in achieving some sort of powerful pact or alliance between the orc clans. If such a pact would form, the power of the orcs would grow considerably and might draw the lesser dominant races of Bloodspires towards them. Whatever the future holds for humans and elves, the orc Clan of Grom is enjoying successes after another under the leadership of Chieftain Grom.
Name: Chya, High Priestess of the Dhaira Cult
Race: human
Location: North-Eastern Caheb (somewhere near Dhaira Bay in a secret nest)
One of the young prodigees of Hight Priest Dry’zan, Chya has mastered the secret black art of Nero Arachnitis – one of Syth’s magical spheres. High Priests of Syth generally master 4-5 of the black arts controlled by Syth and their most prominent apprentices learn directly from their High Priest or Priestess. Chya is one of three Syth’s priests and priestessess that Dry’zan has appointed to lead the new cult of Syth in the region of Dhaira Bay, Caheb. The other two are masters of two different disciplines. In this way Dry’zan can establish a formidable power block – each member of which control one important aspect of what it means to be a cult leader of Syth.
Chya was only 10 when her parents were killed in a massive fire that burnt down most of the village where Chya grew up in the north in Zarnova. Dry’zan and 5 of his disciples were staying in a nearby forest clearing at the time and once they realized the village had pretty much burned to the ground, Chya – shocked, dirty, crying and trembling – pleaded the strangers to help her as she was one of the few survivors wandering through the remnants of the village. He was just about to dismiss the wimpering poor little girl when he spotted a black spider crawling upwards the girl’s long flowing raven-black hair. To Dry’zan that was clearly a sign from Syth himself and Chya soon became an integral part of Dry’zan’s group. Chya was not “in the loop” of Dry’zan’s activities until well into her early adulthood when she was officially appointed a title of Apprenticing Priestess by Dry’zan. Chya owes her life to Dry’zan and also everything she knows about magical arts is from her mentor as well. The young girl was easy to influence to accepting Syth as her deity and is thus now a devout follower of the dark deity. She relocated from Zarnova to Caheb at the brink of her ascension to a Priestess in her early twenties.
Chya is today 28 years old and is quite an attractive young woman – except when vomiting black spiders, of course! Her raven-black hair and sensuously soft voice combined with her beautiful shape and delicate face make her a real head turner. Chya also knows her beauty and uses her looks to seduce men in order to exploit the men’s natural weaknesses. A real femme fatale. She has almost no moral boundaries and is famous for organizing foul and depraved all-night long orgies of violence, sex and intoxicants in which the participants willingly get involved in activities best left to imagination … or nightmares. Such festivities usually entail potent herbal concoctions that enhance the feelings of pleasure, pain and ecstasy.
In Caheb Chya has now formed a spider sect. The sect has 20 members – 5 of whom are Chya’s disciples and the rest are mainly younger local men who have been enthralled by Chya and her wild parties. The sect members are not just any random peasants and instead are all carefully hand-picked from an array of potent families. As such, the members are more victims than they themselves realize. The sect has several immediate goals set by Dry’zan and the most important one is to gain total control of the two rivaling thieves’s guilds in the nearby city of Tash. A work already nearly finished. As for the next goals … only Dry’zan knows for certain.
Name: Telos Malkumar
Race: human
Location: Callistra, Calishem
Leader of caravan guards for one of the most important trade princes in Calishem: Hal B’gohd. It is Telos’ duty to keep trade caravans out of robbers’ hands. He regularly accompanies the most dangerous desert routes (or the caravans with highly valuable cargo). A trusted man of the trade prince, Telos defines the word “loyal” and does not give in to ultimatums, bribery or blackmail. He also expects the same from those under his command and ruthlessly executes any and all who violate their loyalty to the caravan owner – no matter if the target is a child, woman or elderly. He reckons that this is vital to staying alive during dangerous journeys across the desert.
Malkumar was born in the city of Callistra and holds that city in a position of reverence. He clearly despises living in anywhere else and often wonders aloud why anyone chooses to not live in Callistra. He entered the trade prince’s duty on his 14th birthday and has remained there for 20 years climbing slowly to his current position – which is indeed one of the most important positions in the entire operation. He has also invested in the operation setting aside hefty sums and letting Hal do his magic trading and thus increasing his wealth on the side. Although this practice has given him sizable monetary assets, he keeps continuing his work out of sheer love for what he’s doing.
He is a man who takes any and all duties to heart although he does know how to relax and goof around provided all the work has been done. A talented singer, Telos has also memorized a number of old legends that used to be sung in the olden days but more commonly recited as poems nowadays. It’s not uncommon for Telos to charm his fellow travelers with his singing on cold desert nights just prior to when it would be time to retire after a hard day’s work.
Telos is strategically quite competent and has a cunning mind when it comes to carrying out his duties as the chief of guards. He thinks ahead and is usually prepared to even unexpected events in the desert. A quiet and stealthy combatant he has a special ability to join the sands like a scorpion waiting for prey.
Name: Barracus Inctal
Race: Human
Location: Cuervo Garrac, Ferria
Barracus is a trusted crew member (boatswain in charge of the cargo room) of the merchant ship Raimelho. He has been a crew member in the ship for a few years now and has gained the trust of the ship’s captain and owner Jorge Gel.
Barracus is a typical person of southern Ferrian descent. His upbringing has taught him modesty, respect of life and harmony. As a man he is quiet and his demeanor is modest. He is erroneously considered to be extremely shy by those who do not know him. He just keeps his opinions to himself and works hard instead. He is the kind of person who makes things happen instead of constant bitching.
Barracus is an orphan and has no siblings that he is aware. He moved to Cuervo Garrac with his uncle ten years ago but after his uncle perished from a terminal illness he has been living alone near the dock area of the city. He met his future employer Jorge Gel by accident and Gel was at the time looking for a few able men to man his next voyage. A deal was struck to see how Barracus would fare at sea and he’s been a regular member of Gel’s crew since that day.
As a boatswain it is Barracus’ responsibility to not only make sure that the cargo is loaded and unloaded properly but also to make sure that the goods are secure during the voyage and that the goods arrive as promised to whatever destination they’re heading. When it comes to the space below main deck (ie. the cargo hold), Barracus gives the orders. He has not been able to gather much with respect to personal assets as he commonly gambles and drinks his salary as soon as he gets it. Being a boatswain is a life that suits him just fine making him content and thankful – even happy with how things have turned out.
Name: Sir Welyk Paize
Race: Human
Location: border regions of Groam and Zarnova
Formerly a leader of the mercenary group called The Eighteen Griffons, Sir Welyk Paize rose into fame after heroically saving the life of Lady Angelusia Wermander – the daughter to Lord Mortimer Wermander who is the high ambassador of Gruenroth to Groam and one of the chief counselors and a personal friend of the king of Groam. After that incident – which took place about 9 years ago – Sir Paize was recruited to the king’s guard but soon felt this new life was dull and uneventful and that life in the city with it’s comforts was for sissies and wimps. 8 years ago he was relieved of his guard duties and appointed to lead a newly formed military unit called The Emerald Unit. The unit is a first response group of stout warriors sent to deal with marauding undead creatures from the country of Zarnova. The unit operates in the border region of the two countries.
Sir Paize is a true warrior who lives and breathes action, adrenaline and combat. He does have a softer side to him in that he has a beautiful singing voice which he employs on still, cold nights after the duties of the day are over. Sir Paize leads his unit with a fervor and relentlessness but his men are hand picked by him and each and every man has had to prove their worth prior to being baptized in the unit. He enjoys the utmost respect among his men and his unit is well funded and supplied by the king himself who understands that all-out war with Zarnova is not in the best interests of the country but that still brutal force is required to send a message to the controllers of the intruding undead hordes.
Sir Paize is a skilled tactician and a logistical genius apart from being one of the best swordsmen in Groam to ever have existed. Little is known of his past and childhood but it’s needless to say his tough exterior started to grow at a young age.
He has an imposing figure of 190 cm and a rugged, weathered look in his face. His long reddish aubergine hair is a trademark of his and he usually wears his hair free-flowing.
An illustration of a castle for a fantasy role-playing game setting.
Castle Roskov currently maintains the seat of power in the country of Zarnova. The castle is situated 15 kilometers directly inland from the city of Wila which is the capital city of Zarnova. The castle is home to the current ruler of Zarnova – the vampire queen Lady Anya Voorish herself.
Castle Roskov is situated in an extremely hard to reach place deep within unnaturally dense forest of spruces. The forest goes on for kilometers in every direction around the castle. A number of the spruces tower to heights of 120 meters shadowing the highest spires of the castle quite easily. Thus the castle is not visible from above the canopy of the forest lest one is close enough to the clearing that houses the castle.
The castle is built from local stone excavated from the mountains to the west. The quarries are no longer active but still have a hefty supply of cut stone slabs that can be worked when replacement stones are needed in the castle. The workmanship of the castle is extraordinary – the castle was built to last. The general architectural style follows that of established Groam -influenced style that has been prevalent for hundreds of years and that is followed by many of even the newly built castles.
The castle has an outer court yard which is secluded from the inner court yard by a secondary gate house which makes attacking the actual castle buildings extremely hard. Both gate houses have portcullises and heavy oaken doors. No other apparent entrances to the inner yard exists. The gate house complexes both house only defensive paraphernalia and positions but under the current rule are mostly empty spaces since the undead defenders of the castle can’t boil oil,operate ballistae etc.
The corner towers are vast and each house living quarters and storage areas as well as defensive positions. The battlements of the castle walls are not covered and the bailey of the castle is part of the castle walls making the walkways on top of the walls harder to operate as there’s no way to walk around the castle perimeters via walkways only. The battlements protrude outwards slightly making it easier to counter attack any climbers. The walls contain rooms and corridors inside of them and defensive slits allow the defenders to fire heavier anti-siege weapons from within but the current castle house no such items – the rooms are now mainly storage areas for arrows, halberds, swords and such items that the undead defenders are able to use.
The keep is a 5-story structure with a roof designed for several catapults. None exists currently. The lower floors of the keep are the vampire queen’s main living quarters and the top levels are off-limits to all except the vampire queen. The entrance to underground sections is through the keep only. The bailey is truly a remarkably spacey and even luxurious: the lower floor houses a kitchen and main hall and grand stairs to all the other floors – 3 of them and the attic. The hall is open in the middle for all stories and each story has an impressive walkway circling the entire space – and has yet enough room to house several dozens of rooms that are living quarters. Servants and workers live in the two floors that form the attic and have there quite spacious and comfortable living quarters. Bailey has it’s own small underground section accessible from kitchen and contains the food supplies of the castle. Another bigger underground section was built for excrement and it’s accessible from the inner courtyard (the compost can be removed and used as fertilizer).
The original builders of the castle had need for a church. The church has separate inner temples for each deity of the old Phylar pantheon and a central hall. The church is now used as storage space and in a state of sad disrepair and neglect. The vampire queen has never been seen entering the church and many say that the ancient sanctum still repels the undead from ever entering the church without burning to ashes. The church has a tiny underground section of it’s own and contains merely crypts of various ages. Entrances to the various crypts and corridors are cemented and sealed shut by the order of the vampire queen and nothing much is known as to who were buried there centuries ago. The church still contains vast treasures of the Theocracy of Phylar period but while the maintenance crew see them daily, none have yet had the courage to steal any of the artifacts. The items seem irrelevant to the vampire queen while she does understand their monetary value.
The inner court yard contains but a few other buildings. The stables can house a few dozen horses, three piggeries and two chicken yards have been built next to the stables under makeshift lean-to structures facing the wall. There are a few dozen chickens, goats, lambs and pigs roaming freely in the inner courtyard. Their well being is under the care of the maintenance crew.
There are only a handful of (living, that is!) permanent residents in the castle. The castle grounds and environs are maintained by a crew of 12 humans hand picked by the vampire queen and well-rewarded for their creepy duty among the undead creatures lurking in the castle. The crew are on the castle grounds 12 hours a day from dawn and return to Wila via horse drawn carts come dusk. While not a coveted position by any means, the crew do get so amply rewarded that each month they bring home a salary surpassing a farmer family’s annual income. Cooks and doctors are part of the maintenance crew and their job is to prepare meals to the blood supply -members (see below) and see that they are physically well.
Castle Roskov has a large meeting hall in it’s heart. This hall is the closest to government of Zarnova. The vampire queen keeps a retinue of powerful individuals as her aides to control and rule the country. This retinue comprises of 7 members and have regular meetings in the castle regarding matters of state. Some of them occasionally stay for longer periods of time and many bring aides, cooks, drivers, slaves or servants of their own easily surpassing a hundred persons combined when The Roskov Ring convenes. More about The Roskov Ring.
The main resident is of course the vampire queen herself. She lives in the castle and only rarely ventures outside. She takes maybe a tour or two around Zarnova annually conducting state matters, requisitioning blood supplies and making her power known to the land lords and commoners alike. Those tours take perhaps a month or two in total but are never scheduled beforehand or timed with any other precision than the vampire queen’s whim. She lives the entire castle and has no preferred dungeon, hall, tower or room. It is therefore impossible to predict where within the castle premises she is located at any given time – excepting the church which she shuns.
A group of 35 to 55 young(ish) adult males (of any race) call the castle their home now. They are all housed in the big bailey. These are the personal slaves of the vampire queen from which she takes her nourishment of fresh blood whenever she so desires and may even offer their blood to other vampires visiting the castle. The men are exclusively picked up by the vampire queen from around the country. They are not allowed to leave the castle – they are essentially prisoners. The alluring magic of the vampire queen further enhances the men’s subjugation but she also treats these men well since the quality of blood is of importance to her. The men are clothed well and attend to maintenance of the castle as much or little as they themselves desire. The men eat regular and well-balanced meals, they can engage in whatever activities they wish inside castle walls (such as healthy sports games in the spacious outer court yard) and the vampire queen has sex with the men to give them pleasure (even orgies with the vampire queen as a center piece are not uncommon) or arranges courtesan visits to the castle. Men that do not accept her rules she just sucks dry and tosses to a pile of corpses down below ground. When she bores with the taste of individual members of the blood supply, she usually releases them from her clutch and sends them back home with a monetary compensation ranging from meager to extravagant depending on how she felt about that individual. This is to encourage the people of the land to accept this strange and foul practice instead of resisting it. After all, should the men never return home, their families would most certainly rebel against her rule. Of the men who return home, most regard their time in the castle as “wonderful” and “well spent” but don’t actually seem to remember the presence of undead creatures and oddly have a greatly distorted memory of how the vampire queen looks and feels. As if they are still under some sort of charm or spell. The memories of the castle fade into oblivion entirely as time passes on.
Apart from being in a location surrounded by nigh impenetrable forest, the castle is also well protected by way of combatants of the undead sort. The vampire queen maintains an army of rotting corpses and skeletons manning the gatehouse, towers and parapets. They require no sustenance and sleep, do not care for the omnipresent mosquitoes, never leave their post to take a pee and observe their surroundings with relentlessness and unnatural senses unhindered by foul weather. Half of these unholy warriors are armed with bows and half with melee weapons. They are not competent enough to maintain or work traditional defense methods such as hot oil, fire arrows, ballistae or tar and hence the castle has none of these implemented. Aerial defenses are non-existent but the castle grounds are well built and quite resilient to aerial bombarding by larger creatures dropping stones, caskets of burning oil etc. The number of undead defenders is impossible to guess since the vampire queen may have hundreds of corpses rotting in piles deep beneath the castle in special chambers. They are there just waiting to be animated into duty. A sort of reserve. The undead creatures do not care for any person they are instructed to ignore and will let all those go about their business unhindered – perhaps a turning of the skull, shifting of the pose or a rattling of the teeth making them know that they are indeed sensed but ordered to be ignored. It is uncertain whether or not the vampire queen can spy about using the senses of any undead creature she has animated. Such is the story anyway.
There is no moat around the castle. The forest has grown quite close to the castle and the closest tree branches literally touch the castle walls. The proximity of big trees to the walls is giving possible attackers an easy vector in trying to climb the walls. Although the forest is extremely dense, the trees can be climbed and somewhat limited view from inside castle can be gained. Also the thick forests make for an excellent cover for attackers and observers alike. However, the local populace avoid the forest and say that it is somehow under the vampire queen’s control. This may just be superstition but the fact remains that the trees in the area are quite much older, bigger, twisted and denser than similar trees only some kilometers away.
Name: Princess Leana Baerwyn
Race: Human
Location: Gruenroth
Lady Leana is the eldest child of Gruenroth‘s current king Werner Baerwyn. Leana is a wandering spirit who finds it hard to settle down even though many expect just that from her. She spends around half her time travelling the lands of Gruenroth (and sometimes those of Argan and Akron as well) with a retinue of around twenty adventurers, cooks, servants and bodyguards. She uses her title to settle disputes, right wrongs and reports problems to her father’s trusted aide and political adviser Chalty Veron whom she considers more of a father than her actual biological father ever was.
Lady Leana is a competent and hardy traveler excelling in survival skills uncommon for women in general and she even hunts her own food by traps or by bow and arrow. She is therefore much respected by those who travel with her as she is the exact opposite of a narcissistic and pampered princess – say – like her two little sisters Lady Lucia and Lady Lise both of whom are content living a life of excesses in the king’s palace.
She has a very strong sense of right and wrong and she knows that her moral compass is the one she should be following in a world of injustice, violence, intolerance and hatred. She sees herself at a somewhat martyrish light although she has long since abandoned the need to shoulder the entire world’s wrongs. Some things she can’t alter and she accepts that. It still doesn’t stop her from trying. She speaks her mind freely and never voluntarily bow to men of authority even if she gains enemies that way. Mostly her father accepts her behavior as she does a tremendous amount of truly good things on her travels and the good far outweigh the bad. The king’s only concern is that he wants Lady Leana safely at home sooner rather than later because the future ruler of Gruenroth needs to be Lady Leana and not Lady Lucia or Lady Lise and the future queen must understand that governing a vast nation requires more than just survival skills.
The Uninvisited Isle 
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