Liemen's History
Liemen Cerrmor was the 2nd of 6 children born the Cerrmor noble family. The family had minor guild holdings in the country of Diemed (which at the time was whole). Liemen's older brother was destined to inherit those holdings so Liemen was forced to make his own wealth or be resigned to becoming one of those simple nobles that hung around in the courts of movers and shakers and hoped some of it would rub off.
Liemen decided that he was ill suited to becoming a gallant warrior, and their family did not have the money to send him to the College of Wizardry in Anuire, so he simply honed his skills as a courtier. He became a herald in the court of Diemed and worked his way up through the ranks there slowly but surely hopefully one day to become perhaps a chamberlain or chancellor.
He thought those hopes were dashed when the kingdom was torn by civil war, the Danthiir family had amassed the strength needed to take back their ancestral kingdom from Heral Diem. His family, long time friends of the Danthiir family sided with the rebels as did many other noble families, some out of loyalty and friendship, others out of greed, hoping that they could use the opportunity to perhapps gain more power for themselves.
As the kingdom of Danthiir grew Liemen managed to gain a position in their court, not as a herald, but this time as an assistant to their court mage, an ancient man by all accounts, that had strong source to draw on in the forest of Ciliene. By this time Liemen was already 28 years of age, and one would think much too old to start to learn magic. Liemen became the old mage's lieutenant and suddenly had gained all at once far more influence and power than he had in all his years of work as a simple courtier, now he was the envoy of a powerful man.
The old mage saw the talent in Liemen to become a great mage and, despite Liemen being older than most apprentices, started teaching him magic. Liemen did not know it at the time but the old mage, having no heirs had decided to mold this young man to become the next court mage of Danthiir, heir to his source holdings.
At this time Liemen also became friends with Shaemis Danthiir, the crown prince, when he was charged with the task of tutoring Shaemis and his twin sister Serina in the art of ruling a kingdom, Administration, Diplomacy, Ettiquette, Heraldry, and Leadership. They were both a decade younger than he, and because of the war, he was givien the task of tutoring them rather than his master. Teaching them was difficult task though, because they had many duties of their own to perform.
And so things went for two years before the next major event changed Liemen's life forever. He became betrothed to a complete stranger.
Liemen and Maesene Di Aendyr were betrothed to each other in an arranged marriage, meant to cement ties between their two families, and secure for Liemen's family a stronger position in the court of the kingdom, whilst at the same time giving Maesene's family access to a blooded mage, that would soon have powerful source holdings to call upon. But there were also some ulterior motives involved in the wedding.
Despite misgivings about taking a 17 year old bride, Liemen capitulated to his families wishes, mainly because for some strange reason, Shaemis was pushing for the wedding. He was sure that in order for a powerful family such as the Di Aendyr's to wish him (a minor mage, he as yet was merely the lieutenant of the court mage of Danthiir, with no holdings of his own) to marry their daughter then surely their was some greater motive. The fact that Shaemis, his younger friend and pupil in the arts of heraldry and diplomacy, was also pushing for the wedding surely pointed to this.
Maesene at the time did not yet have any holdings either, her family had strong holdings in the temples of both Danthiir and Diemed, the churches had not really been that affected by the civil war. Maesene and the crown prince were of an age and had been having a relationship which they had managed to keep hidden from all but the prince's twin sister, the crown princess, Serina Danthiir. Serina was insanely jealous of her brother's time and affection and so hated Maesene.
Finally, Serina had an opportunity to send Maesene away from the court. Serina had been put in charge of handling the military affairs of the country while her father was off leading the armies of the kingdom. She recieved word from him that his army was badly short of priests. So she sent the young priestess Maesene to the front in charge of the priests sent to aid the battered army.
What nobody but Shaemis and Maesene knew was that maesene was pregnant. Shaemis had intended to ask for her family's permission to wed her when his father returned from the front. As a result of wounds suffered on the battlefield Maesene had a miscarriage. She was heartbroken, as was Shaemis. But Shaemis also had decided that due to his sister's anger he was going to break off the romance. He was heartbroken over it, but convinced it was the right thing to do. Maesene had been dealt a double blow. Still the two families (Danthiir and Di Aendyr) managed to keep the whole affair secret.
Unfortuneately in Anuirean culture Maesene was now damaged goods, even though the affair had been kept secret, her family decided it was best to get her married. And Shaemis, wanting to do right by her, because he still loved her, also wanted to see her married and, hopefully, happy. He managed to find what he felt was the most suitable man for her, someone honourable and kind, his friend and sometime tutor Liemen. He pressured the Di Aendyr family and the Cerrmor family into arranging the marriage.
Then the unexpected happened. Liemen and Maesene did not actually meet until the wedding. But the minute Liemen laid eyes on her he was awestruck, he fell in love with his first sight of her. She was not so awestruck as he, having had her heart broken so recently, but she was able to see deep into Liemen's heart, something she always had had a talent for (her Blood Ability Character Reading). She saw in him a man that was ultimately honourable, not the adventurous, fickle type like the prince. She saw the burgeoning love Liemen felt for her, she decided that she would go through with this, here was a man that would do his utmost to make her happy.
The newlyweds did not have much time to get used to their new lives with one another when disaster struck. The war was still being fought, though it had died down some. The king, the court mage and Maesene's father were all caught in an ambush with their troops by a large force from Diemed. They were slain.
In the power struggle that followed the kingdom of Danthiir was most fortunate. The twins, prince and princess, now co-rulers, managed to hang onto their holdings as well as gain some of the source that had been held by the former court wizard. Maesene also managed to keep her father's temples intact and actually her devotion drew many more folowers to the church or ruornil and her holdins also grew. Liemen was not so fortunate, he did not have the power base to grasp his all of his former master's source, he managed to get much of it though, as well as the mage guilds his master had founded. Fortuneately most of the source that Liemen did not gain was what the twins took hold of.
Since the twins began their rule they have managed to make peace with Heral Diem, seeing that he is really an honourable man. Though princess Serina resents the close ties Liemen has seemed to forge with Heral Diem, who remembers the young herald that once was among his court.
Recently Maesene became pregnant with her and Liemen's first child. During the pregnancy, the animosity between Princess Serina and Maesene came to the surface, as well as the events that lead to Liemen and Maesene's marriage. Liemen managed to overcome his shock, and to Maesene's and Shaemis' surprise did not waver in his love for Maesene, nor in his friendship with Prince Shaemis, whom Maesene has long since forgiven, knowing that it was Serina's doing that caused the turmoil in the first place.
Seeing that Princess Serina has come a long way since her younger days Liemen has also been slowly working to patch the relationship between the twins, as well as between Serina and Maesene. He has however expressed concern to Shaemis that the prince, with his cheerful nature should be a check on his sister's stern countenance. If Shaemis were to rule alone the kingdom would become a shambles as his organizational skills are poor at best, and if she were to rule alone the kingdom might soon fall into tyranny.
(She is LN, and Shaemis is CG)
