The Ducal house of Lionhearth was founded about 500 years ago by Gregory Stormrage, the second prince of Stormrage, a brave man loved by the great Spirit of Fire symbolized by his deep scarlet hair. The militaristic origin of this territory had been tempered with time but a lot of old traditions are its legacy. The House of Lionhearth posses a territory with fertile plains at the east, mineral rich mountains in the north, the great sea at the west and a beautiful forest rich of medicinal plants at the south. Is a prosper territory where free trade and relatively low taxes attract merchants. However there are a few markets where the the Ducal House maintain absolute monopoly and illegal trading or smuggling is punishable by public execution: mining, ore trading, slavery, herb collection, prostitution and some specific commodities with war applications.
Under the crest of this House, Sid Lionhearth was born 40 years ago, the third son of Patrick Lionhearth. A timid and sensible child that never took a liking to the blood paved legacy of the Lionhearth House. It was by a series of misfortunes that Patrick ended being the next Duke.
The first son died of tuberculosis at the age of 16, he was Patrick's pride and joy. Even the best potions or the most powerful priests were unable to keep him in this world, moreover the disease latched on Patrick too. The strong general survived but his lugs got severely scarred, from then on he was relegated to logistic chores in the army, which was a big hit to his pride.
The second son died in the subjugation of an earth dragon at the north, a brave warrior that was so anxious to prove his worth to his father that he recruited a team of magic knights and mages the very next day the report reached the manor that a dragon had attacked a village near a mine in the Lionhearth territory. However, if he had actually read the report he could have noticed that the mine near the village was a silver mine and the scales of the dragon had a bright silver tone, indicative of mithril. The dragon took the group by surprise in one of the mountain passages and the mithril scales gave it just enough resistance to the magic attacks to kill the 17 year old second son of the House of of Lionhearth before it's dead.
So now it was up to Sid to take the mantle of the heir of the House of Lionhearth at 15 years old, a child that had studied all his life to be a civil servant and rejected the idea of letting go his dream of become prime minister of the Kingdom for a career in the army as all his predecessors. He studied administration and passed the civil servant examination at the age of 20, he met the woman who will eventually become his first wife and who he slowly learned to deeply and truly love.
At the age of 25 Sid knew with every fiber of his being that this woman was the love of his life and they wrote to each other mountains and mountains of letters so corny and sweet that is surprising neither of them died of diabetes. So with absolute conviction in his hearth Sid presented her to his family as his future wife. It took 4 years and a lot of heated discussions for Patrick to accept Melissa, a merchant girl without a drop of nobility in her blood as the next Duchess of Lionhearth, but he eventually relented when he was convinced that Melissa wasn't a gold digger and Sid would never change his mind.
Sid and Melissa married after a three year engagement and two years later almost simultaneously Patrick was appointed as Prime Minister and Melissa got pregnant of their first child. Patrick decided it was the perfect time to appoint Sid as the newt Duke of Lionhearth, having a weak old man with scarred lungs that couldn't exercise without feeling like his chest was on fire was a disgrace to the House of Lionhearth. Life could no be better for Sid, but happiness is a fragile thing as he soon discovered.
Melissa had a miscarriage three months into her pregnancy that resulted in severe internal bleeding, her life was spared thank to the high quality potions available in the manor, however she was left infertile as a result.
Melissa was a normal and sensible girl with no defense against the ruthlessness of the high-class society where offhanded and hurtful comments were thrown left and right by middle-aged female nobles with the ambition of making her daughters the mother of the next Duke of Lionhearth, especially that old bitch from the Graystone House mentioning at the drop of the hat to Patrick and Sid that Greystone women have immaculate peerage and have been blessed by the spirits with fertility and beauty. It didn't really help that Sid constantly assured Melissa that he loved her with all his hearth and would never betray her with another woman, so she had nothing to worry about and it was not her fault. But whose fault it was then? Why was everyone, except Sid, talking about her like she was already dead?
One fateful day Melissa wrote her last letter to Sid, left it in his desk, requested the servants for a hot bathtub, ordered her handmaid to leave her alone, swallowed a complete flask of headache medicine and cut her left wrist as deeply as possible with the letter opener Sid gifted her more than ten years ago.
The news of Melissa death destroyed Sid emotionally, the sadness transformed rapidly into numbness and numbness was somewhat worse. Patrick engaged Sid in a four hour long conversation about life, duty, legacy, pain and hope that Sid barely listened without making a single comment which ended when Patrick said "That is why I have engaged you in a political marriage with the first daughter of Marquis Greystone, I hope that you understand your duty as a Duke". At which Sid finally responded, talking for the first time in several hours, "Yes father, I understand".
But Sid was far too sensible to keep his emotional distance with reality in the name of duty, and after the blur that was the engagement and the wedding with Gladys, the consummation of the marriage was the straw that broke the camel's back. Realization dawned unto him: the love of his life was death and he was copulating with another woman.
It took Sid almost a whole year of reading over and over the last letter left by Melissa to convince himself that he was not cheating her and to internalize the heartfelt wish of Melissa for him to move on. This time around he actually listened to his father speech when he pointed out what a jerk he was being with Gladys and that she deserved better. And you know what? She did. Gladys was a beautiful woman that left her own dreams and aspirations as a mage to become the captive of a political marriage where his husband rejects her as a woman.
After the birth of his first child, the conflict in Sid's hearth started to subside which allowed him to actually pay attention to his surroundings and question himself. "What kind of husband and father am I?", "What is the future I want for my children".
-Back to the present-
The midwife exited Gladys room and politely says to Sid: "Your excellency, you can see the madam now and your daughter, if you so wish".
Patrick checked his pocket watch and inquired: "It has only been nine hours, I remember that Luis childbirth took twice as that. Did a complication forced the use of cesarean delivery? What is the state of my wife and our baby"
"No, your excellency. The childbirth just happened to be particularly smooth. The madam and ... your daughter are healthy"
Sid really didn't like that pause, "If you have something to report, do it now woman". The midwife quickly noted her slip of tongue and quickly tries to remedy the situation. "Your Excellency, both are fine and healthy. It is just that your baby girl is so beautiful and have such an aura of wisdom that this old woman was surprised. It is sure that she is loved by the spirits".
Sid stopped for a second, then ignored the middle aged midwife and started walking towards his wife and daughter. When he entered the room there was a sense of incongruity between the scene he expected and the scene before his own eyes. Instead of the exhausted woman with a motherly aura looking to a half-sleeping baby he expected to see, he found Gladys perfectly fine looking at the baby in her arms with a gaze that resembled friendship more than motherly love.
He walked forward with a steady pace when a strange phenomena occurred: the mithril locket on his chest, with a strand of Melissa's hair, he always carried with him got a little warm.