Rivermountain Kingdom was a class 2 vassal kingdom of Northwood Empire. The current king of the Rivermountain was Alash Rivermountain. Alash Rivermountain was born in year 4539 Five Element Calendar. This year, the king of Rivermountain would be 41 years old.
Alash was 6th generation king after the ancestor of Rivermountain established the kingdom. He was a wood affinity genius with level 7 affinity.
Alash was one of the rare dual class cultivators. A dual class cultivator meant that he cultivated in both Mage and Warrior path. This Rivermountain king was a strong Mage with Advanced True Mage cultivation and also a Primary Novice Warrior.
Before, as the tradition of the kingdom, he also contested for the King's inheritance with his own siblings. Similar to the previous generations of the noble descendant from the Rivermountain Kingdom, Alash went to the Primary Academy and Advanced Academy in the Rivermountain's Capital City.
He bested out all of his siblings and managed to secure the ticket to study on the one and only Royal Empire Academy of Northwood Empire. He met with other genius from various vassal kingdoms of the empire.
After graduated from the Royal Empire Academy, Alash served on the Rivermountain Army, until the Old King announced his coronation as the next King of the Rivermountain. Alash was the current strongest cultivator publicly known on the kingdom.
In the Northwood Empire, the position of a region leader would not automatically inherited by the oldest son. Each son had their right to compete for the position. This included for the three level of nobility namely Emperor, King and Duke Succession. Since the empire used patriarchy system, only male descendant was eligible to the inheritance.
The competition between descendants of nobility was a cruel one. It was normal to had fatality on the losing contestant. Although killing in public would incur mass wrath, it was common to use subterfuge action to assassinate their siblings in the dark.
It seems cruel on the surface, but in actual, that competition in long term would lead to the stronger descendant for each succession. The kingdom or the empire would be handled by stronger or smarter inheritor in each generation. It would guarantee the future existence of the kingdom.
On the Northwood Empire, it was also common for nobility to practice polygamy. Alash Rivermountain had 1 Queen and 2 Concubine formally. The Queen of Rivermountain Kingdom was Asri Woodforest. Asri was 2nd princess of Woodforest Kingdom, a neighboring kingdom of Rivermountain.
Woodforest was a class 3 kingdom that has good relation with the Rivermountain since few last generations. Thus the marriage between Alash and Asri was an arranged marriage to maintain political relation between both kingdoms.
Asri was 2 years younger than Alash, which mean that she was 39 years old now. She was a princess with a traditional nobility education. Her cultivation was only on the Primary Novice Mage level. Alash and Asri had 1 son and 1 daughter. The older son was named Anteng Rivermountain, the younger daughter was named Bening Rivermountain.
Anteng was a 8 years old genius with level 7 wood affinity. He had similar characteristic with his Royal Father. Both of them had also similar element affinity level.
The younger daughter was Bening Rivermountain. She was even more genius compare to his brother with level 8 wood affinities. Her talent in cultivation eclipsed her own older brother. But unluckily, due to the patriarchy system, this 6 years old girl would not have any chance to inherit the kingdom.
The first concubine of Alash was Sari Riverkeep. Similar to Asri Woodforest, the marriage between Alash and Sari was an arranged political marriage. Sari was descendant of the Riverkeep dukedom.
Riverkeep was the biggest duchy in the Rivermountain kingdom. Its region was even more larger than Royal Capital region under Rivermountain family.
Both Rivermountain and Riverkeep ancestors was the one who established the Rivermountain Kingdom. Due to the seniority and brotherhood between both of them, it was decided that the Rivermountain descendant would inherit the kingdom and Riverkeep descendant would be provided with the largest region of the kingdom.
The Riverkeep family itself occupied the most prosperous region of the kingdom. It was located next to the royal capital where the branching of the Great Northwood River was located.
In the beginning, the Riverkeeps were satisfied with their ancestor arrangement, but after few generations passed, they demanded more and they had intention to usurp the throne of the Rivermountain's family.
Because of this apparent internal issue on the Rivermountain Kingdom, since last few generation, the King of Rivermountain would always arrange political marriage with the Woodforest family to put additional pressure to Riverkeep family. The alliance between Rivermountain and Woodforest provided more security to the Rivermountain's family status.
To appease the Riverkeep family, the previous Rivermountain's king arranged another political marriage for Alash. Alash as the current King had two wives from both political marriage with the Woodforest and Riverkeep.
At that time there was an issue of the King's wives status. Who would be the first lady as Royal Queen and who would became the Royal Concubine, but since the Woodforest and Riverkeep had different level of nobility. The queen position went to the Woodforest's princess and the Riverkeep needed to become only a concubine.
The Riverkeeps accepted the arrangement with another agreement that although their mother status was only a concubine, their descendant would be given equal right to the inheritance. For the King's inheritance struggle itself, although it was not important whether the mother position is a queen or concubine, the main descendant from Queen's line would be given additional advantages. With previous agreement with the Riverkeeps, thus advantages had been annulled.
In some rare cases, prince came neither from queen or concubine, but an illegitimate child instead. Since the continent's culture valued bloodline from patriarchy lines, once the child proven to possessed their father's royal bloodline, they had the right to use the family name.
Sari Riverkeep was a 42 years old Advanced Novice Mage. She was 1 year older than Alash and having stronger cultivation than the queen. Alash and Sari had 1 son and 1 daughter. The older son was Kemaki Rivermountain and the younger daughter was Hening Rivermountain. Kemaki was 7 years old genius with monstrous level 8 wood affinity. Bening was the only one that had similar affinity level with him. Hening was 5 years old girl which recently undergone her awakening ceremony together with Jago. Hening had a normal affinity of level 6.
Last descendant of the Rivermountain family was Jago Rivermountain. Jago was unique existence on the royal castle. He was the only prince that having commoner as a mother. Although it was normal for a King to had a relationship with a commoner women, it was not normal to had descendant from those relationship, especially male descendant.
The law of the Northwood Empire allowed a descendant from commoner mother to contend for the nobility inheritance of their father. Normally the descendants from commoner origin would not be able to mature till the age of awakening. Their older brother with resources support from mother noble family would try to eliminate the possible threat as soon as possible.
Jago's circumstance was special since his mother, Ayu, was a servant of the Queen, Asri Woodforest. Ayu was not an ordinary servant either. Ayu was sworn sister of the Queen since young.
Ayu was a commoner girl with low affinity of level 2 wood elements. She had cultivation level of Primary Mage Apprentice. She was the only servant that following Asri from the Woodforest Kingdom when the marriage between Alash and Asri was arranged.
Ayu was 4 years younger than the Queen. Since young, Ayu served Asri Woodforest. They had very close relationship and even become sworn sister. Ayu's features were unique in the Kingdom. She had black eyes and black hair. Jago got this features from his mother's bloodline.
Ayu passed away when she was giving birth to Jago 5 years ago. Since then Jago was under care of the Queen and had been considered as their son. That was why Jago had very close relationship with Bening and Anteng.