-Alexis Lycan, 18 Years Old-
Alexis walks slowly down the hallway of the rundown building he calls home. Shoddy walls and peeling paint greet his eyes. He looks up at the ceiling absentmindedly, and notes that it is littered with holes and cracks, and sighs bitterly. Dreading the conversation he is about to have with his Lord father, he plods along. Said conversation will be nothing more than a demand really. This particular practice has happened repeatedly over the course of the past few generations like a depressing tradition. He takes one last look back at the all too short hallway and sighs sadly once more.
"Might as well get this over with." he mumbles to himself and opens the door slowly.
"About damn time you got here; we were waiting forever!" A gruff voice barks out immediately.
Alexis looks at the man who spoke, his father, and studies his face for what he knows will be the last time. With unkempt grey hair and full scraggly beard, Duke Jordan Lycan looks nothing like the picturesque lord most people imagine when they hear the word: 'noble'. He is a pale skinny man, suffering from hardships and malnutrition, all brought about by his own incompetence and tyrannical rule. This year would mark the 37th that he had 'graced' this world with his presence.
"I am sorry for my tardiness, father" Alexis bows slightly to the pathetic man standing in front of him. Then he turns to his left and gives a small, gentle smile to the frail woman sat upon a rickety chair. "Mother."
"Alexis" she whispers quietly before turning away with shame and the glimmer of tears in her eyes.
Veronica Lycan was once a beautiful and lively young woman with ash colored hair that almost seemed white and iridescent in the daylight. She was once a lowly peasant from the sole village the Lycan family still ruled over. Veronica had just turned 14 years old when that same beautiful hair caught his father's eye. The Duke marched into the village and demanded she marry him. Being a low-class peasant, she was all but powerless to refuse. His mother is now 32 years old, a sad and broken woman, who is but an object for her abusive husband.
"You called for me father?" Alexis asks while turning back to the man before him. Jacob Lycan gives a mocking smile as he spreads his arms out suddenly and steps forward slightly.
"You have finally become a man today, Alexis! You are now 18 years old!" The man speaks loudly with the same mocking smile on his face. "As any great father should, I have prepared a great gift for you, my only son." The duke then rummages through his broken-down desk and produces a single sheet of parchment and a quill pen.
Alexis' eyes narrows when he sees the expensive parchment which has been stamped with the official seal of The Dragonair Imperial Court. He knows exactly what it is but says nothing.
The man continues in the same joyful tone. "I have decided to graciously grant you my noble title! The title of the Lord of the Lycan Dukedom!"
"...Thank you, Father." Alexis says emotionlessly, staring ahead blankly.
-
For countless generations now the Lycan Dukedom was a dukedom in name only. Years upon years of incompetent rules has left the once prosperous land ravaged and picked apart by its surrounding neighbors and debt collectors. The Lycan family now only rules over a single impoverished village and the empty lands surrounding said village. Were it any other house, the Imperial Court would have rescinded the honored title of Duke and left them as just another of the hundreds of Baronets littered across the vast Empire.
However, before the founding of the Empire, when the armies of the first Emperor came to conquer the then Kingdom of Lycania, they met fierce resistance. The outnumbered but elite and disciplined army paired with the near perfect leadership of the Lycanian King meant that conquering them would be all but impossible.
After months of a tense stalemate, the Lycanian king did something that shocked the would-be Emperor. He offered to become a vassal of the soon to be founded Empire to avoid the unnecessary bloodshed of his people. His only condition was that the Emperor would take the Lycanian's only princess as his wife and swear a blood-oath that the Lycanians would never be anything less than a Ducal house which served directly under the emperor in power.
The Emperor gladly accepted and when he founded the Empire, a clause was added to the laws that would uphold the agreement for all time.
-
After Alexis signs the damning document giving him control over the 'Dukedom', his father smiles widely and claps his hands once.
*CLAP*
"Fucking finally!" his father cries out. "Those debtors were swarming me like damn flies!" Jacob Lycan, free from the crushing debt of the Lycan family, whips towards Veronica who was still sitting on the chair and exclaims "We're leaving!"
"Yes, husband." She says softly while glancing at Alexis with tears forming in the eyes.
The former duke quickly gathers his prepacked bags and double checks them to make sure all his belongings, and anything of value really, were inside and ready to go. While he is checking the last bag, he jerks up suddenly, an idea evidently coming to him.
"You know what?" Jacob smirks cruelly while looking over his shoulder at his wife with lustful eyes "let us use the bed one more before we leave. As a goodbye to this shithole."
"Yes, husband." A shaky voice replies while she trembles and looks down at her lap fearfully. Subconsciously, she begins shifting away from him slightly. A fact noticed by both Alexis and his father.
"Hurry up woman!" Jacob demands as he grabs his wife tightly by her arm and drags her to an adjacent room. "Congratulations, Duke Lycan." he spits mockingly at his son while still dragging the crying woman to the room.
Alexis shakes violently with rage as he watches his frail mother get drug away. He clenches his hands so tightly that he draws blood causing it to drip down and splatter on the floor. The blood looks strangely dark, almost black in places. He does not notice.
"Mother..." he whispers pitifully to himself as the door slams and tears slide down his face. It mixes with the blood on the floor.
He hears snickering from the other side of another door and his blood boils even more. The laughing men are bandits and thugs that his father had hired, numbering six in total. They were not hired with gold, as there was none, but with permission to pillage and rape the woman of the village whenever they felt like it. All they have to do was protect his pathetic father.
Alexis hates these sickeningly vile men. The bandits hurt and assault the people of the village in broad daylight, and he could only watch in shame as they did what they pleased. They were the main reason he could not help his mother. Alexis is now the Lord of these lands and protector of these people. He is supposed to save them, to help them.
"I'll save you" Alexis mutters wrathfully as he stomps out of the room.
The blood on the floor is darkened. He didn't notice.
-
Alexis awakens the next morning as the shoddy door to his room opens, admitting a petite young maid with blonde hair and dazzling blue eyes. She smiles softly at him and bows. She is an orphan that Alexis picked up off the streets on one of his rare visits to the capital. 18 years old and beautiful, she has served Alexis since they were both very young. They grew up together.
"Good morning, Lord Lycan." She says with a soft voice.
"Morning Sabrina." Alexis replies and sits up groggily. "Are they gone?"
"Yes, Lord Lycan. Both the lord and lady left early this morning, before first light."
"Former Lord" Alexis smiles bitterly and glances at the document he signed yesterday on the old desk in his room.
"My apologies, Lord Lycan. Former lord and lady."
Alexis gets out of bed, wearing nothing but his underwear, and approaches the table that his only set of clothes are set upon. The clothes are folded crisply and with care. Evident of Sabrina's attentiveness to him. He smiles fondly and reaches to grab them, but Sabrina scoops them up first.
"Allow me, my Lord." She says in her usual soft voice as she helps him dress.
When he is finished, he looks at the dingy mirror that is propped up in the corner. He had inherited the ash-colored hair of his mother and the inky black eyes of his father. He has a beautiful, graceful face that is just now starting to grow in a beard. His body is lean, but not healthily so. Years of malnutrition has taken its toll on him. Once he adds some pounds and fills out, he'd be an extremely attractive young man.
Glancing away from the mirror he sighs deeply. A damnable habit he finds himself doing more and more lately. Though this particular situation does indeed warrant it.
His parents have abandoned him, one maliciously, and one involuntarily, saddling him with a worthless title and thousands of golden dragons in debt. His lands are in shambles and in an obvious state of severe disrepair. The only village he now rules over is poor beyond measure and emotionally scarred from the constant attacks from bandits. His home is basically a shack, barely livable. He has almost no vassals to his name, as most have left, and rightfully so.
Alexis straightens his posture decisively and turns to Sabrina, "Let's go." He declares as he walks through the open door and out into the hallway. Sabrina follows closely, walking behind and slightly to the left.
"Yes, Duke Lycan."