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chronurgy · 2 months ago

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Malakai von Valancius: Family History

I wanted to write a bit about my rogue trader's backstory, so here we go! This part covers some of their family history, specifically looking at where their part of the family tree diverged from Theodora's.

The Rogue Trader Malakai von Valancius, heir to Theodora von Valancius, was no close relation to the late Theodora. Indeed, the cousins did not even meet until hours before the latter's untimely demise. Malakai was one of Theodora's many cousins, most of whom were several generations removed, descended from her aunt, Ephrais von Valancius.

Ephrais was passed over to become rogue trader in favor of Theodora's father, though it did not sour the relationship and the two remained close. Their father was a hard man who had himself come into being the head of the family after a period of internal strife had quite winnowed down its numbers, and he was determined that such a thing would not happen again on his watch. He had five children, and after he determined that his son Cornelius (Theodora's father) would be his successor, he set out to ensure that his other children were both well aware of his choice and not in a position to contest it. One of his other sons raged against his decision was quickly servitorized. Another daughter was sent on a dangerous mission from which she did not return. The third son, sensing a pattern, opted to join the red priesthood. Ephrais alone remained a potential challenger. Her father, however, struggled with what would become of her, as she was his youngest and, for all he preferred her brother, he was still quite fond of her. She had also been his second choice to succeed him, and he knew he needed to make sure his spare was still around until such time as Cornelius took steps to secure his own succession. Unwilling to see Ephrais dead or sent off to a fate as good as death in some far flung system, he instead arranged her marriage to the scion of the noble family Evusarr, known sector-wide for their great wealth, lavish parties, and lack of real thought. This family, he reckoned, would be too ridiculous to support her should she try to challenge Cornelius, but would see she lived a comfortable life, close at hand should he ever need her.

Ephrais von Valancius was called many things, but no one ever considered her anything less than sharp as a chainsword. She must have been well aware of her father's plans and, therefore, cognizant of the fact that they put her in a position far more comfortable than that of her other siblings. Her only condition was that she have the chance to meet her intended bridegroom before the wedding. Her father, seeing no harm in this one indulgence of his beloved youngest daughter, agreed. Within minutes of meeting the young nobleman, Ephrais declared herself to be perfectly satisfied with the match, perhaps because she sensed what many others would come to know in time - that her intended's nerve would crumble like a heretic before the wrath of the Inquisition in the face of her prodigious willpower. She ruled her husband and household with an iron fist, and corresponded with her brother Cornelius nearly weekly for the rest of the latter's life. Cornelius is known to have called his sister his best and wisest councilor.

There has been much speculation over the years as to why Ephrais did not attempt to defy her father and snatch the mantle of rogue trader for her own. Perhaps the bond between the siblings was simply that strong, or perhaps she was simply uninterested in the many responsibilities of the position. Perhaps, as some have speculated, being far younger than her siblings meant that, by the time she came into her own and looked to form her own base of political support, there were only scraps left to her, and she could not build a coalition powerful enough to ensure her reign. Ephrais was also known to be a faithful woman. Perhaps she simply believed that this was the path the God-Emperor had laid before her, and tread it willingly as his devoted servant. People have claimed that brother and sister made a pact, separate from their father - Ephrais would not challenge Cornelius so long as he listened to her advice, though of course no one, save the Emperor himself, can compel a rogue trader to do anything they do not wish. Some few people have whispered darkly that Ephrais was the rogue trader in all but name, and stood in the shadows as the true power behind the von Valancius throne, her brother a puppet king in truth, but such manifestations of twisted minds can hardly be given credence.

While Ephrais kept a tight grip on both the protectorate and her family, she was never quite able to beat the Evusarr family tendency toward what has been alternatively called silliness, nonsense, romantacism, or mercy, depending on the speaker, out of her veritable army of children. She had ten total, five sons and five daughters, of which three are known to be deceased, two are presumed deceased or lost to the warp, and five survive with known whereabouts. As her father had before her, Ephrais carefully selected from among her many children which one would inherit and then made it clear to the others that, while they were all still her beloved children and welcome to stay in her orbit, any challenge of her position would lead only to ruin for the challenger. Most of them did stay, for a time, content in the very lap of luxury. Eventually, however, driven by the Evusarr romanticism, the bored youth's desire for adventure, or perhaps the unbearable desperation of someone seeking some small seed of control over their own life, one by one all of Ephrais's children but her named heir ventured out among the stars. Most returned, drawn inexorably back into her orbit by her hold on the purse strings, youthful exuberance brought well in hand by material reality. All of Ephrais's children had suitable marriages to suitable highborn suitors waiting for them, each one handpicked to be both bearable and beneficial for all the involved parties. She could not give her children love over duty, but she could give them a duty that they might find it within themselves to bear. Upon the occasion of their marriage, each child was presented with a beautiful pendant, made from the same gold that had once been Ephrais's own wedding jewelry. One side featured an engraving of the Aquila, the other side the crest of the von Valancius dynasty. "For protection," she told each one of them. "In all its forms."

Only one daughter was ejected from Ephrais's orbit entirely, condemned to wander in the darkness between stars for eternity by her own mother's decree. Tabita Evusarr, always her father's favorite child, was said by her mother to be a middle child of no particular ambition or talent, though she was known to dabble in painting, dancing, sport hunting, and other such noble and ladylike arts. She had always been the most vibrant and vivacious of Ephrais's children, surrounded at all times by an ever-changing coterie of friends and lovers, sycophants and enemies. It surprised no one when Tabita presented her many invitations to the family and insisted that she take up each and every noble family on their offer of hospitality. Why Ephrais let her go is not known. Malicious tongues claim that Ephrais was simply more interested in the affairs of the protectorate than the affairs of her own family, and thus could not see just how much guidance her daughter truly needed. It is far more likely that she was hoping these visits would forge stronger bonds between the noble families, or thought this plan to be no more dangerous than the many travels of her other children.

But more dangerous it was. The Lady Tabita was raised in a most appropriate and devout home, but even those with the best of upbringing may stray from the path if they were born with a seed of disobedience in their soul.

Near a year after her departure, Tabita sent word to her family that she would soon be returning home. She had met her true love on her travels, and wished for him to meet her family before they were to be joined in blissful union at the feet of the God-Emperor in the family cathedral, where all her siblings before her had wed. Lady Ephrais received this news with caution, for her great wisdom told her that any individual who would accept or provide a proposal of marriage without first speaking to the head of the household could not be of good breeding.

Ephrais's wisdom had steered her true, for when Tabita presented her intended before the court it became clear very quickly that he was of no breeding at all - he was a lowborn, a peasant, and had, until very recently, been nothing more than a lowly gardener on some minor noble's estate. Nothing about the man could be called suitable for a child of the von Valancius lineage. When Ephrais expressed these sentiments to her daughter, Tabita responded with neither the grace nor the understanding befitting one of her position, screaming at her own mother in open court that this man (one Rolf Rolore) was her lover and she would marry him whether Ephrais approved or not. Ephrais begged her daughter to at least make him nothing more than a consort, if she must have him, but Tabita could not be disuaded. "Marry him if you must," Ephrais told her, "but do not think to do it in my hall. No child of mine could so easily turn their back on their duty to the God-Emperor and to their house, and so I declare you no child of mine. You need not my permission to wed. Begone, interloper, from my hall."

All in attendance had sat frozen in stunned silence at her proclamation. Half could not believe she would be so harsh as to sentence her own daughter to the life of a peasant over what was like to be a passing fancy; the other half were shocked that such defiance had not been punished with execution on the spot. Tabita's father tried to protest, at first. Tabita had always been his favorite child, always eager to laugh and dance the night away. Perhaps he even thought that he might have gotten what he desired when Ephrais called for Tabita to halt before the doors of the court. "Take this," Ephrais said, gesturing forward a servant. In his hand he held a gleaming golden Aquila, the same that had been received by each of her siblings. "For the God-Emperor is the only one who can help you now."

Mercy from a famously merciless woman, this gesture has been called. But knowing what came of it, perhaps it ought to be more rightly called another genius move by a known brilliant strategist.

Ephrais's husband had protested again after it became clear that she had not been swayed by his earlier pleas, desperate to save Tabita from the ravages of peasant life. But he could not hold fast in the face of his wife's determination, and Ephrais got what she desired, in the end, with minimal fuss.

While few records of Tabita Evusarr's marriage to Rolf Rolore exist, it can be surmised that it was not a happy one. For all her defiance, Tabita still possessed a delicate, aristocratic constitution, and was hardly suited to the hard life of a lower class wife. Cast out by her family and unwelcome to return to the estate from which he had originally come, the pair wound up where all the refuse of the Koronus Expanse eventually collects - Footfall, den of sin and iniquity that it is. Things grew harder for them still there, as a space station lacked any sort of garden that might need attendance by a master gardener and Rolf was forced to take on whatever bits of hard labor he could find. It was an ill match, a sad morality play for all to witness. Rolf could not keep Tabita in the comfort she was used to, and Tabita could not economise as Rolf expected her to. Such is the sad truth of a marriage across class lines, those barriers that the wise God-Emperor ordained should not be crossed.

Deeply unhappy and deprived of near every comfort she had ever known, Tabita turned to the only people on Footfall who had even a sliver of what she wanted - pirates, cold traders, and other such undesirables. In their dens of depravity, she found people who had the things she desired and were willing to give them away for an entertaining evening or a suggestion of which palms were particularly susceptible to greasing. Knowing the right people, and knowing how to act in front of the right sort of person, were, to those people, invaluable assets. And so, slowly, Tabita spent less and less time at home with Rolf and more and more time in Footfall's underworld, if indeed she remained on Footfall at all.

When she did return, she brought home amsec, silk, jewels, delicacies more suited for a highborn's table than the squalor of a void station, and, on four occasions, children. Who fathered these children of hers remains unknown, and Tabita herself was known to make contradictory statements on their parentage. Rolf, presumably out of duty to his highborn wife, raised them all.

The youngest of these children was born some time after the other three. Selaina Rolore inherited her mother's aristocratic constitution and was, by all accounts, a quiet and polite, if somewhat sickly, child. She took illness hard, and there were many times that it was only the many fervent prayers to the God-Emperor by her family that allowed her to survive. Other than the spoils brought back by her wayward mother, Seliana lived a life identical to that of many voidborn - after the most basic of schooling, she quickly went to work, running messages through the maze of Footfall's many asteroids. Once she was old enough, she found work as a barmaid and married one of her regulars, a repair worker named Enos Khar. Before their untimely deaths, Seliana and Enos had but one child, who would one day go on to become the von Valancius heir and ruler of the dynasty - Malakai von Valancius, nee Evusarr, nee Khar.

From The Chronicles of the Modern von Valancius Dynasty, compiled at the request of Seneschal Werserian to mark the occasion of the magnae acessio of Malakai von Valancius

#Malakai von Valancius #rogue trader #Merlin plays rogue trader #This was not supposed to be this long lol

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