Mylnric

Origins
Mylnric started life on a family farm in Bardonia. Named for the powerful mill which his mother was enamored with, he was taught to raise crops as an ordinary freeholder. Mylnric was barely beginning to reach adulthood when, well, Bardonian history happened.

With the family farm reduced to ruins by war with Uldaraash and winter coming, young Mylnric needed a new way to feed his family. Recruited by a group of local highwaymen, he set out to even the odds. Life as a henchman was not romantic, involving long sorties across the countryside punctuated by moments of sheer terror for all involved.

Fortunately for Mylnric, this group proved to be Bardonians in spirit as well as in name. What started as opportunistic thievery from Uldarasshi merchants evolved into well coordinated attacks on high value targets. As his superiors gained notoriety and began to win contracts for politically driven sabotage, Mylnric kept a lower profile and studied the patterns of both politics and business. Now more than a meat shield, he used his unparalleled knowledge of the land to understand strategic opportunities while mastering asymmetric warfare tactics.

Age is no soldier's friend; bandits doubly so. With every battle came a new scar or injury, slowly wearing down Mylnric's combat abilities. As peace began to come to Bardonia, he realized the time was coming to find a new way of life. Upon hearing news of the discovery of Eldham, Mylnric decided to sell his well-worn sword for a ticket to the new land.

''Out of character note: Mylnric's player is native to Eldham and has no history in Rathnir. This character backstory is exactly that: a backstory. He's also not a god-tier PvPer, which is represented in game by Mylnric's growing list of physical weaknesses and his present aversion to armed conflict.''

= Life in Eldham =

Settlement in Eldham
At first, Mylnric landed in the frozen wilderness of Irulan and attempted to set up a small farm unbeknownst to the local government. Having no local contacts or claim to his land, Mylnric set out to see if other nations may be better suited to his needs. Xenophotastic invited him to check out Leethharka, then little more than a few homes and other buildings carved into a mountain. Sheep grazed where the outer city is now located. Seeing the strategic potential in the location he was warmly welcomed to, Mylnric sought to learn more about the A.W.E.. At the time, it was a new nation formed from two others and was in the process of acquiring Bostadia. Mylnric was one of the first citizens of the A.W.E. to visit Fort Sporania, and may or may not have “mislaid” evidence of Mr. Pierogi’s legal claims to the region in the namesake horse’s stables.

Early Career in the A.W.E.
[ TO FILL OUT ]

Talk about him getting the Ministry, building a bakery in Leehhtarka.

Phoenian Civil War
While planning an extension of the AWE's Great Northern Road into Phoenia, Mylnric was introduced to his counterpart Astapf. Discussions of the road network led to Mylnric mapping Phoenia, but little more than that. Not long after that, RageOFire came to power in Phoenia.

Astapf came to Mylnric for assistance, claiming that Rage was abusing his power as the King of Phoenia. Under the Second Constitution of the Republic of Phoenia, the King and the civil government were required to be separate, and this was not the case under Rage's rule. Other abuses of power were alleged, including the buying of votes. Mylnric conferred with Xenophotastic, his mentor and at the time a higher ranking official in the AWE government. He suspected that Xeno was unofficially playing the role of a spymaster, and therefore very knowledgeable on foreign affairs.

The Holy Empire Of Lutum had just lost control of its claims, and while this was happening, Phoenia was expanding into Lutum's territory. This event had forced Blue Arbiter to seek asylum in the A.W.E., where he took a job as a police officer. In order to better judge Astapf's intentions and ability to work with the A.W.E., Mylnric invited Arbiter to the Sobering Scribe Tavern in Leehhtarka for the negotiations as well. His reasoning was that if Astapf were to seek asylum in his city, he would need to come to terms with the fact that the man protecting him is from Lutum.

Negotiations at the Sobering Scribe led to a plan of action, exposing the inconsistencies between Rage's policies and the Phoenian constitution as justification for supporting a planned rebellion against Phoenia. However Astapf pre-empted the necessary Senate vote to support such a measure by declaring The Phoenian Civil War anyway. The lack of public justification forced the Zamotz Union to quietly withdraw support, and the A.W.E. to offer no formal support whatsoever. Astapf became a wanted man in his home country, narrowly escaping pursuit by heavily armed mercenaries. The citizens of Rapture loyal to him fled through the jungles of the AWE and founded their own city, Ironton, before Mylnric could react. This claim was later legalized when its residents formally applied for and were granted citizenship. Phoenia itself would lose its western coast to a new nation, Soliana, and join the Zamotz Union.

Lutum proved far more patient and coordinated. Their king, TheClarkyCat, and his trusted man Lord_Volt broke their exile to meet with Mylnric and Xeno at the tavern. This resulted in a long conversation about the future of Lutum, and a tentative promise from the AWE to offer protection for the rebuilding process. Lutum became a formal protectorate of the A.W.E., retaining its sovereignty and core population while offering its benefactor considerable influence in a region that had previously been overlooked. Mylnric did not pursue options to get involved with Phoenia, figuring that his nation lacked the necessary settlers to retain control of a chaotic land. Allowing the land to fall into the hands of a trusted ally was no setback in his eyes; after all, "it's only yours if you can keep it". Lutum offered the support of its native population, and therefore would not need the AWE to draw resources away from domestic priorities except in the event of a war.

Forgotten Ideals Movement
In a strange twist, Xenophotastic was elected Senator of Ekari Province and then chose not to be seated. Mylnric served as his delegate for about two and a half weeks, trying to keep the government stable and taxes low. After Archeon was stripped of his High Council position, Mylnric returned the senate seat to its original owner. While the legality of this move was questioned, Mylnric pointed out that he was legally entitled to re-seat Xeno as Xeno was the duly elected Senator.

Xeno became increasingly frustrated with the AWE government, and began plotting efforts to change how it was run. He decided to launch a "coup" on the AWE discord, using mod powers to strip government positions from his nemeses and promoting TheOtakuKaiser as the true emperor of the nation. Mylnric was caught completely unaware by this, and moved his personal belongings out of his home in Leehhtarka to a recently reclaimed farm in Cansavia. The coup attempt resulted in a ton of personal drama, and culminated with "plea deals" being reached between Police Chief Gangstapimplimp and Xeno. Xeno was revealed to be Rennoc, Quincy Saint of Magic, and therefore able to gleefully defy being publicly executed for treason and forced to mine sand. Kaiser was not so lucky, and remained dead after his own execution for his minor involvement in the plot.

Much like Saint Rennoc, the drama didn't die either. The AWE Senate voted to consider merging with another nation, and several other members of the government sought a wide variety of reforms. This turned into an extensive Discord group thread between a number of similarly aligned people, discussing a wide variety of things including a new Constitution and a new name. However the group thread had a mole, reporting to the appalled General Archeon and exposing the conversation at a public event. Mylnric was at the time aware of the entire discussion, though a relatively minor contributor to it. He held the view that reform was best achieved by voting out members of the Draekar family, rather than insurrection. Nonetheless Mylnric was called upon to defend all aspects of the conversation in public, with many of the others involved forced to log off due to time zone differences.

The entire group, including Mylnric, was charged with treason. Mylnric used his public platform to refuse any plea deals, and the others later did the same. Due to a shortage of judges and jurors, this caused a collapse of the A.W.E.'s legal system. Controversially Mylnric enlisted foreign support by disclosing this to Eldham without any approval from the Emperors. In his view, the nation was on the verge of splitting up into pieces, and Eldham as a whole would care if its 4th largest nation imploded. Making the dispute public would provide useful outside pressure to get the situation resolved constructively, and prepare alternatives if it didn't. One friendly and one neutral nation offered assistance running a more unbiased court, while the AWE's enemies quickly took notice. Unknown to Mylnric, the other Entente nations had been informed of the situation.

Grand Falcon Coolworld moved the Senate to vote on the charges presented. While there was a lack of clarity whether the Senate was voting to pursue charges, or to convict the accused, this did result in Mylnric being let off with a clean record. Subsequent private negotiations led to the departure of several prominent members of the Forgotten Ideals Movement from Eldham, including Xeno. Others accepted plea deals, leading to a public execution at the city of Vonkari. Maxi put his city ahead of himself and chose to remain in the nation, along with one other. This alleviated Mylnric's concerns about "Vonk-exit" and caused him to scrap some contingency plans, which for legal reasons must remain classified. Yoissy was deeply unhappy with Mylnric's use of outside pressure, but swiftly moved towards constitutional reform.

Rule in Cansavia
[ NOTE: Ongoing ]

With the Forgotten Ideals controversy finally put to bed, Mylnric began to focus more inward. His bank balance was desperately low, in fact barely capable of sustaining a land claim. Interestingly, his situation was rescued by the former Phoenians who now led Soliana. Selling potatoes and then cactus for XP bought enough time to win a partnership with AdmiralDalai, who had created an egg farm in Encan City. Finally having the missing piece of a cake-making business without venturing into Leehhtarka, as well as a lucrative trade agreement abroad, Mylnric was no longer poor.

[ History of PortCansavia - maybe put on the Cansavia page? ]

= Values and Beliefs =

Religion
Mylnric is a practitioner of the Natuae branch of Quincy. While his life in Rathnir largely consisted of defying any form of civilized gods, the forces of the Astrokan region became impossible to ignore. As the proud son of a farming family, he is grateful for Gaia's gifts and sees his role in the world as that of a gardener. After all, weeds have to be removed in order for the crops to prosper. As a man accustomed to banditry before conversion to the faith, Mylnric does not see acts of sabotage against abusive authority figures as a heretical form of theft. This pragmatism stands in contrast to the prophet Yoissy, whom he otherwise respects. Similarly, Mylnric has a longstanding if hushed relationship with the Obergött Durchdenwald and maintains friendships with several of his disciples.

That said, a recent trip to the Empire of Ravenguard has planted a heretical seed in his mind. He has become increasingly intrigued by this nation, having found a completely intact shrine to Erucalad at an undisclosed location within Ravenguard. This led him to a meeting with Onetapped, who spoke of a dark god to Mylnric and the bandit Lathien. Mylnric has always believed that death is a part of life, and is increasingly of the opinion that this darkness is some sort of counterpart to Gaia. While the Quincy faith recognizes none of this, its overall decline throughout the AWE after the death of TheOtakuKaiser has made reformation appealing.

Politics
Mylnric is a committed minarchist and has been much of his life. Having seen the capacity of kings to ruin the lives of those who live under them, he is highly skeptical of state power. Mylnric believes the best form of statehood is a voluntary union of free men, and is very willing to volunteer his time for the greater good so long as this is reciprocated by other citizens. His strategy for making money is to leverage intimate knowledge of the A.W.E.’s land and people to become a successful merchant, rather than to draw a government salary.

He is inspired by Yoissy’s example of leadership through conflict resolution, but is ultimately a pragmatist rather than an idealist. While Mylnric is still nursing wounds from Rathnir and has little appetite for combat, as a Bardonian he understands the value in giving younger and more war-hungry men a constructive outlet for their passions. He is a firm believer in never fighting fair, only engaging his enemies where he has a distinct advantage. Soldiers shall be fought in court; scholars on the battlefield.

By leveraging relationships and careful planning, he defends his and his nation's key interests while taking those of others into account. While he believes his goals are honorable, Mylnric understands the brutal nature of conflict, and is not above drawing on the lessons learned from banditry to achieve results he believes are worthwhile.

As the founding Minister of Regional Planning for the A.W.E., Mylnric aims to grow both the economy and the relationships of his nation. This has nurtured a long term outlook, focusing scarce resources on higher priority projects and steadily growing the road network over time. He uses the government primarily to coordinate efforts across different communities, leaving each to be run according to the preferences of those who live there.