Vlad Paripasu: Difference between revisions

{{a|heroes|{{image|First Men|jpg|[[Vlad Paripasu|Paripasu]] (the dishy dark haired-one behind and to the right) with fellow [[First Men|First Man]], “Ginger” [[Reg Margin]].}}

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Vlad was born in Bistrița in the high Carpathians, the bastard son of King [[Mutandis Mutandis]] of Carpathia.  

A sickly but intelligent child, Vlad learned to speak and read before he was a year old. From this time he was susceptible to bad dreams. He would recount them to his mother, a serving wench, who dismissed them as the product of an over-active imagination, but they had a habit of coming true. The King found this out, and took the boy into his court (over the fierce protestations of the Queen, who always hated him. But while the other children of the Royal Court would fence with wooden [[promissory note]]s under the tutelage King’s Consul Viclean,<ref>Romanian for “Deceitful”.</ref> the King kept Vlad away, not letting him out, ensuring no-one found out about the boy’s strange halluncinogenic power, which he feared could one day be used against the kingdom (this was one of Vlad’s earliest dreams). Mutatis tried to keep Vlad’s foretelling to himself, to stay one step ahead of his enemies, quelling any fomenting dissent among his people.

 

“And behold, your very advantage. For nor does he fear him,” said Uctis with bright eyes. “And what do you call a mortal foe who should fear you, but does not?”

“Dinner.” Suddenly a shadowy figure reveals himself in the greasy light from the pig-lanterns. It is the old fool, Uctis, collecting scraps and slops.

“Do not ''have'' a weapon that you could lose: ''Be'' a weapon: that you ''cannot'' lose. No-one can steal your cunning.”

One day his opportunity arrived. On the solstice, Vlad told the King — a superstitious man — that he had had a dream in which a cunning trickster would gain entry to the royal court and trick the King into handing over his crown.  

“How would he sneak in? My guards are the most vigilant and loyal in Eurasia” his father retorted.

“You, yourself, will unwittingly invite the thief into your midst, clutch him to your heart, treat him almost as your own blood. You will bear him across the threshold,” said Vlad. “In fact, you may already have done so. It may be too late.”  

Of course, Vlad was talking about himself, but the King was too vain to realise it. The King ordered a root and branch clear out of his army. How should I keep my crown secure? Vlad said, “Leave it to me, sire. I will make a plan. But it may take some time, and while I am work your crown is not safe. You should give it to me to look after so, if this trickster should arrive, he cannot take it from you.”

Word of his braggadocio and deception found its way back to the King. Far from being impressed with Vlad’s cunning, Mutandis exploded with rage, casting the boy out from the kingdom for ever — curse your perfidious dreams! — and bidding him never to return, on pain of death.

 

Vlad made directly for the great lost city of [[Salomoné]].

Vlad had not been gone a month when his dream came true: a ''real'' trickster, whom the King ''had'' welcomed into his court and treated almost as if his own son, tricked the King out of his crown, killing the King, Queen and older brother Randolph. The real trickster was Dragos, the same child who had tricked Vlad as a little boy.

When he was eighteen years old, after deceiving his father into giving up his crown, Vlad was banished from Carpathia. He fled to the Northern wastes in search of the lost city of [[Salomoné]], myths of which he had heard from his mentor [[Uctis]].

There he met, and forged a bond with, ginger Norse kinsman [[Reg Margin]]. the two of them discovered, in the ruins of an abandoned, ransacked settlement of the [[Children of the Forest]], the long-lost ''Dierne of Swæp'' — a mythical, sacred fruity knowledge believed for generations to be lost to the trading peoples of the world forever. Before long this knowledge was unleashed on the world like pandora’s box, and were were in a cold war, every party armed to the teeth with [[financial weapons of mass destruction]].

*[[Children of the Forest]]