O'Ways Family
Family Coat of Arms
The Family Values are: Honour, Service, Truth.
"Bene Agere Et Nil Temere"
Family History
A common family, they referred to themselves as 'Seekers' as they saw life itself as a way to seek the Truth in all things. They revered the Great Dragon, a creature they consider to be a manifestation of wisdom, knowledge and courage. To them, the Dragon represented all those capacities of human nature that can elevate the mind and soul to the highest levels, bringing wisdom, compassion and light into the world but can also bring them down to the deepest ignorance, cruelty and darkness.
When the last days of Drachenwald were afoot, some of the family were caught up in clashes with take-over forces and were killed. With Only Kay, Micha and Megistos left alive, the latter sent his two sisters to the north, to find a new home for the family. They never made it there as they were ambushed during this journey. Megistos occupied a nobleman's estate that had fled Drachenwald, and the family was recognised amongst the Noble classes of the Cagilan Empire. Megistos returned to studies and published several tomes on the nature of matter and the immaterial.
Several years on, Megistos had gotten in touch with a young man that lived with his brother in the woods. He had never lived amongst men, therefore the boy did not even speak English. He was able to communicate with anything around him through some kind of universal language. Intrigued, Megistos took the boy home with him and started with teaching him to speak. The boy learned fast and was very eager to, so Megistos kept on instructing him, until the young man could be considered some kind of scholar through his knowledge and wit. He had a natural gift for mathematics, physics and logic. Megistos decided to adopt him officially, to be his heir to the family seat.
When Cullen came of age, Megistos disclosed the entire family's history, including the macabre faith his sisters had suffered. But now he also revealed that in Kay and Micha's company were also their two young daughters, Deirdre and Siobhan, and where his sister's bodies had been found months after they had disappeared in the Alaise mountains, there had never been any sign of his nieces. Cullen swore to find them and became a Knight of Alatol at the age of 17.
He soon had tracked one of them, Deirdre, back to Hidale. The two young girls, age 8 at the time, had been taken by the bandits that had raided the coach in Alaise to be sold as slaves in territories overseas. One of them seemed to have been more a burden than an asset to them and they dumped Deirdre at a pharmacist's practice in Hidale. There, she had learned about healing and surgery, and she could be considered a healer by her own right. When Cullen passed through the region he immediately recognised the strong-willed redhead to be his foster-father's niece. She immediately travelled to Alatol and was accepted by Megistos as his own daughter, therefore granting her equal position in the family to Cullen.
The family’s values are Honour, Service and Truth.
Honour as a form of self-respect and of others, accepting that differences between people and all things are actually there to enrich the experience of life and make it an enriching voyage, and also as a statement that every person is as valuable as anyone else.
Service, for those who hold knowledge and wisdom have the sacred duty to share them with all who are worthy.
Truth, as the one, incomprehensible reality, that brings both fact and speculation, empirical evidence and intuitive self-interrogation together into a sustainable theory of life and beyond.
Hamish
Cathay, Far East
Commander of the 13th Alatol Dragonclaws.
After a couple of years, Donovan, Megistos' Estate Keeper, recruited a young orphan to replace his son, who had been killed during the short but murderous invasion by Abbington forces in early 2007. The boy's father had been killed in that same attack on the County, and for a short while he served the family as stable-boy and gardener. Soon, Megistos discovered him to be able with the sword and that his wits were just as keen. He held a family Council where it was agreed that Hamish was to be adopted into the family, thereby granted nobility. He was put in charge of the 16th Alatol Dragonclaws, volunteers who escorted him to the Colonies realm of Giblot, where he staid for a few months, but due to lack of orders and action, he chose to emigrate again.
He chose the newly formed realm Cathay as his new home and became a Knight of Leod. He volunteered for the Kingdom's first foreign military operation, a sortie into Ethalian lands to break the Arcaean siege of Larmebsi. He was almost killed at the subsequent counter-attack, where he shot down a former Marshall of the Cagilan Empire that now served with the Arcaean forces and as the fortunes of war decided, attacked his sector of the line. He has become more and more attached to the Kingdom and it is becoming ever less likely he will ever return to Atamara.
He is a tall man with dark hair and light eyes, very straightforward and even more outspoken than Cullen is. His values are his only doctrine and he will defend them with his life. With Deirdre he shares the love of battle.
Units:
Credits
OOC: A big thanks to my lovely wife Kelly for the great shield.
