Tandaros Family/Ismail

A mere 21 years of age, Ismail is the patriarch and master of House Tandaros, maintaining the House Seal and holding the ancestral and spiritual lineages. He succeeded to this position once his father, the sage Rashid Tandaros, died.

Ismail has olive skin, and he stands at six feet even. Since his father's death, he grew a beard to emphasize the appearance of virile wisdom, to belay the detractors who doubted his lack of experience. His hair remains long, as it was in his teenage years, and he favors tying it in a topknot, which he periodically decides to adorn with wide merchant hats. While at home he tends to wear humble clothes of minor nobility, such as patterned tunics; while on campaign he generally wears padded silk robes with whatever piece of armor he found a good deal on in D'Hara's ports. He has a slender build; not too athletic, but he can hold his own on the battlefield.

Ismail is currently serving as the Chairman of the Midlands Council of D'Hara. He is a known proponent of republican reform in D'Hara. He has also pressed assiduously for improving the armies' training and abilities.

Childhood

Ismail was born in Port Raviel at the modest Tandaros Hearth. Astrologers predicted at his birth that he would lead "the fish against the beast of the deep, to feast on rotten eyes, to guide the school to safety from straits rife with tempting sirens and deceitful lights." This prediction confirmed Rashid's glorious expectations of his firstborn son. He raised him as his successor from that moment on.

As a boy, he was apprenticed to many different tradesmen and scholars; netmenders, scribes, and soothsayers, among several others. Rashid felt it best that his son know the many ways of the islanders in order to serve as their lord and protector one day. Ismail seldom had time to play with other children his age, but he didn't miss it. He relished his 'adult' upbringing, though he did steal a sweetbun or two, and upon one occasion was caught with the guard captain's daughter.

Ismail's core interests grew to be rhetoric, philosophy, and military strategy. He enjoyed the tutelage of his family elders, who nurtured him like a tree they expected to grow great and give them protection some day. As a boy he was a common sight on the city docks, talking to fishermen, merchants, and nobility. He was a versatile youth, and he grew quickly, with a mind ahead of his physical age.

Coming of age

His ambitious upbringing paid off when House Tandaros almost exploded from internal tension, instigated by his young sister's botched engagement to a local noble. The heartbreak from this embarrassment essentially killed Rashid, which quickly brought the direction of the House into young Ismail's hands. Fortuitously, within the month, Ismail was elevated to full noble rights, and swore fealty to Oxi Methyl, Margrave of Qubel Lighthouse. The theory of service to the realm quickly became a very manifest reality. His knighthood was to be the test of his wits and mettle, with war against Aurvandil and Luria Nova being the herculean opponents his island republic came to face.

The rigors of command

In a short span of time, the ambitious young noble was elected Chairman of the Midlands Council, and took up the banner of the knighthood. Simultaneously his interest in battle tactics deepened, working his way up the ranks of military command and becoming a wartime marshal. He moved his estate to Port Raviel, where he helped oversee the reconstruction of the Maritime District and monitor the nefarious navigator syndicates. Young Ismail spent his days energetically working with the knights, soldiers, and scribes on countless civil and military matters; he spent many sleepless nights in deep study on texts of rhetoric or poring over maps and rosters.

Ismail took up the stewardship of the Book of D'Hara together with the newly founded Tandareen Council, the guardians of the realm's histories. In his studies, the young noble came to marvel at the times of the Dragon King, and was filled with an idealistic nostalgia for past times of greatness. Together with his studies on political theory and philosophy, Ismail became convinced that the realm needed to revive the old, glorious titles for the sake of the realm's identity and survival. He became a vocal proponent of what he called the Great Dragon Restoration.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4d/Eug%C3%A8ne_Ferdinand_Victor_Delacroix_033.jpg/539px-Eug%C3%A8ne_Ferdinand_Victor_Delacroix_033.jpg Ismail, standing right, with his late father Rashid.