Tandaros Family/Maya
Timeless, stunning, terrifying, captivating - all words used by the peoples of the world who have come to behold Maya Tandaros. Maya has been considered cold and ruthless at times, while at other times metered and enlightened. Lady Maya is an enigma unlike any other, an unpredictable maiden of mysterious ways. Like all Tandaros islanders, she has bronzed skin, and constantly shows off her ever-lengthening head of silky black hair. A competent swordfighter, she always carries a shortsword or stiletto at her waist.
Maya Tandaros is Queen of Melhed, having ascended to the throne after wedding King Yeux Serpentis, who overthrew the republic and proclaimed the Kingdom of Greater Melhed. As Queen she is often seen wearing a deep purple cloak while traveling, with the black lamellar armor typical of Melite warriors. At court, she tends to don exotic gowns and war accoutrement.
Childhood
Maya was born to Rashid and Anysha Tandaros in Port Raviel at the Tandaros Hearth. She grew up there in the Maritime District with her family business. Then the head of only a merchant family, Rashid took a keen interest in the education of his children. He wanted all Tandaros kin to be diverse in interest and skill. While her brothers were often apprenticed out to tradesmen and sailors, Maya was frequently kept at the Tandaros Hearth apprenticed to Ibrahim the philosopher, tasked with taking letters, practicing calligraphy, and maintaining the library. As Maya grew older, she resented her father's overprotective manner of 'educating' her. After a dramatic confrontation, the two compromised; Rashid apprenticed Maya to the navigators' guild.
There, as a teenager, Maya learned how to sail, read the stars, and predict marine weather patterns. Unbeknownst to her father, the corsairs began teaching her swordfighting and how to handle raw Bloodmoon fruit. She spent her days at sea, by the docks, or catching up on her responsibilities to Ibrahim - she spent her nights carousing in the Maritime District, getting a street level education on the ways of D'Hara.
Coming of Age
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To flee this controversy, she sailed abroad, vowing to never return to Raviel and face her brother again. After a brief stint of self-imposed exile in Kindara, she sailed for Beluaterra and settled in Melhed, her new adopted home.
To her surprise, there were many D'Haran connections in Melhed - she swore fealty to the Countess of Seven Rivers, Kalixta JeVondair. Lady Kalixta became a mentor and a sort of big sister to Maya. They became regular sparring partners and joyfully discussed matters of war and politics at length.
In time the two powerful ladies grew in power; the Great Maharshi of the Bloodspeakers, Yeux Serpentis, began a rebellion to overthrow the seemingly-lifeless republic and establish a new monarchy in its place. Maya and Kalixta lent their swords to the cause; Kalixta helped secure the Golden Palace and became known as the King's Protector, while Maya brutally suppressed all republican resistance in Agyr. Her remorseless butchering of loyalists in the capital earned her a dark reputation. Yeux Serpentis was proclaimed King of Melhed; the realm seized in shock, and the world looked on with trepidation.
For her support in the rebellion, Maya was elevated to Countess of Seven Rivers, while Lady Kalixta vacated the estate to rule over Agyr at King Yeux's side.
A Wartime Coronation
Soon after the rise of King Yeux, tensions rose drastically between Melhed and Thalmarkin. After a war of words and threats, Thalmarkin declared war on Melhed, vowing to punish the upstart kingdom supplanting the peaceable republic, and recreate the realm of Ar Agyr in the duchy of Agyr. Thus began the War of Ice and Sun.
Countess Maya fought in the frontlines of the war. She noticed, however, that the material and spiritual stresses of war taxed the holy king deeply. The war taxed the realm's leadership across the board. Nobles began defecting or sailing for distant lands. Seeing her inspiration in need, the Countess daringly proposed a marriage of mutual admiration and benefit. The plan allowed for a better division of duties, allowing the King and Maharshi to focus on guiding the Bloodspeakers of the realm, while the new Queen would handle matters of state. The two announced the engagement and gathered for a simple wedding ceremony in Agyr. The news was met with mixed emotions - joy at the political match of old and new, and a division of powers - and disgust at the physical pairing of old and new, Maya's apparent greed, and Yeux's apparent lecherousness. Yeux was some 60 years old and Maya some 20 years of age at the time of wedding. Her surpassed mentor, Lady Kalixta, seemed to have the most mixed emotions of all.
Foregoing a honeymoon, Queen Maya lead a party of marauders known as Dragonstrike overseas for a brave strike on Thalmarkin's northern lands. Landing around Luhgrethen, the raiders made their way to undefended Sandefur, where the Queen and Lord Marc de Coivos set to burning down the city. Defenders raced from Unger to oust the Melite raiders. The first attack was deftly repulsed by the two warriors. Having been beaten on the field, Lord Jaeger Guile of Sandefur, Dark Sorcerer and Warlock of the North, infiltrated Maya's camp and attempted to kill her with a spell of hellborn violence. Her bones snapped and the world went dark. The Queen was spirited away to safety - stragglers stuck ashore were either killed or blended into the local populace, never to be heard from again. Thus ended the northern raid.
To be continued...
