Tale Of Dante Leonidas

The Tale Of Dante Leonidas: Handow's Traitor or Sirion Patriot?

Dante Leonidas is the oft untalked about brother in the noble Leonidas family.

Certainly there is Cervantes the glory seeker, Nickolay the Hero of Tara, and Keffer who has seen his star rise as a noble, Duke, High Marshal and Marshal in Ethiala. But as for Dante Leonidas no songs are sung for him, for his is a tale of the fall of nobility. Dante was one of the many nobles that called Sirion home. Unlike most there he was not an elf, and therefore already in the minority. Also he was one of the young nobles who wished to see his star rise by proving himself on the field of battle, but many in Sirion had grown fat and happy with peace and saw this as unsettling. It was true Dante spoke of reviving the old warrior tradition Sirion had grown strong under, but as he spoke of facing the enemy on the field of honor; their were already enemies preparing to face him on the field of political battle.

The Fall

A soldier has the advantage of seeing his enemy face to face, a politician does not.

Shortly after one of Dante's speeches he awoke the next morning to find a message from Alexander, Judge of Sirion, informing him he was to leave Sirion in 3 days as he had been banned. Dante immediately set out to find out why and to see who was to answer for this.

Upon arriving in the capital Dante found his answer: Prime Minister Handow Meadowcrest had laid charges of treason against Dante and had him banned without trial or even a right to state his case before the council. Dante was bitterly incensed and found few to support his claim of innocence, though it should be noted that there was no evidence presented at the time of the banning. Instead that came later after several nobles questioned what was happening. Handow himself became heated and openly argued with Dante in public, causing much embarrassment to the nobles that watched. After 2 days Handow finally produced a hasty document that state his agents had seen Dante heading to an underground meeting. However that document had several errors pertaining to Dante's unit and financial situation, amongst other things. Dante himself pointed this out, but to no avail his anger had alienated him from old friends. Dante stated that Handow's men were wrong or unthinkably that Handow was lying. Dante argued day and night to have his name cleared of the ban, it was one thing to want him gone but another to tarnish his family name. Many scribes had recorded the great arguments and tempers of those few days, the culminating event of which was when Handow's anger drove him to the rather insane act of questioning Dante's noble birth. This shock wave harmed all the reputations that knew Dante and caused great unrest in the realm.

Dante could take no more. He asked that if Handow and those who feared Dante's speeches of renewing the military of Sirion would remove the ban from his name he would happily leave. Dante stated he saw no place for himself in Sirion as the elven overlords had seen to his complete humiliation and end of his military career. Some saw this as a reasonable request, Handow did not. He immediately called for Judge Alexander to arrest Dante and execute him. Though because the ban had not taken effect nothing could be done. Dante, nearly stripped of his honor and noble birth, called upon Handow to find it within him to at least grant him the ancient noble right to face him in battle to prove his righteousness. Handow said he would think on it, at first mandated by noble custom Handow managed to slip through his noble obligation. Handow left the capital shortly after the challenge and managed to put several regions between him and Dante. In the last minutes before Dante would have to leave or be hunted down, Handow granted the request. However being so far away Dante could not answer the call without being arrested by Alexander as the writer of this tale had warned him of Handow and Alexander's intentions. Dante finally left under no banner, and his honor denied. While leaving Dante was attacked by the King's personal soldiers and severely wounded. After staggering into the lands of Fontan he was arrested. Wounded, cold, hungry and alone in the world he wondered what would become of him, as surely as any noble would...

Aftermath

Those that fall by the hands of others may yet rise again.

The days that followed were rocky for all. Those in Sirion who called Dante friend ran for cover from the political fallout. Darfix his friend and Duke did so too, Handow and his council faced serious questions and demands for retribution for the harm of honor they caused to all nobles in the realm. Handow and Alexander ordered that all scribe notes, letters and records of the event to be burned. It was also forbidden to speak of Dante, or question why things had happened. The grey eminence of the realm, Doc, who had once ruled his own realm stood behind Handow and Alexander as election time neared. By a narrow margin Handow held onto his title of Prime Minister and Alexander remained Judge though neither were popular in the minds of the people. Dante's troops had been rounded up during his grave wounding and executed by the King's personal guard. They had given their lives to spirit Dante into Fontan. The surrounding villages were under orders to forget all that they had seen. But what of Dante? He had been found by a patrol in Fontan and imprisoned. As he sat and awaited his fate, a kindly Judge from Itorunt took pity on him and gave him asylum. Being a powerful realm it stayed the hands of Fontan from beheading Dante, whose hands were possibly guided by Handow still seething over Dante's defiance. Dante made his way to Itorunt, and began anew as a soldier hunting monsters and aiding his new found realm however he could. When asked of Sirion he looks away and says it was a long time ago. When asked of Handow he will then glare at you as if peering into your soul and will tell you no time is long enough to forgive him for his cowardice. For many the dust is settling on Dante's tale, and while many books recording the event have been burnt, this one will not. After all this story is far from over, for Dante and Handow at least.