De Bardt Family

"Honor, Loyalty, Valor."

The De Bardt family have been raised in Melias well steeped in the virtues of knighthood since time immemorial. Melias is part of the Duchy of Hawthorne in the Kingdom of Eston. Most children of the De Bardt family have followed in the family tradition and become knights or heroes, using the family motto of "Honor, Loyalty, Valor" as their guiding philosophy.

When the family patriarch, Karl de Bardt, passed away, he left his modest estates to his eldest true son, Johann de Bardt. He was also survived by his two natural sons, Jean Alain and Luc Tancred, and his daughter Alyssa and his youngest son Henri. Karl de Bardt was a doughty warrior who fought in the Viking Wars as a troop captain for a more prestigious knight. He was lamed by wounds received in one of the many sieges and spent the remainder of his life confined to his estates, raising his sons with sometimes harsh but always disciplined affection.

Johann is the current head of family. While younger than his two half-brothers, he was the eldest eligible true heir. Johann is a Paladin of the Venerist Paladins, the warrior clerics of the Venerable Order of the Citadel. The Venerable Order of the Citadel is the greater of two state religions in Eston, dedicated to veneration and memory of ancestors. Johann is extremely earnest, loyal to Eston to the point of self-sacrifice, and quite firm in his espousal of the knightly virtues.

Jean Alain is the eldest surviving member of the De Bardt family. The bastard child of Karl de Bardt, Jean Alain loved his mother dearly. In her youth, she was the loveliest milkmaid in Melias -- which surely caught the eye of Karl. When Jean Alain was only four years old, she took ill from the plague and passed away within a week. Jean Alain was taken into the home of Karl de Bardt and raised alongside his younger half-brothers. A skeptic by nature, Jean Alain believes that pragmatism is the best way to live. Somewhat against his better judgement, he found himself a Paladin by virtue of the only liege who made him an offer.

Luc Tancred is the second oldest bastard son of Karl de Bardt. The son of a camp follower, he was never formally recognized by his natural father. As such, he has lived his life as a peasant. Upon reaching adulthood, he learned the truth of his birth and tried to find his father, only to find that the old man had passed away. He found, however, that his half-brothers welcomed him into their household. The noble life was not to his taste, so when the youngest son, Henri, left Atamarra to find his fortune, Luc Tancred followed the feisty lad to keep an eye on him.

Henri is the youngest child of Karl de Bardt. Fervently dedicated to the romantic notions of knighthood, Henri wished to make his name in the world by achieving great deeds. His first stop, in the Sanctum of Casshern, lead to disaster, followed by even greater disaster in Svunnetland. Now a knight of Hull in Nighthelm, he is beginning to learn of the greater world.