Tandaros Family

House Tandaros is a royal family originating from Port Raviel, D'Hara. Ismail took the family name from the Port's city streets to worldwide renown. Tandari are known to be loyal soldiers, diplomats, and lords. Many are restless and struggle with a wandering spirit. Maya took the family name to wild Beluaterra and rose to the throne through intrigue, marriage, and rebellion. Though Ismail founded the noble house and became Prime Minister of their homeland D'Hara, Maya took the Tandaros name to new heights in Beluaterra - once as Queen of Melhed and now as Empress of the Shattered Vales.

Several other scions of the house come from the Ismailite and Mayaite tribes of the family, as well as other minor Tandari cadet tribes who jockey for control over the House's hearth and wealth. Presently Hector Serpentis Tandaros holds the House Hearth, though he is known to be loyal to his mother Empress Maya and her will.

The Tandaros Hearth is presently located in Xavax in a state of disrepair.

Notable Kin

Nobility

• Ismail - Royal Lord of Nifelhold, Tandari Prince, Consul of Sanguis Astroism, devoted statesman of Morek Empire. Missing.

• Maya - Empress of the Shattered Vales, Wolf Queen of Melhed, fearless commander, beautiful enigma, mother of Prince Hector Serpentis Tandaros.

• Rashid - Great sage, Raviel merchant, mastermind of the Tandaros ascension. Deceased - old age.

• Cicero - Rashid's youngest son out to make a name for himself. Reportedly joined Arcaea to master the sword. Deceased - syphilis.

• Hector Serpentis - Son of Maya and Yeux Serpentis, Wolf Prince of Melhed, half-elvish cavalier, Count of Igno and Redwing exile in Sirion.

• Rahula - Bastard daughter of Ismail, born and raised in Madina, stunning heroine defiant of feudal norms.

• Tycho - Firstborn son of the Ezekielite tribe, Baron of Naru_Desert, Court drunkard in Oritolon.

Lowborn kin

This section includes adventurers and Tandaros NPCs.

• Ibrahim - Steward and philosopher of the Tandaros Hearth in Port Raviel. Astrologer and soothsayer.

• Caterina - Mute juggler from Nidhogg's Mark. A total wild card.

• Omar - Exiled and disowned by House Tandaros. Deceased - killed by monsters.

• Nestor - Adventurer, navigator and corsair. Deceased - killed by monsters.

History

The ancestral Tandaros Hearth is located in Port Raviel. The Tandaros claim ancestry back to ancient Dwilight island tribes. Before elevation, they served as clerks, small-time merchants, soothsayers - a variety of professions that served their realms faithfully and, over time, gradually built the family's prestige on the islands.

There was a great family crisis surrounding the circumstances of Maya Tandaros' marriage to a local notable in Port Raviel. The whole affair is a taboo topic in House Tandaros. The great disagreement caused Maya to board a midnight ship to the Far East, only leaving a note for her dear brother Omar. After Maya's flight, Rashid blamed Omar and promptly disowned his son, denying him the graces of the Tandaros name and leaving him as a mere commoner.

Rashid Tandaros was the great mastermind of the Tandaros ascension. He died of complications from old age a mere month before his first son, Ismail, became the first Tandaros to achieve noble status and receive a Knighthood.

Philosophy

The Tandaros merchants of past generations were known to handle trade by day, and engage in debate by night. The house came to meet many different people from many different lands; Lurians, Madinans, Caerwynians; nobility from Atamara and the East. Many goods and many ideas came to Tandaros nobles on a regular basis, and they became quite fluent in both.

In the course of House Tandaros growing its trade practice, it also developed a private nighttime school of philosophy, known as the Symposium. Local notables who proved to be honorable and wise would be invited to watch, debate, and feast, along with any Tandaros who felt inclined to attend. In the time of Rashid's patronage, attendance was considered mandatory - debates would have 100 men and women in focused discussion until daybreak. With Ismail's current patronage and service at the Lighthouse and on campaign, the organization of the Symposium has been proxied to Ibrahim, a Tandaros kinsman. Attendance to the Symposium has dipped and they now tend to be quiet, low-key affairs.

The Symposium has yielded several political philosophies. Many of them are not known publicly as the debates are private nighttime affairs. However, a scribe stole this secret from Ismail's personal correspondence:

It is true that the Tandaros Hearth is a home to republicanism, and I share many of those ideas, but our political philosophies are vast and deep. We have many theories. There is the theory of the Four Giants, brother sea-kings who lean on each other, and together stand tall and hold up the world - this was my brother's favored doctrine, a federation of four sea princes maintaining order for the purpose of peace, trade, and honor in the islands and in the south. There is also the theory of the Strong Seas, that the currents will bring good fortune if you only find them; suffice to say, the people give rise to honorable leadership, where a republic would rise and become powerful like a rising tide. As a Tandaros philosopher, I also subscribe to No Clouds - philosophical openness.