Lures Askar (1920-1901)
Era beginning/end
Lures Askar and his mother had a close bond and he grew up fiercely defensive of her, knowing that throughout her reign she had been surrounded by enemies and those that sought to undermine her. When she died of the shaking sickness in -1920, he was devastated by her loss and returned for months to the Malermic Temple, which in turn became a shrine to his mother. Lures became more deeply connected with the Malermic faith and spent the first year of his reign in absentia, lost in silent contemplation that nearly drove him to the point of madness. He claimed later in his more secret correspondences, that in the howling wind of the plains he heard powerful booming voices of creatures that claimed they were from the very beginning of time itself, and that the Keeper and the religion he had built around him was a sham and a lie. Lures was finally brought to Arc, where he managed to maintain part of his innate reclusiveness. His brother Malerin ruled for several years in his stead as a regent and proved to be an effective and popular administrator. The eventual fate of Lures is unknown, it is suggested that he came into conflict with the Aruhvian Church that had established itself in Arc after the Council of Gol, as he harboured suspicions about the church from his Malermic days. One popular myth that abounds is the story that Lures simply took to the sea, leaving Arc in the dead of night by sailboat, and was never seen again. With his death ended the short century of Starrander monarchs. Historians view this period as one of exceptional growth in living standards across the Arclands (often at the expense of the rest of Aestis). It was also a cultural golden age and much of the art and culture that is widely treasured and valued in Aestis is referred to as Starrandic.
