Alyn Arkades

Alyn Arkades is Mara's father and the former Count of the moon Nimbus. As a member of the Pride, he helped Nasser Graham overthrow the Koan Empire. An academic at heart, Alyn specializes in the study of alchemy and the dream world. However, his membership in the Homyn family and affiliation with the Academy often force him to grapple with the moral vagaries of efforts to colonize Io's moons.
He encountered the Party during their adventures on Nimbus, where Alyn was trying to develop a cure for a condition that afflicted the local Moku called Helioschosis, which turned their skin to stone when exposed to sunlight. While they successfully developed the cure, the Party learned that the Moku Goddess was Alyn's former lover and Mara's mother. When the Homyn attempted to destroy the Moku religion and kill the Goddess, Alyn sided with the Moku and lost his position. Nevertheless, he remains on Nimbus as an advisor to the Moku's new leader, Tempi, and to help distribute his cure.

Early Life

Alyn Arkades was born to one of the four ruling families of the Homyn Kingdom. As Rulers of Autumn, they found themselves in an unfortunate position occupying the middle of a Spring Dynasty under the thumb of the longtime family rivals, the Hartos. What was worse, the ruling Koan Empire granted the Scalfi Autumn as a reward for the heroic sacrifice of their planet, leaving the Arkades second class citizens in their own home.
As a younger child of a family with waning political power, Alyn sought to make his mark on Homyn society through scholarship. Preferring books to the political machinations of his family, he developed a keen interest in both alchemy and the Dream World--the latter of which was considered a taboo topic under the Koan Empire's strictures.
Alyn had few friends growing up, but he did get along well with some of the commoners who lived near his castle, including the son of the Howe farming family. Howe was a more brusque and adventerous spirit than Alyn. Without a noble's education, he knew he would be consigned to the Lunar Brigade when he turned sixteen, and so he didn't bother reading books that would never help them. While their personalities and interests couldn't have been more different,

The Pride's Rebellion

As pariahs among the ruling class, the Arkades resorted to the aid of smuggler to access resources thier rivals in power deprived them of. Their relationship with the legendary smuggler, Jim Kestrel, eventually put them in the path of one Nasser Graham. Alyn shocked his entire family when he joined the rebel leader in his mission to overthrow the Koan Empire. Howe's rambunctiousness had rubbed off on him it seemed, and he was tired of a foreign empire telling him which books he couldn't read.
But a firm resolve alone could not prepare the young scholar for the adventurers life. He found the most trouble out of all the members of the Pride adjusting to the life of a rebel on the run. Often, he butted heads with the Geit Jorund Brighthoof. The two shared a mutual culture shock of the differences in lifestyle and temperament between Homyn and Geit nobility. Jorund balked at Alyn's feminine demeanor and use of "pixie magic", while Alyn found the surly Geit's manners little better than that of a barbarian.
Over time, Alyn adjusted to the role of a hero, and found himself the center of a few of the Pride's many heroic sagas. He is most famous for helping a Mong Bal city sheltering the rebellion's armies weather a siege from the Koan Armada's forces. As their food supplies dwindled, Alyn found an edible weed endemic to the city's fields. However, the local population refused to eat the "devil weed", believing the plant to be cursed. He overcame superstition with science by frying the weeds in oil, both replenishing the city's food supplies and creating a new snack that remains popular in Mong Bal to this day.
By the time the Pride snuck into the Imperial City and defeated The Undying Empress, Alyn had grown into a full-fledged hero. Even Jorund Brighthoof admitted to a begrudging respect for him. Together, they ushered in a new world order that would change the spheres and Alyn's family forever.

The Man of Two Worlds

The fall of the Koan Empire saw the Arkades family rise to power thanks to Alyn's efforts and the marriage between his sister and Nasser Graham. But Alyn was satisfied not to make any more marks on history, and returned to the Academy to continue his studies--this time without Koan censors looking his shoulders. He spearheaded the Academy's study into the Dream World, seeking to create a unified theory that connected the laws of the physical world with the Dream World.
Over the course of his studies he met a powerful daemon, a Reikeh Goddess known as the Blind Queen. She was an ageless being who ahd sired and guided countless civilizations in the spheres since time immemorial. From the moment they met, Alyn was enchanted both by her knowledge and beauty. Much to his surprise, she reciporcated his interest.
The two divided their time between the Waking World and the Dream World, as the Goddess aided Alyn in his studies. They also had a daughter together, Mara, who they raised as both a human and a Daemon. When living in the Waking World, Alyn's wife posed as a consort, making Mara a bastard in the eyes of Homyn nobility. The capricious nature of Homyn politics formed a rift between Alyn and his daughter, with Mara increasingly preferring the company of her mother's side of the family over him.

A Great Divide

Alyn's unique family fell apart when he finally published his research. With the Goddess's help, he found proof of his theories that the Dream World and waking world were connected. Specifically, the spheres held non-human lifeforms that helped build the Dream World- most notably a giant coral plant on the Moon Nimbus called The Grave created powerful dreams that served as a structural lattice of sorts for the Dream World.
Despite the Goddess's protests, Alyn was eager to share his findings. He believed that legitimizing the scientific study of the Dream World would prove a step to uniting both worlds. However, the Goddess saw his acts as hubris, and warned him that many other civilizations had sought to harness the power of the Dream World and brought calamity on themselves and the spheres.
Alyn achieved the academic success he sought from his research, published on a book called On the Dream World. The Academy awarded him a tenured professorship with the freedom and funding to continue his research as he pleased.
But the decision cost him the Goddess's companionship. Mara hardly struggled with the decision of which partent to follow. She saw untold wonders in the Dream World at the side of a Goddess, while the Waking World only ever saw her as a bastard. So, Alyn's academic victories proved hollow in the end. While he got everything he wanted, he lost everything that mattered.

The Moku Annexation

Alyn didn't take his former lover's warning about leaving the ancient mysteries well-enough alone. Instead, he sought to prove to her that the Homyn's scientific edicts could benefit her people.
He found a species native to one of Io's moons who still worshipped the Goddess. A nomadic people called the Moku, they were eight-to-ten foot tall humanoids who suffered from a condition called Helioschosis that turned their skin to stone when in contat with sunlight. The Moku revered Alyn's former lover as a Sun Goddess, believing their condition was punishment for the hubris for harnessing fire that did not come from the sun.
He directed his alchemical accumen and the Academy's funding to help the Moku by developing stable artificial clouds called Cloudheads that could be placed over the Goddess's holy sites so the Moku could live there and worship the Goddess permanently. It just so happened that their most sacred ground--called the Altar of the Goddess--was the very Grave organism that Alyn wrote about in his research. But the warnings of his former lover proved correct, and Alyn's family saw opportunities for political gain amidst his efforts. His sister, through negotiation with Moku leadership, annexed the moon, making Alyn the new Count. This would both solidify the Arkades family's power and provide them with able-bodied soldiers to repel the Scalfi from Autumn.

A Cure for Statues

With the Moku officially becoming a vassal race of the Homyn Kingdom, Alyn's sister tasked him with developing a cure for helioschosis. He found this new role fit him poorly, and preferred the title of professor to count when decorum didn't demand otherwise. His new position reunited him with an old friend. Howe, now a brigadier general, was assigned to lead Homyn military forces on Nimbus. The two men had drifted apart somewhat since their childhood friendship. While most of General Howe's military career was redacted, Alyn knew that he was part of an elite unit called the Greywings, dedicated to dispatching vassal gods who posed a threat to the Kingdom.
In the course of his duties, Howe's unit had caused the extinction of an entire race, when all of their female members committed ritualistic suicide after the slaying of their god. Alyn could tell that his friend had been scarred by those experiences, and perhaps even envied Alyn for getting to be a hero without bloodying his hands. Still, just as in their childhood years, Howe provided a needed brash counterpoint to Alyn's soft demeanor. He would need the forceful hand, as his subjects met his rule with mixed reception. The move to the Altar of the Goddess invoked a change in the Moku's rotating leadership, putting the more conservative and suspicious priesthood in control. Still, some members of the Moku religious orders embrace Alyn's scientific advances, including an eager young Monk named Tempi, who became Alyn's bodyguard.
Alyn received another mixed blessing when Mara returned to the fold. He was elated to have his daughter back, but found nothing but trouble and an icy reception from her. She constantly tried to undermine his efforts by scandalizing the Moku with her slovenly behavior, even starting a relationship with Tempi.
Matters grew even more complicated when the Party showed up with Alyn's niece, Princess Halle, hoping to gain access to the Grave in their search for the missing Nasser Graham. While Alyn was keen to help them, the Grave's exterior was protected by a hardened layer of helioschosis, and Alyn would need to find the cure to enter. While the Party was assisting him with his research of local fauna, Simon was captured by pirates and Princess Halle went missing going after him. Knowing the pirates really wanted Alyn and his cure, he set off with the remainder of the Party to the pirates headquarters on a chain of volcanoes called the Salamanders. Alyn also knew that Helioschosis was said to have originated in that area, so the visit might prove necessary anyway in his quest for a cure.
After an exchange of prisoners, the Party set off to the volcanoes to find the information Alyn needed. While successful, Mara revealed her true nature to them and Alyn's connection to the Goddess. She begged them not to allow Alyn to complete the cure. The Party decided that whether to be cured should be left in the hands of individual Moku, and provided Alyn with the data he needed. With a cure in hand and the pirates satisfied, Alyn was free to return to his subjects.

The Men Who Kill Gods

Arriving back home, Alyn found he had been betrayed. In his absence, Brigadier General Howe had launched a military coup and--under the Queen's orders--declared martial law in the city. They had dispatched the Greywings and rounded up the Moku monks, using the Cloudhead to rain lightning upon them and cement the Homyn as being gods in the minds of their new subjects. When Alyn protested the move, Howe locked him up and urged the Party not to intervene lest they get hurt in the coup.
While the Party freed the Moku monks, Alyn escaped his bonds and followed Howe to the top of the Grave. It became clear that his friend had more sinister designs in mind than simply dominating the Moku. With the Grave's defenses weakened by Alyn's cure and the Cloudhead's thunder, Howe could strike a blow that would rid the Waking World of gods and the Dream World they originated from. Alyn threw himself in front of Howe, hoping his alchemical skills and friendship might be enough to stay Howe's hand.
The Brigadier General likely would have killed Alyn had the Party not arrived, along with Mara, to stop him. Using information Itthis gleaned from the Dream World, Simon was able to convince Howe to stand down. With the threat diminished, the Goddess finally returned to take Howe to the Dream World to be punished for his crimes.

Rise of a New Sun

Alyn's ex-lover had no kind words to spare for him after the calamity his actions had almost wrought. She decided that she was giving up on humanity and their hubris, and that she would leave the Waking World. What was worse, she cast Mara out as well, a deeply upsetting turn of events for her that she, of course, laid at Alyn's feet.
With the Goddess's absence she allowed the Party to choose the Moku's next leader. Without hard feelings, they passed Alyn over to let Tempi lead his own people. Alyn accepted the rebellion gracefully, as he had never really wanted to be count in the first place. Tempi declared independence from the Homyn Kingdom, while Alyn stuck around to offer counsel and help distribute the cure. Mara left both her lover and her father to journey with the Corsairs, eager to find herself and leave this dark chapter of her life behind her. Alyn, however, would need to wallow in his mistakes a little while longer.