Kiran Adderwood

Apostle Kiran Adderwood

Kiran Adderwood is the current dominant political force of Gods' Peak, and by extension, the Great Vale. While his countenance in the current day could be charitably described as stern, he was once a quiet, but hopeful young man with an eye for seeing the heart of matters as they swirled about him. While he retains his younger self's insight, he's far more able to back himself up with an assertiveness bordering on cruelty, especially if it's to protect his wife, his children, or his closest friend, Apostle Serena Godspeak.
He was born to a pair of half-siblings, Solomon Adderwood and his bastard half-sister, Petra, as the first viable fruit of their incestuous union. Even as a child, he was unwilling to approach matters within social protocols, seeing rumours and childhood gossip as 'stupid' and 'mean'. Occasionally, he'd play games, but even then have a notably stilted and unusual attitude throughout.
Despite this, numerous priests noticed young Kiran's temperament as ideal for grooming into a scholarly breed of apostle, much unlike the passionate, awe-inspiring, but ultimately unsubstantial piety of his father; one that would make the Freshwater Temple respectable to people beyond the obsessively devout. With this in mind, Ascetic Halder took Kiran under his wing and educated him not only in the Holy Hexacron, but the history of the Arkheran Pantheistic apostles, both in Godswater and Gods' Peak.
Halder had likely hoped this would edify the young man's faith, but in truth, it only gave the boy enough insight to, over time, come to the conclusion that while mystic forces most certainly existed, the narrative of the Hexacron's specific gods were little more than puppets being wielded alternately by very much political demagogues, each with their own personal takes on what justice, death, renewal, calamity, discretion and freedom meant. He kept his mouth shut about these conclusions, however, preferring Halder's company to that of his parents and especially to his mean-spirited, violent younger brother, Alder.
Eventually Halder would die and Kiran would present himself as the heir to the Adderwood apostolic line he was, watching over the heir to the 'greater' apostolic house of Gods' Peak, Serena Godspeak. He'd been vaguely familiar with her as his first cousin, but formally introduced himself on her sixteenth naming day, when she was to make a speech to the people of Gods' Peak. She faltered and fretted, and so he used the placebo he'd observed each great apostle of the past using before her; the notion that the Gods themselves gave apostles their words and voice.
It worked wonders and the girl continued the rest of her speech with confidence, allowing her to complete it to great applause. She didn't accept their adulation with pride, however, remaining the same shrinking violet she was before her speech, so when Serena approached him, amazed at Kiran's ability to 'predict the Gods' blessings', Kiran took a risk and revealed to his future co-apostle that he personally didn't believe in the Gods. He told her that his encouragement was there to give her the confidence to act on power she already had, and to not credit the Gods for her own strength.
Unbeknownst to him, his words would shape the young woman's confidence throughout the coming years, but while Serena was quietly benefiting from Kiran's youthful hope, his family was falling apart, primarily due to his younger brother, Alder, running roughshod. As a child, he was prone to destructive pranks and public displays that embarrassed all associated with him, but as a boy of fifteen, Alder had taken up more lurid interests.
More than once, he'd been caught spying on Jana Applewood changing, he'd pestered his father publicly about entering a brothel for his sixteenth birthday, he'd bragged about having sex with a commoner girl a year younger than him, but time and time again, his father failed to condemn the boy with any true discipline. Their mother wasn't much better equipped, as every time she attempted to admonish him, he would shout over her then run away from Adderwood Tower, only to return when his parents sufficiently wasted time searching for him.
The last straw for Kiran, who'd silently observed his failure of a brother twist into his monstrous form, came when he made sexual remarks about Serena. He talked of how she looked like the sort of woman who'd play the innocent when craving every impurity under the sun, and that he'd be glad to provide everything in her vile imagination. This caused the normally composed Kiran to break, and he punched his brother repeatedly, giving him the discipline he perceived his father failed to give him. He called Alder a dog whose only conception of morality was what made him feel good and what got him hit, so he would hit him until he finally understood his incorrect nature.
Alder attempted to play the victim, however, to Kiran's surprise, Solomon took his eldest son's side, apologising to Alder for failing to set him on the right path and apologising to Kiran for allowing the situation to worsen to the point where his eldest son had to play father to his youngest. Following this, Apostle Solomon Adderwood fell into a deep depression while the Adderwood brothers grew further and further apart, with Kiran coming to view Alder as the embodiment of why hope was an ultimately futile emotion.
Out of guilt for Alder's remarks about Serena, Solomon Adderwood set out to find a wife for Kiran who was anyone but her, as he understandably believed that Alder would attempt to cuckold his own brother. He found his answer in the form of Kayne Whiterock's fourth child, the excitable Juniper Whiterock. She was a couple of years younger than the twenty-two-going-on-fifty Kiran, and Solomon's hope was that she would restore some of Kiran's lost idealism.
Instead, while Kiran would marry her without incident, Alder's continued sexual harassment of any woman with a pulse, even those that happened to be married to his brother, would only drive Kiran to spiral further into cynicism, especially when, as he would discover, his eldest brother-in-law, Kenneth Whiterock, was just as much of a sex-obsessed maniac as Alder. Knowing that the Kanmaraki succession placed Kenneth as the likely seventeeth Kanmarak of the Mount, he would stew in the injustice of the world; the idea that good women like Serena would perpetually doubt themselves while mad idiots like Alder and Kenneth would dance their way through life with impunity soured the idea of the universe's innate justice to him.
As such, when Solomon Adderwood finally died and he ascended to apostle in his own right, he summarily kicked Alder out of his tower, citing fears of him molesting his daughter, Kirsten, once she showed even the slightest sign of pubescence. When his younger brother used his same played-out attempts to play the victim, scoffing at the notion he'd touch his own niece, Kiran refused to listen, ranting at him about how he was the sole reason he no longer saw the good in people; because no matter how deeply he looked into Alder, all he could see was a void.
When Alder switched his tactic to irreverent mockery, asking if Kiran was going to cry, Kiran responded by saying he was going to do what he should have done years ago, and began to strangle his brother. He was only stopped by Juniper, who begged him to show mercy; after all, Alder wasn't worth incarceration. Kiran relented, but threw his brother out nonetheless. He would hear of his homeless brother's exploits with numerous women and run-ins with the city guard, and when he received the report of Alder's body being found in an alleyway with severely mutilated genitals, he commanded the guards to throw it into the forest for the wolves to eat.
He's since remained a stalwart figure of harsh, practical political savvy within Gods' Peak, being trusted by Serena to act as the brain of the Vale while she plays her role as the heart. Kiran often fears that his brother has forever stained his soul, and to this day, his resentment of his brother-in-law, Kanmarak XVII, for his resemblance to Alder has led to persistent tensions between Gods' Peak and the main military barrier between the Peachvale Horde and the majority of the Great Vale's vulnerable agricultural lands.
Despite his grim nature and his lack of fondness for Juniper Whiterock as a sexual partner, his wife is the one person to assure him that no, his soul is not forever blackened, and balances his disciplinarian streak with a reminder that not all enjoyment of life is Alderlike in nature. As such, he tries his hardest to treat his now adult children, Kirsten, Norbert and Douglas, with the respect and love he wished he could have shown to the family he grew up with.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Kiran is a barrel-chested, red-haired man with freckles all across his face. His eyes are a distinct green, and his nose is somewhat flat and wide. He has a thick, red beard, and is slightly overweight. Wears a fine brown jerkin with a green cape, and around his neck has a marriage pendant which has a snake wrapped around a tree, representing his union with Juniper Whiterock.

Social

Contacts & Relations

Apostle Serena Godspeak (best friend, official superior, coworker)
Ascetic Halder (mentor)
Kanmarak XVII (ally, brother-in-law, rival)
Sir Lex Whiterock (brother-in-law, distant ally)
Lady Natt Gatley (ally)
Count Gad Burdock (ally)

Family Ties

Religious Views

Despite being an apostle, Kiran Adderwood doesn't believe in the Gods. He's open to the existence of supernatural forces, but he doesn't believe in the Gods of the Hexacron, believing them instead to encompass the microcosm of what humanoids care about; freedom, law, fertility, death, the unexpected and the unknown. As such, while he's fine for his eldest son, Norbert, to be a devout man, he doesn't require it of his children or his wife, nor does he hold things like fidelity to be important if all parties aren't deceptive.

Relationships

Alignment

Lawful Neutral

Current Location

Gods' Peak

Species

Human

Ethnicity

Arkheran

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Secondary Apostle of Gods' Peak
High Legislator of Gods' Peak

Year of Birth

505 AGA 46 Years old

Circumstances of Birth

Apostolic

Birthplace

Gods' Peak

Parents

Solomon Adderwood

Petra Adderfoot

Spouses

Siblings

Current Residence

Gods' Peak

Gender

Male

Eyes

Green

Hair

Red

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

White with freckles

Height

6'0''

Aligned Organization

House of Adderwood

Other Affiliations

• Arkheran Pantheism
• House of Godspeak

Known Languages

Common Tongue
Jaranese
Old Galdusian