Landon Shearwater

King Landon Shearwater

To say Landon Shearwater has had a taxing life would be an understatement. Born in Gods' Peak and raised by a harsh, unforgiving Lanwick Shearwater being told he was a worthless third child, Landon didn't believe he would amount to anything. However, he would be taken under the wing of his local distant relative, Silas Godspeak, a similarly spare son with no marriage matches or lands due to be inherited.
Silas mentioned leaving the Great Vale to head to Deathsport, as spare noble children would often have the chance to prove themselves to the King and potentially secure their place as an heir. When Silas followed on this dream, Landon was quick to join him. Silas was a quiet, wise, studious man, while Landon was quick to laugh and made easy friends with the common man, albeit by drinking heavily more often than not. Silas would eventually ascend to kingly status, and voiced his intent to make his good friend Landon his prince.
However, one drunken night, he discovered Dana, a commoner girl who laughed at his jokes as often as Landon did for hers, and quickly, they rushed into a marriage, potentially jeopardising his plans to succeed his mentor (the Royal Electorate tends to frown on kings having families, lest they be driven to nepotism). Love was blind to politics, however, and he set his plans aside to marry Dana and have a daughter, Sophia, with her.
This was the beginning of the end for Landon. Sophia was born blind and extremely sickly, and though she made it past infanthood, she would die at the age of five in a shaking fit. Landon's fondness for drinking spiraled into a rabid alcoholism, ignoring that his wife was going through equal grieving. The Royal Wisdom, Melancholy, offered Dana a way out of her loneliness, and she took it, poisoning herself on she and Landon's marriage bed. This broke the man further, and though King Silas was now happy to make him his prince, Landon was notably negligent of his duties, evading briefings to sneak further drinks in.
It was on his escapades that he befriended an up-and-coming field commander in training, Komekk Axol, a dark elf so skilled in fighting that he simultaneously inspired and irritated his fellow trainees. They would grow close, and share in a few minor military campaigns together, but despite Komekk's jovial attitude and complete willingness to engage in cathartic fist fights, nothing would bring back Dana or Sophia. Making matters worse, King Silas had grown senile and mad in his old age, shifting from a wise, kind mentor to a bitter, frightened curmudgeon, forcing Landon to hide further within drink and battle.
One military campaign, close to the Divine Halls, led to Landon becoming severely injured in battle. A spear had shredded one half of his ribcage apart, and the splinters had ravaged his lung. Despite this, the city's wisdom, a spellbinder known as Serella Senheil, used her ingenious medicinal skill to save him, but this near-death experience left him scarred mentally and physically. His close call made him reevaluate everything he'd become in the years following his wife and child's death, and from then on, he swore not to let emotions overcome him, and furthermore vowed to never touch alcohol again.
This change of circumstance allowed him to shape up and become the prince Silas needed him to be, and it was timely, as within a year, Silas died, passing the crown onto Landon. Immediately following his coronation, he terminated Melancholy's employment as Royal Wisdom, citing her humanoid experimentation and denying any personal motives regarding Dana's suicide.
He also appointed Quira Abraxas as Royal Advisor as a show of good faith following his predecessor's predecessor's active ruination of her father's life, and placed Serella Senheil, his saviour, in the position of second in line; behind his best friend, Komekk, of course. In addition, he replaced Melancholy with a young gnomish man from the Vale, Robb Stagg, a son who, similarly to him, was viewed as a waste of space by his father. Surreptitiously, he rescued Tei Fel'thuz from her own miserable home life as a third sibling by hiring her as the electorate's spy, the Royal Looking Glass.
Landon is the first Arkheran king to choose a woman as a potential successor, as well as the first to involve non-human, non-elven advisors and successors. Though his voice is dull and his gaze forever glassy and absent, the King of Arkhera's heart is in the right place, even amid the political strife that his position attracts.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Landon is a slightly overweight man with a naturally stocky build. He has skin jowls and prematurely grey hair from alcoholism and stress, along with jaundiced eyes and patches of jaundiced skin. He also bears a massive scar on his chest remaining from a life saving operation on his ribcage and lungs.
Facially, he has a button nose, jowly cheeks, a jaundiced complexion around and on the eyes, a hard, miserable gaze, grey blue eyes, and no facial hair due to being clean shaven. Tends to be red faced due to his former alcoholism. He prefers to wear a plain dark blue leather jerkin with a pied cloak, and a silver crown lined with minimal jewellery, while around his neck he still wears his marriage pendant, an opal-and-jet shearwater flying alongside a jasper hawk, representative of his late wife's favourite pastime, falconry.

Social

Contacts & Relations

Prince Komekk Axol (Heir)
Princess Serella Senheil (Secondary Heir)
Royal Advisor Quira Abraxas (Royal Advisor)
Royal Wisdom Robb Stagg (Royal Wisdom)
Tei Fel'thuz (Royal Looking Glass)
Captain Veraxes (Captain of the Royal Guard)

Family Ties

Religious Views

While Landon is technically an adherent to Arkheran Pantheism, he mostly holds a secular worldview in keeping with his acknowledgement that Arkhera is a nation of multiple faiths. He believes that if the six gods of the pantheon exist, they are largely indifferent to mortal suffering, and thus mortals have a duty to make life better themselves.

Relationships

Alignment

Lawful Neutral

Current Location

Deathsport

Species

Human

Conditions

• Daylight Drinker's Liver
• Insomnia

Ethnicity

Arkheran

Honorary & Occupational Titles

King of Arkhera and all isles within its waters
Head of the Royal Electorate of Arkhera

Year of Birth

510 AGA 41 Years old

Circumstances of Birth

Noble (Minor)

Birthplace

Gods' Peak

Parents

Lanwick Shearwater

Jana Applewood

Spouses

Siblings

Current Residence

Deathsport

Gender

Male

Eyes

Blue-grey

Hair

Grey (formerly blonde)

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Pale white, slightly jaundiced

Height

5'8''

Aligned Organization

Royal Electorate of Arkhera

Other Affiliations

• Elective Kingdom of Arkhera
• House of Shearwater
• Plains of Death

Known Languages

Common Tongue
Old Galdusian