The Kingdom of Parderaan is ruled by King Sagramour of the Gilded Fen. He has been the ruler of the kingdom for 100 years, yet he looks no more than 50 and is a strong fighter. Since his coronation in the year 528 BMY, he has sired 23 children, and has survived three wives.
King Sagramour's first wife was Lorraine, an elf from the Aelb-widu. She bore three sons during her nine year reign as queen. Her first two sons displayed normal half-elven traits and tendencies. The third son, Flaivel, had darker skin than was normal for half-elves. This peculiarity led to an investigation that revealed a dark secret about Queen Lorraine's past.
Lorraine's grandmother was a slave of the Drow deep in the bowels of the earth. During her time as a slave she bore one child; the result of a brutal rate that left permanent scars upon her soul. Before the child was born, Lendaya (Lorraine's grandmother) managed to escape and, after many fearful and horrible ten-days of travel, managed to reach the upper world with the aid of some friendly deep gnomes. Lendaya made her way to the place of her mother's home, the Aelb-widu, and delivered her child, a daughter whom she called Galadriel. Lendaya left the child, who looked like a normal elf having almost no traits of her Drow father, to be raised among the elves and departed the Aelb-widu. She was never seen again.
Galadriel bore her first child when she was 243 years of age and has since bore three other children. Lorraine was the youngest of the four. Galadriel was 413 years old and the time of Lorraine's birth. None of Galadriel's children exhibited any signs of their Drow heritage, much to the relief of both Galadriel and the other elves of the Aelb-widu.
When Lorraine reach the tender age of 132, she married King Sagramour. The marriage came at a time when the barbarian tribes of the Barrier Peaks were threatening, not only the Kingdom of Parderaan, but the Aelb-widu as well. The marriage was a means of uniting the Aelb-widu with the kingdom to defend against a common foe.
The dark secret that so perturbed the King of Parderaan was, of course, the fact that Lorraine's grandfather was a Drow elf and it would not do to have an heir to the throne who was part Drow.
Upon learning this truth, King Sagramour divorced Lorraine and disowned all of her children. Lorraine returned to the Aelb-widu with her three children. In the hundred years since then, Lorraine's older two children have died leaving only Flaivel. Galadriel, Lorraine and Flaivel live in a small home just outside of Ulshafen.
The legitimate heir to the throne of Parderaan is Prince Chestalaine, the eldest son of King Sagramour and Queen Bellamain, the king's second wife who later died of natural causes after a 74 year reign. Despite naming Prince Chestalaine as his successor, however, the throne will probably be a matter of contention if the king should die. The reason for this is that the citizens of the Duchy of Sobanwych, being in close proximity to the Aelb-widu, support Flaivel. This support was extremely strong at the time of Lorraine's dismissal from the kingdom and has not deteriorated much in the three generations since then.
The above legend was current as of BMY 634. Since that time, there has been the Darkness of Count Strahd's reign and the current war with Herigund. King Sagramour still lives though Prince Chestalaine is missing and presumed dead in battle. Given that Parderaan is losing the war with Herigund and will probably become a vassal state of the Herigund Empire, the question of succession is moot at this time (BMY 8, third age). |