Michael Talakar Mardrein, known as the Sword Wielder, was the second son of the Talakar line and King of Atlania during the devastating Valarnan war. Originally thrust onto the throne after his elder brother Blaine refused it, Michael took to kingship better than many expected, proving himself approachable, diplomatic, kind, and quietly cheeky in a way that made nobles and commoners alike hope his reign would be good, stable, and uneventful. That hope ended when the Valarnans invaded. Over ten years of slaughter transformed Michael from an optimistic young monarch into a warrior king driven by the survival of his people and a growing hatred for Valarna. During the war, he became the first Atlanian king in generations to draw the Sword of Drake’s Wrath from its sheath, marking him as a true bearer of royal power at a moment when the kingdom desperately needed one. Though he helped drive the Valarnans back and carried Atlania through one of its darkest crises, the toll of battle magic and prolonged war left him suffering from the Lessening, the final and most severe stage of Arcanium poisoning. His final years were spent away from the spotlight as his strength faded, while Blaine slowly assumed the duties Michael could no longer bear.

Sword Wielder

King of Atlania

early thirties

Male

Michael keeps himself clean-shaven whenever possible, a habit that reflects the disciplined dignity he tries to maintain even during war. In court or during calmer periods of his reign, he presents himself neatly and deliberately, with the approachable polish of a young king who wants to be seen as capable without seeming severe. During the worst years of the Valarnan war, however, he may go several days with stubble from exhaustion, travel, or battlefield necessity, making him look older and harsher than he truly is. The clean-shaven face is the king he wanted to be; the rough stubble is the war slowly taking him apart.

Michael keeps his light brown hair cut short and slicked back, though during the long Valarnan war it often looks overdue for a proper trimming. In court, the style gives him a clean, youthful, kingly appearance: controlled, approachable, and disciplined without being as severe as Blaine. On campaign, however, the same haircut becomes rougher and more practical, pushed back out of his face between battles, councils, and sleepless nights. It suits the contrast at the heart of him: a diplomatic young king trying to remain composed while war slowly strips away the gentler reign he was meant to have.

Light brown

6'

150

Michael’s most visible identifying mark is a scar along his upper left cheek, left by a glancing musket ball during the Valarnan war. It is not a disfiguring wound, but it cuts across the image of the kind, diplomatic young king he once was, making the war’s cost visible on his face. The scar gives him a harder edge in portraits and public memory, a reminder that Michael did not rule the Valarnan war from a safe throne room but stood close enough to the fighting for enemy fire to leave its mark. Combined with the later signs of the Lessening, it helps define him as a king physically changed by the very war he survived.

Michael has an athletic build, standing six feet tall with a lean, capable frame suited to swordplay, riding, and battlefield command. He is not as physically imposing or severe as Blaine, but he carries the practiced strength of a royal warrior trained for both formal dueling and real combat. Before the Valarnan war, his build would have seemed youthful, vigorous, and kingly; during the war, it becomes harder and more worn, the body of a diplomatic monarch forced into the role of general. By the time the Lessening takes hold, that athletic frame begins to lose its vitality, leaving the impression of a once-bright fire burning down to embers.

Michael has darkly tanned skin, common among southern Atlanians and well suited to his Talakar heritage. His complexion gives him a warmer, more sun-touched appearance than many northern or mountain-born Atlanians, and it pairs with his light brown hair and grass-green eyes to make him look approachable despite his royal bearing. As the Valarnan war wears on, that natural southern coloring becomes more weathered and severe, giving him the harder look of a king who has spent too many years in armor, councils, and campaign camps.

Atlanian

Grass green

Michael hates the Valarnans with the bitterness of a king who spent ten years watching them slaughter his people. Before the invasion, he might have been capable of diplomacy, restraint, and even eventual reconciliation, but the war burned those possibilities out of him. His hatred is not abstract or inherited; it was built from ruined towns, dead soldiers, desperate defenses, and years of seeing Atlania forced to survive a war it had not been ready to fight. By the time the kingdom pushed Valarna back, Michael was no longer inclined toward mercy. His retribution was harsh, personal, and shaped by the belief that Valarna had forfeited any right to gentleness.

Michael suffers from the Lessening after the Valarnan war, the most severe stage of Arcanium poisoning brought on by years of drawing too deeply on his magical reserves. He had been known as a powerful battlemage, and his ability to draw the Sword of Drake’s Wrath from its sheath marked him as the first Atlanian king in generations worthy of wielding the royal blade. But the war demanded too much of him for too long, and the inner fire associated with Atlanian vitality began to fade. After the fighting ended, his strength declined steadily, leaving him diminished, withdrawn from public life, and increasingly unable to bear the duties of kingship.

Michael was known as a kind, approachable king with a little cheekiness to him, especially before the Valarnan war ground that youthfulness down. He spoke to people more easily than Blaine did, smiled more readily, and had a gift for making nobles, soldiers, and servants feel as though the king was actually listening to them. In calmer years, that made him seem warm, diplomatic, and promising. During the war, the same manner became more strained: the humor sharper, the smiles rarer, the patience thinner. Even then, Michael tried to remain humane and steady in public, but those close to him could see the war changing him from an optimistic young ruler into a tired warrior king carrying far too much grief.

Michael is motivated first by the protection of Atlania and its people, a duty that becomes more desperate and consuming as the Valarnan war drags on. Before the invasion, he wanted to be a good king: diplomatic, fair, approachable, and remembered for restoring quiet strength to the kingdom. After years of slaughter, that hope hardens into survival and retribution. He wants to drive the Valarnans out, make them pay for what they have done, and restore enough of the kingdom that his people can breathe again. Even at his harshest, Michael’s wrath comes from grief and duty rather than simple cruelty; he hurts Valarna because he believes Atlania cannot be safe until the enemy understands the cost of what they took.

Michael’s greatest flaw was his optimism, especially early in his reign. He believed too strongly in diplomacy, good faith, and the idea that reason could prevent the worst outcomes if kings and nobles were willing to talk before drawing swords. Under better circumstances, that might have made him a wise and beloved ruler, but the Valarnan invasion punished that trust brutally. Atlania was left unprepared for the scale and ferocity of the attack, and Michael carried that failure personally. Afterward, his optimism curdled into wrath, making him far less merciful than he might once have been. His tragedy is that his best quality helped leave the kingdom vulnerable, and the war that followed destroyed the gentleness that made him good.

Michael was a talented negotiator, a renowned sword fighter, and a generational battle mage whose style blended magic and swordplay in a way Atlania would not see again until the Sixth Age. Before the Valarnan war, his gifts as a diplomat made him seem destined to be a thoughtful and stabilizing king, able to win cooperation through patience, charm, and careful words. In battle, however, he proved just as formidable, wielding a longsword with royal discipline and combining it with primal battle magic powerful enough to awaken the Sword of Drake’s Wrath after generations of silence. His talent was not merely that he could fight or cast, but that he could make both arts move together as one expression of Atlanian kingship.

Michael enjoys raising drake dogs, a hobby that reflects both his gentler nature and his Talakar connection to old Atlanian martial traditions. Before the war, tending, training, and breeding them gave him a peaceful outlet away from court duties: something loyal, lively, and practical that did not require negotiation or ceremony. During the Valarnan war, that affection likely became more bittersweet, as the creatures reminded him of the home and ordinary kingship he was fighting to preserve. Drake dogs suited him well: loyal, fierce when needed, affectionate when trusted, and tied to the same drake-haunted legacy that made the Sword of Drake’s Wrath so important to his reign.

Michael was an optimistic, approachable, and diplomatic young king whose best qualities were slowly stripped away by the horrors of the Valarnan war. In another age, he might have been remembered as a kind, cheeky, well-loved monarch who restored confidence through patience rather than fear. Instead, the invasion forced him to become a warrior king, hardening his mercy into wrath and his optimism into grim endurance. He never stopped caring for Atlania or its people, but the youthfulness that once made him so promising was consumed by ten years of slaughter, desperate defense, and magical overexertion. Michael’s personality is defined by that tragedy: a good king who survived long enough to save his kingdom, but not long enough to remain the man he had been.

Mutton and Saffron Stew

Drake Dogs

Long Sword

A little onyx gate figure, representative of the Royal Necropolis in the Kroloss mountains, so even if he falls in battle his spirit will have a bit of home with him. Given to him by Blaine and Hannah before the counter invasion.

Cadet Blue

Michael is a warrior king, though that was not the reign he was meant to have. He began as a diplomatic monarch, expected to guide Atlania through negotiation, stability, and careful royal leadership, but the Valarnan invasion turned his kingship into a decade-long struggle for survival. As king, general, battlemage, and bearer of the Sword of Drake’s Wrath, Michael became the living center of Atlanian resistance. His occupation was no longer simply to rule, but to endure the war, hold the kingdom together, and personally carry the royal authority of Atlania onto the battlefield.

Michael did not have the time or peace needed to develop a detailed political philosophy beyond the survival of Atlania, the protection of his people, and his hatred of Valarna. Early in his reign, he likely leaned toward diplomacy, stability, and cooperation, hoping to be a king remembered for reason rather than conquest. The Valarnan war changed that. Once the invasion began, politics became brutally simple: hold the kingdom together, keep the nobles aligned, defend Atlanian soil, and make the Valarnans pay dearly enough that they could never threaten his people the same way again. His rule became less ideological than necessary, shaped by emergency, grief, retaliation, and the terrible demands of a kingdom fighting for its life.

Michael practices Atlanian Mysticism, and during the Valarnan war his faith becomes increasingly desperate, personal, and martial. He prays often to the Gatekeeper, asking that if he falls in battle, his spirit be carried home rather than left to be devoured by demons or lost among the dead. He also prays to the Guardian to protect his family, his soldiers, and the people of Atlania while the kingdom bleeds around him. Behind closed doors, or alone in his campaign tent, his prayers grow darker: there, he calls on Kroloss not for mercy or endurance, but for the strength to destroy Valarna.

Michael’s job is to serve as King of Atlania and general of its armies during the Valarnan war. In practice, this means ruling from council chambers and campaign tents alike, holding together a kingdom that was not prepared for the scale of destruction brought against it. He commands armies, negotiates with nobles, directs defenses, leads counteroffensives, and carries the symbolic weight of the Talakar line at a time when Atlania needs its king to be more than a distant ruler. As the bearer of the Sword of Drake’s Wrath, Michael’s job becomes almost mythic: to stand at the front of a wounded kingdom and prove that Atlania can still fight.

Mid Dry Season

Michael Talakar Mardrein was born the second son of the Talakar line, raised with the education, discipline, and expectations of a royal prince, but not with the assumption that he would be the one to wear the crown. That burden should have fallen to his elder brother Blaine, but Blaine refused the throne, forcing Michael into a kingship he had not been meant to inherit. To the surprise of many, Michael took to it well. Where Blaine was severe, distant, and difficult to approach, Michael was warmer, more diplomatic, and easier for nobles and commoners to trust. His early reign had the makings of a good and uneventful rule: steady, hopeful, and remembered more for careful negotiation than grand crisis.

That gentler future ended when the Valarnans attacked. Atlania was ill prepared for the scale and savagery of the invasion, and Michael’s reign was transformed almost overnight from a promising kingship into a desperate fight for survival. Towns burned, armies were forced into brutal defensive campaigns, and the young king who had once trusted diplomacy was made to watch his people slaughtered year after year. In those years, Michael became more than a ruler. He became a general, a battle mage, and eventually a symbol of Atlania’s refusal to break.

During one of the war’s darkest moments, Michael achieved what no Atlanian king had managed in generations: he drew the Sword of Drake’s Wrath from its sheath. Before the war, neither he nor Blaine had been able to draw the blade, making the moment both miraculous and terrible. The sword’s answer marked him as the bearer Atlania needed, but it did not make victory easy. Even with the royal artifact in hand, even with Michael’s skill as a swordsman and generational battle mage, it took ten years of blood, exhaustion, and sacrifice to drive the Valarnans back from the mainland to the coast and their island.

By then, Michael was no longer the same king. His optimism had been burned into hatred, and his prayers had grown darker. Publicly, he prayed to the Gatekeeper to carry his spirit home if he fell, and to the Guardian to protect his family and people. Privately, in the silence of his campaign tent, he prayed to Kroloss for the destruction of Valarna. After the mainland was reclaimed, Atlania spent another year preparing a counter-invasion meant to exact a toll in blood for everything Valarna had done. The expectation was that the Valarnans, having fled in terror once the tide turned against them, would collapse when Atlania brought the war to their own shores.

Instead, Valarna fought like crazed animals on its own soil. What was expected to become a rout turned into another grinding campaign, one that might have continued far longer if not for the destruction of Salain. The end of the war brought victory, but not peace for Michael. He had drawn too deeply on his magical reserves for too long, and the toll finally caught up with him. The Lessening, the most severe stage of Arcanium poisoning, began to consume him. The inner fire that burned in all Atlanians faded in him from flame to ember, leaving his body weakened and his reign increasingly impossible to sustain.

In his final years, Michael withdrew to one of the Talakar summer homes, away from the public eye and the kingdom that still remembered him as the Sword Wielder. Blaine took on more and more of the duties of rule, first out of necessity, then because both brothers could no longer deny the truth: Michael’s kingship was ending before his life fully had. When Michael finally passed, Atlania entered a month of mourning before Blaine’s coronation. He was remembered as a good king who might have been gentle, a warrior king who saved his people, and a man whose youth, mercy, and health were all spent in the fire of the Valarnan war.

Michael is a well educated noble, particularly in diplomacy and warfare