last edited by geekgirl on May 12, 2009 - 4:47pm

Julian ab Teodur

Julian ab Teodur is the acknowledged bastard of Anton Teodur, head of the lower noble House Teodur, one of the powerful families in Tar Mira. Julian was the product of Anton's first love, a common girl, daughter of a household servant. Bastards were not unusual among the nobility, even acknowledged bastards. Acknowledging the heritage of a child bestowed no true rights or privileges save permission to use the family name. Anton was slightly unusual in that he continued to dote on his mistress and bastard son as the years passed. When the time came for Anton to marry, he refused to set them aside, instead settling them into a townhouse in another part of the city.

Following the dictates of his mother and family, Anton was married to a Marsden girl. The noble Marsden bloodline was held to be powerful in the art of Necromancy. Ironically, not one of Anton's four children by his Marsden wife had proved to be a capable sorcerer in any discipline, whereas Julian the bastard was both highly respected and feared for his arcane abilities, particularly those involving Celestial Forces.

Julian and his mother continued to hold Anton's heart as the years passed, much to the dismay of his Marsden wife. When an acknowledged bastard began his or her third decade of life, it was tradition in Tar Mira for that person to be exiled from the city, typically with some token fortune and the company of a servant or two. No suggestion of exile was ever raised for Julian. It was commonly rumored that such was Anton's affection for his first-born son, he refused to be parted. Instead, Anton funneled money to his son who quietly began making forays into the less-desirable venues of Tar Mira.

It was after the birth of the fourth Teodur heir to the Marsden girl that her brother, Raban Marsden, took public offense at Anton's well known preference for his mistress and bastard over his legitimate wife and children. Shortly thereafter, an attempt was made to murder Anton's mistress, now in her mid-forties, by unnamed assassins. Her townhouse was burned to the ground in the attack, but she was not seriously harmed. Within a month, Raban Marsden, after suffering more than two weeks of total and complete insomnia, threw himself to his death on the rocks of Tar Mira's harbor from the top of a lighthouse tower. Anton Teodur allowed himself to be truth-read by a Magistrate of the city to prove his innocence of any wrongdoing in Raban's death to his wife and the Marsden family. Julian ab Teodur, now a man not easily found, remained silent. No other attack was made on Anton's mistress.

Sometime in the fourth decade of his life, Julian joined the Pearl Buttons street gang that operated in the South Docks district of Tar Mira. Within three years, he became their undisputed leader. Since his ascension to leadership, the Pearl Buttons had seized complete control of all criminal activity in their district. The few challenges to their territory had been met with swift, deadly reprisals. None opposed them now. In a strange turn-about, an honest woman alone could now walk the streets of the South Docks in safety no matter what time of night. It was whispered that Julian and his father, Anton Teodur, collaborated in certain of their affairs. But it is only whispered.

"Julian ab Teodur" created by Tony Graham in Death in Tar Mira: Chapter 5.

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