Mëranac 2e

From Almeopedia

Mëranac 2e [ˈmjɛ ra nak ˈfto rɛ] was a king of Verduria, the sixth by reign and the fourth by person of the Abolineron Dynasty.

He was born in 3331, the son of Ažerey 2e. He grew up with his father firmly in control of the country, but he heard a little too much, perhaps, of the dangers of the other side of the family, his great aunt Icëlana's.

Mëranac read the entire history of Verduria written by his namesake Mëranac 1e-- as one courtier put it after learning this, "That makes two." He saw himself, a little anachronistically by now, as a great champion of Caďinorian paganism; he vowed, for instance, to remove the Eleďe seats in the Esčambra and to forbid conversions. Where his father was calm and conciliatory, Mëranac was fiery and abrasive.

When Ažerey died (3369), one of Mëranac's first acts was to disown his brother Ževuran for marrying an Eleďe. He also refused his second cousin Miďë permission to rebury Icëlana's remains in Verduria city, and for good measure banned her from the province. He then began planning the reconquest of Ctésifon.

Two years later Miďë defied the ban, accepting an invitation to stay at the estate of Meglavo surcont Anaseri. Mëranac was enraged; Anaseri, son of his father's prime minister, was supposed to be an ally, and it would look bad to send troops to arrest Miďë at his estate. Miďë responded to his increasingly incoherent letters with a seemingly reasonable proposal: they should meet at the house of Anaseri and work out a settlement.

Mëranac accepted, and arrived with a troop of the palace guard. He was plied with Célenorian wine, got drunk, and fell asleep. A bloody sword was placed in his hand; Miďë then cried out loudly, summoning the guards, both Anaseri's and the king's. She was cut and bleeding; she claimed that the Mëranac had attacked her before falling down drunk, and Anaseri backed her story. They managed to convince the guard that Mëranac was unfit to rule, and that Miďë should be enthroned instead.

Public opinion was more skeptical— it hadn't much taken to Mëranac, but it was loath to begin a new round of low-level civil war. In recoltë the king died, still in Anaseri's custody, supposedly of an aneurysm. Miďë was in Verduria city and thus believed to be innocent; the Esčambra reluctantly confirmed her accession.

Mëranac was married to Capira, a princess of Krasnaya; they had a son Orest, born in 3360.

Preceded by: Ažerey 2e

Mëranac 2e 3369-71

Succeeded by: Miďë