HISTORY

Mavis, born on Wenday the 15th in the month of Thunder Moon, she was the second born to Earl Warrick and Lady Martha Ryder, current leaders of Derla, a riverside town known to be a trading hub of Ilithya Kingdom. Her elder brother, Merle, was born just one year before her, while Wrenna, her younger sister, was born three years later. Lord Warrick was an Earl of middling importance, his town Derla was an important trade hub, with access to the Silivant River. Lady Martha was lady in waiting to Queen Vlasta, wife of the ruling king Raghu, and while close to the queen, had never quite become friends. However their children grew up alongside one another, Merle formed a close friendship with the crown Prince Abbe, while Wrenna grew close to Princess Jemima. Mavis however grew close to the daughter of her fathers close friend, Lucinda.

As a child she was curious, always asking questions and being willing to speak with visitors, staff, and complete strangers. Along with this she was rather adventurous, not ideal for an Earl’s daughter as she frequently earned scrapes from falling out of trees, or ruined her dresses from trying to catch frogs. Her more rambunctious nature caused some issues, but never more than side eyes or comments from other genteel families, and while her parents never tried to put a stop to her behaviour they did their best to raise her appropriately, with mild success.

The result was Mavis growing into a civilised, elegant, and proper young lady, who also wouldn’t take no for an answer and certainly wouldn’t let anyone tell her what to do. With a fondness for falconry, an interest in horses, and a curiosity for the art of sword fighting, Mavis frequently joined her father on hunts and inspecting the troops. Her curiosity was humoured, and while permitted to join the falconry expeditions and encouraged to learn to ride, she was rarely allowed to do so unaccompanied. Along with this, her mother encouraged her to study reading and writing, along with needlework and dancing, and while she tolerated needlework, dancing quickly became another key interest of hers.

It was in her 18th year that the accident happened, Mavis, Wrenna, and the nineteen year old Merle remained in Derla, while her parents took a trip to Kardoon town in the north to see old friends, the father of Lucinda. A heavy storm caught their parent’s convoy off guard, their carriage was caught in a landslide, and was sent over the side of a cliff. The twenty foot drop may not have been fatal in normal circumstances, but trapped within the carriage Martha’s lower spine was crushed, while Warrick was thrown free of the carriage, only to become buried within the landslide, and die. News was slow to return to their children in Derla, the roads made dangerous by the storm, and it came as a shock to learn of their father’s death, their mother’s paralysation, and Merle’s subsequent inheritance of the title, Earl of Derla.

The change came as an understandable shock, the family’s dynamics changing overnight, all while trying to process the death of their father. Mavis retreated into herself, becoming less sociable and more stubborn, while Wrenna became afraid of travel, of death, and also became anti-social, preferring to be left to her own devices. However the biggest change was to her brother, who seemed to blame himself of his father’s death, and became overly protective and possessive of his family. His abrupt inheritance seemed to force him into maturity, almost overnight Mavis saw him change from cheerful and friendly, to closed off and blunt. His change soon drove a wedge between him and his sisters, they tolerated one another, but rapidly butted heads.

It was that same year that the reigning King Raghu died from a heart attack, and his son, King Abbe, came to the throne. It didn’t take long for Abbe to settle into ruling, and made quick work of advancing his most favoured to better positions. His best friend Merle, found himself with the role of Duke. Such responsibility only enhanced the upheaval of the Ryder family, not to mention the societal pressures to conform to the high rank, the engagements, the gossip and the rumour mill. Mavis was quick to grow frustrated with the confines of genteel life, her previous freedom becoming rapidly constricted by Merle’s overbearing protection, and the expectations of the other lords and ladies.

For a year she and her siblings struggled through navigating their new station and livelihoods, Mavis increasingly felt on the outskirts, more of an observer than a partaker. Mavis could only stand by and watch as her childhood friend Lucinda became the object of both Merle and Abbe’s affections. And could only watch as the friendship between her brother and the king began to shift. It was subtle at first, conversations becoming stilted, less time spent in each other’s company, and far more time spent competing for Lucinda’s attention. Yet somehow it was only Mavis who could see the mounting tensions, and it was only Mavis who knew what would come next. Her brother’s passion and stubbornness would crash headlong into Abbe’s dominance and confidence, and the pair would come to blows over the woman they both loved. Maybe they’d simply argue, perhaps the outcome would be a duel for her affections, or a feud between their families. Either way, the ending would be volatile, and she seemed to be the only one who could see that.

But even Mavis couldn’t predict the civil war that would come to descend upon North Naria.