Duke Hieloff

determined . cunning . ambitious

Usyma was born the only heir of the previous Duke Hieloff, and thus was brought up as such. Born to a stern but kind father and a loving but no-nonsense mother, Usyma was brought up to be a just ruler of the duchy. When his parents passed in a tragic accident, Usyma ascended to the position of Duke at a young age. Despite this, Usyma’s cynical mind kept him from falling to vultures and instead to drive his dukedom to prosper.

In the early days of his rulership, an old world ruin in his territory required inspection after mysterious reports and farfetched tales. When delving with the scouting party, Usyma began to discover just how advanced and ‘magical’ the old world truly was. Thus began his life long pursuit of rediscovering and reverse engineering forgotten technology. The Hieloff territory transformed in what we might consider an industrial revolution centralized on relearning this ‘magic’ that the ancients knew so well. The dukedom thrived.

Sometime in his late 20’s, he was approached with offers of betrothal from the Wissyt estate. With no real desire to seek partnership, Usyma was skeptical, but eventually – after much persuasion – agreed to meet with the eldest Wissyt daughter, Zsoya. It was not love at first sight, Usyma never believed in such things, but it was true they became fast friends. Usyma was dower where Zsoya was bright. Usyma was intimidating where Zsoya attracted. When they did fall in love, it was with years of companionship to accompany it. They were married in the fall when the leaves matched his hair and the clear lake matched hers.

While they never had children, Usyma took on his role of uncle to his nieces and nephews, children of Zsoya’s sister who had married royalty, with great enthusiasm. The two of them worked together to better revive old magic and revolutionized the entire kingdom – from weapons to infrastructure to agriculture and so on. It could not last, though.

In the days before the usurpation, Zsoya knew that great change and disaster was on its way. To protect Usyma and all the ways they helped people, hoped to continue to help people, she hatched a precautious plan. She and Usyma divorced, leading the entire kingdom to believe their marriage had soured. Usyma was heavily against this, but could not deny Zsoya anything, especially when it was only meant to be temporary. They separated, and war wrecked through the kingdom and that temporary separation became permanent with Zsoya’s murder for conspiracy with the crown. Having had no children and having divorced her, Usyma was spared and retained his title and lands for his contributions with the old world magic.

Her loss hardened his heart, more so as his nieces and nephews were killed off one by one until only Dhana, the youngest, remained. So, he worked in his forges, and plunged the depths of the ruins, and grew cold and hard and hateful. Despite being forced to continue his work for the new king, he never gives in easy and makes his displeasure well known.