Icas Valudi Zdráhal

Years ago - about 20, give or take - King Cosimo of Imbeshia, beloved ruler who could do no wrong, had a secret affair with a Noisomi, young peasant woman, in Preytho, a nation far enough away from his home that he was sure news of his indiscretions would never make it back. He paid her off at first, for both her silence and the son he'd accidentally sired, but the money slowly trickled off until she was left with nothing. Noisomi was too sickly and far away to fight back, and so Icas grew up in poverty, miserable and full of hatred for the stranger who had abandoned him and his mother.

Icas didn't discover his royal parentage until his mother was on her deathbed; she told him his father was the late King Cosimo and that he should seek out the Dromichaetes family for a better life. After she died, Icas was alone - his mother's family had abandoned her for having a child out of wedlock - and very, very angry. He considers himself the true heir to the throne of Imbeshia, and he has every intention of making the entire country suffer as punishment.