Family Portraits

King Dairen and Queen Emily of Chandory

King Dairen, Queen Emily, Princess Adrianna, and Prince Seth

King Dairen and Queen Emily rule Chandory as co-regnant monarchs, a partnership built on love, trust, and hard-won defiance of the old king’s cruelty. Dairen inherited a wounded kingdom and chose to rule in answer to his father’s brutality, while Emily became not only his wife but his equal on the throne.

Together, they are the heart of the royal family: parents to Rhys, Adrianna, Seth, and the younger children, and the center of a court slowly learning that loyalty need not be built from fear.

Crown Prince Rhys and Crown Princess Morgann, Duchess of Hythebourne in her own right, and Countess of Blackthorne

Rhys, Crown Prince of Chandory, is the much-loved son of Dairen and Emily, raised with the kindness and security his father never knew. Morgann Blackthorne, Countess Blackthorne and Duchess of Hythebourne, became his wife, his fiercest ally, and the sort of woman court gossip never quite knows how to survive.

Their marriage joins royal blood to one of Chandory’s strongest western houses, but its true strength is far less political and far more dangerous: they love each other openly, choose each other stubbornly, and face the kingdom’s troubles side by side.

Count Joseph and Countess Eliana Blackthorne

Joseph and Eliana Blackthorne rule House Blackthorne with loyalty, practicality, and a fierce devotion to family. Joseph is one of King Dairen’s oldest friends and one of the crown’s most trusted western lords, while Eliana brings warmth, steadiness, and quiet strength to a house that has endured more than its share of loss.

They raised Morgann to be capable, stubborn, generous, and terrifyingly difficult to intimidate. Blackthorne is not the richest house in Chandory, but it is one of the most stable, built on the simple truth Joseph and Eliana understand well: people who are fed, protected, and heard are far less likely to burn the world down.

Baron Johnathan and Baroness Marta Avery

Johnathan and Marta Avery’s marriage began as an arrangement between equal houses, but grew into something warmer, steadier, and far more lasting than duty alone. Johnathan is loyal to the crown, blunt when necessary, and deeply protective of the people he loves. Marta is his match in sense, endurance, and quiet authority.

House Avery stands beside Blackthorne and March as one of Chandory’s loyal western houses. Though their eldest son Doran carries more pride than wisdom, Johnathan and Marta themselves remain proof that arranged marriages can become real partnerships when respect, affection, and shared work are allowed to take root.

Baron Geoffrey and Baroness Anne March and Baroness Celeste

Baron Geoffrey March and Lady Anne March are the heart of House March, a steady western family whose loyalty, kindness, and practical sense helped shape Queen Emily long before she wore a crown. Geoffrey is Emily’s father, a good man who learned to love Anne deeply and built a household far warmer than the court Alric ruled.

Anne became Emily’s mother in every way that mattered, raising Geoffrey’s daughter alongside their sons with tenderness, steadiness, and no distinction of blood where love was concerned. Together, Geoffrey and Anne gave House March its quiet strength: not grand wealth or sharp ambition, but decency, loyalty, and a stubborn refusal to mistake cruelty for order.

Celeste, their youngest child, was born late in their marriage and remains beloved by the whole family. Gentle, pretty, and full of wonder, she sees the world with a childlike brightness that makes those around her protective of her without making her any less cherished. In House March, she is not an embarrassment or a burden. She is simply Celeste, loved exactly as she is.

Princess Sarah Langley, Duchess of Langley, David Langley, Duke of Langley, Nicholas Langley elder son, Hugh Langley youger son

Princess Sarah of Chandory married David Langley, Duke of Langley, and built her adult life in England with him and their two sons, Nicholas and Hugh. After the upheaval following Bosworth, Sarah’s brother King Dairen recalled the family to Chandory for their safety, turning what was publicly called a family visit into a permanent refuge.

David is a loyal husband, careful father, and capable duke whose Yorkist ties made England increasingly dangerous. In Chandory, he finds new purpose helping oversee Hythebourne, Morgann’s vast and complicated duchy.

Nicholas, the elder son, is nearly grown and carries the strain of exile with quiet dignity. Hugh, younger and still bright with possibility, is young enough to train, learn, and find his place in his mother’s homeland.

Together, the Langleys are not merely guests of the Chandorian crown. They are family brought home before England could decide to make them useful or dead.

Dowager Princess Mary Elizabeth and Andrew Hartwell

Mary Elizabeth, Dowager Princess of Chandory, has long refused to remarry after the disappearance of her violent husband, Alexander Dunhaven. She wears widow’s black by choice, not grief, and has made a life defined by independence, sharp wit, and a complete lack of interest in being managed by anyone else.

Andrew Hartwell, the younger son of a minor knightly family, serves in her household with competence, discretion, and a loyalty that has inspired no small amount of court whispering. He is not her husband, not quite her steward, and not merely an attendant, which is precisely why everyone finds the arrangement so interesting.

To Mary Elizabeth, Andrew is useful, handsome, attentive, and entirely her own business. To the court, he is a small scandal. To her family, he is mostly tolerated, partly because he makes her happy, and partly because no sensible person wishes to be the one who tells Mary Elizabeth what she may or may not do.