Petrichos Line

The Pertrichos of Citad are a family whose members have had political impact in the region of Citad.
=== Fonde Pertrichos ===
Fonde Pertrichos (Founder of the line of the Lions of the Flame) was a civilian military counselor to the royal line of Citad, the ruler of a small principality to the south of Citad and made a noble by order of Queen Gashan. He was famous as inside of his principality he created a community for those who were cursed with Anthropy (the manifestation of animalistic traits and physiology with more or less control on the transformation). He himself was afflicted with Suidanthropy.
==== Early life ====
A decorated military logistician who had worked for Queen Gashan and briefly for her son King Demetrius, Fonde was very loyal and lenient to the royal line and its actions, forgiving debts and even giving his granddaughter Goston the Ursanthrope (Werebear) to wed Prince Nikan II. 
For his service, Fonde was given principality over lands to the southern forests of Citad by order of Queen Gashan. He would later use this land as a refuge for Anthropes from all over the kingdom and neighbouring countries. He eventually asked for Fanfa Bearqueen’s, (the leader of the largest tribe of Ursanthropes at the time) hand in marriage
To this end he acquired the lands surrounding his principality and built a famous castle whose stone and decorative statues would change during the night. 
==== Ascension of King Demetrius ====
Fonde and Fanfa were well known for their assumed Anthropy, but were strongly opposed to disloyalty towards the crown and the radicalisation of Anthrope movements such as the wolf horde. 
These movements were particularly active and intensified during the beginning stages of the magical genocide initiated by King Demetrius, and naturally the principality attracting Anthropes from all over was a strong target for the radical movements.
Fonde Pertrichos reportedly refused to aid the wolf horde when it asked for his help in a coup against King Demetrius. This resulted in his family being ousted by Sentient wolves under orders of the Moon Marked Bat. The Noble family escaped the invading wolf hordes to establish a new life elsewhere. Pertrichos fled the principality to seek refuge in Knil, but was betrayed and landed in the plainlands south of the Meridian (a body of water to the southeast of Citad that separates it from the plainlands). 
==== Arrival in the Plainlands ====
They eventually landed in the plainlands, where they befriended Leoanthropes and sentient lions. 
The proud Leoanthropes and sentient lions of the plainlands were initially suspicious of the arriving nobles, and imposed their rituals of acceptance upon them.
Fanfa had to find suitable quarries to hunt for the tribe and Fonde had to fight the largest Lion of the pride to be accepted.
They later learned of the cult of the Sun Lion, the Leoanthropes religion based on the veneration of the hunt, the pride, the sun and the plains. The couple were eventually educated in the ways of the Leoanthrope society and, when they proved useful to the pride, were brought to the Celestial Temple to receive the Sun Lions gift.
The Sun Lion, the religious leader of the sentient lions gave the Pertrichos line Leoanthropy, which replaced Fonde’s Suidanthropy and Fanfa’s Ursanthropy. He was renamed Fonde Lion of the Flame. Fonde’s family crest became the crest of the Solarfelis, a lion’s face with a flaming mane. Fanfa learned to fight with the Solarfelis, the warrior caste of the sentient lions.
Fanfa soon missed her homeland and so did Fonde despite their strong faith and attachment to the plainlands. They eventually rebuilt a small fleet, raised an army of Solarfelis, and with the blessing of their god the Sun Lion, left to retake the nobleman's domain.
==== The Prince trade ====
Before the trip, Fonde’s wife was pregnant and gave birth to a boy in the boat transporting them. They met another ship, transporting Prince Aewe and his wife to a wedding. The meeting was courteous and the two couples seemed to bond, but that night Prince Aewe wrongly deduced Fonde’s intention was violence against his line upon discovering the Solarfelis aboard the ship. 
Prince Aewe escaped with his wife and Fonde’s child mistaken as his own. Aewe’s ship would eventually go off course and crash in the Plainlands, where his adopted son would grow to become the King of Leopards, while his real son would become the Vaticin, the self titled educated patrician. Fonde would not question his hosts hasty departure and continue his return to his homeland with Aewe’s son.
==== Return to principals ====
Fonde returned to the ports of his domain, his forces quickly eradicated any resistance before them. After having ensured that the wolf horde and its sympathizers were executed he returned to Castle Pertrichos. 
Fonde detected easily that his people no longer saw him as the ruler he once was, having been profoundly transformed by his escape and experiences in the plainlands. He was optimistic he could return in the people's favor. His family continued to live in the castle, living away, but not recluse, from their people. 
He was convinced that his new appearance as a Leo Permanthrope (an individual afflicted with Anthropy so severe it can no longer revert to its original form) should not be hidden away from his people, and so he allowed them on his property. He was especially fond of travelers and merchants, sometimes offering them shelter for the night and inviting them to his table.
==== Vaticin Seaborn, the Lion Prince ====
During this time, Vaticin Seaborn was growing, and proved to be a smart and cunning young gnome. Despite his heritage, he never turned into a Leoanthrope which confused his parents. When Vaticin asked, they told him it took time, which he seemed to accept at face value, secretly the prince sought outside help for explanations of the phenomenon.
He was academically gifted and enjoyed reading. He was notably fascinated with the plainlands and would have long discussions with the Anthropes of the principality and Solarfelis who had accompanied his father. He also had an adventurous spirit and often sailed off the coast, this was not lost on Fonde who knew his son would one day leave for the plainlands. Fonde adored his firstborn son and groomed him as best he could to become a strong leader in the hopes that he would return to rule his principality.
==== Sola the beastly ====
Fonde’s wife eventually bore a second son, Sola, who was born a normal boy but quickly exhibited Anthrope characteristics and became a fully fledged Ursan permanthrope in his early teenage years. He became known as the beastly for his wild temperament and tantrums. 
Sola did not have the connection Vaticin shared with his father (despite very real efforts on both parts) and this frustrated them both to no end. He was artistic at heart, was fixated by beauty in nature and in painting, and had a lovely singing voice. He had a few scraps with his brother who often mocked his artistry, and sought solace in his mother and the castle staff.
To please his father, he attended audiences with the Prince but he seldom agreed with his father's decisions, notably concerning his infallible sense of duty to the crown.
==== Vaticin leaves ====
The First lion prince, Vaticin sensed some of his people’s discontent and longing to go to the plainlands to settle a colony dedicated to the worship of the Sun Lion. 
Vaticin eventually left, renouncing his claim to the principality to his younger brother Sola, the brothers left on good terms, and Vaticin left for the plainlands with his followers of colonists, Solarfelis’s.
==== Death of Fanfa ====
Eventually sentient wolves of the wolf horde returned and once again attempted to convince Fonde to join their cause. During an audience with the king, Sola manifested interested in their ideas but was rapidly silenced by his father. 
Fonde refused once again to help them and had the Lycanthrope messenger eaten by his Solarfelis guards. In retaliation the wolf horde sent murderers to kill the prince’s family again, and killed Fonde’s wife. Out of grief Fonde cast a magical spell protecting the castle from the wolves. The spell allowed his people to freely cross the threshold of his castle, but Lycanthropes could not, which would alienate them further from their prince.
Sola, now a late adolescent, was deeply affected by the death of his mother and rejected the gift of Anthropy as a result, he developed a cruel nature being locked inside the castle and came to detest his father even further. The feeling would become mutual however, and the two would clash constantly despite the castle staff desperately trying to keep them separate.
Sola would lock himself into the organ room and play for hours on end to attempt to soothe his pain and frustration.
Prince Fonde continued to serve the kingdom as best he could from inside his castle but slowly even he saw that the king would one day come to end his life and that of all magical citizens of the principality.
He never truly explained the reason he locked his son into the castle, mostly because they would never speak, but during one violent argument they came to blows and Fonde fell down stairs, breaking his neck and died cursing his son to rot in the castle. Sola interpreted his father's curse as being magically bound to the castle till death.
=== Prince Sola ===
Later as he grew,and despite his servants attempts to educate the beastly son into becoming genteel and kind like his father the now Princes tantrums became frequent and violent (but never against the staff of which he was actually very fond). 
==== The Jailbird Prince ====
Sola would eventually free himself of his curse when the sentient wolves stormed the castle, realizing that his father was trying to protect him from the sentient wolves outside the castle. He donned his father's ceremonial mane to atone for his patricide, and destroyed the wolves aided by the Solarfelis statues his father had enchanted as guardians.
When the wolves were defeated, villagers came to pay tribute to their prince, some asking (and receiving) the gift of Leoanthropy from the prince.
==== Peaceseeker ====
Sola did not find peace for his actions however, and the Solarfelis who lived in the principality eventually converted him to their religion. He would have visions of his father offering him guidance, as appearances in the clouds.
One day, the rain forced the Prince to seek shelter in the forest where he would meet sentient wolves fleeing the opening stages of the magical genocide. At first hostile, the Prince then sees his father's face staring at him from the clouds, and sees that his father wants him to reconcile with the Wolf horde.
==== Mishad ====
At peace with his father and the wolf horde, Sola married Misha (in actuality Aristan, now a werebear) who lead the Ursanthropes his mother once led. They had a child together, Goston.
Misha, being much more crafty than her husband sought to protect the refuge from King Demetrius, she did this by giving her daughter’s hand in marriage to Prince Nikan II, Demetrius’s son. It is rumored that Fonde appeared as a ghost to the wedding to give his granddaughter away, and gave a sad, knowing look at Sola. 
Demetrius would have his revenge by having Sola assassinated in his organ room. Sola’s death marked the end of the direct line of Pertrichos.
==== Aftermath ====
Misha assumed leadership of the principality after her husband's death, never seeking revenge against Demetrius. 
As time past, the villagers of the principality would become more and more like the animals they got their Anthropy from, and would eventually give birth to altogether sentient animals. The anthrope refuge would continue to operate under the leadership of Misha, but when it was announced that the principality would be visited by the crown, she disappeared. Her disappearance marked the end of the principality, who was promptly annexed by the kingdom of Citad, and given to Prince Nikan II and Goston, who lived there for the rest of their lives.
=== Vaticin’s arrival in the plainlands ===
Once there, Vaticin finds that the sentient lions society has devolved significantly to what he had been told by the immigrants he had met in the principality. The leader of the pride confronts the gnome and Vaticin is given a forced choice by the Leoanthropes there, split his people into prides dominated by a single male, or kill all the males except the prince. The Vaticin opts for the middle ground, challenging his dissenters and taking most of the remaining females to create a vast pride. 
He would receive the gift of Loeanthropy same as his parents before him, and bear two sons with his pride. 
The elder, Mafesa, was a giant with sword teeth and impenetrable skin. He would journey to Citad to kill the moon marked bat, and offer its bones to the Sun Lion. He would be defeated and skinned by the twelve foot man, who served the moon marked bat. 
Vaticins second son Mahefe would challenge and replace Mafesa as ruler.
=== Rule of Mahefe ===
Mahefe would strictly enforce his father’s law once in power, which his two sons would greatly resent. His sons, Mohati and Mehanu would eventually overthrow their father in order to bend the adherence to their grandfather's laws, and not challenge each other for dominance, both would sire children, but Mohati took power as he was the eldest. Mohati had three children, a daughter Siarra, and two sons; Muhen (the eldest but was murdered by a rival pride under matriarchal rule) Muzzar (Flamemane) and Merrar, who founded his own prides.
Mehanu had three children of his own, Mehez (the rogue), Sahni, and Mohan.
==== The Wolf Horde and the rise of the matriarchy ====
At some point the sentient wolves would invade the plainlands, the Sun Lion would grant the lions flame manes, immense size (for lions) and sword teeth (Mafesa’s Teeth) to battle them. 
Later a civil war started by Mehez, the son of Mehanu. Conflict erupted and the females seized control of all the prides. Mehez aided them mostly because as the males did not help raise the cubs or hunt, they could not be trusted with the affairs of the plainlands. The Sun Lion would punish them with earthquakes and droughts, but the damage was done. 
==== The Mehez ====
The now defeated male’s would become known as the Mehez, in honor of the first rogue lion. They would travel alone in the wild, and find female prides to mate with, but only if they could defeat the matriarch in combat, if successful, they would mate with the pride and be immediately banished afterwards. If unsuccessful, the male would be chased away, sometimes hunted and killed, by the rest of the pride.
=== Sunset of the Line of Petrichos ===
After the rise to power of the matriarchy, the sun lion ceased to manifest in the plainlands, leaving the sentient lions to become more and more bestial in nature, until fully integrating with the actual lions of the world, (albeit being larger, tusked, horned and using a different social structure than other lions). 
Sometimes a particularly intelligent lion would appear, having the ability to speak and have sentience, but the females exhibiting this trait rarely contact other races, unless they are the matriarch of their pride. Males are generally more curious of other species capable of speech, and some become pets to other races. The orcs of the plainlands value these beasts greatly and prize friendship with speaking lions above all else.
== Bonus ==
There is a lava cave underneath the castle where the souls of the Line of Petrichos go when they die, they can be summoned when the user roars their name and casts an object belonging to them into the flames. The summoned soul manifests as a face engulfed in fire. Wizards and historians find this incredibly useful. This was once used to create an army of immolated hyenas and crows for the user.
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