Naqu Aurum

Naqu Aurum (born 77a.Au, crowned 89a.Au, died 129a.Au) disputably called King Naqu I for a time and as the Four Month King forever after, was the fifth child of King Marcellus I and Hoelun Gonji, and third son. His older siblings were Gelegian, Khulan, Kaidu and Oghul, and he had a younger brother named Quitai. Naqu would be crowned at age twelve following the death of his brother King Kaidu, but would ultimately rescind his claim to the throne in favour of his older sister Khulan.

When Prince Naqu was four years old, his eldest brother Gelegian would leave Orbis for Qaghos, the lands of their maternal grandfather Yesugai Qaghan, never to return. This would inadvertently be the catalyst for a succession crisis known as the Woman's War, which began in earnest in 85a.Au when Naqu's father died.

Prince Naqu's older brother Kaidu was coronated as king at the Palace of the Golden Emperors in Argentum in 85a.Au, at which point Prince Naqu became the heir apparent to the throne. However, the princes' older sister Khulan was herself crowned as queen at a rival ceremony in Kenkoa, whose backers believed she should inherit the throne as the eldest child of King Marcellus remaining. Princess Khulan - now Queen Khulan, had departed Argentum whilst Prince Naqu and his siblings remained with their brother and mother. Naqu was eight years old at the start of the war.

In 87a.Au, King Kaidu married Sarella Rimgar and had a son, Prince Markus. This put Prince Naqu as third in the line of succession. However, only two years later, Queen Sarella's brother would murder the king in the hopes of bringing a quick end to the war, and to garner a high reward from Queen Khulan for his killing blow. Though Prince Markus should have been crowned with his father's death, the Queen Regent Hoelun, (who was the commander of the loyalist forces,) believed the child to have traitor's blood and disinherited Prince Markus. In 89a.Au at the age of twelve, Naqu was crowned King of Orbis.

The reign of King Naqu would be short. The loyalist forces were losing allies and ground with each passing week. King Naqu was old enough for staunch supporters to not abandon all hope, as they might have done were they expected to be the subjects of a two year old. However, King Naqu was very much the subservient of his mother and did not gain many of the kingly graces during his rule. The Queen Regent would eventually surrender the loyalist forces only a third of a year after the passing of King Kaidu. As such, King Naqu is remembered in the history books as the Four Month King.

Now being called a prince once more, Naqu took part in the second coronation of Queen Khulan, wherein he surrendered his own crown to her in the public ceremony. Though the Woman's War is considered to have ended in 89a.Au, it is this coronation event in 90a.Au that would officially end the conflict and symbolically knit together the loyalist and rebel factions under one banner again.

One of the terms of surrender, that most of Orbis would not become aware of until several months after Queen Khulan's second coronation, was that Prince Naqu was to marry Ranavalona Zakariya. Ranavalona was a younger sister to Duchess Florentia Zakariya, who was one of Queen Khulan's main backers during the Woman's War and who had personally trained the queen in swordplay. The Zakariya Clan had a centuries long tradition of female inheritance rather than male inheritance, meaning that culturally Prince Naqu and his descendants were unlikely to gather forces on Little Orbis capable of rising up against the queen.

The marriage ceremony of Prince Naqu and his bride Ranavalona in late 90a.Au, when Naqu was 13 and Ranavalona was 19, though the wedding would not be consummated until Prince Naqu reached his maturity. Ranavalona already had a four year old child, Radama, fathered by an unrecorded man. The couple would had their first child, Chryona, in 94a.Au.

Prince Naqu and Princess Ranavalona would attend the Centenary of Markus Aurum's coronation in Argentum as guests of the Queen in 100a.Au. Prince Naqu would aid his sister during the Third Terranian Incursion, taking on his stepson Radama as squire. Prince Naqu had never been described as overly fond of his wife, but their marriage rekindled when he returned from the war effort and they had three further children: Jasmika (103 a.Au,) Dresella (106 a.Au) and Kaidana (107a.Au.)

Prince Naqu died in 129a.Au at the age of 62.