House Xeros

*“Our Debts Repaid in Flesh”*

## **A Spurned Heir**

Starting Location: Duchy Of Cyprus

**Backstory:**

In the halls of Ancient Roman Politics, House Xeros sits as a young house on the political scene. Up until 1065, it had only a single member. No history book of note or repute carries its name. Its records in the public offices carry it with hastily drawn annotations in the sidebars. And any mention of the house is quickly subsumed by gossip around its founding member and his scandalous ancestry. By 1066, it had the demesne of Cyprus counted as its Doux holdings as a comfortably prosperous home, and a remote one from the politics of the Emperor’s Court. Those less versed in politics would debate if this is by design or chance, but a quick glance at the history of this house revealed an unsettling truth that stretched from the islands of the Empire, directly to the heart of the capital. And it all started in a hovel on the side of the royal highway just past the gates of the Theodosian Walls. Constantine hadn’t yet ascended. At more than forty years of age, he was approaching his midlife with an intellectual vigor. None disputed the passion he displayed for the philosophies, and it made for inclusive company with those willing to engage him in rigorous debate. What did surprise those around him though, was when his passions turned to that of his debate partner, and his cries joined that of her own in a hovel outside the gates of the capital. Eight months later, the cries of a newborn echoed back. Constantine’s involvement with the subsequent progeny was…complex. One the one hand, the child was cared for at the expense of Constantine’s purse. His needs were adequately met, if substandard for the station. But the mother had departed their lives, and Constantine refused to include the child in his own. Ten years of this uncomfortable back and forth were maintained, with tutors being introduced at the further Christian charity of Constantine. But the child was denied an effective education in statecraft, with all of his focus being laid in the same philosophies, and martial curiosities of Constantine. This uneasy truce might have maintained to adulthood, but everything changed when Constantine ascended to the Emperorship.

**Recent History:**

From a young age, the child Hektor left those around him conflicted. On the one hand, he was a well behaved child that easily took to his education, and was attentive to the lessons offered to him and took in all he could from those around him. On the other…his kindest compliments called his appearance uncanny. Uncomfortable. Wrong. That word stuck with him throughout. Repeated directly in every error, and implicitly in every passing day. His existence was wrong, so every error he committed in his studies only furthered that wrong. A constant anxiety to prove himself worthy of the approval of those around him, whose judgements he learned to intuit, lest he be left to rot outside on the street. His life was controlled by his tutors in ways that would leave indelible marks. But none of this was most evident until one fateful day. Constantine X was to be made Emperor, and among the vast host to attend his coronation by the Patriarch, Hektor was given an invitation. His only opportunity to show recompense for the sin of his own existence, by displaying his own value and talents. The Emperor didn’t meet him in public. The Coronation went off without comment towards young Hektor. The Emperor further didn’t meet at the adjoining dinner and festivities, nor at the afterparty over drinks where young Hektor was ushered out without so much as a single nod from the Emperor. It wasn’t until the stroke of midnight that finally the Emperor entered to meet privately with the young boy, alongside a guard at the door and an accompanying aid. The conversation is disputed, with some saying the Emperor offered contrition while others say he cursed the child. But one thing is certain, their discussion left a mark on the Emperor that for at least the barest moment, induced a change. The following day, as he held court for the first time, the Emperor publicly acknowledged young Hektor as his child. Before the gathered audience of the court, the young boy of ten asked without tact or consideration who his mother was. The hush of the court was broken with murmurs of scandal, and this public act of consideration for the child was then met with a stern faced Monarch, and the pronouncement of his ascension to Doux of Cyprus. The child turned Doux was hauled out screaming and crying to know who his mother was, and wouldn’t be welcome back to the court again under the Emperor.

The years since have had increasing stories of disturbed behavior originating from the island. Both home and prison to the boy-turned-man. Stories of crimes ranging from murder, to witchcraft, to open cannibalism and deviancy. Stories that have become increasingly hard to ignore, and harder still to disprove as alleged witnesses come forward. Paradoxically, the cruel stories of that island have created the effect of a renegade land, where nominal service to the crowd continues, but its laws seem just out of reach. Whether fear of the man Hektor, love for the boy he met, or regret over the night in a hut motivate the Emperor is entirely unknown. What is known though, is that the stories continue to mount, but action hasn’t yet arisen.