Caspian I of Tyno

* In 3E 295
* In 3E 278

**Caspian I**, who was already called **Caspian the Great** in his own lifetime, was the leader of the Tynan Revolt and the founding King of Tyno.

## **Appearance**

[...]

Caspian was adorned by and draped in all the fineries one could find. He was, one ambassador once joked, *'the most lavishly yet uncomfortably dressed man in Tamriel.'* On his head sat a velvet hat decorated with goldthread. About his shoulders usually hung a mantle of blue silk, beneath that a heavy red cape, and beneath that a robe weighed down by innumerable pins, brooches, and other effects. He wore a dozen or so rings and three amulets.

This extravagance did not serve only Caspian's vanity, neither was it solely a display of his wealth (and therefore authority). There were hidden uses to wearing so many layers. The King tucked documents, enchanted objects, and even weapons, into the folds of his clothes. It is also possible he survived the attempt on his life early in his reign thanks to his assailant's dagger failing to pierce deep enough.

In contradistinction to his otherwise fantastically sumptuous dress, Caspian did not wear a crown. Neither did he carry a sceptre nor a ceremonial sword. He looked much as he might have done had he remained *just* Lord of Tyno: another wealthy citizen of the city.

## **Biography**

### **King without a Crown**

In the aftermath of the Tynan Revolt, when almost all the city was wracked and ruined, half the population reduced to beggardom and thievery, those with significant wealth emerged as the most powerful individuals on the island. Caspian, who committed no small number to the protection of his family's banking houses, was the wealthiest. He was additionally the youngest captain in the Revolt, and as the supposed Lord of Tyno its main leader, which served to bolster the quickly growing view of him as the great saviour of the city. Caspian embarked upon a campaign of charity, both directly through the giving out of alms and indirectly by the purchase of food and supplies from merchant gougers arriving at port. It was not long before large numbers gathered to call him King.

Caspian's rivals accused him of buying his crown, saying that he had paid men to drum up support for him. Some tried to remind his adorers that his banking houses remained standing even as so much of the city burned. The crowd still named him king over the city and island, seating him on a broken chair in the ruined palace from which his father once governed. The King, brought to this simple throne and rule over ashes by a plebiscite, never took a crown or any other traditional regalia.

### **Crowning of Caspia**

The King's relationship with his son was finally shattered in the summer of 3E 293, when the Crown Prince's gambling debts led him into public scandal. Caspian, enraged by *'this obscene profligate'*, decided to disinherit Regis. The now-uncrowned Prince left the island and went into exile. In his place, Caspian appointed his daughter Caspia as his successor. She appeared before the citizens of the city a week later, draped in golden velvet, and was declared Crown Princess of Tyno.

The King did not know whether his spurned son intended to live out his life in a far away land or return with some force to seize the island. His exact whereabouts remained unknown for several months. Many in his circle of advisors and confidants were concerned, worried that the Prince had gone to Hegathe to strike some deal with the ruler there. Caspian himself was not so anxious.

Prince Regis was discovered dead in a tavern in Sentinel one morning in Sun's Dawn of the next year. His body bore no mark of murder, neither by blade nor by poison, and so he was assumed to have fallen ill with some deadly but unnoticed disease. The Prince was buried in Sentinel and the King mourned his death for five days.

## **Ancestry**

As was more common than not in the Kingdom of Tyno, Caspian was of mixed racial heritage: his paternal grandparents were Altmer and Breton, his maternal grandmother was an Imperial, and he was also of reduced Nordic and Redguard stock. He appeared and dressed most like a Breton, but was probably more an Imperial Heartlander by blood.

## **Marriage and Issue**

Caspian committed himself to the widow Lucia Nantheuil as a young man during the Tynan Revolt and fulfilled his promise to marry her after its end in 3E 271. She was twelve years his senior and belonged to a wealthy aristocratic family in the city.

By Lucia, Caspian fathered two children:

* Regis, now deceased (Born 3E 274, died 294)
* Caspia (born 3E 276)

Lucia succumbed to ataxia in 3E 285 at the age of fifty-one. Caspian remained unmarried for the next seven years, despite the advice of his councillors.

1. ↑ In the fledgling Kingdom of Tyno, succession was by appointment of the King and approval of the citizenry. Rule could pass to any one of the monarch's children, irrespective of gender or seniority.