House Nynphos

## House Nynphos of Nynphea

**House Nynphos of Nynphea** is a noble family of Balliñorina descent who rule the Nynpheaic Kingdom of Balliñanor (Nynpheaic deriving from the dynasty's name). The Nynphos sigil is a silver crown on a light-blue field.

House Nynphos rules as Kings of Balliñanor ever since the League of Balliñanor collapsed due to the erosion of the members-states influence and power, giving the rise of Nynphea as the most powerful city in the island.

## Culture

### Traits

The most proeminent traits in members of House Nynphos is the black hair and red-gold or blue eyes.

## History

The Nynphos Dynasty history begins after the Conquest of Balliñanor that was led by Nikeros I and his siblings. The island was split between his brothers, forming city-states around the land, Nynphea being one of them.

### King Nikeros I, the Conqueror (1 - 32)

The first king of Nynphea, and the first member of House Nynphos. After the Conquest, Nikeros established the city of Nynphea, and build a large estate to rule from. His reign was stable and otherwise from the Conquest, uneventful, it was an era of rebuilding and establishing relationships with the other cities, the most proeminent of them being Ikrita and Arcova. Nikeros married his niece, Aglaia, making her the first Queen Consort of the dynasty. Nikeros built city walls and the temple of Bellio on the ágora of Nynphea as a thanking gift to the god of war for winning the war of conquest. Queen Aglaia gave birth to two sons and one girl: Tiberios, Aereos and Charis.

### King Tiberios I (32 - 51)

Tiberios is the second king of Nynphea, and first born son of King Nikeros and Queen Aglaia. His reign is most well known for the construction of the Royal Mausoleum, Temple of Pyor, a marketplace and expanding the city harbor. The Royal Mausoleum was so big that it was no complete until the reign of Cleopatra I. Tiberios married his sister Charis, whom they had five children: Caesarion, Cleopatra, Alexandra, Nikeros and Ptolemaios, however, only four survived to adulthood, with Ptolemaios dying at the age of eight due to being born with hemophilia.

### King Caesarion, the Unworthy (51 - 58)

Caesarion is the only king with that name in the Nynphos lineage. With a short and pathetic reign, Caesarion recieved the nickname 'the Unworthy' for lacking any skills in the art of governance. Caesarion spent his days eating, drinking and partying away all the royal treasury, and when the treasury was empty, Caesarion took loans from merchants and neighboring city-states, causing a crippling economic crisis, destroying all outcoming trade, causing famine and civil unrest. His ineptitude caused his death during a visit to the temple of Bellio, where he was murdered by a angry mob of starving citizens. Caesarion preferred many favorites and concubines over marriage, dying without any heirs, the throne passed to his sister Cleopatra.

### Queen Cleopatra I, the Great (58 - 92)

One of the greatest monarchs of the entire lineage, Cleopatra was everything her predecessor wasn't. Queen Cleopatra was well versed on economics, diplomacy and strategy, as well speaking many languages. Her reign began with the royal wedding, between her and her younger brother Nikeros, followed by the construction of a new coin minting facility, and new silver and gold mines on the Parthanatza mountain. Most the gold was used to pay off her brother's debts and fund new constructions. With the economy wheels starting to move again, the queen held the first of the Queen's Courts, where she went to the city's ágora to her the pleas of the people of her city. She created new laws, built the Queen's Fountain to replace the sparse wells around the city to supply the peasants with fresh water without the need to wait in long lines for muddy water. During that time, the Royal Mausoleum was complete.

Queen Cleopatra created the Council of Ministers, to prevent a inept monarch from destroying the kingdom. She also created the General Assembly for the same reason, in case the Council of Ministers also failed.

She had nine children with Nikeros: Nikeros, Ptolemaios, Basil, Arsinoe, Tiberios, Heracles, Coriolanus, Romulus and Basilia. By the end of her reign, Nynphea became the most powerful, richest and oppulent city in the League of Balliñanor, a peek of the future hegemony the city would hold over the island in a century from her reign.

### King Nikeros II (92 - 116)

Nikeros II reign was oppulent, peaceful and uneventful. Nikeros's reign continued the prosperous peace and legacy of his mother's reign. He married his aunt Alexandra, whom they had two twins: Ptolemaios and Dimitrios.

### King Ptolemaios I, the Young Warrior (116 - 139)

Ptolemaios I inherited the throne after his father's death during the threat of war between Nynphea and the City of Artidea, a city located on the western coast of the Nynpheaic Forest. After decades of opulence and peace, the army was filled with inexperient soldiers and inadequate commanders. Ptolemaios, educated in the ways of war similarly to Nikeros I, he reformed the army into a professional standing army split into legions and expanded the royal navy. Artidea, filled with misplaced imperialism, lauched a raid on Nynphea, with the objective of turning the rich city on a tributary. The raid was a catastrophic failure for the Artidean army, which was crushed by Ptolemaios, who put himself as the commander. Other raids were made, and all were squashed. Ptolemaios, angered by the constant attacks, he invaded Artidea and set the city ablaze, slaughtering all of their aristocracy and government. After the war with Aridea, his twin brother, Dimitrios, tried to usurp the throne, causing a civil war, with the beloved Ptolemaios prevailing,

His forces on improving the navy made the Nynpheaic navy feared all around the north, even by other city-states, that were going into a slow but steady decline in power and influence. Ptolemaios married his cousin Selene, daughter of Heracles and Basilia, they had four children: Phocas (died in his childhood due to being sickly, pale and frail. He suffered from numerous ailments throughout his short life), Nikeros, Artemia and Arsinoe.

### King Nikeros III (139 - 164)

Nikeros inherited a kingdom drowning in riches, with a powerful army. His great achievement was formalizing the succession laws, which were just based on tradition and assumption, to prevent a civil war like the one his father faced, Nikeros also expanded the harbor and created outposts on the nation's borders to prevent raids like Artidea's. He married his sister Artemia, who died giving birth to their only child: Cleopatra. He later married his other sister Arsinoe, who also gave birth to a spindly boy named Heracles. Nikeros also laid the groundwork for his daughter to establish the hegemony by opening better diplomatic talks with the other city-states.

### Queen Cleopatra II, the Hegemon (164 - 287)

Cleopatra II is one of the most important figures in Nynpheaic history. Her reign started with a splendid coronation, with all leaders of the League of Balliñanor present, a preview of the hegemonic intentions the new queen had. The young queen constructed new roads between the cities, invested in new legions to maintain the new roads safe and made the first plans to build an amphitheater to entertain the people. She reformed the streets of Nynphea, paving it with stone and widening older streets. Cleopatra also reinforced and enlarged the main gate of the city, invested in repairing decaying temples and built more houses. She was very hard working, whenever the queen wasn't hosting a royal event, she would be adressing quarrels between citizens or nobles, writing and reading letters and attending every council meeting in during reign. Cleopatra started adressing other cities, quarring their problems and strifes, preventing wars, giving economic aid, and funding infrastructure in all of Balliñanor, presenting herself not only as Queen of Nynphea, but as the defacto leader of the Balliñanor.

She made the first royal tour through all of Balliñanor, although, disguised just as simple diplomatic visits, Cleopatra used it as opportunity to display her power, wealth and authority to all, aristocrat, king or peasant. She came sailing on her dynasty's flagship, with a gilded stern, large purple sails embroided with gold, while oars of silver help to carry her ship through the seas. In the gold and bronze canopy in the middle, Cleopatra stood there waving to all dressed in a gold and silver dress, encrusted with diamonds, and pearls, adding to her splendure, jewelry adorned all of her body, with earrings, rings, necklaces and bangles also encrusted with all kinds of precious stones. A emerald tiara also adorned her head, shining whenever she moved.

Beloved by all who set eyes on her, Cleopatra used her skills to bring her adversaries and others into a formal alliance with Nynphea. The Hegemony of Balliñanor, unsurpringly, elected Cleopatra as their Hegemon. She spent the rest of her reign enacting laws, and proclaims to centralize even more her power, binding the nation together with a system of roads that connected all cities, which started to bring all Balliñanor into Nynphea's level of infrastructure.

Cleopatra married her brother Heracles, they had twelve children together: Tiberios, Ptolemaios, Alexander, Alexandra, Arsinoe, Berenice, Artemia, Basilios, Titano, Nikeros, Ermis and Elena.

### King Tiberios II, the Sick (287 - 290)

Tiberios II was the second leader of the Hegemony of Balliñanor, and 9th monarch of House Nynphos. He has been sickly his entire life, and passed away after only three years on the throne. Only effectively ruling for a year, and later being bedridden, his reign was uneventful, had no wives and had no children.

### King Ptolemaios II, the Old (290 - 336)

Ptolemaios II was the third and last leader of the Hegemony of Balliñanor, first king of the Nynpheaic Kingdom and 10th monarch of House Nynphos. Ptolemaios inherited the throne at the young age of fourteen, he had a regent council rule in his name till he came of age, in his sixteenth birthday. The regency was filled with corruption and scheming, which Ptolemaios despised it, thinking it was destroying his mother's hardwork. He toured the nation, as his mother once did, to gain influence. Ptolemaios made powerful friends in the Hegemony's council of electors, he proposed that he could only stop his regents if he was granted full powers of Hegemon, which the electors agreed. The Majority Coup was put in effect during the Winter's Soulstice Hegemony Meeting of 291 (right before Ptolemaios's fifteenth birthday), where a emergency action was called to antecipate Ptolemaios II's majority. The action was approved and the regency council was dissolved. The coronation of Ptolemaios happened right after, with all hegemony members present. With full powers, Ptolemaios continued his mother's plans, building roads, harbors, expanding the patrol legions to keep bandits away from the roads and expanding the navy. The king later adopted the practice of Cleopatra I, and holding courts around the nation to meet citizenry and aristocratic demands. In end of the year 290, Ptolemaios made another tour, visiting Ikrita, Arcova and Traveller's Ruin.

After the tour ended, Ptolemaios made the decision that would define his reign: he enacted a law that centralized absolute authority on himself, proclaiming the Nynpheaic Kingdom of Balliñanor, this was called by historians The New Years Coup. His second coronation was held in Nynphea where he was proclaimed: King of Balliñanor, Hegemon of Balliñanor, King of Nynphea and Lord of the Tides. Ptolemaios reformed the economic policy that dated back to Cleopatra I, created a unified set of laws for all the cities, and set the social hierarchy, with all royal, noble and honorary titles. He died peacefully in his bed at the age of sixty.

He married his sister Arsinoe and they had three children: Cleopatra (stillbirth), Nikeros and Berenice.

### King Nikeros IV, the Builder (336 - 369)

Nikeros IV was the second king of Balliñanor, inheriting a healthy and stable reign, he decicated himself to construction projects to show his wealth and power. Nikeros discovered Cleopatra II's plans to build an amphitheater and improved and expanded upon it. He ordered the construction of the Nikeros Amphitheater in the year 337, designed and ordered the construction of a new throne room and palace besides the old Conquest Estate, which he named the Tiberian Palace, in homage to his grandfather, the room would be 30 meters tall, crowned with a dome detailed with lavish murals depicting holy images of the Celestial Gods. The palace would also contain a cabinet, library, banquet hall and two council rooms, one dedicated to the Council of Ministers and one decidated to a War Council, in the event of a war. He also replaced the old city walls that were built by Nikeros I, as they were old and out of touch with the times, with new modern ones. One of his last actions was ordering a statue of the god Ether to placed on top of the Royal Mausoleum. He married his sister Berenice, they had one daughter: Arsinoe.

### Queen Arsinoe I (369 - 385)

Queen Arsinoe ascended the throne as the fourth Queen of Balliñanor. She was the first monarch to be coronated on the new throne room built by her father.

## Crown Jewels

### Coronation Regalia

Composes of the crown used by Nikeros I, the Conqueror, his Sceptre and Orb.

* The Crown of Nikeros is formed from an openwork gold frame, mounted with five large sapphires, each representing one of the conquered kingdoms, set with 2987 diamonds in silver mounts, 12 emeralds, and 311 pearls.
* The Sceptre is a golden rod, set with 400 rubies, 124 diamonds and very large emerald on top.
* The orb is a golden sphere, mounted with clusters of emeralds, rubies and sapphires surrounded by rose-cut diamonds, and single rows of pearls.

### Crowns and Tiaras

* **Crown of Nikeros** - Made of gold, mounted with five large sapphires, set with 2987 diamonds, 12 emeralds and 311 pearls. Worn by all monarchs during coronation.
* **Emerald Tiara** - Silver tiara set with 35 emeralds of varying sizes and 298 pearls. Famously worn by Cleopatra II during her Balliñanor Tour.
* **Aquamarine Crown** - Crown of Queen Arsinoe I. The crown has an elaborate diamond and aquamarine bandeau base, with three aquamarine and diamond elements placed at intervals.
* **Red Crown** - Crown of King Ptolemaios II. Made of red gold, encrusted with 8 large square-cut rubies.
* **Jade Tiara** - Bronze tiara made with Jade, set with 137 emeralds and 211 pearls.
* **Hegemon Crown** - Crown of Queen Cleopatra II.

## Nynphos Lineage

There were eighteen reigning monarchs in House Nynphos ruling over the City of Nynphea and later the Nynpheaic Kingdom, twelve being male and six being female.

### Monarchs of House Nynphos (Dated after the Conquest and by Period)

#### **Kingdom of Nynphea (City-State)**

*1 - 32 Nikeros I, the Conqueror*

*32 - 51 Tiberios I*

*51 - 58 Caesarion, the Unworthy (ruled for less than 10 years, being killed by a starving mob during a economic crisis that almost starved the city.)*

*58 - 92 Cleopatra I, the Great*

*92 - 116 Nikeros II*

*116 - 139 Ptolemaios I, the Young Warrior*

*139 - 164 Nikeros III*

*164 - 287 Cleopatra II, the Hegemon*

#### **Hegemony of Balliñanor**

*287 - 290 Tiberios II, the Sick (Died young without heirs, the throne passed to his younger brother, Ptolemaios)*

*290 - 336 Ptolemaios II, the Old (ascended the throne at a young age, had a regent council ruling the kingdom till he came of age)*

#### Nynpheaic Kingdom of Balliñanor

*336 - 369 Nikeros IV, the Builder*

*369 - 385 Arsinoe I*

*385 - 400 Tiberios III*

*400 - 421 Arsinoe II, the Diplomat*

*421 - 449 Ptolemaios III*

*449 - 462 Cleopatra III*

*462 - 499 Alexandra, the Ironfist*

*500 -  ? Titano*