Willem V Malastair

### Aliases

King, His Royal Majesty, The Fifth of His Name,  Defender of the Realm,  Shield of Vallagor, Bearer of the Sword (royal titles), Will (by friends), Lion of the North, Elfbreaker, the Gallant

### Relatives

King Edric II Malastair (father)Prince Edwin Malastair, Prince Joffrey Malastair (brothers)

Prince Tomeric Malastair, Prince Caed Malastair, Prince Arthur Malastair, Prince Stefan Malastair (sons)

Princess Meredith Malastair, Princess Frida  Malastair (daughters)

### Affiliation

Kingdom of Orgonia (monarch, citizen), House Malastair (head, member)

## Physical description

### Weight

235 lbs

King Willem V "the Gallant" Malastair, is the current King of Orgonia, and head of the ancient Malastair dynasty. Known for his might as a warrior and immense personal charisma, King Willem enjoys the respect and adoration of his subjects, and a formidable reputation among the other nations of Arvinder.

## Biography

Willem Malastair was born near the end of the year of 1176 CE, the firstborn child of King Edric II "The Good" of Orgonia. His nursemaids described him as a jovial and lusty babe who loved to smile and laugh. Willem was followed by two brothers, Edwin and Joffrey , though from an early age, he overshadowed them both. Willem was the brightest prince at the court of Vallagor, handsome, charming, and skilled at arms, rising swiftly to become the star pupil of the master at arms, and the darling of the noble ladies who inhabited his father's castle.

When Willem was nine, his father dispatched him to Langswich, where he served as a page and eventually squire to its Duke, Orrin Boremund. There, he made two great bonds that would endure for the rest of his wife. One was with Richard Leville, a fellow squire and heir to the Count of Torringham, who became one of his closest friends. The other was with Ianthe Boremund, the Duke's daughter, who would one day become his great love.

At the age of fifteen, Willem competed as a mystery knight in a tourney melee, held to celebrate his father's tenth year upon the throne. After proving himself the victor and revealing his identity, Willem was knighted by his father, and gifted the sword Godfang, which had been wielded by Malastair kings since the dawn of the dynasty. While it was tradition for the king to bear the sword, King Edric was a learned and scholarly man, no warrior, and thus, it was judged that bestowing the blade to the Crown Prince was a worthy choice.

Prince Willem was married at the age of eighteen, to Lady Ianthe Boremund, a childhood friend of his. Ianthe gave birth to their first child a year later, but the babe was stillborn. Two years afterwards, Ianthe gave her prince another child, a son he named Edwin, after his brother. The young prince was frail and sickly, however, and died just a week before his first birthday.

When Willem was twenty two, the border disputes that been simmering between Orgonia and the elven kingdom of Lithaen to the north finally came to a boil, as the elves swept into the Orgonian settlements that they felt encroached too deeply on their territory. Willem took command of the armies raised to repel the incursion, and lead the Orgonian retaliation. Several bloody battles took place, and the Crown Prince defeated several notable elven champions during the conflict. The greatest of his victories was against Prince Mendros of Lithean, who he bested in single combat, cleaving through his helm with Godfang and leaving his foe blinded by blood. Rather than slay his hapless enemy, however, Prince Willem sheathed his blade, and carried him to his personal healer.

Following his victory, the elven forces stood down, resulting in King Edric and King Mirendir of Lithaen coming to the negotiating table, and settling upon a new border treaty. Though his eye had been taken out, Prince Mendros never forgot the chivalry displayed by Willem, and the two forged an unexpected friendship.

In the year 1200 CE, when Willem was twenty four, his father King Edric perished after slipping down a flight of stairs, breaking his neck. The loss was sudden and unexpected, but it was not the only crushing death that year. Willem's wife Ianthe perished not two days after his father, giving birth to a son named Tomeric. Like his brother Edwin before him, Tomeric was frail and sickly, and even as plans were being made for his coronation, Willem sat by the boy's bedside, praying to all the gods that he might live. Willem was crowned the Fifth of his Name at the end of the year, though he took no joy in his ascension.

Nevertheless, grief did not break him, and he displayed little of his anguish to any save his brothers and closest councilors. To Willem's joy and the delight of the court, Crown Prince Tomeric's health strengthened, and he survived past infancy.

On the first day of 1201 CE, Willem was coronated as King Willem, the Fifth of His Name. Under pressure from those councilors, Willem was convinced to take another wife a little under a year after Ianthe had died. He married lady Griselda Kavendish, the daughter of one of those councilors, who had called upon the new made king many a time, to console him in his grief.

In 1202 CE, Griselda gave birth to another son, who Willem named Caed, and was blessedly strong and healthy from the first. Several more children followed; Meredith (1204), Arthur (1206), Stefan (1210), and Frida (1213).

All seemed well. To Willem's dismay, however, it became apparent that his eldest son suffered from a dreadful stutter, making it extremely difficult for him to communicate. Though King Willem did his best to protect his child, he was not omniscient nor omnipresent, and could not stop whispers and mockery from spreading throughout the court, deriding Tomeric as a lackwit fool, and claiming he was unfit to sit the throne. In an attempt to remedy these rumors, Willem pressed Tomeric to train with sword and shield, as he himself had as a boy, in order to show the realm that he possessed at least a king's courage. When Tomeric tearfully fled the training yard at the age of seven after having been teased by several other squires, Willem was so irate that he had the two bullies put in the stockades for a day. Thereafter, he never pushed Tomeric to train again, allowing him to occupy himself with books.

Willem's second son, Caed, on the other hand, seemed all that could be wished in an heir. Bold, adventurous, and charming, just as Willem himself had been, and his trainers claimed he showed great promise as a warrior. When Caed was nine, Willem sent him to serve as page to his old friend, Lord Richard Leville, now the Count of Torringham.

Most recently, in 1215 CE, Willem held a tournament to celebrate his fifteenth year upon the throne. There, his son Caed won the squire's joust, earning the right to be made a knight a few months before his fourteenth birthday. Willem himself proudly dubbed the boy with Godfang, whilst all the realm looked on.

## Physical Appearance

Standing three inches over six feet, Willem is a large and strapping specimen, with wide shoulders, strong limbs, and a broad chest, displaying the lean, powerful leonine musculature often associated with his house. His eyes are a bright royal blue, most often bright with laughter. Willem's smile is dazzlingly white, and flashes across his face often. His features are regal and handsome, with a straight nose, a strong jaw, with his brother Joffrey having once remarked that his statuesque features were made to be minted in coinage. Willem has the typical golden hair of the Malastairs, wearing it relatively short, usually only a few inches long. His face is usually kept clean shaven.

## Personality

Willem Malastair is a man possessed of many gifts. He is intensely charismatic, filling up every room he enters, and drawing the attention of any who look upon him. His easy charm enables him to talk with princes and paupers alike with equal ease, with a friendly, gregarious disposition that wins people's trust and admiration. Courteous and jovial, he is quick to laugh and jest, forgiving easily and turning foes to friends through his penchant for mercy and open handedness. He is an extrovert of the highest of order, and thrives upon attention, yet does not resent its absence or go grasping after it.

As compassionate as he is charming, Willem possesses a strong moral compass, and follows it at all times, even when it leads him away from paths that might be more prudent. He holds strongly to the ideals of knighthood, believing that it is the duty of the strong to defend the weak, the ruler to provide for their subjects, the victor to be generous to the vanquished. Courage, truth, and honor, empathy, forgiveness, and charity, those are virtues he idolizes, and any one who exhibits him wins his respect.

While Willem is a good natured man, slow to anger and quick to forgive, he is by no means weak or indecisive. He is more than willing to fight for his ideals, and takes the course he deems to be the path of honor, even when others tell him it defies sense. Merciful and forgiving he may be, but only to those he deems worthy of redemption. Those who scheme and lie, those who throw away the lives of the innocent for their own ends, brutes and sadists, all incite wrath in the otherwise merciful king.

That which fills him with joy is the company of friends and family, to be surrounded by love and laughter. Love, ultimately, is Willem's greatest vice, and he is most adept at acquiring it. The presence of cherished companions sweetens his every experience. Most of Willem's favored activities, such as hunting, riding, practicing at arms, dancing and feasting and attending tourneys, are all made much finer when they can be shared with others.

Of course, Willem enjoys such pursuits for their own sake as well. He takes pleasure from the act of testing his abilities, and in demonstrating his prowess in manly pursuits, and in tasting the thrill of victory over man and beast. While not a braggart, Willem is nonetheless quite proud of his many talents, and confident in his ability to do nearly anything he puts his mind to, a view that has been instilled thanks to the considerable talent the gods have given him. He is firmly self assured, and while he heeds the council of others, recognizing the value of other viewpoints and that there are areas where others exceed him, the one thing he is quite convinced of is the fact of his own righteousness.

In addition to these minor flaws of character, Willem has some other shortcomings as well. While he is a diligent ruler, especially in matters of justice, which he often takes personal hand in, and wishes to do the best for his people, Willem find certain other aspects of kingship distasteful. He has little interests in economics, beyond the effects they have on the well being of his subjects, and due to his innate generosity, is quite liberal with his spending, though not to the degree of being severely frivolous or wasteful. He also mislikes the idea of spymasters, and uses such services only begrudgingly.

Furthermore, Willem is not exactly what one might call a careful planner. A passionate man, he is quick to act once he has thought of what he believes to be a solid course. Given his strong confidence and great courage, he is not overly considerate of risks to his own person, believing in leading by example, and not putting any of his followers in any danger he would not face himself. Such actions earn him the absolute devotion of his subjects, but it can be rightly said of Willem V Malastair that he follows his heart more than his head.