Gilead Lionheart/Relationships

## Family

### Tanis Lionheart

Tanis is Gilead’s first wife and mother to his oldest son, Eward. Gilead’s relationship with Tanis was described as being incredibly tense and difficult for them both, as their are numerous issues that plague their marriage. Due to Tanis being unable to have any more children other than Eward and Eward himself showcasing to have subpar talent and ability worthy of being the next Patriarch of the Lionheart clan, he took on Ancilla as his second wife and concubine in order to have more children and have more suitable candidates for the position. Causing severe friction in his relationship with Tanis, as she resented him for taking a concubine, frustrated in her own inability to have more children and her frustration at Eward’s own lack of ability and talent in comparison to his half siblings. Further tension to their relationship is seen where Gilead disapproves of Tanis’s overly oppressive parenting to Eward, who Tanis constantly pushes and stresses, almost threateningly, to “encourage” him to do better.

After the debacle of Eward’s failed attempt to become a Black Wizard, Tanis completely vents her frustration and anger to Gilead for marrying Ancilla and believes that in comparison to Ancilla’s children and even towards Gilead’s adoptive son, he never gave Eward as much love and support to him and thinks that Eward’s failure as a person is due to Gilead’s neglect towards him as a father. While not completely wrong, this also showcases how Tanis completely pushed responsibility to Gilead while ignoring her own negative parenting and failings to be a proper emotional & moral support to Eward. Gilead in turn, did not refute or try to defend himself to her accusations, feeling that despite the harshness of her words, Gilead did agree with her in his failings to be a father to their son. He would later simply accept her proposal for both her and Eward to return to her family’s estate to save whatever dignity they had left, causing further tension between them as this effectively estranged Tanis and Eward from the rest of the family and himself.

While their relationship and how they left things off was not exactly good, Gilead hoped that this time apart would help calm Tanis down and allow both her and Eward to mend their hearts.

After Eward’s demise at the hunting competition Gilead was informed of her and her family’s death. This devestated Gilead as he blamed himself for it.

### Ancilla Lionheart

Ancilla is Gilead’s second legal wife and concubine. Due to Eward not showcasing the necessary traits and talents befitting the next patriarch candidate of the Lionheart Clan and Tanis’ inability to have anymore children, Gilead agreed to take in Ancilla to have more children due so.

Although their relationship is unspecified, it has been implied that Gilead has a positive relationship with her and has had twin children together. After the debacle of Eward’s attempt to become a Black Mage and Tanis leaving the Lionheart household with him and later their deaths, Ancilla became Gilead's sole remaining spouse.

### Eward Lionheart

Although never really getting the chance to show it to him directly, Gilead clearly loves his first born son as he had pulled favors with the Red Tower Master to have his son sent to an incredibly prestigious wizarding school and sent no one to watch over him and spy on him as he knew how Eward dislikes the pressure of being the Lionheart head family heir. Gilead himself greatly cared for and loved Eward and despite his failings, tried his best to care for him.

However due to Gilead’s duties as Patriarch of the Lionheart Clan, Gilead himself would be directly responsible for many of Eward’s flaws and failures without meaning too. This is seen where Gliead also pressures Eward to do better and excel more in order to make him a heir more befitting of the Lionheart clan as his oldest child, albeit unlike Tanis, he does not do this threateningly or forcefully. Gilead himself did his best to support Eward by giving him opportunities to study magic in Aroth when it became apparent that he did not have martial talent after Eward admitted his desire to learn magic. Gilead also likely made this happen in order to help Eward get away from his mother and the Lionheart Estate when it was becoming apparent of how stressed and depressed he was becoming.

After the debacle of Eward’s attempt to learn black magic and make a deal with a Demon became known, Gilead was deeply disappointed in his own son. Not only for just attempting to break one of the Lionheart Family’s most important laws, but for also tainting their family name by even trying to become a Black Wizard and bringing shame to their family. As the Patriarch of the Lionhearts, Gilead was forced to punish Eward for his actions, initially planning to send him back to the Lionheart Estate and remove him from Aroth. However Tanis was against this as Eward would likely only suffer further ridicule and shame by the Estate’s servants and by the rest of the Lionheart Family due to his actions. Gilead would eventually relent to Tanis’s demand for Eward to come with her back to her family estate instead, where Eward was effectively estranged from the rest of the Lionheart family, forced to live under the BlackLions surveillance for the rest of his life and his claim as the Lionheart’s patriarch removed. It was however been implied that Gilead made the punishment much lighter than what the Lionheart Council of Elders wanted. As shown, Gilead blamed himself for what had happened, believing that he didn’t show and give his oldest son enough love and support as a father.

Despite what had happened, Gilead himself still deeply cared for Eward and despite disapproval of the rest of the Lioneart Family, made active attempts to at least stay in contact with Eward. Having wanted to visit him a few times, throw him a proper coming of age ceremony and advocated for Eward to at least be able to participate in Lionheart Family events. However these attempts were stopped or disapproved by the Lionheart Council of Elders, who forbade him from having any contact with Eward and despite eventually giving into Gilead’s demand to allow Eward to participate in clan events, kept him under strict surveillance and the Elders actively despised him behind his back.

### Eugene Lionheart

He is very impressed by Eugene's potential and supports him every time. As admitted by him, he already saw himself as Eugene’s father.