Doran Redleaf

### Relatives

Daveth Redleaf (father), Meraud (mother), Alastar Redleaf (brother), Rhiannon Redleaf (sister), Liadan (wife), Orla Redleaf (daughter), Cliona Goldbranch (niece), Tesni Greenblade (grandniece)

## Physical description

### Eye color

Brown

Of an age with Ithel Goldbranch, Doran knew he would someday inherit his father’s seat on the Advisory Council. He was two years of age when his mother,
Meraud, gave birth to twins. He now had a younger brother, Alastar, and a
younger sister, Rhiannon. He grew to resent his younger siblings as they grew
older, as they seemed to enjoy having fun at his expense. Though Alastar spent
much of his time at Rhiannon’s side, and therefore at Meraud’s, Doran spent
more time with his father, Daveth.

It was at Daveth’s side that Doran
learned the importance of power and how to make plays for it at court. At the
age of eighteen, Doran helped his father arrange Rhiannon’s marriage, scoring
his first victory in the art of power plays when he arranged her marriage to
Prince Ithel. He had successfully ensured that his sister would one day be
queen and that he would find favor at court. He had hopes of perhaps even
unseating Lord Emeraldleaf as head of the Advisory Council.

When Doran was twenty years of age,
Daveth fell ill and passed away, and Doran took his seat on the Council. It was
at this point that he was approached by a mysterious figure by the name of
Bhimar. Bhimar promised him great power and wealth if Doran would ally with him,
perhaps even the throne, if not for himself then for his children, if only
Doran would insure that Ithel and Rhiannon had no heirs but him. Doran let
Bhimar know that this would be tricky, as there was also Princess Agrona, but
Bhimar assured Doran that, if Doran was willing to cooperate, he could get her
out of the way. With this assurance, Doran agreed.

Recognizing that Agrona was taking
lessons from Aidan Summerbreeze in the healing arts, Doran made overtures of friendship
towards her. Once he gained information of herbs that were more harmful than
healing, including herbs that could cause a woman to miscarry, he abandoned
her. By keeping her guards well bribed for nearly a decade, he learned that she
was pregnant and used the herbs on her without her knowledge. He used this to
offer Bhimar a way in and watched as she kept Rhiannon from having a child out
of vengeance for Rhiannon’s lack of compassion.

As the years went on, Doran kept in
touch with Bhimar. When the Hearts went missing, he was the first to accuse the
Shadow Walker guards, a unit that included his own younger brother. It was his
own revenge for the tricks Alastar and Rhiannon had played on Doran in their
youth. He knew when Agrona slipped up, and though Agrona thought that the young
handmaid’s daughter, Fiona, was Rhiannon’s child, Doran was the one who knew
that it was the older handmaid, Cliona, who was really his niece in disguise.

Eventually, Doran met, courted, and
married Líadan, of the Sunburst family, and they had a daughter of their own, Orla,
who was born in the hundred and fiftieth year of Ithel and Rhiannon’s reign.
Doran kept his connections to Bhimar hidden from both of them.

When Cliona’s daughter, Tesni, was
four years of age, Doran signaled Bhimar, and Bhimar led an attack that killed
Rhiannon and Ithel, successfully framing Agrona, who was forced to flee. There
was but one flaw in the plan, however. Cliona survived and went into hiding,
leaving Linwood to be ruled by the Advisory Council, though Lord Emeraldleaf
retained his seat at the head, much to Doran’s chagrin.

Doran continued to watch and wait,
refusing to admit that he and Tesni were related when she took the throne at
the tender age of seventeen. It was another twenty-one years before he saw
another opening to help Bhimar’s cause. Lord Emeraldleaf’s only son, Ash, was
now at the head of the Council, and he had a daughter, Seren, who often visited
Líadan, who doted on the girl and gave her sweets, having no grandchildren to coddle.

Seren had begun to have affectionate
feelings for Tesni’s son, Eogan, and Doran used this to his advantage. He
persuaded Seren to steal some of her father’s papers, promising her more access
to Eogan. Once she delivered the papers, however, he took her to a hidden room
in the cellar of his home. There, he tied her up and regularly beat and
tortured her even as he sent a ransom note to Ash.

Doran met his downfall when Tesni
called an emergency meeting of the Council. She provided food and wine,
slipping a truth serum into the wine to find the traitor she knew was on the
Council. Once she found him out, she questioned him heavily until the truth
serum ran its course. She then had him placed in the dungeons. He did not see
her again until several months later, when Tesni came to question him again
about how he communicated with Bhimar. She had Agrona and Cliona with her, and
he knew that there was no use pretending that he thought she was a ghost. He
told them everything.

Doran was released from the dungeons after the
fall of Linwood to Bhimar, and he remained loyal to him for more than two
months, until Bhimar demanded of him Orla. Tesni’s chamberlain, Gwydion, had
also stayed behind, however, and he offered Doran a way out for Orla. Doran
would not agree to anything aloud, but he did give Gwydion cryptic orders that
the chamberlain understood. That evening, Doran bid farewell to his wife and daughter,
knowing that his niece and grandniece would not forgive him his treachery, and
returned to Bhimar, who had him beheaded.