Leopold Dedalus

Leopold Dedalus is a Northern Elven prince, serving as the Grand Prince of the Whispering Woods. He is also married to the Scientarian Empress Adele Tellumnar.

### Early Life and the Scientarian Wars

Leopold was born the third son of the last Prince of Marenwald, Augustus Dedalus. He was always the black sheep of the family, more interested in alchemical news coming out of the south than anything involving traditional elven society. When Adele Tellumnar was elected to the Prime Minister position in the Tear, he applauded with other like minded elves that a competent elf was making their way up in the world. When the revolution came though, Leopold turned decisively against the Empress, denouncing her assassination of the leader of the Institute for Magical Learning as rank villainy, and even more so against the "butcher of Kurosekai" Alek Tellumnar. He fought where he could in the following Scientarian Wars, but was derided by local elven elite for trying to use the enemies firearms and explosives instead of magic and the bow. The rest of his family were killed in the wars, and Leopold had to go into hiding as the final attack on Marenwald commenced.

### Years of Exile

In the years that followed, insurgence movements continued, but much of the population capitulated. Leopold tried to assert a more middle of the road approach, trying to appeal to insurgents to use more rational methods than hardline extremism and for the cowing population to more strongly resist for local autonomy. He eventually was declared an enemy of the state and a bounty placed on his head, even though he considered himself a moderate. He spent the next few years hiding out in the far north village of Stenhill, which was technically under Scientarian authority but the frontier nature of the village kept him out of the spotlight.

When the western parts of the empire collapsed, a major rebellion started in the north, and was swiftly crushed by the arrival of the empress herself. Leopold had been writing screeds against this foolish uprising, calling for peaceful demonstrations to appeal for home rule now that the Empire would need Northern Elf support to keep their breaking empire from falling completely apart. The empress took note of these messages and cancelled the bounty on his head. Leopold was uncertain at first, but after enough coaxing he was convinced to meet with the empress at Marenwald.

### With the Empress

Despite his distaste for her brutal imperialist tendencies, the two got off to a good start due to their mutual scientific interests and agreements about how to best run a state. He pushed relentlessly for a reduction in armed intervention with the Union of the West, as following the devastation of fighting with the Devils in the north and with Kalderus in the center, as well as an army of former refugees coming out of Nuhaven, it would be best to consolidate and keep the eastern half of the empire together. Leopold is considered instrumental in keeping the following border conflicts over the new order less tumultuous than they may have been otherwise. Over the next ten years Leopold became a closer and closer advisor of the empress, especially as with imperial resources he was able to work in the most advanced alchemical laboratories in the world. Following years of debate to find a place for home rule for the Northern Elves, Adele proposed marriage to Leopold and named him Grand Prince of the Whispering Woods. As a tributary sovereign, he would be made a constituent part of a federal division within the empire, of equal standing to the Lands of the Silver Throne in the Dorry Hills.

Since 19 a.s.r. Leopold has served in this capacity in the Empress' advisory council. Gossip in the streets of Belleza has that the Grand Prince and the Empress rarely cohabitate outside of official meetings, both working tirelessly on their own projects and rarely sleeping. The fact that over 20 years of marriage has gone by without even the slightest hint of a child is a cause not unspoken of in seedier discussions. When his wife travelled to the Gern Heart in Skarlsboro to gain divine power during her war with Oyashima, he refused to travel with her, and word is that he left the capital to work in laboratories in Shiron since that time.