Charles Wilem

Charles' last portrait, painted in 98 CE, completed in 99.

High Queen Cassandra Wilem (sister)

Lady Armina Wilem (grandmother)

Lord Michael Wilem (grandfather)

Queen Persepina Wilem II of Flowers (aunt)

**Charles Wilem** was the son of Lord Cyprus Wilem and Lady Hestos Wilem and the older brother of High Queen Cassandra Wilem. He was born in 94 C.E. and disappeared in 99 C.E. He is a lingering figure in Fleurian popular culture, sometimes calls the Little Lost Lord or Poor Prince Charles.

## Biography

Charles was the first child and only son of the Lord and Lady of Oligarden, born on the 31st of Attep in 94 C.E. He was a healthy baby, beautifully formed and lively. When he was six months old, on the 10th of Cernon, he was presented to the Queen Minerva Wilem of Flowers II much to her delight. She offered to have the boy educated at the palace when he would enter education, to which his parents agreed, deeming six the age at which he should begin his formal schooling with the palace academy. In the meantime, Charles grew to be boisterous though somewhat dim boy. His parents suspected a cognitive delay after the birth of his sister in 96, when they noticed how he failed to hit milestones expected of a child his age. Searching for answers, they began to reach out to various tutors specializing in such cases. In 97 they came into contact with Mikael Svetvirden, a tutor at the Akdur Medicinal Society in Barland in the Vedrician Therapeutic style of teaching. Svetvirden was hired on as Charles' tutor, moving to Oligarden later that year.

Charles improved greatly with the assistance of a dedicated tutor, relieving his parents of worry about his future at the royal palace. They began spending more time with his sister Cassandra, though Charles proved still to be the favorite. In late 98, Svetvirden was forced to return to Akdur to defend his thesis in response to new discoveries in the field of Psychic Surgeries. He had performed several of these procedures on Charles, having found great success in the placing of crystals upon the scalp in the pursuit of stopping certain behaviors. Facing growing criticism from his colleagues on the benefits of such procedures, in 99 he invited the Lord and Lady of Oligarden to visit the school so that Charles may be shown as proof of the validity of Psychic Surgeries. The family accepted, and in Fall of that year, left for Akdur via horse drawn carriage.

## Disappearance

On the 16th of Nordren 99 C.E. the Lord and Lady of Oligarden had just past a small bridge across Veldrkot Canyon when they're carriage was stopped. Something had spooked the two horse drawing it, enough so that their driver had to struggle to maintain control. In their retinue was one house guard, a knight called Sir Lukas Halvelen, their driver, and the driver's son, a boy of twelve. The driver claimed that a great animal had ran across the road ahead, but seems to have moved on into the brush. Sir Halvelen volunteered to search the brush to make sure the path was clear, which was accepted and appreciated by the two nobles. While he did so, Cassandra, who was then only three years old, complained of needing to go to the toilet. Lady Hestos was too afraid of the animal to leave the carriage, urging her daughter to wait but the girl claimed she could not. Laughing, her husband claimed he could handle any beast with his military training before deciding to take the young girl to the treeline opposite where Sir Halvelen was searching to urinate. As he stepped out, Charles decided he too needed to go, bounding out after his father before Hestos could stop him.

Lord Cyprus was watching his daughter as she crouched besides him in the bushes, with Charles at his side. He had just finished urinating when a great cry came from Sir Halvelen. He had found the beast, an Aardwolf, hiding nearby in a den. When Cyrus turned back to look at his children, Charles was gone.

The retinue and family immediately began calling out to the boy, but no answer came. Recalling the situation, Cyrus late claimed he only had his eyes off his son for a minute, maybe less. A terrified Hestos burst from the carriage, screaming for her son to return to her. Fearing for Cassandra's safety, her parents locked her inside the carriage where she would remain for the following nine hours. After an hour of searching with no results, one of the horses was unhitched and given to the driver's son, called Yuri, to ride onward to the town of Kordur three miles ahead for assistance. He would return two hours later with a search party. Despite their efforts, nothing would be found that day of Charles.

After nine hours of continuous searching, the Lord and Lady would be forced to rest by the searchers. A small ruin near the bridge of an old stone watchtower was converted into a base of operations for the search. Lady Hestos fell asleep in the carriage with Cassandra. That night, they were awoken to strange news. A man had come down the road by horseback and after inquiring upon the commotion, had told the searchers that he had met a man further down the road traveling with a crying young boy. He had thought nothing of it then, but now believed the boy to have been Charles, as his description matched. He claimed the man was dressed as a peasant, with matted brown hair. He had been traveling by foot. Immediately, the search party began racing down the road on horseback to find the mysterious traveler. When they arrived at Mossrock, a hamlet the family had passed through the day before, they found no such man. Villagers claimed that a man and boy had arrive in the town around three hours ago, inquiring upon buying a horse or mule. A horse had been procured by the man and he had left in a hurry along the southern road, heading south east. The man matched the description given by the traveler and also had a small boy in tow. Villagers claimed the boy was weepy, seeming quite tired.

Searching shifted to cover the area near the village and the road south, leading to the town of Arimania. Despite efforts to locate Charles, nothing was ever found. After four days of searching, the hunt was called off. The distraught family returned to Oligarden thereafter.

## Aftermath

Lady Hestos and Lord Cyprus were devastated. It was said that the Lady's wailing was unending, her wrist and tongue seemingly always raw from performing the Sanguinarium. Lord Cyprus refused to accept that his son was gone, posting a reward of 1,000 silver lilies for his return. He would continue to visit the area of Charles' disappearance up until his death in 101 CE by poisoning. Lady Hestos would continue to believe that her son was alive somewhere. Sightings of the Little Lost Lord would become common in the North in the years following his disappearance. Charles was seen in the faces of hundreds of young boys from Gerden to Balalinople, with sightings spreading as far as the Lasha-Ish and the Pallidas. None could be substantiated. On two occasions, ransom letters were received by the family, the latter paid out in its full for 400 crowns, only for the wrong boy to arrive at the exchange site. It was this event that tipped Cyprus over the edge.

After Lord Cyprus' suicide, Lady Hestos became deeply involved in the spiritualist side of Justainism, wearing all black for her forever morning of her husband. She attended blood letting rituals in hopes of communing with angels that could locate Charles. Her pilgrimages to holy sites across the North became far more fevered, with her bringing young Cassandra along in hopes that a shared piety would bring the boy back. Her treatment of Cassandra grew ever more controlling. When Hestos fell ill in 109, the thirteen year old Cassandra was nearly sent to a convent before being invited to the palace by her distant cousin, the then Princess Guinevere Wilem of Flowers. Lady Hestos died in 114 in the care of the Sisters of Infinite Mercy, near Oligarden.

## Appearance

Charles was a boy of five years of age, somewhat thin with dark brown hair similar to his sister's. He had brown eyes, pale skin with rosy cheeks, and a crooked smile. He had a mole on his left index finger. The sketch on his wanted poster is known throughout the North, even into Arimania.

## In Popular Culture

Northern popular culture, especially that of Fleur and Barland, still holds great interest in Charles and his whereabouts. The bridge over Veldrkot Canyon is often referred to as Little Lord's Bridge or even Charles' Canyon. A small shrine to the boy has gathered in the ruined fortification where the search party operated. Bounty posters still are regularly sold at antique and curiosity stores in Wilemberg, with many people collecting them. Stories of the Little Lost Lord's whereabouts are still told regularly and newspapers often run tales of various sightings. At least once a year, a claimant to be or to be in contact with Charles comes forward only to be disproved again.

## Sainthood

A small group of supporters of the boys sainthood exist following the discovery of human bone fragments in the area where Charles disappeared. Doctors of the Royal College of Surgeons claimed them too big to be the boy's but supporters of this theory believe Charles to have been killed. They theorize that the man who kidnapped him was a sorcerer from Old Avmar who stole him to use his king's blood for black magic. They claim this would thus make him a candidate for canonization as a martyr. Due to the slim evidence, this claim has been consistently rejected by the church. However, trinkets bearing Charles image as well as shrines dedicated to him exist in both Mossrock and Kordur. Several miracles have been attributed to him, though they remain unverified.