Cairdor

*"Slated as the first out of a long line of corrupted sons and descendants of Lassendir Cairdor was the youngest of the first three children to first king of Elion who went on to found the southern kingdom of Valline, Cairdor is remembered by many as the person who ignited the spark for the first civil war and fragmentation of Elion."* - Book of Kings, a book dating the history of kings from all of the three kingdoms

Cairdor was a human male and also a Galad making him part of an elite sub race of mankind being blessed with long life and other physical attributes to help him be the best of mankind in times of war or peace, he was the third and youngest child of Lassendir the first king of Elion alongside his brothers Selwyn and Elros who like him served as the three princes of the kingdom. After the split of Elion due to the civil war Cairdor would go on to carve out his own territory in the southern regions founding the kingdom of Valline being renowned for its fishing ports and garnered its wealth using that as its main income, unlike his brothers Cairdor was not interested in being a warrior or even being a ruler his primary goal was to gather knowledge as his father had used Elvish magic to bless his children this would end up becoming Cairdor's downfall as his obsession with learning more about the world and its magical properties would lead him to his own insanity being killed by Elror his son who went on to claim his throne.

## Biography

### First Era

#### The Troubled Son

Being the final child of Lassendir out of his three sons Cairdor was obsessed with garnering his father's attention who instead focused on Selwyn making sure he was ready for being the next and new king of Elion, this would bother Cairdor who slowly in his childhood grew to despise his eldest brother whilst slightly maintaining his relationship with Elros. As a child he tended to snoop where he shouldn't and listen in on things that he shouldn't of heard but at some point during his childhood Cairdor would discover that his father was learning Elvish magic for an unknown purpose to him but this would be his driving point to win his father's approval by keeping into his own studies and learning secrets about others learning the art of manipulation. Cairdor would utilise this in many scenarios during his life including on his own brother Elros constantly trying to sway his opinion on Selwyn giving him an advantage of having a brother on his side however Elros maintained his relationship with both of his brothers, during his younger adult stages of life he became largely jealous of his eldest brother and now craved his father's attention so much so that he would uncover about his father learning about different types of magic and so too he would become obsessed with learning magic that he would garner his father's respect. This need for his father's attention would eventually turn to his own studies trying to understand the magical properties of the realm becoming his main obsession, whilst his brothers focused on the wellbeing of the kingdom Cairdor would focus on gathering and hoarding all of his knowledge to himself.

#### Elion War and Ten Year War

The year before Lassendir's death Cairdor would have a child naming him Elror in honour of the kingdom's great defender Elros and his son would become the only thing that Cairdor was truly happy for in his life, the following year his father would die and the kingdom would name Selwyn as the new king of Elion much to the dismay of Cairdor who didn't believe his brother was suited for the throne and so began his own plan to dethrone him. During the first year of his brother's reign Cairdor would work to sow discourse across the kingdom with many bandit raids and protests occurring across the lands which would only further show Selwyn's inability to lead it's people, whilst doing this he would continue to try and convince his other brother Elros to turn on the king by appealing to the constant bandit raids across the lands and his inaction as a response. Despite not having his brother on his side Cairdor would manage to sway Elros' opinion of the king turning on him and now sowed even more dissent within the royal court, it would be now that Cairdor rallied his own supporters and publicly denounced the king as did Elros with his own supporters which upon Selwyn ordering his brothers to stand down they would both refuse igniting the Elion War which became the biggest war that the kingdom had ever seen being a civil war between the three brothers all with their own ideas for the kingdom. The war would end in all three brothers having their own equal lands that formerly made up the old kingdom with Cairdor ruling the southern kingdom of Valline making him the first king, since he studied his father in both being a king and a ruler he was able to form his own royal court however due to his own obsession with understanding the magical properties of the world he rarely fulfilled his duties as a king leaving his young son and prince Elror to fulfill these duties in his father's place. With only 6 months having passed of each kingdom being formed Cairdor would war against his brothers once again in hopes of reuniting the realm under his rule as he suspected that they held secrets of magic from him, this would become the Ten Year War in which the three kingdoms fought against each other whether to conquer the other's land or to defend their own. This war would leave all three kings with depleted forces and morale which would eventually force them ten years later to end the war with an uneasy peace between them much to Cairdor's disappointment as he had wanted to uncover his brothers' supposed magical secrets but was not able to. After the war Cairdor would remain mostly to himself and his studies abandoning many of his duties leaving it to his son even refusing to speak to his son majority of the time which caused Elror to grow hatred towards his father, towards the end of his life Cairdor would come to the realisation that it wouldn't be him to uncover the true magical properties of the realm but one of his descendants and so would pass all of his knowledge down to his son before he passed and in death would beg forgiveness from his son for the neglect he gave the kingdom and to him.

## Legacy

Cairdor was a Galad like his brothers who became the blessed species thanks to their father's sacrifice but it was Cairdor that uncovered it was Silevrenion who had performed the magic that would bless Lassendir's children and descendants using Elvish magic, it would be because of this magic that he sought to learn more and more about Elvish magic but then other forms of magic such as dark magic which would end up making him obsessed. It would be Cairdor's line that was given the part of Lassendir that was his weakness making the many kings and descendants of Cairdor to be considered corrupt, greedy or outright evil to the other kingdoms, what was not realised by the other kingdoms was that Cairdor did possess strength within his dying hours realising his pain and neglect that he had caused to his kingdom and his son. This teaching would go on to show many kings of Valline that in order to do what was right sometimes you must do something dark or painful believing that to be the reason for Lassendir's sacrifice and this would be shown by Hurey who being Cairdor's descendant would trick the Dragonlord Asir by being on his side only to then help his cousin Throda and Illias to slay the mighty beast.