Tivo Hyzz

### Notable Events

Reunited with Millaroza Keto-Daragon and has begun preparations for the estate ball.

## General Overview

### Appearance

Coming from a long line of large, physically imposing men, Tivo was born at an exceptional eleven pounds and continued that legacy of brawny, tall, and wide men and women. Though age has slowed Tivo minorly, his decades of martial training and grueling exercises during his tenure in the Tetan Defense Force and the debilitating drills of the Cinnagar Royal Palace Guard have granted the man frightening muscularity, though an overeager appetite and recent sluggishness in the passive years have also given him the beginnings of a growing waistline.

His skin is remarkably dark, almost that of ebony wood, with a similar toughness and resilience. The otherwise dark landscape is marked with a myriad of scars bearing the physical history of his training and near-death at the hands of assassins. Ancient scars, faded by time, are barely visible on his arms, while newer ones still glisten freshly upon his skin under the Tetan  sun, most from vibrosword wounds. His hands, in particular, are a motley field of crisscrossing lines.

Tivo’s face is that of a steel box, with aggressively sharp edges, a wide and tall forehead, a broad, pointed nose, a rectangular structure, and heavy lips, little fat to be seen. His eyes, in comparison, are small and, while not set terribly deep, are beneath a thick brow. A broad chin tapers off his jaw, flat and with a slight dimple in the middle. Though he is beginning to grey, age has yet to crack his dark complexion, many courtiers and nobles unable to guess at his age on appearance alone.

## Background

### Childhood (55 BBY - 39 BBY)

Indirectly raised by an indebted single father for his very early years, Tivo nonetheless grew up in a comfortably wealthy home, possible only due to his father's extraordinary military career and equitable salary, his father most notably involved in the training of the Kaleesh prior to the Kaleesh–Bitthævrian War. At the age of four, his father re-entered his life directly, taking on a more paternal role for the boy, though he would always lack a motherly figure due to his mother's abandonment as a result of Lambir's excessive indebtment. With the eventual cancellation of Lambir Hyzz's debts, Tivo was granted a more direct education underneath the man, who sought to impose the very same lessons that he himself had learned both through experience and his humble upbringing under his impoverished, illiterate grandfather.

As the boy matured, he was given a growing list of household chores more fit for servants than for men of Lambir's or his son's assumed social rankings. It was, later told, an attempt - successful at that - to ground the man in the reality of Tetans less fortunate than himself, his father forever detesting the extravagance of royalty, though a lifelong patriot of the monarchy and the planet itself.

For Lambir, forever, rejected allowing his son to follow the same fate as many of the nobility he interacted with daily in the Tetan Defense. He viewed many of them as cultivated children intended to fill their predestined seats granted to them by the too-fouled monarchy. Comparably, Lambir viewed Vull and himself to be the men of the caliber he wanted his son to become, urging him to live a more humble life than himself, reciting often the mistakes of “women” and “excess” to growing Tivo. The boy made play with the children of the estate workers, at times getting lost for hours outside of the Hyzz land and in the surrounding Tetan forests of the landscape. In private, he constructed a crude child’s fort in the upper branches of an ancient tree, completing the project at the age of eleven.

This fort would become Tivo’s focal point for years to come, creating fantastical stories and imaginative tales during his play with the children, to the eventual chagrin of his father, decrying such actions as silly and unfit for a man. He began tutoring Tivo in the intricate art of war that Lambir innovated in decades prior, giving Tivo a foundation in the function of a modern army as well as the role of the TDF, emphasizing its defensive and ceremonial, protective and honorable nature, a role that he in no subtle terms foresaw his son filling. And so, for several years, Tivo took to the education readily.

Rejecting the concept of noble birthright and entitlement, Lambir had ironically created an idea that his son would take his birthright and continue Lambir’s legacy, encouraging him all the same to be a better man than he. And Tivo, who had found fun in the old games his father and him once played, unaware that the idle sparring with sticks was another intricate part of Lambir’s vast ambitious future for the boy, grew fond of his father’s lessons, showing the boy through presentation the execution of land tactics, many of them standard in the Tetan Defense Academy, but some from Lambir’s ever-tinkering and meticulous mind. Their sticks would soon be replaced with mock vibroblades, the mock replaced with the weapons themselves, humorous mirth replaced with the hard grit of an impatient master and a determined pupil, forever vying to defeat his father in their lengthy practice sessions. With each passing year, Tivo grew stronger, quicker, better, wiser. By sixteen, he entered his first dueling tournament in a Cinnagarian sporting complex.

### The Military’s Champion (39 BBY - 30 BBY)

Though defeated in the final circuit of the tournament against the incumbent champion, Tivo’s initial victories in the duels proved that the man, who had grown hardy under his father’s care and large as all Hyzzes were, was more than an oaf, proving a degree of deftness with the vibroblade. And as he matured into adulthood, the Tetan Defense Force accepted him with open arms, finding his existing knowledge of military affairs to be above even their high expectations.

With the military life well underway for Tivo, he found a special kind of peace in defending the isolated Deep Core planet. The routine of it all mirrored his childhood, familiar to the man. Yet he did include some variety in there that Lambir had ignored: the competitions of Cinnigar, testing strength and mastery of the vibroweaponry accustomed to the military. Forever pursuing the championship earlier denied him in the Lower Cinnagar Vibroblade Sportsman Tournament, Tivo trained relentlessly with the sword, beyond the drills expected of the military personnel. He incorporated the unorthodox and bootleg methods of his father, including dastardly false bravado to provoke the blatant aggression of his foes, crooked ripostes and using his clear bulk to overpower lesser opponents in battle. It was an aggressive, close, and dangerously personal methodology, one that earned him a scar or dozen during his tournament years. Though modern Tivo is a calm, unassuming fellow, in his prime the man was arrogant, blessed with the rare combination of both believing in his overt skill and actually possessing such.

Several years passed without note for Tivo, practicing each year for the same tournament, losing to the sitting champion each and every time, yet mastering more and more the swordcraft he cultivated so dearly, all the while receiving promotions within the TDF, commanding garrison forces on the outskirts of the city and practicing large-scale drills in the event of planetary invasion, a common practice for the defensive army. Close to the end of the decade, Tivo defeated Mip Oxan, a human Tetan man who had been the challenging champion for so long. Breaking his opponent's grip with a technical lock and twist of the blades, he disarmed the champion, concluding the duel by yield. It was, Tivo later noted, the first true milestone of his life independent of his father.

Declared the champion of the Tournament circuit in 32 BBY as well as becoming a captain in the TDF, Tivo was well on his way to meet and perhaps even surpass his father’s prestige, though he would never quite have the same history of training the famed Kaleesh or serving in the Republic military, a certainly unique story for a man from isolated Empress Teta. Tivo even garnered the attention of Duchess Miva of the Keto-Daragon House during one such tournament, whom Tivo declared his tournament victory and title retainment towards. Despite Lambir’s resentment of the nobility, Tivo knew all too well the power of such figures. But he did have a genuine like for the Duchess, as many members of their region of Cinnagar did: she was ever active among the subjects, beautiful, charismatic, and born to a lesser dynasty of non-noble stature. Perhaps a slight to some of the entrenched elite, but to Tivo, it was a connection between the two.

### Royal Guard Training (30 BBY - 29 BBY)

Impressed by Tivo Hyzz, the Duchess Miva hinted in no subtle terms to her husband, Sylves, that the man would make a fine Royal Guard. The Duke, a man of his wits, aimed to appease his wife and so approached Tivo directly. The Duke invited him to enter the Keto-Daragon Royal Guard as an initiate posthaste. Though Tivo accepted, the membership in the elite caste of soldiers of the Royal Palace meant an early termination of his TDF career. Lambir would hold disdain for Tivo throughout most of his Royal training, even avoiding his eventual Royal Guard inauguration. Though the two would eventually reconnect, it would remain a sour spot between father and son, Lambir forever resenting the royal families and their mockery of what he saw as a purer Tetan monarchy during his youth.

Tivo, now a twenty-five-year-old man and rather young for the Royal Guard, began his proper training in the elite unit, finding even their training to exceed his own stringent and harsh self-discipline. Though the TDF taught the use of heavy blaster rifles to him before as part of their basic marksman certification, Tivo would find himself lacking in this department compared to his colleagues. Indeed, though he was a top weightlifter and powerful being, even Tivo’s great muscularity was challenged by the insistent demands of their regime. The first month of the Guards’ training was his closest breaking point, the man considering the possibility of the TDF accepting him once more. Yet Tivo knew that he had burned that bridge entirely with his blatant resignation without warning as well as his unspoken promise to Sylves. It’d be a shame on the Keto-Daragon House if he quit, a burden he wished not to cast on the gracious Miva nor pleasant Sylves. By the end of the first month, Tivo was ever more resolute in impressing the House that had given him such a unique chance to work directly for Empress Teta and to honor her through his character.

It was their vibroblade sparring and martial competitions that humbled Tivo’s once-arrogant attitude, grounding it as he faced defeat after defeat. Despite his superior physical strength and unorthodox sword skillset, Tivo found himself struggling against the deftness and mastery of the more experienced Guard. Other trainees, rare as they were, fell before him, unaware of the same techniques that were hidden too to Tivo, the same techniques that bested the champion. They were comfortable with the vibrospear, a weapon that proved to be his bane to fight against. So, forgoing further vibrosword training, Tivo grew accustomed to the staple of the Guard under the careful eye of Zolli Pyc, a mentor delegated to the training Guard by their often absent Captain of the Guard, Rembrandt Otez. By the conclusion of the second month, Tivo had better mastered the five distinct forms in Tetan vibrospear combat. While he would become no champion with such a spear, he would win a handful of duels and round out his abilities, eventually surpassing his obstacle against the other Guards.

Knowing now the weapons of the trade and besting a majority of the Guard at the vibrospear and nearly all with the vibrosword save a select few of the most seasoned members, Tivo finalized his formal war education and training at the Royal standard, his appearance that of a well-chiseled statue cast in ebony at the end of his training. All that awaited him now was his taking of royal oaths to the liege and Empress Teta as a whole.

### Caring for the Keto-Daragons (29 BBY - 25 BBY)

Tivo’s acquaintanceship with the Keto-Daragon family grew beyond such after his ascension to the Royal Guard ranks. He was commonly assigned to stand within the hall, statue-like, as Sylves corresponded with his courtiers. Yet he, too, served as a part of their select escort, at times traveling with the Duke and Duchess during their public activities. Alongside them, Tivo began to grasp a basic understanding of the noble life and how a man of respect handles his lessers. Of all guides for such a thing, Sylves and Miva were perhaps the best for a man like Tivo. Their mutual friendship grew more and more unofficial as time passed. A Tetan fall day would become a pivotal moment in the shaping of modern Tivo: Miva Keto-Daragon had approached him upon the walls of the estate’s inner courtyard, asking for him to mentor her growing sons in the use of the vibrosword. Initially refusing due to a perceived encroachment of his duties, he would eventually accept. Tivo would later reflect on the fact that it was the last proper conversation they would ever share before her death towards the end of the year.

The weight of the vibroswords proved too mighty for younger Falstyff and so had a mock vibrosword of a hardy plastoid composite made instead. Yves, however, was a young adult, fit, though his muscles were untrained and certainly not used to the load they would bear under Tivo. With the assertion of Miva and the approval of Sylves, Tivo began sparring with the children lightly, mixing their private lessons with the academic study of the weapons as well as the physical component of the training. Through his mentorship of the boys, Tivo fostered a further lifelong bond between him and the Keto-Daragons as people more than the House alone.

And as Tivo relied on the Keto-Daragons to grant him the position he now served in, the remaining Keto-Daragons would rely on his stalwart, stoic, yet comforting nature after the untimely death of Duchess Miva. He took on a paternal role in the absence of Sylves for the brothers, as their father was broken immensely by her death. What was once a public and cordial man was replaced by a womanizing mourner, forever changed by her death. Miva’s passing broke the calm rhythm of their lives and shattered Tivo’s irrational belief that he alone could defend the House and that he would never have to stand ceremony for the death of his liege. He accepted the bitter honor of serving as a pallbearer for Miva’s coffin, carrying it into the Keto-Daragon mausoleum, a place Tivo would visit time and time again in the coming years.

Life, slowly, moved on, the boys’ ascending to another degree of training, forsaking their false weapons for true vibroswords. Yves had turned from an errant teen into a more hardened soul over the course of months under Tivo and following his mother’s death. Falstyff, young as he was, already showed signs of improvement underneath Tivo’s stringent regime, their earlier masters little more than hobbyists who feared to strain the boys at all. Yves grew aggressive in his strikes, stemming from a long-entrenched bitterness at his mother’s death. Tivo's duty now was to stabilize their household, finding that his training sessions allowed the boys to vent their frustrations against posted dummies and against Tivo’s unbreakable defense, allowing them to slice only the padding around him fit for such a purpose.

And the brothers would find a new responsibility in which to pledge themselves towards; young Millaroza, Sylves’ bastard daughter, one Tivo was unaware of until Sylves had arrived home with the babe. Though not his ward, Tivo couldn’t help but feel a paternal joy whenever her hoverpram traveled around the estate or passed him on his posts.

### Life Renewed on the Estate (25 BBY - 23 BBY)

Millaroza’s birth, despite its low circumstance and hushed nature, marked a transitional period for Tivo. It marked the brightening of the attitudes of the Keto-Daragon line, the beginning of Sylves’ renewal as a father and Duke, Tivo’s strengthened bond between the family, and the realization that Yves, his prodigal ward, was a full and proper man, tall, lean, and robust with his vibrosword under Tivo’s guidance. Entering his thirties, Tivo began to properly reflect upon his life and career, finding a sense of pride in serving the family that his own father rejected him over. He too pondered on his future; Sylves had made it clear that the incumbent Captain of the Guard, Xervois, was a distant cousin of his, a fellow that, though rather talented, was not the exceptional superhuman expected of the Captain of the Royal Guard. Xervois often delegated his assumed duties to his inferiors, including the master Zolli Pyc that had trained Tivo years ago during his Guard training. The Duke made it clear that Tivo was more than capable of assuming such a post, yet also explained that his hands were tied in the matter due to Xervois’s long-standing service and his rather credible reputation among the royal families of the Palace.

Having lost in the contender bracket of the Lower Cinnagar Vibroblade Sportsman Tournament, the same that Tivo had championed himself in, Yves nonetheless won himself and Tivo a great sense of pride in his attempt, for the circuit had grown considerably more competitive since Tivo’s time. Surely, it reinforced Yves’s desire to train with the man, bringing the experience of true combat into their training.

24 BBY proved to be an interesting, if conflicted, time for the planet. Empress Teta, though a monarchy, was in a vice-like grip beneath the Mining Guilds, who controlled the planet’s valuable carbonite mines and often instituted their own members to the Royal Palace. With the official formation of the Confederacy of Independent Systems under the Separatist Council, there were growing concerns that the Mining Guilds, who aligned with Separatist beliefs, would force the planet to choose a side. However, war had yet to occur, as the Republic scarce recognized the Separatist movement at all despite its ties to many Republic-aligned worlds. Tivo kept his politics private, choosing only to support the faction the Keto-Daragons pledged to. The time had not yet come for them to decide, but all knew that it would in the approaching years. Already rumors of Republic sympathies in the Keto-Daragon house grew in the crisis, Tivo advising Sylves not to declare an allegiance unless forced to do so, as the Guard saw naught but danger approaching.

The Duke had grown exceedingly lonely in Miva’s absence, despite his unguided attempts and mishaps, one of which would later become his heiress. As such, Tivo took it upon himself to keep the man some company and would often converse with Sylves on matters of state affairs. The two set to plan an education for Millaroza. She would get only the best that the Duke’s inexhaustible account of credits could buy. It was easy to forget that she was a bastard after all, the brothers accepting her fully and Tivo as well.

### Onset of War (23 BBY - 22 BBY)

The political sphere of Empress Teta found itself divided in twain with the declaration of the Clone Wars, the Emperor himself breaking beneath Guild pressure to support the Separatists. Disconnected from much of the war due to its position in the Deep Core, Empress Teta eventually broke her millennia of peace after declaring support for the CIS, Separatist-aligned elements of the TDF occupying Republic-allied neighboring Kirrek after a lengthy battle for the ground, leading to a long campaign of guerrilla warfare until the conclusion of the war

The nobility was struck hardest by this political separation, many unwilling to grant the Mining Guild even more power in their courts. Many fled the planet or remained stubborn in their ways, pledging loyalty to the Republic out of spite or loyalty. Others, for once, remained apolitical, notably Duke Sylves, refusing to take a stand or statement for either faction in the war. Sylves’ unaligned nature was partially recommended to him by Tivo, who agreed with the Duke’s premade plan to remain quiet about the matter at all.

Xervois was an open Separatist, having held some ownership in the Mining Guild and a direct shareholder in one of the many carbonite mines on the planet’s surface. The scant times in which he held Sylves’ ear allowed him to urge the man to pledge to the cause entirely. Unshaken, Sylves often waved the suggestion aside if not outright denied it during the course of the first month of the war, Xervois eventually relenting on the matter. It was not the end of his ploys to shift the Keto-Daragons to the Separatist cause, however, exchanging credits with a variety of less scrupulous individuals to mastermind and execute a plan that would forever change the fate of the House, Tivo, and the Royal Guard as a whole.

As the Separatist offenses truly began against the Republic, so too did Xervois’s against Sylves. With a near-limitless budget granted by the Mining Guild, Xervois carefully hired unscrupulous individuals to eliminate the inconsolable Duke as well as his devoted pseudo-bodyguard and mentor to the Duke’s heirs, who would prove to be a thorn in Xervois’s side if they ended up aligning with Tivo over him. Beyond that, hushed rumors spoke of Tivo’s ascension to Captain following Xervois’s abandonment of the station and the man saw fit that he would be able to choose his own successor, not the Duke nor heir. So, Tivo, honorable and respectable as he was, simply had to go alongside Sylves.

Upon a night on the estate, the attack began, Tivo attacked by two of the Guard turned disloyal at the temptation of credits and protection from prosecution, other renegade elements beginning their assault on the Duke. Through scarce-displayed power and mastery of his weapons of station, Tivo defeated the Guards set to murder him and, with the assistance of Yves, fought the men who sought to kill the Duke in his bed, a violent melee taking place in the Duke's bedroom between Tivo, Yves, and the three assassins. But the attempt on his life had made the Duke realize just how dangerous the Separatist agenda had become, pledging his support to the cause despite the wishes of his family. Political neutrality was not worth endangering his sons, who, in retaliation to the strongarming that had subjugated their father, left for Anaxes to train in the Republic’s Navy Academy.

### Ascent to Captainship (22 BBY - 17 BBY)

Unable to formally charge his distant relative, the Duke instead expelled Xervios on grounds of gross incompetence and drastic mishandling of the Royal Family’s security, proven by the nearly-successful attack on Sylves, stopped only by the secondary target of the attacks, Tivo. With the seat suddenly vacated, Duke Sylves rapidly swore Tivo Hyzz in to be his Captain of the Guard. To better reflect the longstanding unofficial support Tivo had given the family over the course of his service, the Duke too instated Tivo in as his Supreme Military Advisor, cementing his position as a Royal Counselor now privy to the inner circle of nobles attached to the Keto-Daragon House.

Under the careful and strict eye of Tivo, who oversaw the training of the Royal Guard directly rather than delegating a lesser master to do so, the quality of the Royal Guard improved immensely in discipline, mastery of their adjacent vibroswords alongside their already esteemed proficiency in the vibrospears and attached blasters, and defensive doctrine, utilizing many of the unit tactics that Lambir was fond of implementing in their war simulations during Tivo’s youth. Through his personal inspection of the Guard, his raising of recruitment standards, varied and innovative training, and study of the Grand Army of the Republic’s offensive tactics in the Outer Rim Sieges, Tivo’s service as Captain of the Guard had left a clear positive mark on the theoretical effectiveness of the Guard, Tivo making certain that such a plot would never occur again. Though he hardly admitted such, the near-assassination of the Duke rattled him to the core.

The Keto-Daragon Guard now one of the most renowned out of all Royal Houses save Alor Keto’s own, Tivo shifted his focus from revamping the Guard to studying the dampening Clone Wars, keen to see the defeat of the Separatists and a resolution to the ongoing political divide of Empress Teta. While Empress Teta lacked any formidable fleet of its own, possessing the knowledge was necessary to execute his role as a Supreme Military Advisor to the Duke. And it would be a conversation of a topical nature when the boys, now men, returned from Anaxes. Despite the end of the war in sight, they had yet to return, pursuing instead their schooling entirely. Even the establishment of the New Order, a shock that bewildered Tivo and corrected the political conflict of Empress Teta swiftly, did not bring Yves and Falstyff home, instead pursuing their education entirely and joining the new Empire’s Reconquest of the Rim, a campaign that would fill Tivo with pride as stories of the brothers’ military efforts came back to the family.

Empress Teta found herself in a new position following the conclusion of the wars, nobles that had fled the planet finding convenient positions of political power on Coruscant and acting to strengthen the Deep Core planet’s bond to the rest of the reformed Empire. The Galactic Empire had defeated the Separatists and halted the Mining Guild’s plots on the Keto-Daragons and other stubborn houses. The upper leadership of the Guild had entirely changed following the defeat of the Confederacy, many of the founding leaders ousted as traitors to the Empire and the Guild instead based out of Coruscant, still retaining their grip on the Emperor Alor Keto all the same.

### Caring for Millaroza (17 BBY - 16 BBY)

While Tivo was shaken by the absence of the Keto-Daragon sons, it had a more dire effect on young Millaroza, who had spent much of her time with the boys growing up. Bereft of them, and with Duke Sylves often isolated in his studies and rooms, it was clear that the girl was beginning to brood. Just as Millaroza pleaded with her father to begin stewardship beneath Tivo, the Captain too, unknowing of her requests, asked the Duke to allow him to take her as his ward, believing that Sylves, in his current state, could hardly attend to her or provide the mentorship she desperately needed. The Duke too knew his own failures in caring for the girl beyond the superficial, materialistic attempts he had made. So, formally, Millaroza was assigned to Tivo Hyzz as ward and student. Unofficially, Tivo would become her mentor in nearly every aspect in the coming years.

Tivo was nearing forty years of age and gladly retained his expertise in the vibrosword and all of her sister weapons. A delightful surprise showed itself for the two, however, with the reunion of Falstyff with the estate. He was only on leave for a small while before the beginning of the Western Reaches Operation, a grand campaign that he and his brother would serve in. Though Tivo knew not exactly what the brother and Millaroza had shared between one another, Millaroza’s aptitude to learn improved severely following his departure, passing the early milestones of vibrosword training in the days afterward.

She grew less fearful of Tivo as well, sharing her troubles and thoughts with him. It allowed Tivo to mentor her properly, fine-tuning her newfound viewpoint on the world as a series of goals rather than imposing obstacles. It was that kind of optimism that had brought Tivo to where he was, a worldview that was shared only by those who succeeded in full. A friendliness growing between the two, Tivo once again felt that peculiar paternal joy that sparked within him nearly a decade ago in the early months of Millaroza’s life. She was a Keto-Daragon and his ward as the boys had been, but perhaps growing up in the constant presence of Tivo had obligated the Guard to care for her in a more direct fashion than he had the boys, or perhaps the vacancy of her father created a necessary role for Tivo to fill in her life.

The Charge at Feather Nebula, a historically grand moment for the Empire, lived in infamy on the Keto-Daragon estate and with Tivo personally. Though an Imperial offensive success, Yves and Falstyff both found their untimely end in the battle, the ships they served upon destroyed by the insurgent fleet. Their deaths radically shifted the environment of the estate and destroyed what was left of Duke Sylves’ spirit. Millaroza, young as she was, was broken entirely by the news. While Millaroza would reappear in time, albeit with a lack of the former energy Tivo had once seen, the Duke would never rouse from his chambers to even sustain himself. Tivo took it upon himself to keep the man fed and alive, as well as informed, carrying the news of the court as well as the arrangement for a funeral for Yves and Falstyff. Though horrendously busy, Tivo gave Millaroza time to continue their training, finding that the discipline was a healing process for her as well as an outlet to allow the girl to confide in Tivo. They both shared the loss immensely, finding common ground between the two. Like Yves had years before with the death of Miva, Millaroza’s aggression and determination in dueling grew with their loss, their training becoming more rigid as she began to properly mature.

### Preparing the Heiress (16 BBY - 9 BBY)

Though their deaths had occurred towards the closure of 17 BBY, the funerals of Yves and Falstyff were held in 16 BBY after the Galactic Standard Calendar’s new year. For a second time, Tivo found himself carrying coffins into the Keto-Daragon mausoleum, lighter in weight yet all the heavier for it. Sylves was in decline following the procession, while his relationship to Millaroza worsened as the heiress’s lessons turned away from the tutors she so easily shrugged off and were instead replaced by royal advisors of the court, fitted now to rapidly educate her on years of court functions in a much shorter span of time. Tivo knew well her adventurous, romanticized spirit and knew too the struggle she faced beneath their lessons, constraining her into the life of a Duchess and not the free spirit she wished to be, thoughts she openly shared with Tivo in their lessons. He began to suspect that their sparring sessions were her only release, unable to confide in her broken father and lacking the closeness of her brothers in their passing.

Beyond the sentimental ramifications of the brothers’ deaths, there was an emerging change to the Keto-Daragon political landscape. Millaroza, forever a bastard child despite her legitimization, was now Duke Sylves’ sole heir and was scarcely educated with the idea that she would become the reigning matriarch of the family after the Duke’s passing. The Duke was a nervous wreck whenever Tivo made visits to the aging man, concerned now that Millaroza lacked any ambition to be an heiress or a monarch. Tivo’s attempts to comfort the man were met only with more concerns that despite Tivo’s best efforts, the Keto-Daragon line had failed the Captain in serving as a long bloodline of reputable lieges, replaced now with a girl who had no interest in upholding the court Sylves and his lineage had so carefully cultivated.

But something had changed in the girl as she matured into a young woman at sixteen, developing a newfound and shocking drive in her lessons and duties. Tivo could never quite put his finger on what caused the shift, but the Duke was surely rejuvenated by it. His health had never recovered following the death of his sons, settling into incurable cancer due to his resistance to bacta. Despite the debilitating news of his dwindling condition, the Duke saw a bright future in the revitalizing of his daughter, their relationship mending slowly as his optimism grew. For Tivo, however, he had to make preparations for yet another funeral, begrudgingly accepting the fact that all he had served have passed or were shortly passing. It would be a sore sight for Tivo to show his grief and strife with the loss of most of the family, for he was their sole cornerstone now that the brothers and Miva have long passed.

### Lady Keto Daragon (9 BBY - Present)

As predicted, the new Matriarch of the household faced internal strife with the treason of her underlings. She would be coronated as a Duchess after all, limiting the extent of her power and making such seizures possible. Because of this, Tivo assented to her wishes to delay the coronation despite the scandal it would spark. Better to be an uncrowned Duke through inheritance than a coronated Duchess with a limitation of power. The mere fact that the titles were separated and unbalanced spoke immensely of the redundancy that the modern monarchy had become. Millaroza’s conflicts with the Empress Teta system were growing within Tivo as well, the man hardly holding a grudge before. As such, the coronation would have to wait until Tivo or her could discover a solution.

Their matters faired far better with the dismissal of Viscount Marruc Wyrrawross’s appeal for the blocking of Millaroza’s inheritance. The viscounts outed their intentions with such a farce, though they would weigh heavily on the young Lady’s psyche before her coronation, making it clear that her role as Duchess would be mostly ceremonial in nature. Urgently, Tivo researched a variety of archaic title inheritance laws and the powers granted to such, seeking a loophole in the matter that would aid Millie’s case. By 8 BBY, Millaroza approached Tivo in preparation for the inevitable coronation, unable to find her own solution.

He offered her one that lacked finesse or intrigue; Tivo was not a conniving man and sought not to debase the monarchy’s laws despite their conflicting and arbitrary nature. But modern Empress Teta was not an internalized patriarchy with the roles of genders clearly defined. While Duke and Duchess did almost certainly refer to a male Duke and his wife, the roles were independent of their sexes. It was nearly unheard of for a family line to pass their lineage on to a sole female heir such as Millaroza’s case, yet nothing forbade her from inheriting her father’s titles as she was a legitimate child. So, almost satirically, she could crown herself Duke.

Tivo held great hope for the future even as Millaroza was dealt the harsh slight of the honorific Royal Castellon of the Iron Citadel, by now an old legend. Nobility rejected her as a proper Duke on account of her inexperience, illegitimate origins, scandalous inheritance, and unorthodox methodology. Her allies were scant, Tivo’s connections borderline useless now with Sylves cold. The mausoleum was full with the bodies and empty coffins of great men and women. Now, alone, Millaroza was tasked with creating the future of that long, noble line. Tivo would have to defend her from adversaries in court and life, seeing enemies in their midst as the Duke had warned. A paranoia brewed within him, knowing that her ambitions were dangerous, her desires wide and her vision vast. And Tivo would see it to the end, be it his own.