Appearance

Mentality

Personal history

Third son of Lord Wulfhetan Arlfraw, Edric knew from a young age there would be nothing in his father's will for him but his name. As a young nobleman in Ascaheim, there are three career capacities of a well-to-do son of nobility: clerical, magical, and martial. While groomed from a young age in both the clerical and divine magical arts, Edric found his talents focusing him towards a military background. He squired for his older brother, Morgan and then his other brother Astor before reaching the age of sixteen, before joining his first military campaign in the Stoubwald.
 
Ascaheim is a far reaching western province of the Adrarian Empire separated from the core of the Empire by the Rouh Mountains, a chain of largely inactive volcanoes. As wind sweeps across the low plains to the west of the Rouhs, the ash and smoke that accumulates on the peaks of the mountains is swept eastwards and collects again in the steep valleys of Ascaheim. As a result, the valleys of Ascaheim have always been known for their fertile soil and rich harvests of rye and barley. The castle of Ascaburgh stands proudly above one of valleys and the rapids that run down its bottom. The west of Ascaburgh, the terrain levels out towards the sea and is lined by several short, branching rivers. The rivers flood annually and serve to mix the volcanic ash and soil together, as well as irrigate them. The large farmlands that spring up around these were controlled for centuries by tribal chieftains, many of which have only recently bent the knee to the Adrarians, and their conduct shows.
 
The first family to kneel to the Imperial Throne was the Hirtigots. Their distant descendants still own land near the foothills of the Rouhs, though they rarely reside there. They sought to intermingle with Adrarian nobility, and thus largely removed their presence from Ascaheim. One of their daughters, however, did marry a chieftain named Isegrim the Tall, Edric's grandfather. Through her claim, Isegrim fought a brief but fierce war against the remaining sons of the Hirtigots in Ascaheim. He then used the plunder to build his own keep in where Ascaburgh now stands. He changed his name to Yarlfraw, a bastardization off of the old chieftain term Jarl and fraw, Lord. He submitted himself to the Adrarian Empire as Lord of the Ascaheimers, with the pledge to bring them under his control, and thus the Empire's. The Empire accepted his pledge and sent two legions of the Missio Honesta to bring Ascaheim under his control.
 
Yarlfraw died twenty-three years into his campaign to another cheiftain's handaxe, but he had succeeded in bringing over thirty other chiefdoms under his power. His first three sons died as a result of his warmongering, and the fourth, Wulfhetan, later called the Pagan, swore himself to a clerical life. When his fifth and final son, a boy aged eleven, died after ruling for only a few months, Wulfhetan was forced to leave his occupation by the pressuring Hirtigots, who did not wish to return to the barbarians western lands from cradle of the Empire, to rule his father's lands. Once he had had his coronation and he had been excused from his clerical role, he took for his wife the widow of a chiefdom under his control. She died while travelling to Ascaburgh, so he took another wife, younger, from the same family. She bore him two sons: Morgan and Astor. Wulfhetan spent a good deal of his effort trying to consolidate the chiefs that his father had brought under his control, often arranging marriages between other chiefs' families. When Morgan, who was much like his grandfather, cunning and vicious, came of age, he arranged to have himself married to a member of some Adrarian elite. Wulfhetan approved greatly, believing that strengthen their family's bond to the Empire could eventually bring them more troops to fight the remaining chieftains to the west. Astor, meanwhile, was betrothed a woman who was the result of the strongest of the houses that resulted from the consolidation of chieftains' families. Once again, Wulfhetan approved greatly. When his wife died a few months after Astor's betrothal, Wulfhetan married a young widow from Adraria. She bore him one son, Edric.
 
Wulfhetan was elated at the birth of his third son, recognizing the opportunity he presented to build new relations in Adraria. As soon as he could walk, he sent him to be educated under his new wife's uncle in Colonia Emerita, near the Ascaheim - Adraria border. Edric grew up surrounded by Adrarian customs of chivalry and martial honor. Often shadowed by his great uncle, he was committed briefly by him to serve the Sectæ Gengiī. He was excused from the church following an incident with his sacred fire, which he added excess fuel too. The fire spread throughout the chamber, gutting it entirely. His uncle incurred the cost and excused him from his service. Once Edric returned to his father and relayed the news of what happened, Wulfhetan was furious that Edric's uncle had promised his son to a foreign pantheon, which would've resulted in a son unable to marry and unlikely to return to Ascaheim.
 
Edric spent the next ten years under the watchful eye of his father. He squired first for his brother Morgan. When Morgan moved to Adraria to be with his wife soon after, he squired for Astor. Where Morgan had the cunning of his father, and Astor had his eye for tactics, Edric had his religious fervor and political talent. Squiring under Astor gave him the opportunity to construct relationships with other squires and knights in Ascaheim. Growing Adrarian influence in Ascaheim promoted the Adrarian Pantheon to rival the traditional Ascaheim ancestor worship. When the first public Adrarian shrine was constructed in Ascaburgh, Wulfhetan was furious. He had the temple burned and the cinders beaten into the cobblestones. He did not know that the first private shrine had been constructed in the cellars of his own castle and was regularly attended to by his wife, her servants from Adraria, and Edric.

Personality

Social

Birthplace

Ascaburgh

Current Residence

Harlaus Hill, Island of Wyn

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Count of Harlaus Hill, Knight of the Island of Wyn, Knight of Ascaheim, Second Tanist of House Arlfraw

Family Ties

Edric's father is Lord Wulfhetan Arlfraw the Pagan, of Ascaheim. He has two brothers, the Tanist Astor Arlfraw and Sir Morgan Arlfraw.

Religious Views

Edric is the first of his family to adopt the Empire's main pantheon of gods after the Second Battle of the Tallant.