House Arabasti
Arbust Arabasti won the cutthroat competition against his hated competitor Chadris Porphyria to claim the leadership of Korvosa. Arbust had come to Bengion during the rebellion of new allons, where he hoped to increase the coffers (and thus the chances of victory) of the bengion Emperor. Himself related to Julianus I via marriage, Arbust counted on his loyalty and cunning to finally win a noble title for his family. Unfortunately for Arbust, Bengion's long decline created several dilemmas in Korvosa, and the large profit he hoped to make there collapsed around him. Desperate to recoup some of his losses, Arbust remained in Korvosa and quickly insinuated himself into its politics.
Arbusts’s beloved son, Eodred I, so impressed the people and nobility that, when an anonymous plant in a city gathering first called him king, the crowd quickly followed suit. After much discussion, the noble houses finally agreed that granting a royal title to the leader of Korvosa would make the monarch (and thus the city) seem more impressive in the eyes of Bengion. The city’s charter very carefully spells out that its own monarch is subservient to the ruler of Bengion, and that Korvosa merely tends to the lands of Varisia on behalf of the imperium. To date, the imperial senate has never once acknowledged the monarch of Korvosa as anyone other than the mayor of a small colony in the wilderness.
King Eodred’s spoiled and hated adolescent nephew, Cardraith, adopted the throne from his uncle (the first monarch and thus first sufferer of the Crimson Throne’s curse) in 4223. His short reign, marked by bizarre proclamations that punished everyone from accomplished soldiers to beautiful women, ended in 4227, when young Cardraith died of a mysterious fit. With his death, it seemed, the Arabasti dynasty in Korvosa came to an end. Korvosa’s first and only Porphyrian monarch’s rule was cut short, however, by the unexpected arrival of an heir to the Arabasti line: Domina Arabasti. A distant relative of the family’s imperial line who had learned of her “royal” lineage and a worshipper of the devil Malacoda, Domina sailed into Conqueror’s Bay at the head of a small fleet of black-sailed Sardasian frigates.
Queen Domina’s rule saw improved relations with Sardis, the empires's self proclaimed successor state, as the brutally efficient queen had lived fascist empire. Trade increased several hundred fold as her family’s connections led numerous cult of metal-based companies to establish colonial branches in Korvosa. She used this in flux of wealth to fund a massive building spree throughout the city, giving rise to the Great Tower, the refurbished temple of Asmodeus, Citadel Vraid, Domina’s Wall, and the foundation of the Pantheon of Many. Korvosa looks back on her reign as a golden age and considers her its most successful monarch.
Like his mother before him, King Eodred II enjoys spending the city’s wealth, but he tends to use its treasury to fund his personal decadent lifestyle rather than build anything lasting. Eodred II adopted a city with drained coffers but spectacular architectural projects. In his first three years as king, Eodred slowed the completion of several projects and halted others, allowing the city’s finances to recover and provide for his bizarre and frequently unwholesome indulgences.
King Eodred surrounds himself with girls and women of every race, but never expressed a desire to marry and— despite frequent trysts within his sizeable harem—never fathered a child. As he grew old, he became suddenlydesperate for an heir and visited his beauties with ever greater frequency. Still, his harem bore him no heir. Into this climate of despair and fear his council of nobles forced him to marry an Aldoranzan noble, the politically relevant but benign Ileosa, who convinced the king to put aside his harem (temporarily) and take her as his wife. This happy marriage did not last long, and it is believed within 6 months the king had returned to his harem.
In the last year, as he has watched his beautiful young wife drain the city’s treasury at an alarming rate, King Eodred II chartered Sir Gyrad Tolgrith to open a landbound trade route into neighboring Caliphas. The king hopes to eventually extend the route all the way to Aldoranza, giving merchants an alternative to paying the excessive docking fees of the harbors and delivering gold directly into Korvosa’s depleting treasury.
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