Darshan ([DaR]+[SHan])
vris Mhanek/Crown Prince Darshan (a.k.a. Dar, Darshi)
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Of average height for someone born in the empire, Darshan has a lean build covered in a medium amount of hair. He often sports facial hair. Originally, the style was a goatee and moustache more in line with Udynean court fashion. Most recently, he has grown it out into a full beard. He has an aquiline nose that is common amongst those of the imperial line.
Because of his extremely poor eyesight, he can barely see the length of his arm. As such, he's rarely seen without his glasses.
Given that he is a born Udynean, he has been through the Khutani, which means he is circumcised.
Special abilities
Magical abilities, both weaponised and healing.
Apparel & Accessories
Darshan is connoisseur of Udynea's finer things and his garments are no exception. Many of his outfits are made of silk or fine linen and are either extravagantly embroidered with gold or/and silver thread or adorned with precious gems.
He doesn't have any piercings, but he wearings a ring on every finger bar (until more recently) the one reserved for a marriage band. Many of these rings are swapped out as he owns dozens, but the one bearing the vris Mhanek royal sigil and his mother's wedding band are reliably always on display.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Darshan's life started off a little bumpy, but not entirely abnormal. The firstborn of twins, and the only male, he became the heir apparent from the moment of his birth. Sadly, his mother died whilst giving birth to his twin sister, Anjali. From there, the pair were gifted the elven slave Daama from the mother's family (all perfectly standard for Udynea) who became their wet nurse. They were raised alongside her son, Zahaan, who was about a month older.
At two years old, their appointed governess made an assassination attempt on his life. He was spared thanks to Daama's intervention. The Mhanek rewarded his nanny by having her become their tutor, often learning things just before having to teach the twins. She also taught her son as the three of them were inseparable during their formative years, with the royal children seeing the elven boy as more of a brother.
Darshan's magic blossomed around his fifth year, leading him to accidentally setting fire to the bed after a nightmare. Different tutors were brought in as Daama was forbidden to use magic at this point in his life and had little experience in using her own power. These new tutors remained ever under the watchful eye of both her and the Nulled One force owned by the Mhanek. This led to Daama and her son learning powerful techniques that few slaves are permitted to know. On his seventh birthday, Darshan added private healing lessons and excelled in this discipline. This extra teaching quickly proved itself useful as it aided him surviving being shot in the gut with an arrow by his half-sister, Onella, during a vacation to their summer estate about a year later.
Between the ages of six and seven, Darshan attended dealings with the Crystal Court alongside his father. There, he mingled with several of the nobility his age, including Lady Rashmika, who was being considered for a position as Anjali's handmaiden. Whilst they became close friends on their own, Rashmika's father formed a plan to have her become Darshan's wife. This plan had the appearance of becoming a success as, during Darshan's ninth year, he learnt of the expectation for him to sire children and that the general line of thought was for him to marry a lady of high noble lineage. Unfortunately for Rashmika's father, Darshan soon after informed his father that he wasn't interested in women. Not much fuss was made over the announcement as Udynea is an empire that considers all forms of gender and partnership as natural, but the expectation of marriage and siring children still wordlessly loomed over the young vris Mhanek's head.
Darshan eagerly performed the Khutani on his twelfth birthday, thus signalling his transformation to be considered as a man under the Udynean culture and capable of handling his own interests. He was given direct control over the slaves both he and his twin sister were gifted throughout their childhood. His first act was to elevate Nanny Daama as his overseer and Zahaan as his spymaster, which was expected given their already close status. His second act went less smoothly as he attempted to emancipate a dozen slaves he considered close to him. They suffered terribly in a calculated attack aimed to test the young vris Mhanek's resolve and temper.
At seventeen, he had his first sexual encounter and was horrified to learn afterwards that the charming elven man had been a slave. Around this time, he also discovered how Rashmika's father routinely beat her for, amongst other things, not being able to procure Darshan's hand. Upon hearing this, Darshan steeled himself to go through with marrying his childhood friend so she could be free of her father's influence. At the time he was looking to announce it, a distant cousin of his on his mother's side arrived at Minamist on vacation. The cousin became enamoured with Rashmika, who was likewise charmed by the cousin's gentle nature.
By the time Darshan reached his eighteenth year, he had helped arrange a marriage between said cousin and Rashmika. Sadly, Rashmika's father still found ways to punish her due to the cousin's family having a far lower status, whilst Rashmika's father was looking to get closer to the throne, not further. In retaliation, Darshan signed his first assassination order under the guise of a wedding gift. This leaves the estate and title free for Rashmika and her new husband to claim as well as cements the couple as strong allies.
He spent a lot of time between his late teens and early twenties flitting through the Crystal Court, causing scandals and minor upsets as he bounced from one self-serving partner to another, much to his father's dismay. During this time, Darshan met Vihaan, a trans man a few years younger than him. They grew close, not enough to be lovers but with that possibility blooming, only to have Vihaan back out of Darshan's life when the Mhanek pushed the idea of siring children with Vihaan. This seems to be where the seed of resentment Darshan has towards his father first germinated.
His relationship with his father crumbled further after Darshan found two women in his bed, having been sent there by his father in an effort to at least get a child out of Darshan. In a fit of rage, he ignited the bed (once the women had evacuated it), then went on to order having his bedchamber set alight before storming right into a meeting with the Imperial Senate to verbally berate his father. After this very public explosion, his downward spiral into hedonism ran unchecked. He indulged in whatever and whomever he fancied without a care about the consequences.
His apparent goal to destroy himself came crashing around his ears not long after his thirty-third year when, having been caught sleeping with an engaged man, led to a feud between two powerful houses. His father, knowing there was no threat he could give within Udynea that would see Darshan actually behave as he should, opted to send him to the kingdom of Tirglas as an ambassador and negotiate trade relations as punishment. This act was considered as a last desperate attempt to regain the son he had (because everybody knew Tirglas had a dim view of men sharing each other's beds). To ensure he couldn't continue his hedonistic ways, he was put aboard a ship crewed entirely with women and denied the majority of his toys (save for a single one he was able to stash in his travel trunk).
It is in Tirglas where he meets Prince Hamish Mathan, the quiet giant of a man several years his senior and who also could've walked directly out of Darshan's dreams. After confirming the Tirglasian prince was interested in men, Darshan pursued him with his usual single-mindedness. A drunken public kiss in a local pub saw him clashing against Queen Fiona who had sought to marry her younger son to the Udynean Countess Harini she'd been expecting as ambassador.
Up until setting foot in Tirglas, Darshan had never come across bigotry for lying with men, but he swiftly understood he'd be labelled a corrupting influence no matter what he did if he continued his pursuit of Hamish. Only when the man expressed a desire to go beyond a kiss did Darshan do so, albeit, in secrecy for Hamish's sake.
None of this mattered as, even being unaware of their affair, Queen Fiona refused to discuss the alliance both realms had worked hard to get as far as they had. She spent much of the time in his presence insulting him until Darshan's temper got the best of him and he stormed out of the negotiations. It swiftly got to the point where the pair couldn't be in the same room without one of them throwing barely concealed threats at the other.
To maintain the peace, Tirglas' crowned prince, Gordon, suggested a trip across the kingdom, taking both his younger brother and the vris Mhanek far from his mother's influence. This journey led to Darshan being attacked at an outpost by guards under orders to avenge an assault on their prince as well as the discovery that the Tirglasian royal family had a weak strain of magic in their blood.
Upon returning to the capital and learning Hamish had become unwillingly the object of a marriage competition, he allowed himself to be led out into the forest by the prince under the guise of being shown a bear, unknowing that his lover intended to use the beast to slay himself. Darshan managed to thwart this plan, delving into forbidden magic to drag Hamish back from the brink of death. This would begin a transformation within him that ultimately gifted him the ability to connect with the earth in a manner similar to the hedgewitches of old.
With Gordon's help, Darshan snuck his way into the competition, winning Hamish's hand via covert magic, blatant cheating and, eventually, exposing the prince's sexuality to the clans. This led to Queen Fiona disowning her younger son and banishing Darshan from the kingdom. The pair left for Udynea, finding a priest who agreed to marry them along the way (the ceremony would ultimately prove to have been void, but by then, they were set to have a far more elaborate wedding in the empire).
Education
As the heir apparent to the Udynean Empire, Darshan's formal education involved far more than the typical fare of international politics and economics. There were also inter-political studies between the different levels of the court and senate; religious studies to gain, if not an instant recollection of a deity, at least a faint understanding of the dozens of deities as well as the varying subcultures within the empire's borders. All on top of magical studies consisting of attack, defence and, most importantly for a young heir, healing.
Personality Characteristics
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Healing adept.
Virtues & Personality perks
Charismatic, Courageous, Handsome, Great lover, Loyal.
Vices & Personality flaws
Hedonistic, Prideful, Cocky, Impulsive, Manipulative, Questionable morals.
Personality Quirks
When unsure or nervous, he has a tendency to fiddle with his many rings, mostly those on his little finger.
Although he prefers to be the one in control, if topped, he will emit a noise akin to a roaring stag.
Hygiene
Darshan prides himself on his looks. He keeps himself well-groomed and is rarely seen in public without the customary kohl rimming his eyes. During social gatherings, it isn't unknown for him to wear various glittery powders upon his face to match his attire.
Social
Family Ties
Relationships
Nicknames & Petnames
Mea lux (towards Hamish) Me heart (towards Darshan)
Legal Status
Married
Current Location
Species
Ethnicity
Date of Birth
3/8/1868
Year of Birth
1868 AES
34 Years old
Circumstances of Birth
Firstborn of a twin birth that killed his mother.
Birthplace
Imperial Palace, Minamist, Udynea Empire
Family
Spouses
Hamish
(Husband)
Siblings
Children
Current Residence
Imperial Palace, Minamist, Udynea Empire
Sex
Male
Gender
Man
Presentation
Masculine
Eyes
Hazel. Rimmed with kohl and framed by glasses
Hair
Dark Brown, shoulder length
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Olive-brown
Height
5'5
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations
Related Plots
Ruled Locations
Comments