Sō-Thadi Aezotēwa
Aezotēwa was born the second son of Sō-Thadi Nuimadunē in 167 Y.Az. He became the tenth Sō-Thadi after defeating his brother in a deadly duel. Even after his passing at the age of 51, he was most known for his anti-Yuiwian opinions, and particularly the rift formed between the throne and the Temples of Sō and Nui after his rise to power.
Personality
Prince Aezotēwa was known from a young age to be temperamental, reckless and quick to act. These traits and his habit of getting into fights earned him the nickname Zuduo, which he kept with some pride after his exile.
He never cared much for others, and rarely connected with people other than his older brother. It wasn't so much inability as unwillingness, however, as he later connected well with many people of the Great Plains clan he lived with during his decade of exile.
Though sharp of mind and observant, his opinions of people were often colored by his more pessimistic nature.
Youth
As the second son, Prince Aezotēwa lived most of his first years surrounded by people with great expectations of him, as the eldest child was not at the time guaranteed to succeed their predecessor as Sō-Thadi. This changed soon, however, as it became clear Prince Aezotēwa did not possess qualities hoped of a ruler. Advised by the Temples his mother Sō-Thadi Nuimadunē named her firstborn, Prince Saelyozu, as Prince Heir instead.
This mattered little for the then five years old Prince Aezotēwa, at least until his brother was taken away to study for his future role as king. Without his best - and largely only - friend, the boy entered a tumultous era of adaptation. It was during this time he earned his nickname as well, after a series of fights he picked with some of the other children running around within the bounds of the Keep of Kings.
Soon enough his mother, Sō-Thadi Nuimadunē grew concerned about her secondborn, and hoped some training with weapons might help direct his aggression toward something more fitting of a prince. The strategy seemed to work, as Prince Aezotēwa took to blade and spear with great speed, and tales of of his outbursts with other children lessened greatly.
It was many years after this when the two Princes Aezotēwa and Saelyozu saw each other again. They had both grown and changed drastically, and for a time it looked as if they no longer got along nearly as well as before. Where Saelyozu saw a violent child incapable of patience or kindness—courtesy of various rumors told around the keep—Aezotēwa saw a puppet of the Temples, eagerly parroting every word said by his teachers from the Temples of Sō and Nui.
It was a mutual friend of both of the brothers called Ēnuso, who finally brought up enough of past memories to weave the relationship back together again, and gave the brothers a chance to get to know each other once again. And though the reckless and impatient Aezotēwa became quickly frustrated with the newfound meekness of his brother, it was not enough to drive him away.
Exile
After his coming of age Prince Aezotēwa was gifted command of the Queensguard, a position left vacant for a year after his uncle's—brother of Sō-Thadi Nuimadunē—passing. It was a long-held tradition among the royal family of Nīwulā Valley. In the past this had been mostly a formality, to show unity between the members of the royal family and to honor the loyalty of the family to their Sō-Thadi.
Unlike many of his predecessors, however, Prince Aezotēwa was not satisfied to remain a figurehead and let others do the commanding in his place. He had, after all, grown in a time when the Yuiwian Temples of Sō and Nui had their claws clasped tight around the Sun Kings they were meant to serve. For generations the title of Sō-Thadi, Sun King, was but a farce, and one Aezotēwa had grown tired of witnessing.
So it came to be that Prince Aezotēwa, full of determination and fearlessness of youth, attempted to seize the advisors who followed their Temples first, and their ruler never. Unsurprisingly, any attempt at a coup or rebellion by a boy barely past the age of adulthood was doomed to go horribly wrong, and so it did.
His brother Sō-Thadi Saelyozu, newly crowned after the death of their mother, was adviced repeatedly to sentence Aezotēwa to death for his treason. But Saelyozu was known for his kindness, particularly toward his family. Instead of death, the Wild Prince was exiled north to the Great Plains where he could live the remainder of his life.
To anyone with any knowledge of the Great Plains and the people who inhabited it, this might as well have been a death sentence. It was a view Prince Aezotēwa did not disagree with. He quickly determined that his brother, in his weakness, could not kill his blood with his own hands and thus decided to let outsiders do his bidding.
Exiled to a land where he knew nothing and no one, both he and all the people of Nīwulā Valley assumed the boy barely grown would pass within the first week, or less should his fortune be so poor. But fate seemed to walk with him, for a lone figure waited for him near an old, abandoned watchtower where the narrow passage between the Plains and the Valley laid.
It was Ēnuso, the very same childhood friend who had once reintroduced the brothers to each other, who met Aezotēwa with a bag of food and fresh water, and guidance for the journey ahead. Despite past hostilities between Nīwulā Valley and the Great Plains, Ēnuso's family kept good terms with a plains clan whose territory bordered theirs. With some effort, Ēnuso had convinced them to take Aezotēwa in and teach him how to survive.
Return
It was a decade before anyone heard from the exiled prince again. Aezotēwa, who now went only by his nickname of Zuduo, had adapted well to a nomadic life in the Plains. And with a marriage to one of the clan's daughters, Tuiwa, he became officially part of it and its people. He never intended to live out his life in exile, however, and by now his anger toward Yuiwian Temples and their advisors had grown to a raging hate.
Whatever means Zuduo used to gather together the people of the Plains and ally with islanders of the coast of Nīwulā Valley before attacking the Valley itself, has largely been lost to history with only a few clay tablets found with half-legible speculations still visible.
The war he waged was over quickly. After the islanders had drawn the Valley's attention, Zuduo wasted no time in attacking and taking over most of the borderlands against the Great Plains. From there, with newfound allies in local lords displeased with the Temples and the royal family, he kept going. And while the capital on the shore of Lake Akao managed a somewhat proper defense thanks to help from the fabled Sunguard, it was evidently not enough to stop Zuduo's homecoming.
A famous story of the duel of brothers which followed is a tale told in many tablets found all over the Valley ages after the civilization crumbled. In most of them Sō-Thadi Saelyozu challenged the traitorous usurper Zuduo to a duel before the throne, so that no more blood be shed because of his war. After a long duel between the two, Zuduo cut down his brother and stepped over his body to sit on the throne.
Reign
There are a few versions of how Zuduo's reign went. He and Tuiwa took their places as Sō-Thadi and Nuondi of the Valley, respectively, and forced the Temples of Sō and Nui to retreat from the Keep of Kings entirely. Tuiwa, being a woman from a people historically hostile to the Valley, enjoyed little hospitality in her new home, and even less so after her own family retreated back to the Plains to continue their own lives. But it was perhaps the reputation of her husband, now crowned Sō-Thadi Aezotēwa, which worked against her the most.
The relationship between Sō-Thadi and the Temples had always been close, and this sudden rift enraged many otherwise loyal citizens in and around the capital, where the faith's sway held strongest. Despite this, Aezotēwa enjoyed the support of regions away from the Valley's heart, where people cheered behind closed doors at the weakening influence of Yuiwian faith. This support, and a lack of leadership among the new Sun King's opposers, brought a measure of security to Aezotēwa's court.
Sō-Thadi Aezotēwa ruled for approximately a quarter of a century, before dying at the age of 51. His was a reign colored by assassination attempts and a few burned temples whenever the angered Temples of Sō and Nui acted up. However despite all of his deeds both before and after the war, it was not until Aezotēwa's death that the people began to speak of "the Wild Sun" who near destroyed their entire civilization.
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