Philanthropus
Nos Pos Fec Melor
Thinalar Philanthropus Domitad Magnomus, Generositas (a.k.a. The Munificent, The Unselfish, The Open-Handed, The Lucky)
Kings And Generals seek power and riches!
All manner of mortal men throughout all of human history have sought to stand above their fellows and dictate the future to so many others!
They kneel before the gods and beg for favor and service, desiring the world and wanting little in the way of resistance to get it!
No matter how good one is, every man has at least one evil bone in their body!
No matter how many people you know, they ALL desire advantage over others!
We are all, after all, only human! However, there is an exception!
There is a man who stands as the paragon of humanity in Ta Mando; the ultimate expression of selfless and ethical service to gods and mortals alike! There are simply two rules with this man; incontrovertible facts of the universe as ironclad and ineradicable as gravity or taxes!
These Facts Are Not Up For Debate!
THEY ARE ALL BUT RULE OF LAW! And They Are As Follows...
1: He Is GENUINELY Good!
2: He Is The Richest Man In The Entire World! His Name Is Philanthropus...
And He May Well Be Kanda's Last Mortal Hope For The Survival Of The Empire's Over Sixteen Hundred Years Old System!
All manner of mortal men throughout all of human history have sought to stand above their fellows and dictate the future to so many others!
They kneel before the gods and beg for favor and service, desiring the world and wanting little in the way of resistance to get it!
No matter how good one is, every man has at least one evil bone in their body!
No matter how many people you know, they ALL desire advantage over others!
We are all, after all, only human! However, there is an exception!
There is a man who stands as the paragon of humanity in Ta Mando; the ultimate expression of selfless and ethical service to gods and mortals alike! There are simply two rules with this man; incontrovertible facts of the universe as ironclad and ineradicable as gravity or taxes!
These Facts Are Not Up For Debate!
THEY ARE ALL BUT RULE OF LAW! And They Are As Follows...
1: He Is GENUINELY Good!
2: He Is The Richest Man In The Entire World! His Name Is Philanthropus...
And He May Well Be Kanda's Last Mortal Hope For The Survival Of The Empire's Over Sixteen Hundred Years Old System!
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Despite being nearly eighty years old, Philanthropus maintains fantastic physical fitness; at the peak of what a man his age can physically attain with ALMOST noticeable musculature remaining from his more active periods of life, he clearly exercises every day to preserve what he still has.
Blotchy skinned and wrinkled, however, his age is finally beginning to truly show as his once lush mane of curly hair has started to bald around the forehead and has not been as thick as it once was; now a salt and pepper configuration of shoulder length wisps that he's been considering shaving off entirely in recent months.
Often wearing a smile, his beautiful brown eyes are full of an energy and ambition that defies his age and he regularly walks with the same speed of men half his age; all the while doing so with a bounce in his step and an upright posture that most would think an old man like him to be unable to maintain throughout the day.
Special abilities
While Philanthropus himself doesn't seem to have any special abilities other than a capable understanding of Scurilia Magics and some magical Censar tricks from his youth, it is rumored that he holds far more power within than even he is willing to admit!
Though he has not taken part in many years for fear of his health, many think that Philanthropus could still wrestle a grown soldier to the ground or strike down an enemy soldier in a single blow if he had to! There is something about how Philanthropus has been known to speak when in front of people that some cannot help but call magic; people hanging on his every word while he speaks either logic or rhetoric that encourage those who would otherwise hate the idea of what he is saying to give him and him in particular a chance.
Through countless negotiations he has shown that he can make people change their minds to take his side of a situation and some are convinced that Philanthropus, if given the chance, could even convince the xenophobic nation of Eldin to open their borders to trade again or perhaps act as a diplomat who would convince the Band Of Green to submit themselves as vassals to the empire.
Philanthropus, of course, will not put such rumors to the test but has shown himself to be more gifted in the art of persuasion than most all the same! Perhaps the greatest unknown around The Generositas is what fantastical gifts have been granted to him by the many gods that he, in his youth, swore oaths to!
In truth he has been nothing but faithful to these oaths even if he has failed in delivering upon them and, to their credit, the gods he is beholden to have recognized his effort at every turn!
While it is not known exactly what boons he has been granted and exactly what amazing rewards they have planned for him, it IS certain that favor has and continues to be bestowed upon him by their whims and pleasures!
While their direct intercession has mostly manifested in the form of material blessings and the success of various business ventures it is known that some deities that he has sworn to simply don't show their approval in these ways... and even he wonders at times what he holds without knowing.
If any deities have counted the true inventory of the blessings and curses lain upon this man, they have made no effort to let the world know the numbers.
Though he has not taken part in many years for fear of his health, many think that Philanthropus could still wrestle a grown soldier to the ground or strike down an enemy soldier in a single blow if he had to! There is something about how Philanthropus has been known to speak when in front of people that some cannot help but call magic; people hanging on his every word while he speaks either logic or rhetoric that encourage those who would otherwise hate the idea of what he is saying to give him and him in particular a chance.
Through countless negotiations he has shown that he can make people change their minds to take his side of a situation and some are convinced that Philanthropus, if given the chance, could even convince the xenophobic nation of Eldin to open their borders to trade again or perhaps act as a diplomat who would convince the Band Of Green to submit themselves as vassals to the empire.
Philanthropus, of course, will not put such rumors to the test but has shown himself to be more gifted in the art of persuasion than most all the same! Perhaps the greatest unknown around The Generositas is what fantastical gifts have been granted to him by the many gods that he, in his youth, swore oaths to!
In truth he has been nothing but faithful to these oaths even if he has failed in delivering upon them and, to their credit, the gods he is beholden to have recognized his effort at every turn!
While it is not known exactly what boons he has been granted and exactly what amazing rewards they have planned for him, it IS certain that favor has and continues to be bestowed upon him by their whims and pleasures!
While their direct intercession has mostly manifested in the form of material blessings and the success of various business ventures it is known that some deities that he has sworn to simply don't show their approval in these ways... and even he wonders at times what he holds without knowing.
If any deities have counted the true inventory of the blessings and curses lain upon this man, they have made no effort to let the world know the numbers.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Philanthropus was born to what can, by all means, be considered a patrician family of Ta Geta; his father Domitan was a responsible military Censar for The Gate Itself and his mother a well to do weaver and Daughter of Partanaria from an upper class aristocratic household that saw promise in his father's potential for capable material handling and the mutual benefit of joining their families.
An old and well established family, The House Of Magnomus had done enough to score themselves two Doglia with rich resources and several Galia with wealthy port cities within; one of the first families of Kanda to rise above the rest.
Secure in his position that his son would have a place to himself once Domitan passed away, the Censar was more than happy to spare no expense on his son's development! In hopes that his son would grow strong but humble, wealthy but frugal, practical yet hopeful, appealing to the upper classes but always remembering the little people... Domitan named his first and only begotten son Philanthropus and personally promised him to The Gods in the High Pantheon Of Kanda, wherein he promised to dedicate the rest of his life to the gods if those same gods would impart his child with the strength and wisdom to do great things!
And The Gods, so it would seem, smiled upon him that day! Life for young Philanthropus was especially fortunate; encouraged by his father to stay close and gain vast amount of military and bureaucratic training while still just a child, afforded the finest tutors his father could afford and allowed to take a distant but not insignificant role in watching over the inventories and paperwork of the largest trade hub in the empire, the latter of which he found himself quickly gravitating toward!
Furthermore, Philanthropus grew obsessed with revering and serving not only The Gods... but the people of Kanda and the world as a whole!
As a child he swore himself to many gods and goddesses of peace, prosperity, goodness, compassion and generosity that he would die penniless; having given all that he has to the world to make it a better place for all.
And he would continue to swear these powerful, lifelong oaths to any deity of love and righteousness that came into The Pantheonic System of Kanda.
And His Words And Dedication All Of Them Would Cherish Together!
By the time Philanthropus came to adulthood he could have been said to have a proper aristocratic education, with strong support from the realm's clergy, backed by solid experience on the job with his father and groomed for the role of Censar by way of instruction in several different crafts and trades!
To his surprise, there was even a spot in the lowest circle of the Censaria that had been... conveniently... cleared just for him; a rare opportunity that some waited decades to be granted! However, Philanthropus had become obsessed with law, parchmentwork and bureaucracy at that point in his life!
He had worked hard to gain recognition on his skill and speed with the quill, his ability to take notes and recall law and legal precedent by memory alone!
Perhaps even better, his grooming for a lifetime as a Censar had given him a perspective few other Scurilia had at their disposal; allowing him to lay down statistic alongside rhetoric to crush his interlocutors in public debate and Mock Thinal meetings alongside his fellow youths!
What's more, Philanthropus was an honorable young man who had NO intention of passing up his due military service of twenty-five years to live comfortably in dusty city inventories, safe from the tortures of the world!
He had no desire to stay locked away doing nothing for the people... so he responsibly joined the military at sixteen as any other man might! While he quickly showed his value as a soldier, his superiors were all in agreement that his talents lay in parchmentwork so he was relegated to junior Scurilos of a major Letanis and let to his work as anyone else would be!
Learning to quickly take accurate notes and relay information appropriately to the military officers when they needed it, Philanthropus became a well known combat chronicler; always ready for combat but somehow never managing to end up killing a single man!
Indeed many men died protecting the young man during his military service and those who gave their lives to save his own have long since had their families cared for by the House Of Magnomus. Over the course of twenty-five long years Philanthropus found himself serving everywhere from what is today the Former Salvin Lands to what was then a much more wild Ducky Isles completely out of the control of the Kandia to the Glass Isles to arm the coldlands darobia to fight against mutual enemies... to the distant reaches of Ta Fanusia Hyanus to help with supply problems and help copy long moldering tomes and codices holding laws that few remembered!
Throughout his entire tenure he was able to proudly boast that he never killed a single man and exceeded the expectations of his superiors at every turn; known for his honest and just methodology and carrying out numerous trials impartially and with careful consideration to all parties!
Seldom did he not make at least one friend in any given interaction and he is not known to have made any true enemies during this time... merely poor humored rivals. Sadly, by the time he left service at 41 his father had already passed away but he was left with the family holdings and another Gal on the frontier that Philanthropus had gained lease to through service.
That new Gal had much in the way of serviceable land with highly fertile soil and plentiful pastureland while the already present family territory had vast deposits of precious jade, gold and silver alongside open ocean access to process pure salt and the very many port cities that flooded his House's coffers every month to be jealously held away for some future events.
His father had left him with land from which he could literally dig money from the ground and dry it out from the water and from his own service he had land upon which to grow countless heads of cattle and exotic fruit trees for artisan preserves!
What's more... his sweetheart from his military days had held out and was waiting for him when he retired from military service, marrying him the very next month at a grand family ceremony with over ten thousand guests to celebrate the occasion! Life was good for Philanthropus... but dissatisfaction quickly set in as he settled into political life and bought himself a small villa just outside of the capital to close to work.
He had inherited many slaves and great tracts of land... but he did not care for it, nor the way they were treated!
Ambition had not left him and the oaths of his youth weighed on him!
He'd spent so much of his life gaining such riches... and now he had to keep his promises as ANY man of his word would!! So the first thing he did was free all of his slaves... ALL of them!
And then ALL of the slaves of any of those in his Employ!
If they so desired they could remain under his employ... but it would be just that, employment!
They were freedmen and women now and would be paid what they were worth, not merely housed and forced to work!
And, on that note, why should it be only HIS slaves that benefited from freedom?
He'd seen countless mistreatments and sufferings at the hands of self important masters of overworked and underfed slaves throughout his entire career and could not stomach the mistreatment of others... the pain that he KNEW they felt!
Why had HE lived so comfortably his entire life while his friends died protecting him... and while slaves wasted away to please him?!
That Would Have To Stop! Unsurprisingly, his addresses to Ta Thinal over the dreadful potential suffering under slavery fell on deaf ears!
Kandar Tiberos had led Kanda into a warbound era where every fighting man was necessary at the borders and slaves had to carry the extra weight!
What's more, Tiberos' own military conquests had brought many more slaves to the Kandia market and there was no desire to relinquish this already plentiful resource! So Philanthropus decided...
Perhaps He Should Buy Them Himself! His family had spent sixteen centuries hoarding money in grand inventories and mastering the stock and trade of the empire and that had left them with great tracts of land and holds of gold that they had no plans for; all saved for unknown future times of tragedy that, at this point, could never touch the House Of Magnomus in their security and riches!
Having personally overseen the construction of a new coffer in his youth alongside his father's family friends, Philanthropus decided to empty them... and to sell any and all holdings superfluous to the family bottom line!
And with the proceeds from these sales, with the vast stores of gold, silver and jade his family had held for so long, he personally bought out over half of Kanda's Slave Market over the course of a single year and promptly freed every slave he had received upon receiving their deeds! But, of course, now there were tens of thousands of individuals under his employ... for businesses that didn't yet exist, expecting housing that wasn't yet built and requiring food he didn't have!
So the coffers emptied further as he restructured his entire estate!
Businesses were made overnight and within weeks other businesses were propped up to oversee those!
Philanthropus went from being the head of the most miserly family in Kanda to receiving the title "Generositas" from The Kandar himself and being named godfather of two of his oldest sons for his amazing public deeds!
And, surprisingly, every business flourish!
Every venture succeeded!
EVERY great caravan got exactly where it was going! The Western Kingdom and Ditwala, hearing of his great business acumen and his armies of well trained, well paid servants, sent envoys to learn political science and money management under him and people from all over the world began speaking of its richest man... Philanthropus Domitad Magnomus "The Generositas!"
He who bought out entire slave markets and freed every single person there just to give them homes, food, jobs, wives... LIVES! Soon Ta Thinal was not ridiculing him but taking his side in all things!
Slavery as an institution did not diminish but, by his economic skills, the population of slaves fell to only about ten percent of the population and the amount of freed slaves ballooned; providing an eager new population of Kandia seeking to have children who would one day become proud and responsible soldiers of the Empire, shaped by the hardship of being born to free slaves but comfortable in the knowledge that their families would forever be free!
Even into the great civil war Philanthropus was able to maintain his endeavors and his reputation spread across the entire known world; bringing people far and wide to deal with Kanda and to work with him and his companies! And Then Eldin Closed Their Borders... The Economic Collapse that followed was so extreme that even Philanthropus could not escape the backlash!
Overnight Kanda's borders flooded with refugees, merchants and diplomats from The West that had sought to return home at the closing of Eldin only to be slaughtered by those patrolling the roads!
The Strait Of Youth was taken in a violent assault and the strong ships of Kanda fought back by horrifying monsters brought to life and enhanced by Eldin's Chief Deity! Though it was a shame, Philanthropus secretly rejoiced in a small way... for he would have many things to spend on and he had a very high chance of his money flowing out entirely... now starting to grow old and having sold off MUCH of his house's properties to pay for new and exciting foreign ventures.
Having never had any children, for it would not be fair to the people of Kanda to have something that could so desperately pull away his attention and distract him from his generosity to all others, he settled into a less active life... or at least he desired to do so.
Instead, however, Kandar Lucus looked to him for aid... and showered him with gifts and land, menageries of exotic animals and connections to faraway benefactors all for Philanthropus to take a role as personal advisor to The Empire and to push forward EVER HARDER with his political ambitions!
Now, more than ever, Lucus NEEDED Philanthropus to be the man he alway had been... to be spectacular and to run the economy that was falling apart due to forced isolation! And so, for nearly two decades, that is what Philanthropus did!
Called upon by his Emperor and his people, he came back out of his exceedingly short retirement and redoubled his efforts to bolster Kanda's economy and bring them back to the forefront and the upfront of the world stage even despite their isolation!
And, as always, he succeeded at this task!
Encouraging comfortable pressure at the borders, maintaining constant internal trade and sneakily raising certain taxes to the wealthy alongside the development of new industries, the opening of certain institutions within the government and the developing of previously unusable land Philanthropus near singlehandedly kept the economy of Kanda from collapsing; avoiding Lucus' potential last ditch desperation moves of devaluing the currency and lowering infrastructural expenses! Slowly, even through the rising decadence of imperial isolationism, the threat of increasing border raids from abroad and the closing of the Vaennland borders to the north, Philanthropus gradually brought the nation's accounts comfortably into the green and even setted himself some sizeable fortunes!
But he felt himself finally starting to grow thin... frayed at the edges.
He stayed fit and maintained a highly active political and bureaucratic life, of course, but he knew his time was growing near...
And he thought back to those many promises and oaths he'd made so long ago, trying so hard to fulfill them.
The Empire was stable enough... as stable as he could manage.
Even Ta Fanusia Hyanus, through outside trade, had gained lasting stability in his lifetime!
It was time he spent all he had on one last cause... potentially a lost one but definitely something he could deliver to those he swore to! Rumor had it that beyond Ta Fanusia Hyanus was a land where the water once again turned cold, beyond the storms of the south where only the greatest navigators dared travel!
And that land would be the bottom of the world, where the coast ceased leading south and where there was a hidden path to the rest of the world...
To The WEST! If a colony could be placed at the bottom of the world...
If a fleet could sail south until the waters became warm and then became cold again...
If there was indeed a land where the coast turned west and a Southern Route could be found... Kanda could begin trade with the west again and he could spend ALL of his money in one final gesture! It, of course, would probably fail.
But even then all it would take would be to turn around and retreat to The Gap.
And, of course, he could die penniless, honest and a man of his word! And so he requested to Kandar Lucus, to relieve the pressure of new land being required for this new generation of retiring soldiers, that he personally fund a colonial mission to the deepest south to find the bottom of the world!
And there, he told Kandar Lucus, the path to the west would be discovered and trade again would open!
The Kandar, overjoyed, agreed to Philanthropus' suggestion!
And for three short years Philanthropus was free to enjoy a middle class life in his Capitaline Villa, imparting the last of his knowledge on his beloved niece, who had learned everything he had to offer and was the closest thing to a child he had in this world! And then, one fateful evening years later after writing his final will and getting ready to lay down with his wife for the last time and simply WILL himself to death as some very old Kandia have been known to do... his niece raced into his study and told him that Jonathan Mondragon: The Maiden Of Health had saved the colony of Soterri from collapse and had done great battle with the Darobia of what would now be Longo Soterri!
And, even better, the Southern Route To The West HAD been discovered!
ALREADY countless new benefactors were flooding in!
Bets taken YEARS AGO that he'd long forgotten about were now coming to his accountants faster than they could log them!
Eager Business partners were already THROWING offers at him for the next colony fleet's building!
Letters were soaring into his Aviary and peigi were dropping from the rafters so fast that the menageries could not feed them all to the animals fast enough! "Uncle!" She'd squealed at him and his beloved wife,
"Uncle! You've singlehandedly ushered in a new era of trade for Kanda!" She gleefully informed him! ....
.........
................
And he openly wept...
For all he had done... all his promises and oaths were once again under threat...
And he knew his job was STILL not done! "I Know, Uncle!" She responded in excitement!
"With this, already, you're orders of magnitude more wealthy than The House Of Magnomus Has EVER Been! Think of all the good we'll do!"
An old and well established family, The House Of Magnomus had done enough to score themselves two Doglia with rich resources and several Galia with wealthy port cities within; one of the first families of Kanda to rise above the rest.
Secure in his position that his son would have a place to himself once Domitan passed away, the Censar was more than happy to spare no expense on his son's development! In hopes that his son would grow strong but humble, wealthy but frugal, practical yet hopeful, appealing to the upper classes but always remembering the little people... Domitan named his first and only begotten son Philanthropus and personally promised him to The Gods in the High Pantheon Of Kanda, wherein he promised to dedicate the rest of his life to the gods if those same gods would impart his child with the strength and wisdom to do great things!
And The Gods, so it would seem, smiled upon him that day! Life for young Philanthropus was especially fortunate; encouraged by his father to stay close and gain vast amount of military and bureaucratic training while still just a child, afforded the finest tutors his father could afford and allowed to take a distant but not insignificant role in watching over the inventories and paperwork of the largest trade hub in the empire, the latter of which he found himself quickly gravitating toward!
Furthermore, Philanthropus grew obsessed with revering and serving not only The Gods... but the people of Kanda and the world as a whole!
As a child he swore himself to many gods and goddesses of peace, prosperity, goodness, compassion and generosity that he would die penniless; having given all that he has to the world to make it a better place for all.
And he would continue to swear these powerful, lifelong oaths to any deity of love and righteousness that came into The Pantheonic System of Kanda.
And His Words And Dedication All Of Them Would Cherish Together!
By the time Philanthropus came to adulthood he could have been said to have a proper aristocratic education, with strong support from the realm's clergy, backed by solid experience on the job with his father and groomed for the role of Censar by way of instruction in several different crafts and trades!
To his surprise, there was even a spot in the lowest circle of the Censaria that had been... conveniently... cleared just for him; a rare opportunity that some waited decades to be granted! However, Philanthropus had become obsessed with law, parchmentwork and bureaucracy at that point in his life!
He had worked hard to gain recognition on his skill and speed with the quill, his ability to take notes and recall law and legal precedent by memory alone!
Perhaps even better, his grooming for a lifetime as a Censar had given him a perspective few other Scurilia had at their disposal; allowing him to lay down statistic alongside rhetoric to crush his interlocutors in public debate and Mock Thinal meetings alongside his fellow youths!
What's more, Philanthropus was an honorable young man who had NO intention of passing up his due military service of twenty-five years to live comfortably in dusty city inventories, safe from the tortures of the world!
He had no desire to stay locked away doing nothing for the people... so he responsibly joined the military at sixteen as any other man might! While he quickly showed his value as a soldier, his superiors were all in agreement that his talents lay in parchmentwork so he was relegated to junior Scurilos of a major Letanis and let to his work as anyone else would be!
Learning to quickly take accurate notes and relay information appropriately to the military officers when they needed it, Philanthropus became a well known combat chronicler; always ready for combat but somehow never managing to end up killing a single man!
Indeed many men died protecting the young man during his military service and those who gave their lives to save his own have long since had their families cared for by the House Of Magnomus. Over the course of twenty-five long years Philanthropus found himself serving everywhere from what is today the Former Salvin Lands to what was then a much more wild Ducky Isles completely out of the control of the Kandia to the Glass Isles to arm the coldlands darobia to fight against mutual enemies... to the distant reaches of Ta Fanusia Hyanus to help with supply problems and help copy long moldering tomes and codices holding laws that few remembered!
Throughout his entire tenure he was able to proudly boast that he never killed a single man and exceeded the expectations of his superiors at every turn; known for his honest and just methodology and carrying out numerous trials impartially and with careful consideration to all parties!
Seldom did he not make at least one friend in any given interaction and he is not known to have made any true enemies during this time... merely poor humored rivals. Sadly, by the time he left service at 41 his father had already passed away but he was left with the family holdings and another Gal on the frontier that Philanthropus had gained lease to through service.
That new Gal had much in the way of serviceable land with highly fertile soil and plentiful pastureland while the already present family territory had vast deposits of precious jade, gold and silver alongside open ocean access to process pure salt and the very many port cities that flooded his House's coffers every month to be jealously held away for some future events.
His father had left him with land from which he could literally dig money from the ground and dry it out from the water and from his own service he had land upon which to grow countless heads of cattle and exotic fruit trees for artisan preserves!
What's more... his sweetheart from his military days had held out and was waiting for him when he retired from military service, marrying him the very next month at a grand family ceremony with over ten thousand guests to celebrate the occasion! Life was good for Philanthropus... but dissatisfaction quickly set in as he settled into political life and bought himself a small villa just outside of the capital to close to work.
He had inherited many slaves and great tracts of land... but he did not care for it, nor the way they were treated!
Ambition had not left him and the oaths of his youth weighed on him!
He'd spent so much of his life gaining such riches... and now he had to keep his promises as ANY man of his word would!! So the first thing he did was free all of his slaves... ALL of them!
And then ALL of the slaves of any of those in his Employ!
If they so desired they could remain under his employ... but it would be just that, employment!
They were freedmen and women now and would be paid what they were worth, not merely housed and forced to work!
And, on that note, why should it be only HIS slaves that benefited from freedom?
He'd seen countless mistreatments and sufferings at the hands of self important masters of overworked and underfed slaves throughout his entire career and could not stomach the mistreatment of others... the pain that he KNEW they felt!
Why had HE lived so comfortably his entire life while his friends died protecting him... and while slaves wasted away to please him?!
That Would Have To Stop! Unsurprisingly, his addresses to Ta Thinal over the dreadful potential suffering under slavery fell on deaf ears!
Kandar Tiberos had led Kanda into a warbound era where every fighting man was necessary at the borders and slaves had to carry the extra weight!
What's more, Tiberos' own military conquests had brought many more slaves to the Kandia market and there was no desire to relinquish this already plentiful resource! So Philanthropus decided...
Perhaps He Should Buy Them Himself! His family had spent sixteen centuries hoarding money in grand inventories and mastering the stock and trade of the empire and that had left them with great tracts of land and holds of gold that they had no plans for; all saved for unknown future times of tragedy that, at this point, could never touch the House Of Magnomus in their security and riches!
Having personally overseen the construction of a new coffer in his youth alongside his father's family friends, Philanthropus decided to empty them... and to sell any and all holdings superfluous to the family bottom line!
And with the proceeds from these sales, with the vast stores of gold, silver and jade his family had held for so long, he personally bought out over half of Kanda's Slave Market over the course of a single year and promptly freed every slave he had received upon receiving their deeds! But, of course, now there were tens of thousands of individuals under his employ... for businesses that didn't yet exist, expecting housing that wasn't yet built and requiring food he didn't have!
So the coffers emptied further as he restructured his entire estate!
Businesses were made overnight and within weeks other businesses were propped up to oversee those!
Philanthropus went from being the head of the most miserly family in Kanda to receiving the title "Generositas" from The Kandar himself and being named godfather of two of his oldest sons for his amazing public deeds!
And, surprisingly, every business flourish!
Every venture succeeded!
EVERY great caravan got exactly where it was going! The Western Kingdom and Ditwala, hearing of his great business acumen and his armies of well trained, well paid servants, sent envoys to learn political science and money management under him and people from all over the world began speaking of its richest man... Philanthropus Domitad Magnomus "The Generositas!"
He who bought out entire slave markets and freed every single person there just to give them homes, food, jobs, wives... LIVES! Soon Ta Thinal was not ridiculing him but taking his side in all things!
Slavery as an institution did not diminish but, by his economic skills, the population of slaves fell to only about ten percent of the population and the amount of freed slaves ballooned; providing an eager new population of Kandia seeking to have children who would one day become proud and responsible soldiers of the Empire, shaped by the hardship of being born to free slaves but comfortable in the knowledge that their families would forever be free!
Even into the great civil war Philanthropus was able to maintain his endeavors and his reputation spread across the entire known world; bringing people far and wide to deal with Kanda and to work with him and his companies! And Then Eldin Closed Their Borders... The Economic Collapse that followed was so extreme that even Philanthropus could not escape the backlash!
Overnight Kanda's borders flooded with refugees, merchants and diplomats from The West that had sought to return home at the closing of Eldin only to be slaughtered by those patrolling the roads!
The Strait Of Youth was taken in a violent assault and the strong ships of Kanda fought back by horrifying monsters brought to life and enhanced by Eldin's Chief Deity! Though it was a shame, Philanthropus secretly rejoiced in a small way... for he would have many things to spend on and he had a very high chance of his money flowing out entirely... now starting to grow old and having sold off MUCH of his house's properties to pay for new and exciting foreign ventures.
Having never had any children, for it would not be fair to the people of Kanda to have something that could so desperately pull away his attention and distract him from his generosity to all others, he settled into a less active life... or at least he desired to do so.
Instead, however, Kandar Lucus looked to him for aid... and showered him with gifts and land, menageries of exotic animals and connections to faraway benefactors all for Philanthropus to take a role as personal advisor to The Empire and to push forward EVER HARDER with his political ambitions!
Now, more than ever, Lucus NEEDED Philanthropus to be the man he alway had been... to be spectacular and to run the economy that was falling apart due to forced isolation! And so, for nearly two decades, that is what Philanthropus did!
Called upon by his Emperor and his people, he came back out of his exceedingly short retirement and redoubled his efforts to bolster Kanda's economy and bring them back to the forefront and the upfront of the world stage even despite their isolation!
And, as always, he succeeded at this task!
Encouraging comfortable pressure at the borders, maintaining constant internal trade and sneakily raising certain taxes to the wealthy alongside the development of new industries, the opening of certain institutions within the government and the developing of previously unusable land Philanthropus near singlehandedly kept the economy of Kanda from collapsing; avoiding Lucus' potential last ditch desperation moves of devaluing the currency and lowering infrastructural expenses! Slowly, even through the rising decadence of imperial isolationism, the threat of increasing border raids from abroad and the closing of the Vaennland borders to the north, Philanthropus gradually brought the nation's accounts comfortably into the green and even setted himself some sizeable fortunes!
But he felt himself finally starting to grow thin... frayed at the edges.
He stayed fit and maintained a highly active political and bureaucratic life, of course, but he knew his time was growing near...
And he thought back to those many promises and oaths he'd made so long ago, trying so hard to fulfill them.
The Empire was stable enough... as stable as he could manage.
Even Ta Fanusia Hyanus, through outside trade, had gained lasting stability in his lifetime!
It was time he spent all he had on one last cause... potentially a lost one but definitely something he could deliver to those he swore to! Rumor had it that beyond Ta Fanusia Hyanus was a land where the water once again turned cold, beyond the storms of the south where only the greatest navigators dared travel!
And that land would be the bottom of the world, where the coast ceased leading south and where there was a hidden path to the rest of the world...
To The WEST! If a colony could be placed at the bottom of the world...
If a fleet could sail south until the waters became warm and then became cold again...
If there was indeed a land where the coast turned west and a Southern Route could be found... Kanda could begin trade with the west again and he could spend ALL of his money in one final gesture! It, of course, would probably fail.
But even then all it would take would be to turn around and retreat to The Gap.
And, of course, he could die penniless, honest and a man of his word! And so he requested to Kandar Lucus, to relieve the pressure of new land being required for this new generation of retiring soldiers, that he personally fund a colonial mission to the deepest south to find the bottom of the world!
And there, he told Kandar Lucus, the path to the west would be discovered and trade again would open!
The Kandar, overjoyed, agreed to Philanthropus' suggestion!
And for three short years Philanthropus was free to enjoy a middle class life in his Capitaline Villa, imparting the last of his knowledge on his beloved niece, who had learned everything he had to offer and was the closest thing to a child he had in this world! And then, one fateful evening years later after writing his final will and getting ready to lay down with his wife for the last time and simply WILL himself to death as some very old Kandia have been known to do... his niece raced into his study and told him that Jonathan Mondragon: The Maiden Of Health had saved the colony of Soterri from collapse and had done great battle with the Darobia of what would now be Longo Soterri!
And, even better, the Southern Route To The West HAD been discovered!
ALREADY countless new benefactors were flooding in!
Bets taken YEARS AGO that he'd long forgotten about were now coming to his accountants faster than they could log them!
Eager Business partners were already THROWING offers at him for the next colony fleet's building!
Letters were soaring into his Aviary and peigi were dropping from the rafters so fast that the menageries could not feed them all to the animals fast enough! "Uncle!" She'd squealed at him and his beloved wife,
"Uncle! You've singlehandedly ushered in a new era of trade for Kanda!" She gleefully informed him! ....
.........
................
And he openly wept...
For all he had done... all his promises and oaths were once again under threat...
And he knew his job was STILL not done! "I Know, Uncle!" She responded in excitement!
"With this, already, you're orders of magnitude more wealthy than The House Of Magnomus Has EVER Been! Think of all the good we'll do!"
Accomplishments & Achievements
While Philanthropus may not necessarily consider them the greatest of achievements, he has managed much for The Empire Of Kanda in his time; the only reasons he denies such claims stemming from his humbleness and ambition to do better!
Despite his insistence that he has not done enough, Philanthropus may well have singlehandedly stopped the collapse of Kanda's economy no less than three times in the past thirty years!
Able to keenly understand the perspectives of both the bureaucrats and the supply specialists, he has performed a masterful legal balancing act for decades alongside the herculean endeavors of the others in Kandar Lucus' administration, all the while maintaining his own grand businesses and personal agendas that ultimately have led to assisting millions throughout the entirety of Kanda. Championing the idea of freedom and equality for all, The Generositas has spent almost all of The House Of Magnomus' previous fortunes and even their land on the purchasing and freeing of slaves across the entirety of the nation so that they might be welcomed into the ranks of freed citizens of Kanda and eventually have children that themselves may join the military and help provide aid to the nation in the form of protecting Kanda's borders and bolstering her economy with infrastructural labor.
To feed, house, educate and employ them he has founded numerous systems of business; from private universities to teamsters companies, porter services to weaving conglomerates, childcare businesses to personal couriers and systems of stables that run across the entire breadth and depth of the Empire to maintain his agendas and fiscal concerns no matter where he might find them.
SO Grand has his network of connections and system of messenger relays become that many have begun hiring his employees to run messages for them as well, the business of which The Generositas has been more than welcoming to. Very early in the present administration Philanthropus used his phenomenal resources to help Kandar Lucus set up a national system of food preparation and storage sites in case of some phenomenal disaster that Lucus insisted was sure to come eventually.
Concerned with the Kandar's growing preoccupation with some unknown future catastrophe beyond the scope of human perception, The House Of Magnomus donated over half of its mountain holdings at the time to the Empire for the construction of Ta Enbria Cens; a simple idea that would become the single largest interconnected network of storage facilities in the entire world of Ta Mando!
Over the next two decades Philanthropus would help build, fill, staff and maintain over 150 BILLION pounds of grain, uls, aged cheese and other preserved foods for this unknown cataclysm alongside the building and filling of underground cisterns collectively holding over 50 BILLION gallons of water! Recently it has been confirmed that Soterri has become stable, The Lost Expedition from even before his own time has been rediscovered and two new Longia of Kanda have been announced; all thanks to his founding of a new colony at the base of the world in order to find a Southern Passage To The West.
With this in mind it has been rumored by many that, upon the arrival of the first expected ships from The Western Kingdom, Kandar Lucus will bestow Philanthropus with the never before received title of "Sivis Do Ta Mando" to emphasize his role in uniting the planet's great civilizations in trade and cooperation once again after decades of separation! Finally, Philanthropus' long and prosperous career of progressive decisions and material sacrifice has given him entry into a very exclusive club never before occupied by a Kandia; one of the unlanded wealthy.
For The Generositas has LONG since eschewed the vast territory and majesty of his family's legacy and, in fact, plans for the House Of Magnomus to end with him!
Despite having no more land to his name than the modest capitaline villa wherein he now lives and possessing nothing in the way of agrarian or industrial business, money never ceases to flow into his pockets twice as fast as he can give it away!
Having recognized the power of the people and the value of individual labor and brainpower, Philanthropus has begun making the majority of his fortunes off of services rather than goods and commodities!
While he has no part in the trading of resources from one side of the empire to the other, his business does play a major part in moving those products from place to place, in hosting the parties that seek to work with one another and in being the mediator to their transactions.
His people deliver messages, mind vacated properties and train up merchants and young landowners that in turn pay his family respects and direct business to him over any of his potential competitors.
And his finest students of rhetoric and art create numerous fine works of poetry and sculpture to bring notoriety to his schools and the households he has lifted onto the public stage.
The Generositas, it would seem, has figured out the secret to CREATING value whereas all others before him merely took it from the earth and traded it around.
... And Perhaps THAT Could Be His Greatest Accomplishment Yet!
Despite his insistence that he has not done enough, Philanthropus may well have singlehandedly stopped the collapse of Kanda's economy no less than three times in the past thirty years!
Able to keenly understand the perspectives of both the bureaucrats and the supply specialists, he has performed a masterful legal balancing act for decades alongside the herculean endeavors of the others in Kandar Lucus' administration, all the while maintaining his own grand businesses and personal agendas that ultimately have led to assisting millions throughout the entirety of Kanda. Championing the idea of freedom and equality for all, The Generositas has spent almost all of The House Of Magnomus' previous fortunes and even their land on the purchasing and freeing of slaves across the entirety of the nation so that they might be welcomed into the ranks of freed citizens of Kanda and eventually have children that themselves may join the military and help provide aid to the nation in the form of protecting Kanda's borders and bolstering her economy with infrastructural labor.
To feed, house, educate and employ them he has founded numerous systems of business; from private universities to teamsters companies, porter services to weaving conglomerates, childcare businesses to personal couriers and systems of stables that run across the entire breadth and depth of the Empire to maintain his agendas and fiscal concerns no matter where he might find them.
SO Grand has his network of connections and system of messenger relays become that many have begun hiring his employees to run messages for them as well, the business of which The Generositas has been more than welcoming to. Very early in the present administration Philanthropus used his phenomenal resources to help Kandar Lucus set up a national system of food preparation and storage sites in case of some phenomenal disaster that Lucus insisted was sure to come eventually.
Concerned with the Kandar's growing preoccupation with some unknown future catastrophe beyond the scope of human perception, The House Of Magnomus donated over half of its mountain holdings at the time to the Empire for the construction of Ta Enbria Cens; a simple idea that would become the single largest interconnected network of storage facilities in the entire world of Ta Mando!
Over the next two decades Philanthropus would help build, fill, staff and maintain over 150 BILLION pounds of grain, uls, aged cheese and other preserved foods for this unknown cataclysm alongside the building and filling of underground cisterns collectively holding over 50 BILLION gallons of water! Recently it has been confirmed that Soterri has become stable, The Lost Expedition from even before his own time has been rediscovered and two new Longia of Kanda have been announced; all thanks to his founding of a new colony at the base of the world in order to find a Southern Passage To The West.
With this in mind it has been rumored by many that, upon the arrival of the first expected ships from The Western Kingdom, Kandar Lucus will bestow Philanthropus with the never before received title of "Sivis Do Ta Mando" to emphasize his role in uniting the planet's great civilizations in trade and cooperation once again after decades of separation! Finally, Philanthropus' long and prosperous career of progressive decisions and material sacrifice has given him entry into a very exclusive club never before occupied by a Kandia; one of the unlanded wealthy.
For The Generositas has LONG since eschewed the vast territory and majesty of his family's legacy and, in fact, plans for the House Of Magnomus to end with him!
Despite having no more land to his name than the modest capitaline villa wherein he now lives and possessing nothing in the way of agrarian or industrial business, money never ceases to flow into his pockets twice as fast as he can give it away!
Having recognized the power of the people and the value of individual labor and brainpower, Philanthropus has begun making the majority of his fortunes off of services rather than goods and commodities!
While he has no part in the trading of resources from one side of the empire to the other, his business does play a major part in moving those products from place to place, in hosting the parties that seek to work with one another and in being the mediator to their transactions.
His people deliver messages, mind vacated properties and train up merchants and young landowners that in turn pay his family respects and direct business to him over any of his potential competitors.
And his finest students of rhetoric and art create numerous fine works of poetry and sculpture to bring notoriety to his schools and the households he has lifted onto the public stage.
The Generositas, it would seem, has figured out the secret to CREATING value whereas all others before him merely took it from the earth and traded it around.
... And Perhaps THAT Could Be His Greatest Accomplishment Yet!
Failures & Embarrassments
Perhaps Philanthropus' greatest failure, in his own mind, was being unable to convince Kandar Lucus against forming Ta Milotia Criatosia.
While The Generositas understood the need for some sort of economic stimulation and himself found solutions to all other major problems, the need to reclaim lost resources from border raids and skirmishes became too much for Lucus to abide and the overwhelming majority of orphans from his father's reign and his brother's following pretendership forced Lucus' hand; so the Kandar believed despite numerous protests from The House Of Magnomus.
Existing in complete opposition to the life without conflict that Philanthropus envisioned for the future generations of Kanda, the creation of The Military's Children nearly broke the relationship between The Kandar and The Generositas and continues to be a point of contention that they have agreed not to talk about together to this day. While it DOES come as a bit of an embarrassment that he has still been unable to live a penniless life without luxury and in complete service to The Divine, most people would not sympathize with Philanthropus' inability to break his own bank and even his Niece Protege cannot truly grasp that Philanthropus' honesty and ambitions to deliver upon his oaths of youth leave him awake at night, going over ledgers and mountains of parchment to find out how to responsibly consume what he has left.
NOBODY can understand the weariness he feels when he writes what is supposed to be the final form of his will for the umpteenth time and gets ready to die... only to have an attendant run in and tell him how much richer his most recent venture has made him.
After nearly eight decades of existence, Philanthropus has run out of energy and just wants to leave it all behind...
But, of course, he is too responsible to do so without tying up ABSOLUTELY EVERY loose end.
And for that... he might never be allowed peace!
While The Generositas understood the need for some sort of economic stimulation and himself found solutions to all other major problems, the need to reclaim lost resources from border raids and skirmishes became too much for Lucus to abide and the overwhelming majority of orphans from his father's reign and his brother's following pretendership forced Lucus' hand; so the Kandar believed despite numerous protests from The House Of Magnomus.
Existing in complete opposition to the life without conflict that Philanthropus envisioned for the future generations of Kanda, the creation of The Military's Children nearly broke the relationship between The Kandar and The Generositas and continues to be a point of contention that they have agreed not to talk about together to this day. While it DOES come as a bit of an embarrassment that he has still been unable to live a penniless life without luxury and in complete service to The Divine, most people would not sympathize with Philanthropus' inability to break his own bank and even his Niece Protege cannot truly grasp that Philanthropus' honesty and ambitions to deliver upon his oaths of youth leave him awake at night, going over ledgers and mountains of parchment to find out how to responsibly consume what he has left.
NOBODY can understand the weariness he feels when he writes what is supposed to be the final form of his will for the umpteenth time and gets ready to die... only to have an attendant run in and tell him how much richer his most recent venture has made him.
After nearly eight decades of existence, Philanthropus has run out of energy and just wants to leave it all behind...
But, of course, he is too responsible to do so without tying up ABSOLUTELY EVERY loose end.
And for that... he might never be allowed peace!
Mental Trauma
Philanthropus' history has been a long and sometimes tumultuous one...
Despite having had so many victories, he's also seen many friends and loved ones die at the hands of disease, tragedy and war.
Having lived to see the reigns of six different Kandaria and one civil war, there is little in the civilian sphere that Philanthropus hasn't seen and, having served his quarter century of military service, there are few mundane forces on the battlefield he hasn't borne witness to.
Having lost friends, been forced to run for his life from enemies of the nation and even having once nearly died after taking Kandar Lucus' side in the civil war between he and his brother, there are nights that Philanthropus simply chooses work over sleep...
Nights where his wife must beg him to leave his desk and come to bed, sing lullabies to him and stroke his thinning hair while he tries to relax, only to wake some hours later at a dream of times long past. The pain of his past experiences drive him forward, for he wishes nobody to feel the terror he once felt, the pain he has undergone... the uncertainty he knows so many suffer.
Though Philanthropus suffers much... he does not let others know... and he endeavors to use that pain as motivation to remedy the misfortune of others.
Despite having had so many victories, he's also seen many friends and loved ones die at the hands of disease, tragedy and war.
Having lived to see the reigns of six different Kandaria and one civil war, there is little in the civilian sphere that Philanthropus hasn't seen and, having served his quarter century of military service, there are few mundane forces on the battlefield he hasn't borne witness to.
Having lost friends, been forced to run for his life from enemies of the nation and even having once nearly died after taking Kandar Lucus' side in the civil war between he and his brother, there are nights that Philanthropus simply chooses work over sleep...
Nights where his wife must beg him to leave his desk and come to bed, sing lullabies to him and stroke his thinning hair while he tries to relax, only to wake some hours later at a dream of times long past. The pain of his past experiences drive him forward, for he wishes nobody to feel the terror he once felt, the pain he has undergone... the uncertainty he knows so many suffer.
Though Philanthropus suffers much... he does not let others know... and he endeavors to use that pain as motivation to remedy the misfortune of others.
Intellectual Characteristics
It is regularly argued between those concerned with economy whether or not Philanthropus is a Genius or merely an expertly trained economist!
Whichever one it happens to be, The Generositas is not generally wont to acknowledge it. However, it is certain that Philanthropus, in his nearly eighty years of life, has collected all manner of knowledge and has leveraged what intelligence he does have with a keen interest in the academic unlike many of his peers during youth!
Never lacking for stimulating conversation, good reading material and difficult problems in need of creative solutions, The Numbers Man has never had the opportunity to be called stupid by anyone with a head on their shoulders and he works hard to keep his mind spry so as to continue his economic endeavors! Not only an excellent student as a child but always keen to learn new things even in his old age, Philanthropus is always trying to find new sources of mental stimulation and is usually excited to have something fun and unexpected happening in his life so long as nobody's getting hurt!
Enjoying games of skill and wit, he regularly seeks out new gaming partners and appreciates people of good humor and those who like a good joke!
Whichever one it happens to be, The Generositas is not generally wont to acknowledge it. However, it is certain that Philanthropus, in his nearly eighty years of life, has collected all manner of knowledge and has leveraged what intelligence he does have with a keen interest in the academic unlike many of his peers during youth!
Never lacking for stimulating conversation, good reading material and difficult problems in need of creative solutions, The Numbers Man has never had the opportunity to be called stupid by anyone with a head on their shoulders and he works hard to keep his mind spry so as to continue his economic endeavors! Not only an excellent student as a child but always keen to learn new things even in his old age, Philanthropus is always trying to find new sources of mental stimulation and is usually excited to have something fun and unexpected happening in his life so long as nobody's getting hurt!
Enjoying games of skill and wit, he regularly seeks out new gaming partners and appreciates people of good humor and those who like a good joke!
Morality & Philosophy
Philanthropus is, in no uncertain terms, a GENUINELY good person!
This is not to say that he is simply a good aligned individual who does his best to leave the world better than he found it!
Goodness, No!
That, you see, would be too passive!
Philanthropus is not only genuinely good but ACTIVELY good and he legitimately believes that inactivity in the presence of evil is, by definition, giving in to the corruption of decadence and the self destruction of apathy! From a very young age, even surrounded by the gifts and pleasures of rank and privilege, Philanthropus was a kind and generous child.
He always knew the importance of treating people politely, staying honest and maintaining one's principles in the harshest and most threatening of circumstances.
When he became a man and dedicated himself to the empire he was known for how well he treated his subordinates, how fairly he treated his fellows and how justly and evenly he presided over numerous high profile trials to dictate mutual benefit for all applicable parties.
And even to this day he continues to back and even personally champion progressive movements and support social and military leaders from various minorities such as the Empire's first female High Scurilos; Domina Marcusad Julus and True Hero Of Kanda Unumakhalu Intubakhalad Ternadir of Soterri!
The entire latter half of his life to date, after leaving the military, has been dedicated to ending the institution of slavery, maintaining the economy of Kanda and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all people within his power to protect and, by and large, it can be said that he's been mostly successful in this endeavor! What's more, Philanthropus has stubbornly refused to father any children, such is his dedication to the empire that he feels such a progeny would distract him from his oaths and duties.
Because it would be impossible for him to avoid bestowing favoritism upon such a child he has instead decided that what authority he will have upon his death will fall upon his Niece Protege, who has trained under him her entire life and who is herself Daughter Of Partanaria and can thus own land, business and inherit.
His wife, being what seems like many to be a real life herald of the gods, has mercifully understood his concerns and has never failed to scold those who ask her if she regrets never having children; for she understands that her purpose at Philanthropus' side has allowed him to be so much more than a mere father and family man... but rather the sculptor and maintainer of The World's Civilization and lifebringer to so many more than she could ever hope to bear! Generous but not to a fault, compassionate even to those who could call themselves his enemies, overwhelmingly progressive in the presence of all but the most liberal of his political peers yet unbelievably economically savvy even in the hardest of times and thoroughly incorruptible whilst still eager to let a good joke fly at any occasion; "The Generositas" is everything his reputation claims and more!
Now nearing his twilight years, his greatest worry is that Kanda will fail to learn from the lessons he's set down for it and, after he has gone and left it all behind, greed and misery will set back in and his work will be undone by those who could not learn from his example of tolerance, compassion and mutual benefit. He can only hope that he has made the difference he feels is needed.
This is not to say that he is simply a good aligned individual who does his best to leave the world better than he found it!
Goodness, No!
That, you see, would be too passive!
Philanthropus is not only genuinely good but ACTIVELY good and he legitimately believes that inactivity in the presence of evil is, by definition, giving in to the corruption of decadence and the self destruction of apathy! From a very young age, even surrounded by the gifts and pleasures of rank and privilege, Philanthropus was a kind and generous child.
He always knew the importance of treating people politely, staying honest and maintaining one's principles in the harshest and most threatening of circumstances.
When he became a man and dedicated himself to the empire he was known for how well he treated his subordinates, how fairly he treated his fellows and how justly and evenly he presided over numerous high profile trials to dictate mutual benefit for all applicable parties.
And even to this day he continues to back and even personally champion progressive movements and support social and military leaders from various minorities such as the Empire's first female High Scurilos; Domina Marcusad Julus and True Hero Of Kanda Unumakhalu Intubakhalad Ternadir of Soterri!
The entire latter half of his life to date, after leaving the military, has been dedicated to ending the institution of slavery, maintaining the economy of Kanda and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all people within his power to protect and, by and large, it can be said that he's been mostly successful in this endeavor! What's more, Philanthropus has stubbornly refused to father any children, such is his dedication to the empire that he feels such a progeny would distract him from his oaths and duties.
Because it would be impossible for him to avoid bestowing favoritism upon such a child he has instead decided that what authority he will have upon his death will fall upon his Niece Protege, who has trained under him her entire life and who is herself Daughter Of Partanaria and can thus own land, business and inherit.
His wife, being what seems like many to be a real life herald of the gods, has mercifully understood his concerns and has never failed to scold those who ask her if she regrets never having children; for she understands that her purpose at Philanthropus' side has allowed him to be so much more than a mere father and family man... but rather the sculptor and maintainer of The World's Civilization and lifebringer to so many more than she could ever hope to bear! Generous but not to a fault, compassionate even to those who could call themselves his enemies, overwhelmingly progressive in the presence of all but the most liberal of his political peers yet unbelievably economically savvy even in the hardest of times and thoroughly incorruptible whilst still eager to let a good joke fly at any occasion; "The Generositas" is everything his reputation claims and more!
Now nearing his twilight years, his greatest worry is that Kanda will fail to learn from the lessons he's set down for it and, after he has gone and left it all behind, greed and misery will set back in and his work will be undone by those who could not learn from his example of tolerance, compassion and mutual benefit. He can only hope that he has made the difference he feels is needed.
Personality Characteristics
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Philanthropus will be the first to admit to literally anyone who asks that he is horrible with animals!
While no animal, wild nor domestic, has ever actually attacked him The Generositas insists that he doesn't have the demeanor nor the authority to train and command animals like most pastoral specialists do.
Having come from a family that had possession of tens of thousands of head of livestock when he was born, he always saw this as a major flaw in his character... that animals do not listen to him nor pay his aggressions any heed.
While he cannot, for the life of him, train or command animals Philanthropus does get along well with them and many people say that this is the case because animals can smell that The Generositas has no ill will nor anger with which to threaten them.
Dogs, cats, goats, even horses and cattle will invade his space in order to nuzzle him and gain his affections; sensing a gentle soul not only willing but interested in relieving their pain and making their lives easier. All that aside, Philanthropus' abilities with numbers and language are easily his greatest talents; the man having been known far and wide over the course of more than six decades for his amazing memory and capacity to repeat complex scripts, improvisational skills and ability to parse out gigantic strings of numbers and regurgitate them to those listening in a way that makes sense to the common folk.
At the head of the Kandia Economy for more than twenty years and having personally maintained huge portions of the market during Kanda's most fiscally desperate of times, the patriarch of The House Of Magnomus has come up with solutions to perennial problems that would have otherwise caused the collapse of major economic sectors and forced Kandar Lucus and the upper classes to debase the currency of Kanda and drive them further into a spiral of self destruction!
While no animal, wild nor domestic, has ever actually attacked him The Generositas insists that he doesn't have the demeanor nor the authority to train and command animals like most pastoral specialists do.
Having come from a family that had possession of tens of thousands of head of livestock when he was born, he always saw this as a major flaw in his character... that animals do not listen to him nor pay his aggressions any heed.
While he cannot, for the life of him, train or command animals Philanthropus does get along well with them and many people say that this is the case because animals can smell that The Generositas has no ill will nor anger with which to threaten them.
Dogs, cats, goats, even horses and cattle will invade his space in order to nuzzle him and gain his affections; sensing a gentle soul not only willing but interested in relieving their pain and making their lives easier. All that aside, Philanthropus' abilities with numbers and language are easily his greatest talents; the man having been known far and wide over the course of more than six decades for his amazing memory and capacity to repeat complex scripts, improvisational skills and ability to parse out gigantic strings of numbers and regurgitate them to those listening in a way that makes sense to the common folk.
At the head of the Kandia Economy for more than twenty years and having personally maintained huge portions of the market during Kanda's most fiscally desperate of times, the patriarch of The House Of Magnomus has come up with solutions to perennial problems that would have otherwise caused the collapse of major economic sectors and forced Kandar Lucus and the upper classes to debase the currency of Kanda and drive them further into a spiral of self destruction!
Vices & Personality flaws
Perhaps one of the most contested topics around the man is that he seems completely free of flaws.
Philanthropus doesn't drink to excess, possesses no wandering eyes nor errant hands, has always abstained from thievery and other lesser criminal deeds, had a spotless military record, is kind to all of his employees, says nothing rude of anyone and never even tries to skirt the anti-decadence laws that have been in place since before he was born!
Countless investigators have tried and failed to dig up any unsavory information on him and even the scant content they HAVE found against him has been proven to be baseless slander and libel constructed entirely to try to mar the reputation of a man who is, by all rights, publicly perfect! More infuriatingly to those wishing to see him fail, he has made quite a show of what shortcomings he does possess and freely admits to them whenever possible with all due humbleness and humility!
Much to the irritation of his aspiring rivals, a more morally upright Kandia has not been born in living memory and whatever predilections The Generositas MIGHT hold he has never allowed them to manifest outside of his own mind!
Of ALL such shortcomings he claims to possess, Philanthropus' "Flaws" often amount to simple claims like "I'm terrible with animals" and "I happen to love (X Food Dish) far too much for my own good!" and even "I just can't keep my temper when I miss the target! My aim with the bow was so much better twenty years ago!"
Overall these mild complaints far embellish such "Flaws" and Philanthropus has never been seen to have any shortage of patience NOR have hardly any animals, wild or domestic, reacted to his presence poorly. PERHAPS overconsumption of delicious and diverse meals could be attributed to him by some more aggressive cynics but Philanthropus maintains such well developed physical fitness that nobody could say that he's made a habit of overconsuming to any dangerous lengths... and seldom does he eat alone!
Philanthropus doesn't drink to excess, possesses no wandering eyes nor errant hands, has always abstained from thievery and other lesser criminal deeds, had a spotless military record, is kind to all of his employees, says nothing rude of anyone and never even tries to skirt the anti-decadence laws that have been in place since before he was born!
Countless investigators have tried and failed to dig up any unsavory information on him and even the scant content they HAVE found against him has been proven to be baseless slander and libel constructed entirely to try to mar the reputation of a man who is, by all rights, publicly perfect! More infuriatingly to those wishing to see him fail, he has made quite a show of what shortcomings he does possess and freely admits to them whenever possible with all due humbleness and humility!
Much to the irritation of his aspiring rivals, a more morally upright Kandia has not been born in living memory and whatever predilections The Generositas MIGHT hold he has never allowed them to manifest outside of his own mind!
Of ALL such shortcomings he claims to possess, Philanthropus' "Flaws" often amount to simple claims like "I'm terrible with animals" and "I happen to love (X Food Dish) far too much for my own good!" and even "I just can't keep my temper when I miss the target! My aim with the bow was so much better twenty years ago!"
Overall these mild complaints far embellish such "Flaws" and Philanthropus has never been seen to have any shortage of patience NOR have hardly any animals, wild or domestic, reacted to his presence poorly. PERHAPS overconsumption of delicious and diverse meals could be attributed to him by some more aggressive cynics but Philanthropus maintains such well developed physical fitness that nobody could say that he's made a habit of overconsuming to any dangerous lengths... and seldom does he eat alone!
Hygiene
While many high society Kandia are obsessed with grooming, styling, perfuming and otherwise overindulging in hygeine Philanthropus seems to be an exception to the rule!
Certainly he has a private bath in his Villa and maintains ample cleanliness but just as often as he is seen in the finery of high ranking political positions he will be found with his hands in the dirt, tending to his garden with his thinning hair in all manner of disorder!
In recent years especially Philanthropus has been setting aside the otherwise fastidious hygeine culture of Kanda in favor of his work, though he never finds himself smelling poorly in public or arriving at Ta Thinal in a soiled Timbo; bathing only every few days and having long since ceased to buy anything along the lines of perfume or hair additives. Instead The Generositas has gradually been falling back to a more simple and less diverse elderly life of self care; with hand crafted soaps that he makes with his wife, niece and some domestic servants alongside a more rugged sort of lifestyle that has lended itself well to the moderate life of farming and gardening that he's cultivated just outside of Kanda Sentran.
While a bit dirtier and less socially outgoing than the ever present hygeine culture of the typical Kandia, Philanthropus has found a degree of enjoyment in not constantly grooming and straightening and nobody in Ta Thinal would dare point out a smudge of dirt on his clothing while he gave a speech even if they thought they saw it!
Certainly he has a private bath in his Villa and maintains ample cleanliness but just as often as he is seen in the finery of high ranking political positions he will be found with his hands in the dirt, tending to his garden with his thinning hair in all manner of disorder!
In recent years especially Philanthropus has been setting aside the otherwise fastidious hygeine culture of Kanda in favor of his work, though he never finds himself smelling poorly in public or arriving at Ta Thinal in a soiled Timbo; bathing only every few days and having long since ceased to buy anything along the lines of perfume or hair additives. Instead The Generositas has gradually been falling back to a more simple and less diverse elderly life of self care; with hand crafted soaps that he makes with his wife, niece and some domestic servants alongside a more rugged sort of lifestyle that has lended itself well to the moderate life of farming and gardening that he's cultivated just outside of Kanda Sentran.
While a bit dirtier and less socially outgoing than the ever present hygeine culture of the typical Kandia, Philanthropus has found a degree of enjoyment in not constantly grooming and straightening and nobody in Ta Thinal would dare point out a smudge of dirt on his clothing while he gave a speech even if they thought they saw it!
Social
Contacts & Relations
Because of his age, prosperous career and near limitless resources Philanthropus knows nearly everyone important and anyone who is anyone at least knows of him, if they don't know him directly!
Frequenting and even throwing high society events all year round and maintaining a near constant political image, Philanthropus has long mastered the art of shmoozing in any social sphere he finds himself dropping in on; possessing a high profile friend in every city in Kanda... or at least someone who wants to be his friend! While it goes without saying that Philanthropus is a close friend and advisor to Kandar Lucus and the entire Imperial Council, it sometimes surprises people JUST how well connected and in tune to the needs and statuses of those he knows!
Every birthday always arrives with a gift from him, even if he is a mere passing relation.
He finds himself showing up to every wedding and funeral of anyone even remotely connected to him, always with great presents and excellent speeches personalized to the couple and theme at hand.
Though he has no children of his own he's never failed to introduce his Niece Protege to any business partners and expects them to treat her with no less respect than they would treat him!
And he's presided over numerous diplomatic ventures with foreign powers and dignitaries with not a single international dealing failed when he was at the table!
Needless to say, a lifetime of hard work and rigorous moving and shaking has left The Generositas with many good relations and plenty of practice in cultivating and maintaining those very same contacts for entire lifetimes! Recently, much to his surprise, Philanthropus has become acquainted with Marek Of War-Saw: The Bringer Of Fertility and has sought to help The Bringer integrate better into society and feel more comfortable in the limelight, much to Marek's uncertainty.
However, in his heart the old man knows that Marek will warm to him quickly and might thereafter appreciate learning from him the many political games and machinations of the Kandia Core, all the while allowing two of Marek's own top Tangia Enbria to maintain a position at his villa as animal caretaker and gardener while they protect him from potential future harm.
While Philanthropus has no worries at all over it, Marek worries that someone in the near future will try to see The Generositas dead and The Bringer Of Fertility is loathe to risk such a thing.
Frequenting and even throwing high society events all year round and maintaining a near constant political image, Philanthropus has long mastered the art of shmoozing in any social sphere he finds himself dropping in on; possessing a high profile friend in every city in Kanda... or at least someone who wants to be his friend! While it goes without saying that Philanthropus is a close friend and advisor to Kandar Lucus and the entire Imperial Council, it sometimes surprises people JUST how well connected and in tune to the needs and statuses of those he knows!
Every birthday always arrives with a gift from him, even if he is a mere passing relation.
He finds himself showing up to every wedding and funeral of anyone even remotely connected to him, always with great presents and excellent speeches personalized to the couple and theme at hand.
Though he has no children of his own he's never failed to introduce his Niece Protege to any business partners and expects them to treat her with no less respect than they would treat him!
And he's presided over numerous diplomatic ventures with foreign powers and dignitaries with not a single international dealing failed when he was at the table!
Needless to say, a lifetime of hard work and rigorous moving and shaking has left The Generositas with many good relations and plenty of practice in cultivating and maintaining those very same contacts for entire lifetimes! Recently, much to his surprise, Philanthropus has become acquainted with Marek Of War-Saw: The Bringer Of Fertility and has sought to help The Bringer integrate better into society and feel more comfortable in the limelight, much to Marek's uncertainty.
However, in his heart the old man knows that Marek will warm to him quickly and might thereafter appreciate learning from him the many political games and machinations of the Kandia Core, all the while allowing two of Marek's own top Tangia Enbria to maintain a position at his villa as animal caretaker and gardener while they protect him from potential future harm.
While Philanthropus has no worries at all over it, Marek worries that someone in the near future will try to see The Generositas dead and The Bringer Of Fertility is loathe to risk such a thing.
Family Ties
While Philanthropus had no brothers, his father had a daughter who went on to marry well and had a son and daughter of her own!
While his nephew went off to war and sadly died in battle during his term of service, his Niece was sent off by his sister to learn bureaucracy and politics from him; being a Daughter Of Partanaria and thus legally allowed to eventually inherit and own land of her own!
While Philanthropus was very serious that he would never be able to adopt her in any official stance... he would teach her everything he knew about how he'd gotten to where he was... and how important it was to maintain his legacy even after he was gone! Spellbound by his ambitions, his ideas, his great ability to bring peace and prosperity to those in need she modeled her entire life after him and eventually became his Protege; continuing to stay at his side to this day and serving as his representative in legal measures and expected to finish his plans if he is to die before they all come to fruition.
While his nephew went off to war and sadly died in battle during his term of service, his Niece was sent off by his sister to learn bureaucracy and politics from him; being a Daughter Of Partanaria and thus legally allowed to eventually inherit and own land of her own!
While Philanthropus was very serious that he would never be able to adopt her in any official stance... he would teach her everything he knew about how he'd gotten to where he was... and how important it was to maintain his legacy even after he was gone! Spellbound by his ambitions, his ideas, his great ability to bring peace and prosperity to those in need she modeled her entire life after him and eventually became his Protege; continuing to stay at his side to this day and serving as his representative in legal measures and expected to finish his plans if he is to die before they all come to fruition.
Hobbies & Pets
Philanthropus, through no ambitions of his own, has gradually gathered hundreds or even thousands of animals for his personal Menageries; which have all since been consolidated into his humble capitaline villa in recent years!
From parrots hailing from The Land Of Monsters beyond the borders of the very maps themselves to his own small herd of elephants, a troop of little monkeys from Ditwala to even a mated pair of Qilin from The Western Kingdom, Philanthropus' estate is home to many exotic animals that he mostly has no idea how to take care of and spends dreadfully little time with.
Instead he relies on numerous freedmen that he has bought as slaves, freed and trained to work with animals at their request.
Despite having sadly little time for these lovely things, Philanthropus dearly cares for them and secretly desires to find a way to move all of them to a place where they will be happy and be able to raise families and live as close to wild and free as they can! Having been groomed as a child to be a Censar, Philanthropus' mind is a wealth of crafts and trades that he has managed to keep up with over his many decades.
Eager to do a little jewelcrafting or sculpting in what little spare time he can find for himself, The Generositas is hardly a Partanar or Siviandus but still likes to practice things with his hands.
Often, when working with his Niece Protege, Philanthropus will recall stories of his youth; working on projects alongside his father in preparation of some new test or challenge he would be set by his tutors, judging each other's crafts and trying to outdo each other, just enjoying each other's time and company while they made something together.
He has told her that he wishes he'd have spent more time making things with his father before he went off into military service... that she should appreciate the time she has with her loved ones while she has it.
To her credit, his Niece Protege is seldom seen taking her family for granted and often joins him in his little shop to spend time with him on his many little hobbies!
From parrots hailing from The Land Of Monsters beyond the borders of the very maps themselves to his own small herd of elephants, a troop of little monkeys from Ditwala to even a mated pair of Qilin from The Western Kingdom, Philanthropus' estate is home to many exotic animals that he mostly has no idea how to take care of and spends dreadfully little time with.
Instead he relies on numerous freedmen that he has bought as slaves, freed and trained to work with animals at their request.
Despite having sadly little time for these lovely things, Philanthropus dearly cares for them and secretly desires to find a way to move all of them to a place where they will be happy and be able to raise families and live as close to wild and free as they can! Having been groomed as a child to be a Censar, Philanthropus' mind is a wealth of crafts and trades that he has managed to keep up with over his many decades.
Eager to do a little jewelcrafting or sculpting in what little spare time he can find for himself, The Generositas is hardly a Partanar or Siviandus but still likes to practice things with his hands.
Often, when working with his Niece Protege, Philanthropus will recall stories of his youth; working on projects alongside his father in preparation of some new test or challenge he would be set by his tutors, judging each other's crafts and trying to outdo each other, just enjoying each other's time and company while they made something together.
He has told her that he wishes he'd have spent more time making things with his father before he went off into military service... that she should appreciate the time she has with her loved ones while she has it.
To her credit, his Niece Protege is seldom seen taking her family for granted and often joins him in his little shop to spend time with him on his many little hobbies!
Wealth & Financial state
Philanthropus is, without a doubt, the richest man in the world!
There have been many who have argued that some great monarch in a faraway land, the Emperor of the Western Kingdom or perhaps some great merchant lord in the isles of youth hold more in their coffers than the Generositas... and those many are wrong and will continue to be so.
For Philanthropus' collective wealth is so vast that his accountants have claimed at times that he could buy out Kandar Lucus' entire administration several times over...
... Those self same accountants knowing full well that the collective wealth of the House Of Magnomus' seemingly small physical estate is, in actuality, several hundred times greater even than that!
At the behest of their employer, of course, they try to maintain SOME degree of professional discretion even as they are fully aware that the rest of the world will fill in the blanks as needed. While very little of his assets are truly liquid, The Generositas has been known to produce comical amounts of money seemingly out of thin air and there isn't a single week where he isn't selling one property, name or business venture off to produce three more AND seal a deal with six or more affluent parties seeking out his business expertise to make sure all those in the transaction walk off feeling properly represented. What's more, Philanthropus has invested fairly unbelievable amounts of resources into various self sufficient businesses and economic endeavors that constantly line his purse with expendable funds which he invariably uses to prop up even more progressive programs and institutions!
There have been many who have argued that some great monarch in a faraway land, the Emperor of the Western Kingdom or perhaps some great merchant lord in the isles of youth hold more in their coffers than the Generositas... and those many are wrong and will continue to be so.
For Philanthropus' collective wealth is so vast that his accountants have claimed at times that he could buy out Kandar Lucus' entire administration several times over...
... Those self same accountants knowing full well that the collective wealth of the House Of Magnomus' seemingly small physical estate is, in actuality, several hundred times greater even than that!
At the behest of their employer, of course, they try to maintain SOME degree of professional discretion even as they are fully aware that the rest of the world will fill in the blanks as needed. While very little of his assets are truly liquid, The Generositas has been known to produce comical amounts of money seemingly out of thin air and there isn't a single week where he isn't selling one property, name or business venture off to produce three more AND seal a deal with six or more affluent parties seeking out his business expertise to make sure all those in the transaction walk off feeling properly represented. What's more, Philanthropus has invested fairly unbelievable amounts of resources into various self sufficient businesses and economic endeavors that constantly line his purse with expendable funds which he invariably uses to prop up even more progressive programs and institutions!
Alignment
Paragon Selfless
Current Status
Managing Properties And Running Businesses; Fingers In Every Pot!
Date of Birth
15th Of Building, 1554
Year of Birth
1554 BCV
78 Years old
Circumstances of Birth
Born To A Noteworthy Family Of Social Climbers And Merchants
Birthplace
Longo Ta Geta
Children
Current Residence
His Manor On The Borders Of Kanda Sentran
Pronouns
He/Him
Sex
Male
Gender
Male
Presentation
Typical Elderly Kandia Man
Eyes
Brown, Deep, Wise, Almond Shaped
Hair
Thin, Curly, Shoulder Length, Balding At The Forehead
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Olive Tan, Wrinkled, Blotchy
Height
5' 8"
Weight
158 lb (71.66 kg)
Quotes & Catchphrases
"I Believe The Numbers Speak For Themselves... No Further Inquiries. Please Begin The Voting Process!"
Belief/Deity
Kandia Divine Bureaucracy
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations
Comments