THE KING OF ELYRIA,
𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒏 𝒗𝒊𝒊.

𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒂𝒍𝒍.

⤷ 𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒆
pretty maids all in a row

⤷ 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆
royal house blackthorn

⤷ 𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆
stefan arion blackthorn vii

⤷ 𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔
he only really goes by royal
titles like your majesty, your
grace, and sire.

⤷ 𝒂𝒈𝒆
forty-two

⤷ 𝒃𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒆𝒙
male

⤷ 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒚
male

⤷ 𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏
heteroromantic

⤷ 𝒔𝒆𝒙𝒖𝒂𝒍 𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏
heterosexual

⤷ 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒔
six-time widower (almost),
soon to remarry.

⤷ 𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕
6'2"

⤷ 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒊𝒎

⤷ 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚
VICIOUS, CRUEL, AND CUNNING are three words sometimes used to describe the king. haughty, stubborn, ill-tempered, and weak are four words also used to explain the king's behavior. technically, all apply. yes, even weak. after all, what king needs to wear a crown to be a leader? one who doesn't feel secure, that's who. regardless, stefan's got a nasty, violent temper on him and gods save anyone who stumbles upon him when he's in the wrong mood. although, it's well known by now that the king isn't stable and is prone to snapping at any moment, hence why you should try and stay away from him. in addition, stefan's got that typical kingly libido to him and that classic sense of being superior to everyone else—even seeing himself as being above the strongest historical figures or the most beloved religious leaders. this is one of his fatal flaws, truly. he underestimates others, believing that anyone who threatens his life will never succeed. there have been attempts on his life in the past and none have ever come close to succeeding besides one. why this happens? well, they say the king's got eyes and ears everywhere and that's how he knows who plans to kill him before they've even gotten all their supplies. some say it's all lies and he's just singling out random people. they may be right, honestly. most people know his past wives were either innocent or simply didn't deserve to die but it's not like anyone speaks out about it. let the others get their heads chopped off so long as it's not you. it's easier to let others take the fall because at the end of the day, you've still got a beating heart, don't you? still, that does tell you something about yourself. plus, if everyone wanted to, they could kill the king. so why don't they? well, that's for everyone else to answer.

in addition, the king's a very complicated person when it comes to love and family. he very much dotes upon his first daughter (when he's in a good mood, that is) because she seems to be willing to look past his wrongdoings. although, perhaps it's because she's afraid of him, however, stefan wouldn't know either way. but when it comes to his other two children, well, that's where the relationships get strained. he doesn't like his son at all and that's why he's desperate for a second son to make his heir. his son doesn't openly oppose him but he can sense it well enough by reading between the lines. honestly, stefan really wants a son to bond with and his first son certainly hasn't bonded with him. it's also why he's so annoyed that none of his past six wives have given him a surviving son. now, you may be thinking, why not bond with his two more willing daughters? well, his misogynistic ways prevent him from sharing that kind of bond with either of his daughters even if they have potential to see things his way. one could be a literal carbon copy of him and he wouldn't care because at the end of the day, she'd be a daughter and not a son. moving onto his wives, well, we all know how well that went. stefan's the kind of person so lost in his power that he doesn't know what to do with it. he's a rather strange man, isn't he? he claims he loves women and yet he hates them just as much. he has a lot of opinions on them that i won't elaborate on at the moment considering his hypocrisy, however, what there is to know is that he's got strict but constantly changing ideals for women and their behavior around him. he likes loyal, demure women but he gets bored of them in time and then he wants a woman more willful and fiery. but when that willful woman becomes too confident and too willful, he begins to loathe her. and then he'll want a pretty, fun one but when the fun one fails to adapt, he'll repeat the cycle and return to the demure kind of woman he started out with.

as insatiable as stefan is, it's quite obvious that he's never going to be satisfied with his life. no amount of gold, respect, loyalty, or beauty will ever be enough for him. having set his standards so high, stefan has since become prone to frustration. and though he denies it, deep down stefan knows no relationship, platonic, sexual, or romantic, can ever fill the void within him. ever since the deaths of reina and evonia, stefan's never quite been the same and he's never been able to genuinely love another person. at this point, he's stopped trying to invest in genuine relationships. he thought that with his second wife he would be satisfied but then she became more of a demonic figure to him rather than remaining the same person he'd fallen in love with. in reality, she hadn't changed too drastically, stefan was just beginning to see everything he had loved about her in the beginning as something he then began to hate. and though stefan continues to search for the right person, he's become so impulsive that he marries prematurely and gets bored quickly. and when he gets bored, well, you already know what happens.

so, now you see stefan's a man rigid in his ways and there's nothing that could ever persuade him to see things differently—not love, not family, not anything. he's also a delusional man with ideas bigger than he can make possible. the conquest was already an amazing feat he shouldn't have been able to accomplish and that sense of newfound narcissism has since made everything else even more dull and unsatisfying than it already was. perhaps the strangest thing about stefan is the difference between himself as a youth and him now. they say he used to be halfway decent, harboring an admiration for warrior women. and truthfully, that admiration is still there, but he's only ever known two women he's respected—one in which fitting that mold. since his adolescent years, stefan's become a gradually less reasonable man and now he's reached the point of no return. no one can dissuade him, and his stubborn nature refuses to let himself admit his wrongs or change his decisions. harboring a violent temper and an uncanny capacity for hate and instability, stefan's since evolved into making his already oppressive kingdom even worse than it already was. in the beginning, stefan used to manipulate people and use sympathetic methods to perform cruel acts but now that's he's so far in, he's given up on all of that. though he can play a charming man at times, he hardly bothers to play the sympathetic card. at first people might have been able to side with him but now the only people in his corner are the radicals and the eerily loyal few.

in summary, stefan's lost himself to corruption and he's since dissolved all of his meaningful relationships into nothing more than business. everything stable about him has seemingly vanished into thin air. what used to be someone who could be predicted has become someone with hardly any moral code. he's almost become nothing more than his power, in truth. it almost seems like he only exists to terrorize people and intimidate others into submission. and though he doesn't always seem dangerous, believe me when i say that he is. he may seem to be enjoying a conversation—he might even offer to buy you something expensive—but one false word and he'll tear you apart (or he'll just have you beheaded, that'd be easier). it's really no secret that stefan likes to destroy all opposition, anyway. even a simple: "be reasonable" could be seen as offensive and conspiratorial. so, tread lightly even if he is behaving like the chivalrous knight because you should already know he's not one. no matter how convincing he may seem in one moment, there's no way he'll be half as kind the next should you make an error. in conclusion, stefan can appear the good guy when he feels inspired to behave as such but he never truly is the good guy. of course, perhaps he'll pick a rose for you when he's feeling nice but just as swiftly as he picked that rose, he'll call for your death the moment you misstep. but, a rose is a rose, isn't it?

⤷ 𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒏 . . .
the witch hunts — what did you expect? he started it all, didn't he? let's just say that he's a greedy person. he doesn't want anyone to have more power than him. of course, this doesn't explain his hatred for magic. as you guessed, he does despise magic due to the death of his sister, reina, but his reason for persecuting them is purely due to his fear of more powerful humans than he. his hate for them just serves as an extra motive to purge them from existence.
sexism — oh, he definitely is sexist. sometimes he's a hypocrite, having admired his sister for defying traditional gender roles, but then hating his wife, eliya, for trying to do something similar in her own way. either way, he is sexist with very few exceptions. perhaps he will admire a woman or two but that doesn't change his contempt for females—particularly the annoyingly willful ones.
homophobia — personally, stefan doesn't care much.
it isn't a concern of his and though he isn't pro-lgbt (why would he be?) he generally doesn't have a strong stance. of course, he isn't about to help these people nor is he going to persecute them more than they already are because that's a waste in his eyes. and if he puts any to death, it's always for other reasons (although he might sentence someone to die if they were in love with a family member of his and they are of the same sex as them). honestly, stefan is all kinds of messed up so this isn't surprising at all. so, to summarize, stefan is homophobic but generally doesn't care if it's out of sight and out of mind. of course, if a family member is non-heterosexual then he'll have some issues. yikes.

⤷ 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒔
what do you think?

⤷ 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚
STEFAN AS A YOUNG BOY was much kinder than he is today. though he was never quite right, he was certainly better. he'd yet to find any interest in women nor had he formed any political views yet. as he aged, societal ideals ingrained themselves within his mind and they've since stuck. growing up, stefan was very close to his mother and his sister, reina. all other figures in his life were irrelevant, truthfully. but then how is it that someone whose role models are female turns out to be so misogynistic? truthfully, i've hardly the slightest clue. he's a mystery, i suppose. perhaps unsolvable. but anyways, as a young boy stefan bonded most with the only two females in his family at the time. though he didn't hate his father, stefan viewed him as weak and feared that elyria would be overthrown by one of the more powerful countries. this fear led to resentment which grew as he aged. later, when he was 19, his younger sister reina was assassinated by a man with magic. this is really where stefan's hatred began. he started to see magic as this all powerful thing that would be used to take him and everyone he cared for out. this is around the time stefan's already souring behavior worsened. after reina died a bloody death in his arms, stefan lost his mother only a year later when his youngest sibling was born. and even though he does see his sister as being the cause of their mother's death, he doesn't despise her, he just doesn't care about her.

also at the age of 20 was stefan's marriage to kylla marsei. the marriage between the two was arranged by stefan's father and kylla's father just 9 months before his father's death. early on in the marriage, stefan grew to like kylla. despite his moods, they got along. during their marriage, they had multiple children although their firstborn daughter, evonia, died at the age of 5 when a brief plague swept through. however, the illness was so deadly that it went away quickly once most of those infected died before they could successfully spread the disease. this was tough for stefan because he had cared for his daughter although you can partially credit that due to his daughter being named for the mother he loved. of course, stefan's capacity to genuinely love ran out quickly and everything after became more shallow. it was shortly after his daughter's death that stefan had his first (but brief) mistress. it was an unseemly time to do so, made so by the fact that kylla grieved alone after that, just weeks after their daughter's death. of course, his first mistress only lasted a week but thus began stefan's habit of sleeping around. then, seven years into his marriage to kylla, stefan hosted a feast to celebrate their seventh year. it was at this feast that, after a brief argument with his wife, stefan found himself upon one of the balconies and it was also there that eliya lynesse stumbled upon him. it seemed their connection was almost instant. stefan tried to get her to become his mistress but she was quick to shut him down, claiming she was waiting to be married to do anything of the sorts. she did say she would kiss him, though, and that was as far as she was willing to go. though frustrated, stefan could understand. of course, stefan was quick to fall in love with her willful, confident personality that rivaled the more demure, religious behavior of his wife.

however, a few months into his and eliya's unconsummated relationship, eliya began to push him to pursue annulment. so in love with her (although it was more lust than love), stefan attempted annulment and when he was rejected, the king bribed the head of the sedei with wealth and higher power to annul his marriage. and so, stefan got his annulment and married eliya days after kylla and her children had been forced to leave the palace. during his marriage to eliya, they had one child—a daughter. over the course of five years, stefan steadily fell out of love with eliya and it was the willfulness he had loved in her that made him hate her. however, that wasn't what doomed eliya altogether. it was erina raelyn who became the final nail in her coffin. not long after meeting erina, the king decided he'd need another annulment. however, it was around this time that the head of the sedei was being charged with corruption and was subsequently burnt at the stake. with kylla being recognized as the queen once again, stefan did what he had to do to keep her out of the picture. he hired an assassin to kill her. at the same time, stefan accused his wife of high treason and to make it all the more humiliating, he accused her of committing adultery with her own brother. having paid others to corroborate his story, it wasn't difficult to condemn eliya and her brother and thus, eliya and her brother were executed and stefan married his third wife the same day eliya was killed.

now, for the sake of my sanity, i'll make the rest as brief as possible. anyways, his marriage to erina wasn't ever filled with any mal-intent directed towards her. he truly did like her although he did sleep around while with her. people speculate that had she lived longer, she would have soon grown to annoy the king. honestly, they were right when they said that. erina died before he could grow to hate her. then, his next wife was meira rayne whose marriage was arranged by her lord brother and the king. though beautiful, stefan and meira never bonded nor had a passionate relationship. their relationship was more duty than anything else. stefan only kept her around as long as he had because he didn't want to execute her that soon after marriage. during his marriage to her, the king became infatuated with kasmira troy and she became his most notable mistress even if she wasn't the first. shortly after, kathryn bellevae became his wife's new lady-in-waiting after one had been executed for stealing from the queen. he quickly fell in love with her and was quick to sentence meira rayne to death for high treason.

not long after, the king married his fifth wife. kathryn was the most short-lived of his wives and that was only because several people had become suspicious and had launched investigations into her past. truthfully, stefan had been so in love with his wife that he'd not slept with anyone else during their marriage and refused to for a while, even after he married his sixth wife. however, when it was found that kathryn had lied about her past, stefan initially refused it until kathryn confirmed it. at this point, stefan was willing to pardon her until he had been told about her resumed affair in which he could no longer forgive her actions. though he didn't actually want her dead, he knew he couldn't let her live because it would be an insult to him and he could never let himself appear that weak for a woman. thus, the king gave her a trial yet never attended. in fact, stefan intended to never see her again but she broke out of the tower after her sentencing and made an appeal to him. at this point, there was no going back. stefan was a stubborn man—and still is—and he could not change his mind for fear of mockery. so, kathryn was sent to her death days after the tutor had been hanged, drawn, and quartered. not long after kathryn's death, stefan was visited by kasmira troy, his former mistress. he wasn't quite interested in her affections at the moment and she'd seemed strangely disappointed about that. he knew well enough that kasmira had never truly loved him but she wasn't his wife and love wasn't required of her. however, stefan trusted kasmira enough and he came to regret that decision for when he wasn't looking, kasmira pulled out a dagger and made to stab down into his chest. however, her attempt failed although stefan had suffered an injury to his left arm since he had been able to block the knife faster than he could catch her arm. kasmira was executed shortly after and stefan was truly furious that someone he trusted would betray him.

finally, stefan married zarya not long after and though she was pretty, their marriage remained unconsummated. as stated earlier, stefan refused to sleep with anyone for a while after kathryn's death but he eventually returned to his former self. stefan did love zarya for a time but the fact that she was trying to copy kathryn's mannerisms became more obvious and began to grate on him and thus he grew mad at her and sentenced her to die. and so here we are today. stefan's arranged to marry a new bride now that his sixth is waiting for her execution in the tower.

⤷ 𝒑𝒆𝒕𝒔 / 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔
his horse, a black stallion named
arundel.
his royal hunting dog, a female
greyhound named venus.
finally, stefan also has a female
sparrowhawk named dawn.

⤷ 𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕
depending on how you look at it,
stefan is chaotic good or chaotic
evil. society heralds him as the
good guy but many others would
beg to differ.

⤷ 𝒆𝒙𝒕𝒓𝒂
• stefan became king not long after he married his first wife.
• despite stefan's raging sexism and his unexplained distaste for daughters, his first surviving daughter is his favorite child.
• stefan's favorite wife varies depending on how you phrase the question. if you asked him which his favorite was before marrying them, he'd grudgingly tell you it was eliya lynesse. if you asked him who his favorite was during the marriage, he'd tell you kathryn bellevae. if you asked him which loved him as much as he loved her, he'd tell you erina raelyn. however, if you asked the question in the most general manner, he'd tell you kathryn.
• stefan was closest to his mother and his sister, reina, out of all the members of his family.
• stefan sleeps around a lot but that doesn't mean he's had many mistress. in fact, he's only had about three in comparison to the amount of women he's slept with.
• stefan does miss his wives sometimes because sometimes there's something special about one of them that he genuinely loved and he only remembers it when he's become used to it and it's no longer there. of course, if you brought them back he'd eventually want them dead again but that doesn't mean he doesn't occasionally miss them. such a shame he couldn't just have a harem. everything would be solved then.

𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒗𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒂
𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒐 𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅.

TO KILL A KINGDOM.