Chervez-Tervelie

Chervez-Tervelie are a bit of a phenomenon. They are of the most prominent and respectable families in Bardia, despite the fact that the head of the family is a Neu Ungren navigator. Gaius, the current head of the family, also serves as Kadi in Bardia, and is a close personal friend (as well as an in-law) of the Emir.

Chervez-Tervelie take their root in the somewhat scandalous marriage of Ferenz Chervez, to one Maddalena Tervelie three generations ago. Ferenz was scion of the ancient Chervez family, known for their implacable principles and proud traditions (which often necessitated siding with the losing side in imperial conflicts), and in the last few generations for their terminal and irreversible poverty and resulting inconsequence.

Ferenz's decision to marry his sister Tamara into one of the newly rich navigatorial families was met with incredulity and indignation on behalf of both the city’s navigators and resident nobility. Perhaps the most insulting of all was the straightforward and indiscreet manner in which Ferenz announced his decision: by inviting the interested parties to make the highest bid for Tamara’s hand in marriage and half of the family name. Despite the indignity of the whole affair, there was no shortage of generous offers. In the end Lady Tamara was happily betrothed to Antonio Salver, while her brother received an unprecedented bride price of over four thousand ducats.

It was widely assumed that Ferenz would use that money to marry into nobility -- yet he raised many eyebrows by seeking the hand of the unlikeliest of brides. Maddalena was the only surviving child of one Pietro Tervelie, an aging but brilliant navigator with an impressive career behind him and a depressing lack of heirs. The Tervelie were a very new family, struggling to keep their place amongst the lowest tiers of Neu Ungren’s sea merchants, deep in debt and quite desperate to be kept out of the imminent gutter by a fresh infusion of money and connections. Furthermore, Maddalena herself made for a very unimpressive bride: pale and flat-chested, with large watery eyes and thin hair, she looked like a caricature of herself next to her handsome intended.

So conspicuously unequal was their union that Antonio Salver refused to proceed with the planned joint ceremony, claiming that the association of Salvers with the Tervelie would make a mockery of the entire affair. Ferenz responded by demanding a resolution by duel, and it took a great deal of family interference, as well as an impassioned plea by his sister Tamara to settle the dispute without bloodshed. The two couples were married at the same time in the Cathedral of Angels, but Ferenz and his bride were nonetheless absent from the lavish celebration thrown by the Salvers.



Isaac Chervez-Tervelie (died 3 years ago, aged 87)
Pietro’s hopes for an heir were realized with the birth of Isaac Chervez-Tervelie, who under the tutelage of his grandfather grew up to be one of the best navigators in Neu Ungren, surpassing the talents even of the ever-impressive Johannes Fugger. Once Pietro and his young grandson had discovered five new routers in as many years, Ferenz’s choice in marriage was finally vindicated. By the time of Pietro’s death the Tervelie were out of debt and rapidly gaining momentum. On Isaac’s 20th birthday, the Chervez-Tervelie moved into their new handsome brick house across the piazza from the Salver-Chervez mansion -- a move whose symbolic significance did not go unnoticed, and served to only fuel the simmering feud between the two families.

Ferenz and Maddalena’s delight at Isaac’s accomplishments was nonetheless marred by the young man’s impulsive and irresponsible character -- for as brilliant as he was, Isaac was loathe to settle down. An accomplished swordsman, a prodigious poet and an incorrigible womanizer, Isaac was content to tempt his fate in duels, relish in his romantic conquests and spew out a prolific stream of poetry as witty as it was scandalous. He was spared an early grave only by the sheer amount of time he spent at sea; but even the brief times he spent in the city as a youth made him notorious, if not famous.

For five years he raised his parents’ hopes as he elaborately and lavishly courted the stunning Viktoria Kun. When at last he was spurned in favour of another suitor, Isaac impulsively sailed off on a highly dangerous voyage. After the Great Purple Storm hit the coast, Isaac was presumed to have died at sea, but surprised everyone when he sailed back into the city’s harbour, trailing a number of recovered ships of his less fortunate countrymen. Nonetheless, a brush with death seemed to have muted his habitual impetuousness to a manageable level. In the summer following his return he quietly married Agnes Vanier, a bashful (and visibly pregnant) 16-year-old beauty. Agnes gave birth to Gaius, Isaac’s only son, but died shortly after.

Distraught over the tragedy of his wife’s death, Isaac was nonetheless content to stay an untethered widower, frustrated and disenchanted with the politics of marriage. He never remarried.

Isaac’s career as a navigator spanned almost six decades, until an accident on-board his ship left him paralyzed from the waist down. At the dusk of his life, unable to use his legs and in almost constant pain, Isaac was forced to confine himself to his house after a life spent at sea. It is a testament to his unsinkable spirit that he had managed to save himself from the crushing depression his cruel situation warranted. Armed with his considerable fortune, a sharp mind and contagious optimism he was able to create as full of a life for himself as he could manage, enjoying the company of his friends, his grandson Ambel and an endless stream of devilishly pretty nurses.

Almost ten years after his accident, upon the advice of his latest nurse, he had undergone a dangerous operation, amputating both of his legs. The newly gained ability to move around with the use of his arms and the loss of pain from his crushed vertebrae have encouraged him to refit his ship to accommodate his disability. Against the protestations of his son, Isaac hired a promising young pilot and a good crew, and set out to try his luck at sea, at the age of 74. The move was made even more scandalous by the fact that the young pilot was no other than Daniela Parvi, the 18-year-old daughter of one of the city’s most prominent navigatorial families, recently disowned for piracy.

A ship captained by an old man with no legs and piloted by a woman made for juicy gossip, but in the great tradition of Chervez-Tervelies Isaac defied everyone’s expectations once again. Together Isaac and Daniela were able to swing two successful runs to Miskoltz per year, and even to improve on a few old routers. An enterprise that was once a joke has turned into a legend -- so much so that Isaac came to be regarded by the city's seamen as a kind of lucky charm. Isaac and Daniela’s success was marred only by the tragic deaths of Isaac’s beloved grandson Ambel and that of Ambel’s paramour -- the very nurse who spearheaded the old man’s amazing revival and convinced Isaac to hire Daniela as a pilot.

Still finding delight in the raising of eyebrows, Isaac announced the birth of his bastard by Daniela a year later. The boy was named Joakim. Joakim is presently eleven years old, ten of which were spent at sea. He grew up on Isaac's ship and is now serving as a pilot's second mate on the ship of his maternal uncle, Sergio Parvini.

At the age of 84, after one final decade of adventures and accomplishments, Isaac died in precisely the way he envisioned for himself. One morning, after celebrating yet another successful voyage, Isaac was found unresponsive in the bed of a heartbroken red-headed courtesan named Dorotea. The old man met his end with a smile still lingering on his sunbaked lips, and sea salt still caked in his hair.

Joakim Chervez-Tervelie (age 11)
Bastard son of Isaac, by Daniela Parvi. Joakim was born at sea, and named after Joackim Fez, a legendary navigator and founder of Neu Ungren. As his mother was unwilling to let the boy be raised by cautious nurses and stodgy tutors, Joakim has known no home other than a ship for his entire life; no teachers other than the crew and no discipline other than the one imposed by life at sea.

As befits his pedigree, the boy is showing real promise as a navigator -- and provided his parentage is not disputed, he is well-poised to enter the Navigatorial College in a few years. Following Isaac's death he has been hired by his maternal uncle, Sergio Parvini, to serve as a pilot's second mate on Fiamme dell'Alba.



Gaius Chervez-Tervelie (age 55)
Gaius grew up in Neu Ungren, in the shadow of his brilliant and flamboyant father, quietly resenting his father's lifestyle and priorities, which were decidedly improper. Quiet and moody as a youth, he tried to ignore his father's indiscretions by concentrating on his studies and spending as much time as possible either away at sea or in Bardia. He developed an intense love for the South, particularly for their adherence to tradition and a robust system of laws and customs.

Although possessing a keen mathematical ability, Gaius failed to live up to his father's legendary skill as a seaman. A decent navigator, he nonetheless lacked the intuition and imagination, and most importantly, a love of the sea -- all of which were necessary for greatness. Dutiful and cautious, he made a better captain than most, but he viewed his vocation as a chore, a means to an end, and thus had difficulty bonding with his father at sea, during the only times when Isaac was focused and respectable.

Gaius did not have many friends growing up, but he was very close to his late mother's half-sister Marianne Venier-Dorna, who was herself only a couple of years his senior. He shared her heartbreak when she was married off at the age of 15 to Maurice Hoffmann, an insufferable tyrannical prude nearly twice her age. After five years of suffering an abusive and childless marriage, Marianne endured further humiliation when her husband publicly "discarded" her at her family's doorstep with accusations ranging from infidelity to witchcraft. The 18-year-old Gaius did the only thing he knew was right, and married his beloved cousin on the spot.

The marriage lasted a little over a year, as Marianne died giving birth to Gaius' son Ambel. Gaius was in Bardia when he learned of the tragedy -- and instead of coming back to the city embarked on what was to become an 8-year journey far into the South. By the time Gaius returned to Bardia, his birthplace was naught but a faded, mildly unpleasant dream.

Upon Gaius' return to Bardia, the Emir's habit of entertaining travelers from afar earned the navigator a private audience. The cautious respect the two men had for each other rapidly evolved into a close and tender friendship. Gaius' valuable connections far inland, his impeccable breeding, formidable intellect and especially his frustrations with his countrymen made him a natural member of the Emir's inner circle. On the suggestion from the Emir, Gaius returned to Neu Ungren only to pick up his young son and take him to be raised in the south.

Ambel, who was at first genuinely surprised to learn that he had a living father, was eager to embark on new adventures by the side of this mysterious traveler from the exotic lands. As the boy had to learn the family craft, Gaius had to take up sailing again -- and so he took over the Bardian routers, leaving the Miskoltz runs to his father. Alternating between sailing the sapphire waters of the south and travelling inland on horseback, the two were inseparable. Gaius nurtured in his son an understanding and love of the ancient customs and mysteries of the south, and, naturally, saw that Ambel received a liberal education that befitted an enlightened Bardian gentleman. This arrangement had to come to an end, however, when Ambel turned 16, and was required by custom to enter the Navigatorial College in Neu Ungren. The boy went back to the city to live with Isaac, and to pay his dues to the navigatorial society into which he was born.

The plan for Ambel to return to live permanently in Bardia after a mandatory few years at the College went up in smoke when Isaac broke his back. With Isaac disabled, Ambel had to stay back in Neu Ungren and take over the Miskoltz sailing routes. What came as a shock to Gaius was that Ambel did so quite willingly -- that he was just as at home in Neu Ungren as he had been in the marble city. Another shocking development came when Gaius was made Kadi: as a special favor from the Emir, it has been arranged for Ambel to marry princess Arezoo, Emir's eldest and most accomplished daughter. The ease with which his son spurned such a valuable arrangement was disheartening to say the least, and insulting enough that Gaius went to considerable lengths to hide the truth. To avoid insulting the Emir, Gaius did exactly as his son brazenly suggested -- he married Arezoo himself.

The rift between father and son deepened further as Ambel got in trouble with the Church of the Living God for studying forbidden texts. Further still, once Gaius learned that the reason his son risked dealing a mortal insult to the Emir was that he was in the middle of carrying on a rather indiscreet affair with his grandfather's teenage nurse, a barely literate commoner of poor breeding. Two years after the fact, Ambel and his mistress disappeared while on a river pleasure cruise in Miskoltz, under mysterious circumstances. Further inquiries made by Isaac lead nowhere, and the two were presumed dead.

Upset over his son's untimely death, Gaius put the blame entirely with the corrupting influence of Neu Ungren and especially the Navigatorial College. He is thus extremely protective of Aziz, his younger son with princess Arezoo -- trying to find a way to spare the boy the necessity of spending any time in the north.



Ambel Chervez-Tervelie
(died 12 years ago, aged 23)

The first son of Gaius by his late wife in Neu Ungren, Ambel first arrived in the South as a boy of 8, and has been a frequent visitor to Bardia until his death. His death has since smoothed out any unfavorable qualities he may have possessed, and he is to this day remembered only as a promising young man of prodigious intellect, insatiable curiosity and a pleasing manner which made an easy friend of everyone he met.

Few remember a darker side to his nature. The young man could voraciously pursue the mysteries of the Universe, but in all the excitement of it at times forgot to encumber himself with a sense of morality, ethics, self-preservation or common sense. Worse yet, Ambel's good looks, natural charm and a downright princely self-assurance had often lead others to excuse those faults of his, thus exacerbating the problem further.

There are rumors among the Faithful that Ambel's death may have been a direct result of the lax (and indeed, downright neglectful) rules of Navigatorial College pertaining to the handling of dangerous knowledge. Certainly, for the year preceeding his death he was rumored to be in extremely poor health, wasting away from a mysterious affliction, and prone to fainting spells. His fate is still sometimes used as a cautionary tale by the Faithful -- of course, never in the presence of his father.

Princess Arezoo of Bardia (age 28)
Bardia has quite a number of ladies boasting impressive pedigrees; and quite a number still of young women posessing uncanny intellect and prodigious talents, and some of those are lucky enough to have received the sort of education that allows their natural qualities to truly blossom -- but in only a handful of the daughters of the Pearl City's aristocrats have all those qualities at the same time. And of that handful, Princess Arezoo stood out as by far the most beautiful.

It was quite a scandalous move when the Emir offered Gaius to merge their bloodlines through marriage to his eldest daughter. Gaius was an outsider, and worse -- a Northerner, albeit with an impressive pedigree of his own, and an honour of a Kadi bestowed upon him a few years back. The move wasn't openly criticized, however, as the Sedefi, (who have always been the most vocal of the xenophobes), have themselves only recently married into the Emir's family -- another controversial first. The Harem's rumour has it that the Princess herself has begged her father for this arrangement, having observed Gaius' son Ambel secretly on a number of occasions while he was visiting the palace, and fallen in love with the exotic tall youth.

For Gaius to refuse such an offer would have meant to egregiously offend not only the Emir, but the entire Bardian upper crust -- yet the way he has accepted it came as a tad of a surprise, particularly to the Princess herself. Instead of choosing the teenage Arezoo as a bride to his son, he married her himself.

Arezoo continues to spend a great deal of time in the Emir's Harem where she grew up, coming to live there whenever Gaius is at sea, or particularly busy with his own affairs. In the 13 years of marriage, she has given birth to three of Gaius' children, a boy and two girls --- all in the first three years, but none since.

Her relationship with her husband can be described as cold by the most optimistic observers. As far as the rumour-mill of the Harem is concerned, she can barely stand the man -- and the fact that she does not openly state it is a testament only to her impeccable sense of tact.

Aziz Chervez-Tervelie (age 12)
First and (so far) only living son of Gaius' by Princess Arezoo, as well as the favourite grandson of the Emir. For the first few years of his life, on the initiative of his mother Aziz was raised and educated in the Emir's Harem, seeing his father very infrequently. Once he became 7 years of age, following the custom, he had joined his father in court and on his sea crossings.

He is a polite and intelligent boy, diligent in his studies, and universally praised by his tutors and caretakers. This has  afforded him a great deal of personal freedom, which he often uses to sneak out and explore the city on his own. The boy so far has been cautious enough to keep secret his notoriety amongst Bardia's pickpockets and street performers, but it's unclear how long that is going to last.

When he's not busy stifling yawns in Gaius' courtroom or playing shahmat with the Emir and his high-born cousins, he can generally be found betting on bug races or learning how to juggle in the alleyways behind the Spice Market.

Tamar Chervez-Tervelie (age 11)
A tomboy, daring and sick with the sea. Secretly idolizes her grandfather. Shadows Aziz everywhere he goes.

Feray Chervez-Tervelie (age 10)
Shy and reserved, deeply empathetic.

Gulbahar (age 25)
Second wife to Gaius, a poor orphaned niece of Salim Al-Badem. Marriage was arranged by Arezoo, and not entirely approved by Gaius, as this would mean that her children will be cousins to the new generation of Bartolinis.

Banu (age 17)
originally Bianca, age 17 Gaius' concubine, formerly a slave belonging to Arezoo. Born in the riverlands and sold into slavery as a small child. Worships Gaius -- probably the only one of his wives who truly loves him. An excited young mother to Meryem, hoping to become pregnant with a son soon.

Yildiz(5), Nasrin(3) and Meryem(1) -- three young daughters of Gaius.