Anastasius

Anastasius, King of Motherland, was the final monarch of that place before it was absorbed into Frieda Jacobs’ United Kingdom of Wonderland. By the time that he took the throne, he was well aware of the movement to unite the seven kingdoms of the Edenian South under one banner. And so, he saw himself only as a transitional ruler. That apathy towards his title had the unfortunate side effect of returning the kingdom to the chaotic state it had been in prior to his mother’s reign.

Born in 226, during the first year of his grandfather’s reign, Anastasius was lucky to be the son of the kindest and most well-adjusted of Vladimir II’s children. His mother passed her open-mindedness on to him by raising him outside the castle’s walls and by introducing him to that side of the family—the descendants of her disgraced uncle Leonid Alexeev. Anastasius became quite fond of his street-fighting uncle Jacob Goose—whose frequent visits from far-off Covenant, including his frequent visits to the Lasso Lounge, eventually resulted in the birth of Anastasius’ cousin Frieda.

Holding baby Frieda on the steps of the Lasso Lounge in the weeks after Uncle Jacob’s death, Anastasius learned that the infant in his arms might be the prophesied descendant of the Seven Queens. That made the twelve-year-old Anastasius a bit nervous, to be holding the future of the seven kingdoms in his arms, but he handled it well. After all, he figured that he would be the closest thing to a big brother she might ever have. It would be his job to protect her, so he swallowed back his fear and told her in his boyish but bold voice that he would always have her back.

And he did.

Even though Frieda would spend many years of her adolescence in an orphanage and Anastasius would spend the rest of his life living in the castle, the two remained fast friends. Then, in 263, when Auntie Charlotte finished documenting Frieda’s ancestry, Anastasius was all too happy to give up power. He’d never really wanted it anyway—one of many in his family line who’d felt that way. Unfortunately for poor Anastasius, any hope he’d had of an early retirement was shortlived. To thank him for his years of support, Frieda named him the first governor of Motherland once it was incorporated into her new united kingdom.