Felix I

Felix I, King of Fatherland, is better known for the 72 years he spent waiting to rule than the four years he actually sat the throne. Born in the fourth year of his father’s 76-year reign, Felix I was the longest-serving heir apparent in the history of Eden. There was even talk, as his father’s health began to fail in early 237, that the elderly Felix should abdicate in favor of his then 49-year-old daughter Adelaide. That talk was quickly squashed by an adoring public, however, who believed wholeheartedly that “Felix the Patient” deserved his chance to shine.

Born Felix Wolff in the year 165, he was an adventurous lad who loved to push boundaries and get into trouble wherever in Frankburg there was trouble to be found. Together with his sister Fiona, he spent many a night searching for the secret entrance to the so-called “School for Rogues,” many a lazy afternoon napping in Sadie’s Woods, and many a morning trying to sneak away from his governess to roam the halls of the haunted old castle on the city limits. Later, when they were older, Felix and Fiona became regulars at the City Distillery and engaged in all manner of drinking games with their father’s subjects, downing shot after shot of Frankburg’s famous Lichen Schnapps.

Eventually, the pair of them wound up at Yesterland Academy together. That said, they could not have been more different as students. While brother and sister were equally wild in their free time, Felix took his studies seriously—whereas Fiona did not. She was lucky make it through her three-year Adept program at the School of the Story, but Felix did a full nine-year Expert degree in the School of the Laws. And it was those years apart which made all the difference in how each sibling’s life turned out. Fiona, drunk on freedom and drunk on drink, fully embraced a life of hedonism and irresponsibility. Felix, by contrast, became an expert in governance and politics and felt satisfied with partying only on the weekends.

When Fiona died young in 199, that was the end of Felix’s partying however. Saddened by the loss of his best friend and sister and fearful that he might meet the same end if he were not careful, Felix spent decades as a frighteningly over-serious man—a wicked over-correction. Only once his children had grown and he realized that he wasn’t going to have to shoulder the burden of the crown anytime soon—only then did he calm down and return to some semblance of his former self.

When his father finally passed on in 237, Felix had once again grown so used to living the easy life that it was he himself who floated the idea that he should be passed over in favor of his daughter. But, as mentioned above, the people weren’t having that. And so, Felix spent his last few years doing a job he was perfectly suited to do, but was far too exhausted to do well.