The Duke of Eidein

The mood in the castle (which is so dilapidated it can barely be called a castle), is...odd: your father is on his bed and living through what will most likely be his final moments. Seated in your bedroom, you peek out the window from where you can see the sea of commoners gathered in front of the castle. Yes, a lot of people came to see your father in his final hours, but not as some form of reverence or tribute. The atmosphere surrounding this event isn't sad, it's more so surrounded by excited anticipation. You can't blame them either. You gaze at the bumbling crowd as many thoughts of how this came to be, run amok in your head.

You see, your father ran the entire dukedom into the ground because of his inhumanly high libido. He spent more time in his chamber with his maids than he would be taking care of the people - hell, he spent more time having sex than he did sleeping, and sadly its effect on the dukedom show: crime is at an all-time high, ever since the followers of some goddess became radicalized by some random fellow exclaiming himself to be the goddesses prophet and dubbed themselves the Shepherds of Revelations. It's been about a year and a half since they began activity, causing massive unrest. And your guards, being severely underpaid, underfed, and under-armed, just can't keep up with their growing influence and strength.

You can't really ask the king for help because on top of all of that, your standings with him are at an all-time low since one Christmas party a few years back where he caught your father, and- I'm just paraphrasing here, "Putting his gingerbread cookies in the queen's eggnog." Since then, your already feeble troops have been put at the frontlines of the king's army whenever he asks you to raise levies. He also makes sure to tax your duchy a lot more than the others but worst of all, you don't receive any more Christmas party invitations which is unpleasant, 'cause those potlucks were quite good. In short, your father's sole focus has been nothing but sex and not the fiery inferno that is your dukedom, which on top of making you the laughing stock of the entire kingdom, has made the population quite angry.

But what about you? Don't they say like father like son? Well yesn't. Though you did inherit his black hair and just a fraction of his high libido, you have been his complete opposite in terms of leadership. In fact, multiple revolts would have taken place if it weren't for you. (Go you!)

A knock at the door snaps you out of your inner ramblings.

"Come in," you say as you stand, making yourself presentable.

One of your father's favorite maids opens the door and bows respectfully. "Milord, the doctor says that the duke...doesn't have much longer. And he has been asking for you."

You sigh and dismiss her taking a few seconds to compose yourself before making your way towards your father's bedroom.