#king oswald

Character Profile Series - Oswald from AC Valhalla

But Duncan has no siblings. Cassandra has no siblings. Madelyn has no siblings.

We don't know anything about Duncan's childhood. Maybe he did have more siblings who died. (I personally headcanon that Oswald and Deborah got married later for whatever reason so Duncan was the only child they had [which is part of the reason why Oswald changed the law to allow girls to inherit, because if he and Deborah only had a daughter and couldn't have any more children than someone needed to rule the kingdom] , but that's just my headcanon.)

But we know about Cassandra, and we know she's definitely an only child. Alright, so we know why Cassandra is an only child. Her mother died in childbirth. Maybe her father was too brokenhearted to ever remarry. Not to mention that what with having to deal with the aftermath of Morgarath's war, build himself a reputation as a good, strong king (with Morgarath not having actually been defeated, and with the army unable to get him out of the mountains, that probably didn't look very good for Duncan's first war as king) and raise a newborn daughter, remarrying was probably not high on his list of priorities at the moment.

But after a few years, even if Duncan himself didn't want to remarry, his court should have been beginning to urge him to. After all, Duncan only had the one heir. If anything happened to Cassandra, there'd be no one to inherit the throne. And indeed, Cassandra came close to dying many times. What if she'd died in Celtica? What if she'd died in Skandia? The future of Araluen's throne would have been in jeopardy. It would've been a lot less dangerous and risky if she'd had one or two siblings, just in case.

Moving on from Cassandra, there's Maddie, who is an only child as well. Again, it's risky for the monarchy to have only one heir. Especially now that she's no longer living safely at the palace but is training as a Ranger. Sure, she's not planning on actually becoming an active Ranger, but Ranger training in and of itself can be risky. Ranger apprentices are expected to go on missions and risk their lives just like full Rangers. Maddie almost died when she was wounded in the hip that time. What if she actually had died? What if she dies from an accident during training? All that would be needed is one bandit or whoever to get in a lucky shot, and that's it.

Royal families usually try to have at least "an heir and a spare." Just in case something happens to the heir, that's what the spare is for. But Araluen hasn't had any "spare" in generations.

St Aidan’s Day

Source: Catholic Exchange website

Today is St Aidan of Lindisfarne’s Day. Aidan was a seventh century Irish Christian monk and missionary who travelled to then, largely pagan, Anglo-Saxon England, eventually settling in the remote but renowned monastery at Lindisfarne. The newly-converted Christian King Oswald of Northumbria welcomed the holy man by presenting him with a magnificent horse that the saint promptly gave away to the first beggar he encountered. When the disappointed Oswald remonstrated with him, Aidan came up with a reply impossible to counter. He said: ‘Is this child of a mare more valuable to you than this child of God?’ Oswald had no reply. Aidan became the first Bishop of Northumberland and many miracles were attributed to him. The most notable was when the pagan Mercian king, Penda attacked Northumbria and started pillage the area around the monastery. When Aidan saw Bamburgh burst into flames, he called in anguish out to God for salvation. A thunderstorm immediately put out the blaze and drove the invading Mercians away.

And we’re back again!!  Sorry for the haitus, school has not been too kind to me, and with 3 other projects i have to juggle, it makes keeping up with this one a bit too hard, but we’re back for as long as I hold out! 

If it isn’t our favorite lucky rabbit.