#urdd

Alright alright alright alright alright

So Ludan is one of Mowenn and Cuan's twins. His elder brother (by a few minutes) is Lulach, and in the BotWT they were about 4 when their mother left, and about 6 when their dad got remarried to their aunt, so they consider Luan more like their mother than Mowenn. However, where Lulach resented their mother quite openly and was happy to accept Luan instead, Ludan felt more kindly to Mowenn and wanted to forgive her and be close to her even after she abandoned them for her other son Owest.

After leaving her family in disgrace, Mowenn's mother Erca forced her to lead a more religious life to atone for her mistakes (which Mowenn obviously didn't care for, and did not take seriously) but to a young and impressionable Ludan, that was his avenue back into his mother's good graces. He though that if he dedicated his life to the Sea, like Mowenn was appearing to do, then they could be close again.

Unfortunately Mowenn wanted nothing to do with him, but he did find solace in a more religious life. Religion in the URDD world is sort of animistic in that the Sea is literally the sea, but it's also metaphysical and cognisant, with power over life and death, etc. So while there are temples for worship, a lot of prayer and religious connection involves simply being by or in the water. Ludan spent a lot of his childhood and adolescence on the shore and in the temple, one time he even almost drowned, and awoke believing he had "become one" with the Sea, having communed with it between life and death.

Despite encouragement from his grandmother Erca, Ludan did not choose to join the priesthood formally, but was devout, often making pilgrimages to the far corners of the Isles to make offerings and pray in different important religious locations. This was how he met Samo.

Samo was a novice on one of the southern islands, and during a pilgrimage Ludan met and became friendly with him. They spent many years exchanging letters, discussing religious theory and their experiences with the Sea, and slowly forming a close bond that seemed to extend beyond friendship or brotherhood. They met in person over the years too, here and there, they fall in love quietly. Until, that is, Samo decided to take his vows and formally become a priest.

To become a priest, you have to become one with the Sea, which means you have to walk into the Sea and wait for the water to fill your lungs. The Sea will take your life, either with death, or with life returned to you to be dedicated to it.

Samo was excited to take this step, and invited Ludan to be a witness to his ascension. Ludan was also excited, knowing that Samo would make an excellent priest and the Sea was sure to accept him. So Samo walks into the sea, lets it fill his lungs, and is returned to the shore to await the Sea's judgement. Only, Samo doesn't wake up. He doesn't immediately cough the water from his lungs, he just turns blue and remains still. It's in this moment that Ludan starts to panic. He trusted the Sea to give Samo back to him, but instead had taken him.

So he did the unthinkable, and intervened. He brought Samo back to life himself, which is heresy, but Ludan cited his drowning as communion with the Sea and claimed he had the providence to make that decision for it. Samo, having also returned from a drowning, sees Ludan as his saviour, and believes that they both had religious experiences beyond the ken of the others gathered there. Ludan and Samo essentially come to the conclusion that their love was ordained by the Sea and that it's divine will that they be together.

Obviously this is sacrilegious to most, but there are some who claim to have seen the Sea move through Ludan and Samo, and join them in their new religious fervour. So they essentially create a schism of those who believe they should be shunned by the religion at best, and sacrificed to the Sea at worst, for their crimes, and those who believe they really did commune with the Sea and ought to be revered as figureheads of a new branch of their faith.

This is all the threads for one piece of drama involving the second son, Taran. I have some more about Ungus and Eithi written, and a bit on Derelei, and even a little on Luan, but they're even more fragmented, so just have Taran drama for now!

This is some 18+ content so CW for language, relatively explicit sex right off the bat, off-screen character death, and people generally being arseholes.

Oh hell yeah, these guys are filled to the brim with opinions.

Erca is the most judgemental of the parental figures. She was noble born and carries herself with dignity and poise. She doesn't approve of any of the girls acting in unladylike ways (Meltha is a perfect copy of her despite not being her daughter, Mowenn is a horrendous flirt and a danger to her own reputation, Derelei is an odd duck and a disappointment, Luan is just a disaster) and though she respects Lorna as a First Wife, she loathes Eithi for being a lowborn maid who got seduced by her husband. She looks down on anyone she deems lesser than her. She is devoutly religious, too, so when Ludan causes the schism in the BotWT she has a real dilemma on her hands because he's her favourite grandson, is also devoutly religious, and part of her wants to support him in the new religious power struggle for power and faith.

Meltha idolised Erca as a young girl, and so is just as judgemental and bitchy, and without the religious angle tends to be quite genuinely cruel. She also looks down on her sisters and their unruly broods, and does not respect her Third Mother in the slightest. She is particularly sanctimonious in the BotWT about Taran and Claray's daughter Ysenda who was supposed to marry her son, but got teen pregnancied and broke off the betrothal so she could marry Mowenn's bastard son instead. Meltha and Mowenn never repaired their relationship after Mowenn's affair with Meltha's husband was uncovered, so she's extra bitchy that Mowenn orchestrated the collapse of her son's marriage as well as her own.

Vurgist is above the petty grievances of his siblings and niblings. He has his lavender marriage, he has battles and hunting and riding, and he cares very little for other people's morals and squabbles.

Taran is king of fucking it up, but still judges his sister Mowenn for her indiscretions, more than anything because he thinks she's stupid for getting caught. However, when his daughter gets into trouble he is furious, and it's almost all-out war when he finds out Mowenn had something to do with it. He doesn't care much for what his other siblings do, because unless it affects him, or it's funny, it's not interesting.

Cennel and Alpin don't care, but where Cennel doesn't care because he's a sociopath, Alpin doesn't care because none of it is entertaining.

Derelei tries not to be judgemental, but is consistently disappointed in her family's behaviour. She doesn't understand why they all have to be so horrible to one another, and wishes they'd just leave her and her own little family alone.

Oh my god, what an excellent question!

I feel like the obvious answer would be the Patriarch, the Dad, the Worst Role Model: Ungus

Ungus is the guy who started it all - he helped his brother overthrow the previous Lords, united the Islands under one crown, and then started his own coup to overthrow his brother to become Lord of the Isles himself. He married his childhood best friend and right-hand woman who helped him depose his brother, then married a second wife with better connections and aristocratic blood, then knocked up a maid and only married her because his first wife threatened to castrate him if he didn't.

I also feel it's sort of obvious to say Taran, since his inability to keep it in his pants literally curses his entire bloodline and gets all his family killed, but I have spoken a lot about Taran, so perhaps we'll talk about his little brother Alpin instead?

Alpin is a middle child in every sense of the term. He's the 5th child of 9 and 4th son of 5, he is unnecessary as an heir and ignored as a child for the most part, which means he has got up to pretty much anything and everything with very few repercussions.

His mother, Erca, wanted him to enter the priesthood, to devote himself to the Sea so that they could have sway with the clergy, but Alpin managed to cock that one up in a very dramatic way. He joined the priesthood as a novice, and within the year broke into the temple, stole and drank the ceremonial spirits, had drunken sex with a fellow novice on the altar, and then pissed in the sacred well before passing out. Needless to say, he was forcibly removed from the priesthood the very next day. Since this was what he wanted in the first place, it's safe to assume he was deliberately as disruptive and disrespectful as possible to achieve that outcome.

At heart he's a miserable hedonist. He likes to drink to excess, he loves to gamble, and being a massive cunt is essentially his favourite hobby. Since he turned down a religious life, his mother tried to marry him off young, but Alpin has a sharp tongue and virtually impossible standards, so every woman sent his way would be belittled and insulted before being turned down and away. He doesn't even fuck around that much because he's too conceited to let anyone into his bed, he'd rather pay someone to suck his dick and then throw them out too, rather than risk his reputation or his feelings.

But yeah, this guy literally started a war once because he's catty and self-centred. He's charming when he wants to be, he just never wants to be.

OH BOY DO THEY NOT LEARN!

Please ignore most of the ages in these screenshots, I cba changing the date for each character, so they're all the ages they would be c.840 (for context, the curse happens in 825 in the WotWT)

In the BotWT Claray and her daughter don't die, but Claray's daughter Yssi does end up a teen mum in a sham marriage with her bastard cousin (literal not figurative) because he was the only option left after the guy who knocked her up refused to marry her and then was poisoned to death by her father Taran...

Speaking of the bastard cousin (literal not figurative) the whole reason that went pearshaped was because his mother Mowenn was sleeping with her sister Meltha's husband Colban, and when her other sister Luan, who was in love with Mowenn's husband Cuan, found out she'd been cheating, she went to their father to petition that their marriage be annulled so that she could marry Cuan instead.

When it became clear that Mowenn's newest baby was definitely not her husband's, she had the choice to be demoted to Second Wife below her little sister as new First Wife, or annul her marriage, forfeit her legitimate sons, and return in shame to her father's house with her bastard child. Being proud and stubborn, Mowenn chose the latter. Because of this choice, Owest was shunned from society.

Mowenn saw marrying Owest to her brother's younger daughter as a way to bring her son some legitimacy, so was gleeful when she found out her niece had been ... indiscreet ... and now needed to get married quickly. Using this as leverage, she managed to barter her son's legitimacy in exchange for her brother's grandchild's legitimacy.

Now, speaking of apples that didn't fall too far from the tree ... Luan, having finally got her man (i.e. spent 2 years trying to convince Cuan that she was Real Wife Material™ and not just Wife's Little Sister Who Is Underage™) has a daughter who manages to fall in love with 🥁🥁🥁 her own uncle!

Yeah, it's a bit more complicated than that, you know, they are close in age, and Gelis' mum and Niven are only half-siblings, but Salt and Surf, children, I know you live on the Islands but there are people you can marry who aren't directly related to you (!!!)

Speaking of other people to marry, some of these guys are keeping it in the family, but some are just finding the people their siblings and cousins perhaps should have married and are adding them to their collection.

Does Marvena fall in love with her new husband's shield-sister? She sure does. We stan a bisexual polyamorous queen.

First of all here is Ungus the Red and his First Wife, Lorna. They married young when they were both commoners fighting for Ungus' older brother. Then there's Ungus' Second Wife, Erca. She was born into nobility and married Ungus after Lorna almost died giving birth to their third child. Lastly is Eithi, once Lorna's serving girl, she got pregnant by Ungus and was forced to marry him so that the baby wouldn't be born a bastard. Ungus is 57. Lorna is 55, Erca is 46, and Eithi is 20.

The first child born to Ungus and his First Wife, Lorna, was Vurgist. This is him and his wife Aine. They're in a lavender marriage, so I've also put Vurgist's lifelong brother in arms (ayy) Berach. Vurgist is 38, Aine is 32, and Berach is 35.

Second born was Taran. This is him, his wife Ferelith, and their son and daughter. Taran is 35, Ferelith is 28, their daughter is 9 and their son is 7.

This is Taran's other lover and eventual wife, Claray, and what their child might have looked like if either of them had survived. Claray is/was 25, the child didn't survive birth.

Third born was Meltha. This is her husband Colban and their son. Meltha is 32, Colban is 37, and their son is 10.

After Meltha was born, Ungus married a Second Wife, Lady Erca. Their first son, and Ungus' fourth was Cennel. This is Cennel, his wife Maris, and their son. Cennel is 30, Maris is 26, and their son is 5.

Ungus' fifth born child (and second with Erca) was Alpin. He is unmarried and uninterested in it. Alpin is 29.

Then came an unexpected bonus child from First Wife Lorna, making her children first, second, third and sixth born respectively. This is Derelei, her husband Galam, and their daughter Marvena. Derelei is 25, Galam is 27, and Marvena is technically not born yet.

Next came Mowenn, child number seven for Ungus and third for Erca. This is her and her husband Cuan and their twins. Despite her longstanding affair with her sister's husband Colban, the twins are actually Cuan's. Mowenn is 22, Cuan is 34, and the twins are 3.

Last for Erca, and eighth child for Ungus, was Luan. She's a menace that they are trying to marry off, but haven't managed to yet. Luan is 17.

And after seducing and knocking up the serving girl, then being forced to marry her by his First Wife, Ungus' ninth child was born. The first (but probably not the last) with his Third Wife, Eithi. This is Niven. Niven is ~4 months.

So there we have it! This messy family will likely expand over time, but this is them at the point that I've been writing them.

At their inception I had a story planned for Alpin, Derelei, Luan and Eithi, but things have changed a lot since then! Now I just play dress up with them and make them do terrible things to one another for fun :3c

Okay! A juicy pair!

Referring back to this post elaborating on the family tree, Mowenn is Lord Ungus' seventh child, third by his second wife Erca. At present she is 22 years old, and unhappily married to an actually great guy who just isn't her cup of tea.

For Mowenn, flirting is a hobby, she loves the thrill of the chase, and adultery is just a different kind of thrill for her. She thrives on sneaking around and sending heated glances across a room full of people who don't know who it's aimed at or why.

I've described Mowenn before as a "Lydia Bennet" type. When she was a teenager she was a ridiculous flirt, to the point that she regularly almost ruined her own reputation. Ungus and Erca decided that the best fix for a promiscuous daughter was to marry her of as quickly as possible to someone sensible. She was married off to Cuan when she was 19 and he was 30. Cuan being a loyal soldier and commander in Ungus' ranks, he was "rewarded" with marriage to Mowenn, though he had no real interest in it. All marriage really did for Mowenn was give her a thin veil of respectability to hide behind while continuing the exact same behavious as before.

Enter Colban. Colban is married to Mowenn's eldest sister Meltha, Ungus' third child with his first wife Lorna. Colban is the second son of an old noble house from the mainland who lost land to Ungus' brother's invasion, and agreed to support Ungus' subsequent usurpation of his brother in exchange for the marriage of a son to their family and returned ties to the land. Colban is old blood, and has an ego to match. He considers himself above his inlaws, but since he married into the family, he begrudgingly shows them respect in exchange for land and power on the Isles.

Though Meltha embodies everything a noble woman ought to, Colban does not see her as refined enough for him, she is a socialite at heart, and cares a lot more about her female friends, arts, clothes and jewellery than attending her husband or children. Whereas her half-sister Mowenn is the daughter of a noblewoman, is younger, more beautiful, and eager to shower him with attention.

How and when does it start? Well, Colban married Meltha when he was 25 and Meltha was 20, so Mowenn was only 10 when he first moved to the Isles and was of no interest to him whatsoever. However, he was a handsome nobleman, and to Mowenn he was exactly the kind of man she envisioned herself marrying.

By the time she was 16 it was obvious that Mowenn was growing up to be beautiful, and she was very aware of that herself, but had decided that perhaps marriage was not what she wanted after all. Her parents sent suitors to her, who she lead on right up until they proposed marriage, at which point she would turn them down. This happened so many times that suitors stopped approaching her father.

That didn't mean Mowenn stopped getting suitors, though. She would spend an evening perched on the lap of a drunk councillor, then the next she would dance with a visiting lord, all the while sending longing looks to her brother-in-law across the room.

She made her first real move when she was not quite 18, a teasing flirtation that could be passed off as innocent, a dance here, help with her hair there. She began to orchestrate scenarios where Colban would find her dressing or bathing, and more than one occasion where she had to swoon dramatically into his arms. Colban could take a hint, and with Meltha distinctly uninterested in him, he was more than happy to bask in the attention of a beautiful ingenue.

The problem came when Erca caught Mowenn and a different paramour in flagrante, and ordered Ungus to find her a husband before she could ruin herself any further. So when she was 19 she was married off, but not at all discouraged. If anything her marriage enflamed her continued relationship with Colban, since her more obvious public flirtations were not so welcome any more.

She was, briefly, entertained by her new husband, she simpered and flirted and took him to bed, but he did not enjoy playing her games the way Colban did. The adultery made Colban even more enamoured with her, finding the new parameters to their relationship more thrilling than restraining.

TLDR: Mowenn and Colban have some badly negotiated cuck kink going on, and everyone but them is having a bad time about it.

I won't say Mowenn's proclivities don't come and bite her on the ass eventually, because they really do, but she has a good few years of living her best life before that sets in.