King Johnathan of Lancove

Johnathan was the King of Torlund until the winter of 6727 SU when according to the official announcements he was killed by a sudden and violent illness that ravaged the palace killing his wife and daughter as well as many of the palace staff. There are rumours that this was either some kind of magical attack on the royal family being such a rapid and localised illness while others claim it was no disease at all but a violent a attack orchestrated by some forces within Torlund as a coupe, these rumours also go so far as to say the Lancove family survived and fled to the East. The next inline to the throne was Lord Rodger of Lancove, but he declined the throne and chose to appoint King Kal of Hercalos and his family instead.

History
Like nearly all first born male nobles as a prince Johnathan trained as a knight and actively became part of the standing army, he was notorious for interacting with noble and common born's alike and treating them equally even when it irked other nobles.

King Johnathan took the throne in 6703 when he was 21 from his grandfather King Richard, since his farther had died still a prince six years before on the battlefield in a war with Scandar, his mother died of an illness which she contracted just 2 years before he was crowned and she died 4 months prior.

3 years after he became king he married a young Half-Elf lady named Tayat from from The Mithril Isles to sure up peace which was beginning to fray, between the two countries. They had their first child Telimar who sadly was born weak and sickly and thus died shortly before his second birthday, their second child Reagen was born healthy in 6713.

Ruleship
King Johnathan was well known as being a great king beloved by his people, notorious for stimulating the economy by spending money from the royal treasury on local business over external luxuries. The King also would go on tours around Torlund, visiting various lords and expecting them to host them for lavish meals, tournaments and festivals, if the lord was known to exploited their power and wealth while expecting little and even depositing funds with lords who were known to be better rulers, the tactic being to weaken the hold and share the wealth of the bad lords. During Johnathan's reign Torlund new a time of abundance when it came to their harvests which many in Torlund accredited to the blessing of the world gem which apparently blesses or curses the land according to the moral purity of the ruler.

When Johnathan became king the country was not in a great place, Richard had neglected much of his duties as king and refused to make decisions or make any decisive actions. This had led to economic down turn as well as degradation of nearly all of the government run institutions, this made room for an increase of bandits, pirates and magical beast attacks through out the later years of his reign. Trade with the Mithril Isles was servilely damaged by the piracy which angered the Mithril Isles if only because they have limited other trading options and were suffering loses as well with little to no reimbursements for the losses. There was talk of war as Johnathan came to the throne, if the Mithril Isle were able to secure land on the mainland they might be able to set up trade with Mer-Rein. The first thing then that Johnathan did was make reforms to the military updating the systems and benefits of being part enlisted, production of new warships were rushed through all along the coast and deployed to hunt down pirates and then defend the trade lanes, making trades which were favourable to the Islanders. After a couple of years of negotiations he also married one of the Islands lesser nobles and even only a half rather than full Elf, this was a vary favourable match in the Island's eyes.

Along side defending the waters the King set about purging the kingdom of bandits capturing as many as he could and sentencing most to forced labour rather than execution or imprisonment, to help stimulate the economy and to sustain the military regrowth, while also setting out to defend the citizens from the various magical beast where possible relocating or coming to a diplomatic agreement where possible and resorting to culling populations over wiping them out in cases where the beasts are little more than viscous killers.

By 6710 the country had mostly settled down and were returning to pre Richard levels of wealth, safety and prominence slowly over the years Johnathan started to change some of the laws which heavily favoured those who were born to noble families over those of common birth, as well as putting pressure on the nobles who don't treat their subjects very well such as intentionally sourcing resources and products from sources which care for human life more. This action put a strain on the relationship with Carthorka due to the slavery but Johnathan managed to navigate that diplomatic relationship carefully and kept Carthorka from becoming too enraged, though they continued to put on displays of their military power making sure that Torlund new they had the power to do a lot of damage if they tried.

Physical Description
He is a tall muscular human with a prominent chin and nose with deep blue eyes and well tanned skin, and unlike most of the nobility his hands are slightly calloused from regular sword training drills as well as a the fact that he would often takes trips into the city of Corlas then, rolling up his sleeves to pitch in with the various tasks he found his people working on, while asking them what was really happening in his city and kingdom.