Talivald Asenov

"'Our lands have known many nobles and from among them none have benefited from the same fortune as I. I have dealt with spirits and creatures from legends nearly forgotten by the ages and thus I am forced to conclude that the gods favor me not in spite of my unorthodox methods, but because of them.' ~Talivald to his companions."Talivald Asenov is the son of Sigmund and Tyra Asenov and the heir to the Asenov household. This family of countryside nobles once held the village of Alnoc before its destruction after which they retreated to Undev living off the family's comercial business and retaining their noble titles albeit without lands. With new opportunities presenting themselves, Talivald and his father reclaimed their ancestral homeland and are now trying to rebuild what was lost.

Childhood
Talivald has spent part of his childhood in Alnoc and another part in Undev at his family's estate. Quiet and reserved, Talivald had few friends but the few friends he had, he kept close and treated equally and due to that he could often be found playing with the lowborn sons of his ruined village much to the bewilderment of the local nobility. Unlike the less fortunate, Talivald has grown up in a loving family with not many tragedies striking him personally but despite this, his father has raised him to become a strong and hardy man.

The Ghunar Incursion
Sometime during Wolf-Lord Taberk's advance into No Man's Land, Talivald and 5 of his childhood friends begun their journey to win back the lost glory of his family and eventually retake Alnoc from whatever scoundrels inhabited it at the moment in the ever changing land of conflict.

To that end he hired the mercenary Solomon and his band in Karice and employed the aid of a supposed knight called George and a foreigner, Nazanin Jafari. Seeking to cull the sanjun hordes, Talivald and his new team took it upon themselves to engage the raiders one camp at a time as he slowly begun to learn the people around him were anything but ordinary, from the chosen of a spirit to the bastard fugitive from another land, Talivald's experience culminated with the raelization that Solomon may have been serving dragon cultists in secret.

As the Ghunar armies advanced towards Karice, Talivald and his companions participated in the battle on the side of the defenders contributing to the defeat of the larger army and ultimately helping expose Taberk's atrocities to Cheleg the Skywatcher leading to the retreat of the ghunar.

The Restoration of Alnoc
With the fall of the ghunar, Talivald seized the chance presented to him and called upon his father to retake Alnoc, an endeavour surrounded by good fortune where his kindness towards a wounded ghunar paid off as the sanjun divulged the location of a hidden bandit trasure which helped the Asenovs a great deal. Controlling the old village, the young man's attention then turned to the disrespectful mercenaries who threatened him and his new foreigner friend, Nazanin. As expected the parties have come to blows resulting in the scattering of the few mercenaries that were still on his land.

Seeking to solidify his presence in No Man's Land, the young heir struck a bargain with Enrik of Karice whom he has previously helped by using the ghunar threat to his advantage and arranged for a contingent led by Krieger Kielholz to set camp in Alnoc and help defend the region while the Karici were still oblivious to the fact that the ghunar were gone for good this time. The next step was then to get rid of the gnoll menace where Talivald set himself apart from his forefathers yet again by involving himself with the local "politics" rather than outright fight off the endless hordes of mongrels. He supported Greypaw's rebellion against his father ultimately deceving both sides with the instrumental help of Nelok'Zethar the spirit accompanying George. The events that transpired here broke apart Nazanin's religious beliefs seeing as a priestess of Nin-Imma was the catalyst of this civil war, the friendship between the foreigner and the northling has only deepened as her barriers fell one after another eventually resulting in a full blown romance between the two after Nazanin has converted to the northern ways and adopted the name "Silvia."

What followed was a systemic extermination of the returning bandits and an attempt to consolidate the Asenov influence in Karice by supporting Krieger's family in their attempts to root out the dragon cultists within the city and although this adventure has seen many successes, the cult simply refuses to die having evacuated their hideout with whatever members were still alive at the time. What other adventures await the young man in this untamed land is yet to be revealed...

Personality
Talivald's behaviour can be hard to predict at times especially if you do not know him, Although having no reasons for sadness, he tends to be quiet and serious amidst people he does not know personally or are not very close to him maintaining an air of calm authority. When it comes to his close ones, Talivald becomes much more cheerful and affectionate as seen in interactions with his parents, his friend George or his lover, Silvia. When it comes to official matters and etiquette, Talivald takes after his father, he tends to be blunt and direct rather than beating around the bush and although he is perfectly capable of more mannered speech as seen from his conversations with Enrik of Karice, he prefers to speak plainly most of the times.

In spite of his more logic driven side and analytical tendencies, Talivald appears to have some idealized notions in regards to how a ruler should be as it can be seen from his outright refusal to compromise in the face of dangerous situations or his continuous refusal to abandon Silvia to her fate. Because of this ideal, a spectator may be puzzled at his decisions that can vary between boundless generosity and complete brutality as he alternates between the two attributes he considers essential in a ruler.

Such idealistic tendencies also extend to his perception of romantic relationships as he hardly hesitates to spoil Silvia with his affection to the dismay of surrounding witnesses even. Although others may see this as a shameful or silly matter, Talivald sees it in a more simplistic way: He desires to show his affection and so he does.