Nero Vashar

Nero Vashar is the current Prince-Admiral of Myr and the Patriarch of the Vashar Family. Born the secondborn son of Idris Vashar and his wife, Nyla Adarys, despite the freedoms Essos provided, he was not granted with the boon of being named heir.

Yet nevertheless, where his older brother faltered, Nero succeeded. From marriage to having to take on Ezra Vashar's responsibilities even before his overthrow and exile, Nero has long been forced to shoulder the heavy burden that Ezra could not.

Appearance and Character
As a younger man, Nero was the very image of strength. Built like a bull and strong as an ox, few could doubt his prowess upon anything other than the field of battle. Yet, as time progressed, and things changed, as all things do, he gradually found himself inundated by his elder brother's responsibilties.

Ezra had been ever the frivolous type, and with the responsibilities of ensuring his family's future thrust upon him, a previously unforeseen side to Nero was brought to the forefront. Governance suited him well.

Nero's natural aptitude for governance would continue to grow as he increasingly worked alongside his youngest sister, Rania Vashar, as they endlessly tolled to keep Ezra from failing and falling by the wayside. It was a task that took a great toll on Nero and drained a great portion of his energy from the more vigorous passions of life. For Nero, notably such was his love for combat.

Nevertheless, while Nero's talents for governance and statesmanship were newly found in the grand scheme of things, his had always been a charismatic personality. Never had one been to say that Nero Vashar had been a shut-in, nor one to avoid active converse.

But fate is cruel. While responsibility had restricted Nero's time, Ezra's failings would restrict him for the remainder of his life. At four and forty, just a year before Ezra's ousting and exile in 425 A.C., in what can now via hindsight only ben described as a "failed assassination attempt", Nero Vashar's horse was felled, with him atop it, sundering his right leg in the process, and thereby removing his last hopes for the active lifestyle he had once possessed.

In light of his fate, Nero's character grew into a type more suited toward the more unforgiving and ruthless side of politics. It was now, with a crippled leg, that Nero Vashar truly began to shine as some might say, and to darken as others might contest.

Ruthlessness suited this Vashar, and would see him well through the tumultuous times ahead. From Jasmine Vashar to a great many political opponents whom rose and fell as Nero dragged his House back up the political ladder of Myr, those still with tongues to voice words can attest to how Nero Vashar did whatever was necessary to see himself into the position of Prince-Admiral and his family back to the place of foremost prominence.

381 - 418 A.C. Ezra, and Nero
The earliest of Nero's years were much and the same. He was of noble blood, and his father, Idris Vashar, was a man of tireless determination who worked to see the Vashar restored to their rightful place amongst the wealth of Myr. In this, Idris was indeed most successful. And while Idris' eldest child and firstborn son, Ezra Vashar, would never himself see such frugal traits come to fruition within his own repertoire, such was where his siblings Nero and Rania stepped in.

Further so, Nero's earliest years were much so defined by his martial prowess. As a young man he quite naturally found notable prowess in the art of swordplay and its like. And while he held traits that endeared him toward economic management, as a youth, he focused most so on other pursuits.

Yet while Ezra kept a defiance in the face of such noble pursuits as marriage, Nero readily stepped forth into such binds at the age of seven and ten, coming to father his first and only child later the next year in 399 A.C. To say Nero Vashar and his wife Vellona Sarmyr had an unhappy marriage would be a distinct lie, as the two remain to this day happily wed, but to say their marriage was plentiful in its fruit, would also be a distinct lie. Their failure to produce further children after their son Ordello was not for lacking of trying, but instead, for the toll the birth took on a young Vellona. At the time she had been but a girl of nine and ten, and the pregnancy had been most hard on her, with learned men ordering her to bed for the final moons of her pregnancy.

While Nero never grew to anger toward Vellona over their inability to produce further children, he undoubtedly grew angered toward his elder brother Ezra at times, a man whom acted so freely and irresponsibly. Bastards. Nero would never be that kind of man, nor would he place them into the succession. It was only right to take a wife, or a few, if one so wished, and father legitimate children. Not bastards. That was not right.

So when Ordello grew to age and eventually came to father a son by his own wife in 417 A.C., Nero was most pleased. The boy was named Aeneas, and while in many cases grandsires are distant if not already passed on, Nero was a most attentive grandsire.

419 - 425 A.C. I Shall Do Your Job Then
Ezra Vashar had long passed off his responsibilities spare for those regarding the martial practices of the city to his younger siblings Nero and Rania. Long had it been since Ezra had truly even made attempt at governance. In truth, it both annoyed and pleased Nero that he had to do his brother's job. Half so it nigh made him pray to Gods norm and queer that his brother might take up his post and responsibilities with more vigor, for while the Prince-Admiral's task was largely served on the field of battle, Ezra was still the uncontested Patriarch of their House.

Yet ever so, Nero Vashar was a second son, and as the way of all second sons goes, jealousy is ever ripe. Having his brother's duties thrust upon him gave him the opportunity to see prosperity for his House and his own closer kin. Truth be told, Nero oft half considered 'borrowing' amounts from the Vashar coffers - from zra's coffers - and investing it elsewhere, where only he could touch it. The thought entertained him many a day, that with a few flicks of his quill, he could deprive Ezra of what enabled him to be so utterly useless, his coin.

But he did not. He served his family and House diligently. Like Ezra never could. And so those next years passed as largely uneventful years, save for the birth of his second grandchild, Vorina Vashar.

However, come 425 A.C., Ezra's failings came to affect Nero in a more personal and direct sense. Little time did he have left to himself nowadays, but that little time he did have he either spent with his family or out riding. He still enjoyed the fresh air outside the city, and not even Ezra's incompetence could take all his leisurely pursuits from him, albeit that he had already been forced to give up much of his sparring and the like. That was when it struck. His horse took arrows and fell back on itself, trapping Nero beneath its weight. He heard the sounds before he felt it. The cracks were loud, and numerous.

While Nero Vashar would not lose his life this day, and would manage to survive the assassination attempt upon his person, he would carry its mark for the remainder of his life. His right leg, for all the learned men whom worked to heal it, could not, and it healed a weak and out-of-shape thing. He was to be a cripple.

He was four and forty, but in his eyes he was - had still been - a young man, with much ahead of him. But all that changed with the loss of his right leg. The attempt, it was later discovered, was only one of the first moves in an eventual coup against his brother, no doubt the conspirators had deemed that without Nero at his side, Ezra would be greatly weakened and left open to assault. In the end it mattered not, Ezra would fail all the same.

426 A.C. Disgrace and Failure
Destiny. A queer concept. But it suited all the same. Ezra Vashar's destiny was to lead his House and kin to near ruin, whereas Nero's, Nero's was to rebuild from the ashes that Ezra left in his wake, to make a stronger House, to ensure that the work of their late father, Idris Vashar, was not to be lost to the pages of history books, like so many before them.

There was no saving Ezra Vashar that night. The Prince-Admiralty was to pass to another, and as fate would have it - or as Lys and Tyrosh would have it - that other was the man's own son Myles Vashar. Or at least, was for a fortnight. A fortnight after Ezra's exile from Myr, Myles Vashar was found dead in his manse, his wrists and throat slit and left to bleed out. Where his father's ousting from power had been a peaceful affair, Myles Vashar's utter incapability had seen him remiss of his life. Nero Vashar is said to have remarked that it was a thorough waste of life and that the boy should simply have fled with his father. Later he would be heard saying the same of Jasmine Vashar, Ezra's daughter and Designated Heir.

Mar Noyne proved decent enough in his post. Better than Ezra and Myles. But that was no challenge. And so with two Vashar seats vacated with the deaths of Magister Mose Vashar, and then the exile of Ezra and later the death of his son, Nero was the first chosen to fill an empty Vashar seat, while the other would remain empty until the next year.

The Lineage of House Vashar.

 * Idris Vashar, b. 354 A.C. d. 415 A.C.
 * m. Nyla Adarys, b. 355 A.C. d. 406 A.C.
 * Ezra Vashar, b. 378 A.C.
 * w. Nadine of Lys, b. 380 A.C.
 * Jasmine Vashar, b. 399 A.C.
 * Myles Vashar, b. 402 A.C.
 * Nero Vashar, Prince-Admiral of Myr, b. 381 A.C.
 * m. Vellona Sarmyr, b. 380 A.C.
 * Ordello Vashar, b. 399 A.C. d. 438 A.C.
 * m. Illora Drahar, b. 397 A.C.
 * Aeneas Vashar, Magister of Myr, b. 417 A.C.
 * Eleni Silkborn, b. 436 A.C.
 * Vorina Vashar, b. 419 A.C.
 * Tirina Vashar, b. 427 A.C.
 * b. Fredo Rogare, b. 430 A.C.
 * Idris Vashar, b. 431 A.C.
 * Salma Vashar, b. 384 A.C.
 * m. Elyas Mar Noyne, b. 382 A.C.
 * House Mar Noyne
 * Rania Vashar, b. 392 A.C.