Prince Rohan

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Rohan is a fictional character in the Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies by Melanie Rawn. He is the hero of the Dragon Prince trilogy.

"He would build walls stronger than any stone..."

Rohan was born in 677 to Zehava, Prince of the Desert, and Milar, who was sister to Andrade, the Lady of Goddess Keep. He had an older sister named Tobin, who married Chaynal, Lord of Radzyen Keep and Battle Commander of the Desert, in 690.

Rohan was unlike his sire and sister, both of whom had fiery tempers and warlike temperaments; he was a scholar. He dreamed of a Continent united in peace. Zehava had often despaired of his son, not understanding his bookish ways. Like most noble boys Rohan had been fostered out - in his case it was to Lord Hadaan of Remagev Keep in the Desert, when he was thirteen years old - and had been knighted in 695. Unlike most others, however, Rohan's knighthood was granted on the battlefield. Rohan had sneaked off to defend the Desert against the invading Merida dressed as a common soldier due to the fact that he had been forbidden to fight in the war. When the Merida had been defeated, Rohan revealed himself to his Prince and his people; he was knighted and for once was undisputedly hailed a brave and courageous warrior.

It was true that Rohan was undisputedly deadly with his daggers, but after his knighthood instead of participating in the traditional dragon hunts Rohan spent much of his time studying the laws of the land, readying himself for his time as Prince of the Desert, and forming plans to make his dream of peace a reality.

Dragon Prince character
Image:PrinceRohan.JPG
Prince Rohan of the Desert
Race human
Birth 677, Stronghold, The Desert
Colors diamond, sapphire, and topaz
Rings Desert topaz
Titles High Prince, Prince of the Desert, Azhrei
Princedom The Desert

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Dragon Prince Trilogy

Three years later (in 698) Rohan became Prince of the Desert, after his father was mortally wounded on a dragon hunt. At this time his Aunt Andrade was visiting; she conjured a face in flame: a striking woman with red-gold hair and emerald eyes. Rohan's heart went to the woman instantly, a Fire burned inside of him that never had before. Still, he was wary, for he knew his aunt and did not completely trust her when she told him the woman he saw was one of her Sunrunners and meant to be his bride. While he saw the benefits to marrying a Sunrunner - mainly vast amounts of information from other Keeps and Princedoms - he knew that Andrade wanted a faradhi Prince from the union, which was something unheard of in those days.

The first time Rohan met Sioned, the woman in the Fire, he was returning from slaying the dragon that had killed his sire. If he had any doubts that he would wed her, they disappeared once he met Sioned in person. He loved her and she him. However, his plans for the Desert and for the upcoming Rialla would have to come before his heart. The prince before the man. Luckily, Sioned understood his position and supported him in the endeavor of keeping their affection for each other secret. To the world, and especially Andrade and later High Prince Roelstra, the two would remain distant, yet in secret, with the help of Rohan's squire, Walvis, they met and became better acquainted. After one such interlude Tobin discovered them and made a comment on the training of Sunrunners in the ways of the bedchamber. Rohan, who was still a virgin though not for want of trying on the part of many Desert maids, was appalled and infuriated. His distance from Sioned needed not to be feigned. She confronted him in a dragon cave after they saved Maarken's and Jahni's lives and discovered that the inside of dragon's eggs was gold. She shouted at him, possessing a fiery temper, and told him that it had been before she'd seen his face in the fire and that it was a rite of passage for Sunrunners. Rohan accepted what she said and gifts her with an emerald ring, which he puts on her left ring finger - the finger no faradhi but the Lord or Lady of Goddess Keep ever wears adorned. The statement was clear to Andrade: Sioned would be his Princess first and her Sunrunner second.

Rohan's first decree as Prince was to ban dragon hunting. Other than the fact that Rohan had always loved dragons and hated the sport, this law helped the illusion that he was a young, slightly simple Prince. It also protected the desert's newfound secret wealth of gold.

At the Rialla Rohan acted like a young and simple Prince, easily swayed and gullible. This ruse allowed him to overhear other Prince's loosened tongues and enabled him to avoid the High Prince Roelstra's daughters without insulting the High Prince himself. Rohan won Sioned's wedding necklet in one of the horse races, escaped an assassination attempt, managed to get the Princes to all agree on peace - though not quite the way he'd intended - and made eternal enemies of Roelstra and his daughter Ianthe. After the Rialla Rohan and Sioned married.

In the year 701 the plague hit the Continent. Rohan's mother, Milar, and his nephew, Jahni, died from it. Sioned almost died, but a cure was found in time in the form of the addicting and dangerous drug dranath. Rohan used the gold from the dragon hatcheries to buy the drug and disperse it in great volumes, so that even the lowest of servants could be free of the plague. Sioned recovered, but had been rendered barren.

Over the next couple years Merida raids increased along the Desert borders, paid, Rohan was sure, out of Roelstra's pocket. The problem was that the Merida were hiding in Cunaxa, and if Rohan tried to follow them across the border, then Roelstra would call all the princedoms together against the Desert for invading Cunaxa. The Merida eventually became bold enough to strike near Stronghold, the seat of the Desert itself; however, Rohan was captured and taken to Feruche, Ianthe's Keep. Sioned tried to rescue him, but was also imprisoned. Drugged and later enraged by Ianthe's taunting of what was being done to Sioned and the fact that she had three strapping sons while Sioned was barren, Rohan gave Ianthe what she had been goading him toward: his son. He and Sioned were released soon after. A distance now between them due to what had happened in Feruche.

The war between Princmarch and the Desert had finally erupted. Rohan, with the aid of Sioned's brother Davvi and Chale, Prince of Ossetia, fought the Merida and Roelstra's forces, which included the young Prince of Syr, Jastri. During the war the dragons would soar overhead earning Rohan the title Azhrei, or Dragon Prince. Finally, the war came down to a duel between Rohan and Roelstra. Surrounded by the High Prince's guard, Rohan was sure the fight would not be fair, but then a dome of starlight entombed him and Roelstra. Rohan defeated the High Prince.

As the war raged, Rohan's son had been born. Sioned had returned to Feruche, claimed the boy as her own and burnt the keep and its mistress to the ground. She had reached out for Rohan and made the discovery that she could weave starlight in addition to sun and moon light. In light of this, she had named Rohan's son - their son - Pol. At first Rohan did not wish to acknowledge the boy or look at him, but once he did, Rohan embraced his son and loved him as a father should.

The aftermath of the war settled with Rohan as the High Prince, Sioned the High Princess, and Pol the ruler of Princemarch, in whose stead stood Pandsala, Roelstra's daughter, as reagent. The new emblem of the High Prince was a dragon and an emerald ring: the Azhrei and his faradhi Princess.

  • Hero's Journey: Rohan came to the position of ruling Prince of the Desert filled with dreams of peace and civility. He did not look to the past because he thought himself and the future better. He was young and arrogant - something he came to realize during the Rialla of 698. He realized, for example, that his clever plan to fool Roelstra included the very divisiveness that he abhorred in the High Prince. He arrogantly made enemies of Roelstra and Ianthe, blind to the true threat they possessed to him. Roelstra, and especially Ianthe, were able to attack Rohan's very self, not just his princedom as Rohanhad expected. During his captivity in Feruche, Rohan learned terrible truths about his character: he was made of the old world and was "... a man like all the rest of us" (Dragon Prince pg 511). For a time Rohan had sunk into deep despair, not believing at all in his youthful dreams and ready to abandon them. Slowly Rohan climbed out of his hatred and despair. He was again ready to see the beauty and truth of his dreams, but this time they were tempered with wisened fear rather than youthful arrogance. Instead of ignoring and hiding from the marks of the old ways inside himself, Rohan accepted - though it still disgusted him - that he possessed darker, more barbaric traits; he struggled to conquer them. He strove to better the world around him, so that his son and descendants would not grow up with the old, barbaric ways as he had. Instead of fearing the barbaric fascets of himself, Rohan learned to fear and respect the power he possessed, for that power was the only thing that could corrupt his dreams and twist his heart.

After fourteen years of establishing peace whispers broke out of a man claiming to be Roelstra's heir. The impostor, Masul, was the right age and looked enough like Roelstra to gain the support of various Princes, including the young Miyon of Cunaxa. Rohan knew a deeper plot was afoot and was not entirely sure Masul was indeed lying, so he let the man swagger his way into the Rialla. Eventually Masul challenged Pol for his thrown and Maarken, Rohan's nephew and now a fully trained knight and Sunrunner, accepted in Pol's stead as the boy was still too young to fight and not fully trained. During the duel Maarken was attacked by sorcery (from a third party and against the rules of the challenge) and he floundered. As Masul moved to take his life, Roahn interfered and killed the impostor with a dagger.

On the way home from the Rialla, Rohan and his family ran into a number of dragons. Sioned wove the light and spoke to a young female named Elisel. It was the first time Rohan was truly envious of his wife's faradhi gifts. In a valley near the dragon's resting grounds, Rohan declared that he would build Dragon's Rest, which would one day belong to Pol.

In the year 728 Pol was once again challenged, this time by his half brother, Ruval, though neither young man knew of the relation. It was time for Rohan to face his fear and tell Pol of his heritage. As the attacks on the Desert grew worse, the threat of the sorcerers loomed, and the cunning of Prince Miyon goaded, Rohan told Pol the truth about his parentage. At first Pol was angered, feeling betrayed, but he soon realized that he had an entire new world open to him for he was diarmadhi as well as faradhi. Armed with this new knowledge, Pol used his Sunrunner training and the Star Scrolls to defeat Ruval. Setting the desert ablaze, he cleansed away the last remnants of the plague. Dragons returned to Rivenrock (the place where Rohan and Sioned had saved Maarken and Jahni and discovered the dragon's gold).

[edit] Dragon Star Trilogy

Long years of peace reigned. Rohan's dream of a united Continent had been fulfilled with only minor squabbles here and there. He had standardized many of the laws of the land, which had become known as the High Prince's Writ, established firm borders for all the princedoms, and had founded the School of Physicians in Gilad and a Scriptorium. Trade instead of war was now the primary interaction between princedoms.

Then the Vellant'im attacked. They wanted to destroy the Desert and the diarmadhi, who used to rule them. As the peace of long years cracked Rohan fought to defend his beloved Desert. As the attacks grew Rohan and his forces were pushed back to Stronghold. There, in the garden where he and Sioned had met in secret - and still did from time to time - Rohan, the Azhrei, had a heart attack. Sioned set all of Stronghold ablaze in her grief. The entire keep was Rohan's pyre.

Throughout the war Sioned would speak to him, whisper to him. When the war ended, Pol victorious, Sioned walked out into the Desert her husband was so much a part of. She heard Rohan call to her. She wove through the starlight, embracing him. She joined her beloved at last.

[edit] Lasting Influence

Rohan truly left his mark on the world. His rule both as Prince of the Desert and High Prince changed the Continent forever, and unlike with the Princes of old Rohan's promises would not die with him. Here is a list of Rohan's accomplishments as Prince and how they have shaped the future:

As Prince of the Desert

  • Standard Agreements: Instead of the vassals bartering with him for trade items, Rohan standardized what each Keep owed him as their Prince on a yearly basis. In exchange for his protection and his trade with other princedoms, the vassals would supply him and Stronghold with a specified amount of tradegoods, foodstuffs, etc. Under the old system the vassals often ended up not being able to pay for their requested goods or Stronghold would be overloaded with a certain good one year and be without it the next. Also the agreements became triennial instead of yearly.
  • Rialla: Before only Princes and powerful athr'im could attend the Rialla, but Rohan brought three lesser Lords, chosen amongst themselves, to represent the Lords of the Desert at his side. This created a bond between Lords and also made each Lord look out for his peers' wellbeing.
  • Keep Ownership: Lords held Keeps and worked lands for their Princes. When Zehava granted Radzyn Keep to Chaynal in his marriage to Tobin, it was an enormous - and hitherto unheard of - honor. Rohan inspected each of his holdings and granted the Keeps to their Lords if everything was in good working order and the Lord loyal. This act made the vassels wealthier and also induced them to fight harder when the Desert was later attacked. The deeds granting the Keep to various Lords stipulated what was expected from each Lord in return for the ownership of the Keep. If a vassal broke faith (aka betrayed) his Prince, then the Keep could be confiscated.
  • Dragon Census: Instead of hunting dragon's Rohan set up a census to count and study the dragon patterns of the Continent. This was especially useful after the plague, which had nearly wiped out the dragon population.
  • Future School: Rohan set up trades with Meadowlord for cowhides in exchange for horses and Kierst for parchment in exchange for glass ingots. While at the 698 Rialla Rohan said he merely wanted his books copied for Maarken and Jahni, his real goal was to build eventually have enough books to build a school.
  • Boundaries: Rohan suggested this for his own princedom in hopes that someday the others would follow suit, but Volog of Kierst and Saumer of Isel jumped upon the idea. The other Princes all got involved and it seemed as if a war was eminent, but Lleyn of Dorval suggested postponing the boundary debates until each Prince researched their claims and brought proof. In 701 the Princes were ready to draw their lines, but the plague struck, postponing the debates further. Finally in 705 the boundaries were established for all princedoms and holdings. This prevented wars over land and crop/mining/herding grounds rights.

As High Prince

  • Dragons: Rohan's first act as High Prince was to outlaw dragonslaying. To slay a dragon was tantamount to declaring war on the High Prince. This act protected Rohan's beloved dragons and also ensure the continuation of the dragon gold, which the Desert harvested for the betterment of the Continent.
  • Confirmed Rank: All athr'im and Princes had their ranks confirmed, so that there would be no future contestation. Succession rights would follow the heirs of these confirmed lines.
  • High Prince's Writ: This became the all encompassing law of the land. Never before had their been a standardized law governing the entire Continent. This was probably Rohan's crowning achievement.
  • Medr'im: A group of five soldiers, consisting of young Lords and second sons, who ride the Desert and Princemarch upholding the High Prince's Writ.
  • Scriptorium: A library/university established on Kierst.
  • School of Physicians: A medical school established in Gilad.

[edit] Family Links

Preceded by
Zehava		 Prince of the Desert
698 - 737		 Succeeded by
Pol
Preceded by
Roelstra		 High Prince
705 - 737		 Succeeded by
Pol