Heirs and Pretenders

A dread possibility cut from Gazetteer IV. Text from the Author's Notes:

The Heirs: In 716 BC Ivan Dilisnya took a wife, Lucretia Marzeya. She bore him twins the next year and a third child in 720 BC, a year before he finally poisoned her. However, each time Lucretia grew heavy with child, Ivan would mutter darkly like a cuckolded husband. Fearing that Ivan would turn on his own children, Lucretia had her nursemaids secret each newborn away. She never saw her children again, and Ivan was told they had all been stillborn. The infants’ ultimate fates are unknown. They may have been raised as commoners by the nursemaids themselves, perhaps under Ivan’s own roof. A rival house may have adopted them, hoping to one day use them to usurp Ivan’s power. They might even have been whisked far from Dorvinia, their heritage forgotten.

The heirs’ birth records in Degravo include descriptions of identifying marks. If any of the heirs are still alive and can prove their heritage, they would have a claim to Ivan’s properties in the event of his death. Such heirs would be unwise to reveal themselves before such a time, however; Ivan’s own kin whisper that he would murder sons and seduce daughters.