The Sable Royal Family
To say that the Sable Royal Family is extensive, would probably be something of an understatement. While King Robert and Queen Claire only have four children, it appears that in the years before Sable, and before he married his current wife, Robert had something of a reputation as a ladies' man. From what little can be gleaned of his past, it would seem that he initially married very young, to a woman known only as Elizabeth McCauley, but that she died giving birth to his eldest child, Prince Andrew. After that, it appears that many decades passed before he again settled down and married Queen Claire.
The family has grown further, with the birth of a number of Royal Grandchildren, many of them in Sable itself and therefore well known to the people of the Kingdom. Many of them have important positions within the realm, although it is very rare that they will directly interfere in the workings of the legally elected government.
Relative age within the Family seems infinitely flexible, so that in appearance, the generations are not obviously clear cut: for example King Robert and Prince Andrew are far closer in appearance to brothers than father and son.
Field Marshal, Crown Prince Andrew, KG
Andrew is the eldest (and some say favourite) son of King Robert, from
His Majesty's first marriage, long before the establishment of Sable, and in the early days of the Kingdom, he was Robert's heir. His eldest son, Dominic,
is of an age with King Robert and Queen Claire's twins, Alison and
Cathal. Andrew is known to be Talented, and indeed occasionally teaches combat and siege
magic at SMC. However, his original career was as a lawyer, and he served as Sable's Attorney General for a number of years.
Some years after the establishment of Kingdom, Andrew brought his wife, the beautiful Queen Regan, to Sable. Within a year of her arrival, she was delivered of a son, Chartris. Over the years that followed, Andrew and Regan had another nine children: female triplets, another son, male triplets and finally twins (a boy and a girl). During this time, Regan was a welcome guest within Sable Palace, and was seen around the City and out in the Commonwealth, but her origins remained shrouded in mystery. The mystery only got deeper when, a very few years after the birth of their youngest children, both Andrew and his wife disappeared, leaving the children behind.
It is said that some time later, Andrew returned alone, but the events surrounding this are not in the public domain. All that is certain is that, at some point, he nominated Dominic as his heir, abdicated his own position as Crown Prince, and left Sable. It has been noted that his departure coincided with Chartris being declared an outlaw in the realm of Sable, and it has been suggested that this was related to his parents' disappearance. Certainly Andrew was not then seen again for almost fifty years and was considered dead by many.
When he first returned, it was for a brief few weeks, and all that was revealed of his location during those missing years was that he was in deep Shadow, fighting the Reich. It would appear that, among other things during his absence, he abandoned his law books and took up arms on Sable's behalf. After that he was once again absent for some years.
However, nowadays, Andrew's is once again a regular face around Sable in the last few years, and he has become one of the key generals working with Sable's forces, especially in higher-tech theatres of operation, including major confrontations with the Machine. He has become a ruthless and efficient general with a reputation for striking fear into the Reich forces, especially the SS, which he hates with a passion and fights with their own tactics.
For many years, he did not reclaim the title of Crown Prince from Dominic, although he and Queen Claire have occasionally stood as Regents for the King, either individually or together. However, in August SY154, a Bill restoring him to the Sable succession was signed into law. Andrew finally remarried a few years ago, and he and his new wife, Niamh, have three children - Lucy, Abigail and Jonathan - although they spend their time in the Technocracy, and are rarely seen in Sable.
Lord Protector, Prince William, KG
William is also acknowledged the King's son, although his mother is not known to the people of Sable. Having originally been an occasional visitor, he is now based primarily in Sable and its lands, although his many responsibilities do take him away from time to time. He is a brilliant tactician, and the best front-line military commander currently active in the Sable forces, as well as being recognised as Talented. He doesn't have the artistic streak of many of his family, either musically or in other areas, but he is a keen reader and student of military history, as well as a decent sportsman when he has the time.
William is one of the taller members of the de Lacy clan, standing about 6'2". He is quite heavily built, with much darker colouring than the majority of his family. He became Commander in Chief of the Sable Forces on the retirement of Field Marshal O'Connor, and was invested as KG shortly afterwards. He has since been awarded the honorary title of Lord Protector by his father. He is known as an honourable man on both sides of the war.
Princess Sarah
Unlike the rest of the Royals, who appear to age slowly, if at all, over the last few years Princess Sarah aged dramatically, which was a cause of great sadness to the family. She passed away after a long illness in December SY153 and is survived by her husband and their son, James, Regent of Murray.
Prince John
John de Lyon is another of Robert's sons, with unspecified parentage on his mother's side, although it is believed that he is older than his brother William. He stands about 6'1" tall, is of medium build, and is good looking, in a sun bronzed, Californian sort of way. He speaks with something of an accent. He also has close ties to Auguste de Lyon, Head of the Palace Guard, having been nominated as Auguste's heir at some time before their arrival in Sable - hence his use of the Colonel's surname.
John is a policeman through and through, and is the Sable Commissioner of Police. Nominally, he is based in Sable City, although over the last few years he has spent a fair amount of time travelling the Commonwealth and other allied Shadows, acting as an advisor to their local police forces. That said, he does take personal charge of high-profile cases within Sable itself.
Princess Cathy
His wife Cathy has long dark hair, and a beautiful face with deep, brown eyes, and she shares her husband's Californian tan. She has no official role within Sable, but is known to be a skilled artist and actress, and has performed both in the theatre and on crystal.
Jennifer Talbot
Jennifer is Robert's eldest daughter, although the relationship is very much understated. They are fond of each other, or so it appears, but Jennifer does not live in Sable Palace and has never shown any desire to, preferring to make her own way in life, downplaying her links to the Royals so that she can be taken on her own merits.
She is a lecturer at SMC, where she specialises in structural magics. She also has an architectural practice in the town, and has been responsible for the design of some of the most prominent buildings in Sable, including extensions to the University and the Royal Sable Museum Annex. She has published books and papers on both architecture and structural magic, and is often invited as an after-dinner speaker at functions around Sable City and in the larger cities of the Kingdom.
Prince Thomas (aka Thomas Campbell)
Thomas's origins are very much a mystery: as far as anyone can tell, he was brought to Sable from nowhere by General Lord Graham, who presented him to the King. Robert was rather sceptical, but after some investigation it was acknowledged that Thomas was his son: the boy was always a natural mage and artist, and is very strongly Talented, and this helped convince the King of their relationship. However, despite his relatively young age, it still seems that Thomas was born before the King married Queen Claire.
While he was growing up, Thomas was a fairly low profile member of King Robert's household. As a young child he was very inquisitive, focusing on the academic, rather than the physical pursuits, and often disappearing from the Palace for hours at a time. However, it appears that somewhere along the line, when he was twelve or thirteen, he got taught a lesson which somewhat curbed his inquisitiveness. The details aren't commonly known, but thereafter he seemed to have acquired an exceedingly healthy respect for, and fear of, Rupert Delatz. From then onwards, he was much more likely to keep his nose out of trouble and focus on his magic or other studies. He went up to Sable Mage College at seventeen, and has since completed both his Bachelors and his Masters. He is now beginning to consider undertaking duties as a fully-fledged Royal.
While he was lighter haired as a child, as he has grown older (or possibly by design) his hair has darkened somewhat.
Alison and Cathal
Robert and Claire's twins and eldest children, with Alison being the older by a few minutes. Although they grew up in sable, neither Alison nor Cathal are frequent visitors to Sable nowadays, as they have their responsibilities elsewhere.
Princess Emily
Until the recent birth of Prince Cameron, Emily was the youngest of Robert and Claire's children. However, she is something of an enigma. She is one of the younger members of the family, actually having been born after most of her nephews and nieces. She is very capable of turning on the charm if necessary, and is often involved in the diplomatic side of running the Kingdom - being apprenticed to the Diplomatic Corps in her younger days, and working as an unofficial ambassador in a number of locations and on a variety of state visits. She is also rumoured to have some skill at arms.
Over the last fifteen years or so, she has spent quite a lot of time in Azure, assisting Queen Alison, although she has also travelled on behalf of the King of Sable on a number of goodwill tours. She seemed to disappear off the scene for a while, around SY147, but then, a couple of a years ago, rather to everyone's surprise - especially her parents - she returned in Sable Palace in the company of a young man and young woman, both of around twenty-five years of age. She identified them as her children, Elanor and Edmund, but has not gone into details about the identity of their father, besides insisting that she was married to him, and implying that she still is. She has certainly recently started wearing a wedding band - although possibly so that people stop asking her what the score is.
Prince Alban
Until recently, Alban was the youngest acknowledged child of King Robert. He was brought to Sable Palace by his father as an infant, and was brought up in the palace for the first few months of his life. However, as is often the way with the Royal Family, as most recently evidenced by Princess Emily, towards the end of SY152 the King and Queen spent a while away from the palace with the child, and when they returned he was in his mid-teens.
He started his studies at Sable Mage College in January SY153 - presumably having caught up the first term of coursework before enrolling, and is living in the college, rather than commuting from the King's Isle.
His origins are somewhat shrouded in mystery, not least because while it has been suggested that Queen Claire is not his mother, there has been no suggestion of infidelity on the part of the King. The most common rumour that Alban has his origins in the Reich, and was rescued by the King from the hands of the Reichsführer-SS. He is known to be thick as thieves with his brother Stephen, and they have occasionally got up to escapades of which his father would not approve.
Prince Cameron
The Royal Family were recently pleased to announce the birth of Prince Cameron Joseph, born 20 September SY154.