Character Note: Handurin Stauberg-Randolph

Illustration by Jamie Noble

 Hans was the first character I created for what became the Triempery Revelations and he appears in every book. From The Second Stone on he remains central to the series. He was created by a young teenage girl and as a character he retains much of that girl’s sense of belief in the world. Like his creator, Hans believes that the world is good—that the Creation is good—and worth saving.

As with all the character notes, this one will have spoilers. It won’t spoil the series ending or major revelations, but it will spoil some events taking place up until the fourth book, The God Spear.

The Stauberg-Randolph Legacy

The legacy of Marc Frederick Stauberg-Randolph is one of the linchpins of the series. Marc Frederick himself leaves an enduring mark on those whose lives he touches, even remotely. As a King, he left behind a strong empire in Essera. Hans was born into that empire during Marc Frederick’s reign. Hans is also the product of one of Essera’s great disasters: the Kheld takeover of Gignastha and an event known as the Bloodletting, the murder of three Highborn Princes at a wedding. Marc Frederick’s daughter Emyli was present at that event and many claim she instigated it—a charge from which she was later cleared by the Wall Lords. Eventually Marc Frederick succeeded in retaking Gignastha and reclaiming his daughter from Ral of Leseos, who had seized the city in retaliation for the murders. Ral was slain, as was Emyli’s Kheld husband, Erwan.

Handurin Marc Frederick Stauberg-Randolph was born at Permephedon on 2/1861/1/12, in the spring, several months after his mother’s rescue. Though Emyli claimed Erwan to be her child’s father, rumor persisted that Ral of Leseos had sired the boy and only Khelds ever bestowed the Erwanson surname upon the child. Emyli gave her son her surname and kept Hans from public view or judgement. She raised Hans for the most part at Gustan Manor, Marc Frederick’s estate just across the Dazun River from Erwan’s homeland in Amallar. Also at Gustan was Emyli and Erwan’s firstborn son, Stefan, though he was often at school in nearby Trulo.

Childhood

Hans had a happy childhood with little exposure to the nobles and royals that frequented his grandfather’s court and inhabited other parts of the kingdom. Emyli can be credited with keeping them away. Hans’s days were filled with retainers recruited from Gustan’s staff and villagers and also their children. Hans was an amiable, quick child and learned as a toddler how to speak Khelda—his first language—and Stauba. He was given a pony and learned to ride. Stefan gave Hans his first lessons in swordplay (“Losing hurts, remember that.”) and chess. Tutors provided Hans with an education suitable to the boy’s rank as a prince. But Hans met few noble children and did not interact with many of the nobles of Marc Frederick’s court.

Emyli kept Hans with her when she traveled, seldom letting him out of her sight. She often visited Amallar and Erwan’s kin in Rhodhur. Hans was with his family at Merath for his uncle Jonthan’s wedding. He saw the Rill at Dazunor-Rannuli, though from a distance.

Hans was close with Stefan, his brother, when Stefan was not off at school. Hans was also close with his grandfather Marc Frederick at those times when the King was at Gustan. Marc Frederick found Hans to be a bright, energetic child and enjoyed his company. Hans found his grandfather impressive; most people did.

Hans was in his seventh year when Marc Frederick brought Dorilian Sordaneon to Gustan Manor. Hans encountered Dorilian the day of arrival and both would recall that meeting years later. Hans thought Dorilian impressive too, but scary; Dorilian thought Hans a bit unusual. Emyli took both Hans and Stefan to Amallar the next morning and Hans did not see Dorilian again until the events of The Second Stone.

A tragic death that year also led to Marc Frederick adopting both Stefan and Hans as his heirs.

The fateful events of the Demise occurred just before Hans was nine years old.

The Demise and Departure

The mass deaths of so many empaths at the Demise affected large parts of the Triempery’s population. Psychic rebound caused all Highborn and many Staubaun-blooded persons, especially those of purer lineage, to have nightmares and irrational fears. Most of these events ceased within the first weeks and months. Hans suffered the effects more strongly and for longer. Many pointed to this as proof of his bastardy, and claims multiplied that Hans had been fathered by the pureblood Staubaun Ral. Erwan, a Kheld, did not have Staubaun blood.

As a consequence of the Demise, Stefan became Essera’s King and Hans his legal Heir. This situation assumed the substance of the brothers’ relationship from that point. Hans remained at Gustan with Emyli. Stefan was busy ruling the kingdom. On the eve of Hans’s ninth birthday, enemies attacked Stefan as he traveled to Gustan for the celebration. Hans suffered new nightmares, this time about his brother’s attack. Emyli, in desperation, agreed with Marenthro’s plan to spare Hans further psychic bombardment by sending Hans out of the World entirely, to somewhere safe and free of the dangers that attended Stefan.

[Just what dangers did attend Stefan? Readers of the series will have a fuller understanding of what Emyli and Marenthro feared. At this point in The Kheld King, where the event occurs, readers know less.]

The Dominion and the Archived Past

After blocking—not removing—Hans’s memory of his life in Essera, Marenthro took the boy to one of the First Creation’s archived Pasts. Unlike the Second Creation, the First Creation had been a multiverse of many diverse worlds. The world to which Hans was spirited had post-industrial technology, a stable world order, and wide-spread prosperity. Marenthro situated young Hans in the Dominion, a peaceful nation descended from idealistic visionaries, and which embraced an open society that would welcome him. Using Leur magic that allowed him to gaze upon the archived past, Marenthro found ways to establish Hans inside a story that placed him neatly into this world.

Hans was believed to be the survivor of a tragic accident. No identity could be established for him, and Dominion authorities placed him into their foster system. Because Hans did not speak at first (he didn’t know the language) caregivers knew nothing about him. When he eventually did speak, they realized he was intelligent but possessed no memory. Authorities decided a family would be best for him, and so Hans was placed for adoption.

Hans was adopted by a childless couple, Irmgard Stoll and Geraldine Becker and given the name Hans Gerard Stoll-Becker. He remembers being asked if he wanted a new name upon his adoption, perhaps Gerard to honor his two new moms, but he proclaimed, “No. I am Hans!” In this way he kept that part of his identity... though he did not know why he insisted on it. Hans thrived under Irmgard and Geraldine, both of whom were devoted to their adopted son and did all in their power to give him a full and active life. Hans learned not just the Dominioner primary language, but three others. He continued to ride horses. Irmgard and Geraldine, being proud coastal natives, owned a pocket cruiser and taught Hans how to sail. He helped them with their business, a bookstore, stocking books and running orders first by bicycle and, later, by rig. Their little family traveled extensively to other continents and Hans flew in airships. When the time came, Hans attended an elite Dominioner university. He had just turned eighteen and begun post-graduate studies at an overseas school when an explosion at the bookstore took both Irmgard and Geraldine’s lives, leaving Hans again an orphan.

Hans sold the land (the bookstore was destroyed) and honored his moms by donating the proceeds and their modest estate to their favorite cause. He was increasingly restless and able to detect that, somehow, he didn’t truly fit into the world. Still, it was all he knew. He again took up his studies in the empire of the Qullasuyu. It is there, in the ruins of Tiwanaku, that Hans encounters Marenthro again, has his childhood memories restored, and with The Second Stone the series establishes Hans as a main character.

Physical Appearance

Hans looks less Kheld than either his mother or his brother. If adult Stefan and adult Hans were to stand side by side, Hans would be taller. During the course of the series, Hans is eighteen to nineteen years and still growing; he will probably someday match Dorilian in height. He also has fairer skin and hair than Stefan. His hair has been darkening as he ages and is ash blond at the time of the novels. Hans has symmetrical features, clear skin, and good teeth that show well in an easy, wide smile that’s his signature. Even by Staubaun standards, he’s considered good-looking.

 Hans has lived an active life and has a slender, athletic build. He runs and enjoys exercise. He’s well-coordinated and moves surely when confident. When cautious, he holds his movements in check and is very good at being silent.

Personality

Hans may be the most pleasant person in the entire Triempery Revelations series. He’s genuinely nice. He likes people and gives nearly everyone a chance to earn his good opinion. Hans doesn’t leap to judgment about people; he waits and sees.

Whether the legacy of Marc Frederick or that of Irmgard and Geraldine, Hans is an idealist, convinced that the World is best served by acting on noble principles. He believes in concepts of individual worth, honor, personal freedom, and investing himself in good causes—or people. Unlike Stefan, who also believed in pursuing causes he considered good, Hans is neither fearful nor vindictive. He rejects generational grievances.

Because Hans always wants to believe the best of people, he can sometimes be slow to act on warning signs. Nonetheless, he is especially astute at pulling together the threads of past hurts or injustices, a trait that allows him to give other characters the slack they need so he and they can work together. He has an open mind and self-deprecating sense of humor that fits easily with many people. Though he can get peevish, that doesn't happen often.

What Hans does best is create goodwill and make friends. In this he is very like his grandfather Marc Frederick. The friends he makes are lifelong. He inspires loyalty by letting people know that he is truly interested in what they think. He has their backs, though he also assumes they will have his.

Hans and Stefan

The shadow of Stefan’s reign complicates Hans’s return to the Triempery. Everyone remembers Stefan and everyone has a strong reaction to that memory. Esseran Staubaun aristocracy has no wish to repeat any aspect of Stefan’s time on the throne; they openly resist the prospect of another Kheld king. Khelds, on the other hand, venerate Stefan and consider him a martyr to Staubaun and Highborn machinations. In Sordan, Stefan is so reviled the mere mention of Stefan’s name brings derision and threatens violence.

Though Hans loves the brother of his childhood memories, he quickly concludes that Stefan might not have been the brother he knew. He does the wait and see.

Even so, Stefan’s ghost is ever present, as is Marc Frederick’s. How not? Hans brings both ghosts with him when he decides to seek out Dorilian Sordaneon.

Illustration by Margarita Bourkova

 Hans and Dorilian

Stefan may be Hans’s burden to eventually put to rest, but Dorilian is the challenge Hans must meet. Dorilian had also been Stefan’s challenge to overcome or conquer, and Stefan failed miserably. Hans has one advantage, though, that Stefan never had: Hans knows the truth about what happened at the Demise. Stefan never did and Stefan never found a way to avoid his own destruction.

When Marenthro goes to the archived Past to bring Hans home to the Second Creation, Hans demands to know the truth about who is destroying his family. Stefan had claimed to Hans that Dorilian was that enemy. Hans wants to know for sure. Marenthro provides that proof by allowing Hans to witness the Demise for himself, through Dorilian’s eyes. Hans gains powerful understanding from what he sees: not only is Dorilian not the enemy Hans has been told to fear, Dorilian loved Marc Frederick and tried to save him. Hans also sees that the Demise was caused by the sorcerer Nammuor.

Armed with this knowledge, Hans goes to Dorilian knowing that a possible ally awaits on the other side of Dorilian’s walls of grievance and misunderstanding. It is Hans’s goal to break through those walls. Hans’s innate gifts of empathy and “wait and see” allow him to engage with Dorilian in ways that gradually dismantle Dorilian’s distrust.

Dorilian saw to Hans's education, providing tutors, and it was in Sordan that Hans learned to read and speak Aryata and became familiar with the works of Cibulitus and other sages of the early years of the Triempery.

Hans and the Khelds

Hans becomes what Marc Frederick hoped Stefan would be: a bridge between Staubauns and Khelds. Khelds accept Hans as one of their own, though not easily at first. Initially, Khelds see Hans first and foremost as Stefan’s brother. Only over time does Hans prove himself and win Khelds to his side. Hans begins this process early in The Second Stone when he frees a Kheld slave, Arne Anseldson, by purchasing him. Hans cements his leadership of the Kheld people in The God Spear.

Hans’s leadership of the Staubaun people of Essera, its nobles and factions, comes later—and in no small part with Dorilian’s help. People who originally dismiss Hans as lightweight eventually learn otherwise.

Heir to Essera

Hans doesn’t start out wanting the Esseran throne. It falls to him as a family obligation and, more than that, a political necessity. He agrees to take up the Stauberg-Randolph claim to the crown to ward off the chaos certain to befall Essera if he refuses. Hans returns to the World and a nation ruled by his regent, Erenor Tholeros, a man who probably—and it turns out definitely—wants to kill him so as to seize the throne for himself. Nammuor also has designs and Hans has seen by way of Marenthro’s revelation of the Demise just how terrible an enemy Nammuor might be. Even Dorilian, though he could be a friend and ally, will need help.

In fact, Hans and Dorilian, both of them, will need help. Lots of it.

And Hans still won't want that darn throne.