Benba has been appointed because the Admiral of the Pheacian fleet in SE Atrilia already had too much job and could not administer the two colonies properly.
There are two Pheacian cities on Serendíb:
Qart Khadash
Qart 'Attíq
Each city has approximately 5,000 inhabitants.
The two cities were directly governed by Pheacia through Admiral Yoram, the admiral of the Pheacian fleet in the Sea of the Sirens, but there had already been rumours to have them governed by a native governor.
Benba al-Khardun is in his mid-forties. He is not
a particularly brave man, but once was a soldier of some skill
who fought for his country. In the right place, at the right time,
he was able to show valour in a moment that helped to save his
commanding officer from a coup de grace. Benba plans to rule
with a firm and just hand. However, he is no fool. He knows that
he was chosen not for his skills and leadership abilities, but
because it served his lord's purpose to set in place a supposedly
neutral governor. Therefore, Benba's task is a difficult one,
for this is his one and only chance to prove himself. He must
be a successful ruler, and to do this in Qart 'Attíq and Qart
Khadash, he must carefully balance the laws of the empire with
the needs of the local region. Benba is fond of his daughter,
and works hard to teach her how to find the wisdom he has discovered,
and how to avoid the pitfalls into which he has fallen.
That act earned him the
gratitude of his superior, who made sure Benba moved quickly through
the ranks. Following his term of service, Benba was granted a
plot of land, not large by comparison to other landed lords, but
far more than the general population would ever own. As time went
on, Benba began to notice more and more where he fit within the
political scheme of things in Pheacia, or, more to the point,
where he fit withOUT the political scheme. Realising he wanted
more from life than a simple farm, Benba began to make minor manoeuvres
that would get him noticed. In addition to appearing at all the
appropriate functions, he began to court the daughter of a fellow
nobleman, for it is proper for a true lord always to enter a room
with someone on his arm.
Within months, Benba and Ceraphe were
wed. The combination of his military history and the marriage
made Benba an honourable man. Add to that a little extra money
from Ceraphe's dowry and there was the makings of a potential
ruler. Slowly but surely, the al-Khardun family began to gain
a small bit of notoriety in the realm of the influential. Yet
no real opportunities appeared.
Less than a year after their wedding
date, Ceraphe bore Benba a daughter. But there were complications
during childbirth, and the mother did not survive. Benba grieved
with the family, for only after her passing did he realise how
much Ceraphe had meant to him. In his dispair, he remembered how
often he had left her alone, neglected, while he was off attempting to
gain a foothold in Pheacia's political arena. To honour his wife,
he named their daughter, An'Ceraphe, meaning, "of Ceraphe."
Much of his ambition was gone, and Benba found new joy in the
raising of his daughter. But the doors had not closed forever...
Shortly after An'Ceraphe's fifteenth birthday, a royal page knocked
at the door. The note carried by the messenger sent word that
Benba had been appointed governor of Qart 'Attíq and Qart Khadash,
two Pheacian protectorates. After all these years, his climbing
and scheming had not entirely been forgotten.