Naian Moonoak

Imperial and Royal House of Waffel-Paine

Emperor of the Natopians: Nathan I, Nathaniel, Naian, Asara, Zakyyr, Nathan II, Nathan III, Vadoma Kaiser of Shireroth: Ayreon II, Noor, Ayreon IV, Salome Prince of Elwynn: Nathan, Erion, Ayreon II, Nathaniel, Aldin King of Drak-Modan: Nathan II Founder: Nathan Waffel-Paine Current Avatar: Nathan II

Naian Moonoak
Full name	Naian Moonoak the Evergreen of Waffel-Paine
AKA	Naian Loneoak the Bastard
Physical information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Hair color and style	Black hair
Eye color	Black
Skin color	White
Biographical information
Father(s)	Nathan Waffel-Paine
Mother(s)	Guinevere Moonoak
Date of birth	1588
Place of birth	Great Hazel Woods, Flaventia
Date of death	1644
Place of death	Moonoak Thicket, Tarsica
Residence(s)	Lindstrom
Nationality	Natopian
Allegiance(s)	Natopia
Occupation	Emperor of the Natopians

Naian Moonoak the Evergreen of Waffel-Paine (1588–1644), was born Naian Loneoak and went by the name Naian the Bastard while being raised in an orphanage in Oakham, Natopia. He is the son of Guinevere Moonoak and Nathan Waffel-Paine, their union a result of tree-magic allowing Guinevere to seduce and bear a child with Nathan. Guinevere died in childbirth, cursing her son and refusing to give him the maternal family name. Nathan had no knowledge of Naian's existence until Naian was rediscovered by Hazel Druids. After the destruction of the Great Hazel Woods, Guinevere's soul was used to replant the Woods on Tarsica, where she was able be at peace. She claimed Naian as her son, allowing him to be called Naian Moonoak the Evergreen, a title he used as Emperor of the Natopians.

He succeeded to the throne following his half-brother Nathaniel Ayreon-Kalirion. Naian has one daughter, Asara Waffel-Paine.

Origin Story

Naian Loneoak was a resident of Oakham. His mother was Guinevere Moonoak, a priestess of the Tree Spirits in the Sacred Glade deep in the Great Hazel Woods. Many decades ago Guinevere knew the late Nathan Waffel-Paine who visited the Woods often, before and after his transbutteration. The Tree Spirits, whose leaves could see far into the future and their roots could see far into the past, told Guinevere she had to take on the burden of preserving Nathan's lineage for posterity. Although only recent genealogical evidence suggests that Nathan's long-life may be due to an elvish grand-parent, the Trees knew his grandmother, Mona the Traveler of Elivia, as she was the woman who imbued the Great Hazel Woods with its magick, stolen from the ancient elves. This magick mixed with the soil and grew and evolved into the natural druidism of the Hazel people.

On one of Nathan's early sojourns into the Woods, while he was still but a mortal man, and before he knew the sweet embrace of Elijah the Beloved, Guinevere met him in the eternal twilight of the Sacred Glade. There she seduced and entranced Nathan, and with assistance from the Tree Spirits and hazkisi fertility idols, she became pregnant with Nathan's child on the date foreseen by the Trees, Natopuary 23, 1587.

Guinevere suffered during a terrible pregnancy. The Tree Spirits, unable to feel pain themselves, could not foresee the troubles of this union. The ancient arcane magick of the elves--even diluted through generations of the common blood of the Mehl--within Nathan conflicted with the natural druidic hazkisi within Guinevere. Normal Hazel pregnancy lasts 10 months, but Guinevere struggled with her growing offspring for a full year. The healers of the Sacred Glade were powerless and at wit's end by the 11th month and sent her to Oakham for modern medical treatment.

It was there that Guinevere, weakened and dying, far from the source of hazkisi power, was induced to give birth to a son. The birth of this pale-eyed child came at a terrible price. Guinevere died after giving her son the Hazel form of his father's name: Naian. The Hazel, being a druidic and natural people, valued their mothers as the ultimate givers of life. Names and possessions were passed down the mother's side. Therefore, to have the same given name as one's father was considered a curse upon the child, often given to bastards or sickly children. Perhaps in the minutes before she died, the Tree Spirits soothed her rage, and she said with awful ambivalence, "Name him Naian Loneoak, he'll have the name that man, but he'll have part of me too, but he'll always be alone." (Nat., 23 1588)

Guinevere's body was returned to be interred in the soft dirt of the Glade but no one ever sent for Naian. Little Naian spent the first 8 years of his life in the Oakham Foundlings Home. In 1596 he was adopted by a loving family and grew up in a normal house. His quiet demeanor and penchant for sleeping outside instead of in his room was a quirk his parents allowed, they knew he was part Hazel. 1596 was also the year of the Siege of Oakham during the Tapferite Rebellion. The end of the siege saw the extension of the Great Hazel Woods down to Oakham. In the years since 1596 the modern city of Oakham had been steadily entwined and overgrown by the Woods and Naian Loneoak found himself increasingly drawn to the Woods. He would never tell anyone, but he could hear the Trees talk, nothing distinct, but most definitely words of some ancient language he felt he knew.

In 1607, twenty years after his conception, the living god and chancellor of Natopia died. Naian did not know Nathan was his father. Out of civic duty, he and his parents attended one the many state funerals and watched the tributes and parades of a strange man, made of butter, who melted away in his home on the other side of the Island. He did not weep, for he did not know the man. He did not pray, for he was not a strong Bovic. He simply went into the Woods. Now, he understood the Trees. Now they spoke to him, still in the ancient language, but now he heard it clearly. "Naian Loneoak, bastard son of Guinevere Moonoak, you are the Scion of the Three Peoples. The Vessel of Duel Natures. You are the Progeny of the Once-Living God. You are Product of our Visions and the Result of the Blessed and Transcendent Union between Guinevere Moonoak and Nathan Waffel-Paine. You are Our Hope." He was overwhelmed and collapsed just as several Jaiesican monks emerged from the brush.

He awoke in the Sacred Glade. Jaies Timberpine, the Arch Druid of the Hazel, was standing over him, mouth closed in an amused smirk. Hello, Brother Naian! The first treespeak is always daunting, the Trees have infinite memory, but they can't seem to remember that our brains are finite and can't take in all their information in at once, they tend to 'dump' everything in your brain at once. It takes some getting used to. We brought you here, to your mother's homeland, to help explain things to you.

"How... I can hear you?" Naian managed to get out.

"Of course, I apologize. Now than you are in the Sacred Glade, you are interconnected with the Woods and her children... us!" Jaies twirled a crystal pendant full of dirt on his necklace, "When you leave the Glade, you can take the Woods with you, and you'll never be alone." Now, you see, this is much more efficient, I can convey all of my emotions and memories that go with my words. You know exactly what I say and why I say it.

I don't know if I like that idea, Naian couldn't help but think.

"You will! Soon enough. It is our way. And now your way too! The Trees had been telling us for twenty years now 'Retrieve the lone oak' every time we consulted them. We must of dug up and transplanted every solitary oak tree in 10 miles. Finally, thanks to the extension of the Woods to Oakham, we finally felt your presence down there when you would sleep in the Woods at night. You led a happy life, and so we waited and watched for the final signs that we should retrieve you. We didn't want to unnecessarily remove you. The death of the Once-Living God somehow allowed you to finally understand the treespeak. That's when we knew to present ourselves. We didn't anticipate you getting overwhelmed, we planned a rather elaborate display of us emerging from the Woods and telling you your true self. Instead we had to pick you up and bring you here while you were passed out," See, here let me remember the whole thing for you.

Naian suddenly remembered the situation from Jaies' perspective, he saw himself standing up, eyes going wide, mouth trying to form words, and then he saw his body collapse and the other Hazel rush toward him. He felt the concern Jaies felt when Naian collapsed. Naian felt comforted knowing this.

Naian, thought Jaies, we have much to teach you. We will teach you the ways of the Hazel, your people. We will teach you the powers of the hazkisi, our magick. Come see me when you are rested.

Ancestry

Preceded by: Nathaniel Ayreon-Kalirion	Emperor of the Natopians 1619–1644	Succeeded by Asara Waffel-Paine
Preceded by: Nathan Waffel-Paine as King of Ziegeland and Nathaniel Ayreon-Kalirion as Raja of Tas Neemia	Faro of Flaventia 1619–1644	Succeeded by Asara Sisu