Cecil Lentworth

Cecil Lentworth
Full name	Cecil Mastadirion Lentworth
Physical information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Biographical information
Father	Mastadir Laegel
Mother	Fjedra Catarina Mathilde Megadaezj
Spouse	Áidna Gárasavvon (b. 1668; m. 1690)
Children	Jonathan (b. 1691) Kila (b. 1694) Svend (b. 1696) Amanda (b. 1699)
Date of birth	1666
Place of birth	Shirekeep, Shireroth
Residence(s)	Tarrland
Nationality	Order of the Holy Lakes
Allegiance(s)	Order of the Holy Lakes and the Three Kingdoms
Occupation	Lord of Tarrland

Cecil Mastadirion Lentworth, born Cecil Mastadirion Megadaezj, is a Shirerithian-born accountant, writer, historian and political campaigner who has served as Lord of Tarrland since 1759. A longstanding advocate for the Tarr people, Lentworth became particularly associated with the preservation of Tarr culture, commemoration of the Tarr genocide, and the eventual repatriation of the first Tarr exiles to Tarria. He was chosen as Lord of Tarrland following the territory's transfer to the Three Kingdoms and its reconstitution as an overseas lordship in 1759.

Early life

Cecil was born in Shirekeep, Shireroth, in 1666, the son of Mastadir Laegel and Fjedra Catarina Mathilde Megadaezj. His father was a male member of the ancient House of Laegel. As membership of the house descended through the female line, Mastadir could not transmit either membership of the house or the Laegel name to his children. Cecil was consequently born under his mother's surname Megadaezj.

Tarrland and marriage

In 1687, at the age of twenty-one, Cecil accompanied his grandmother, Avranel, the 13th Lady Laegel, to the Laegel possession established under Chrysean sovereignty on the eastern coast of the South Island of Fëanoria. The territory, later known as Kaamiozyr, Tarria, and Tarrland, had been established for members of the Tarr people exiled from Graecia and was administered by Lady Laegel as a personal plantation of the House of Laegel.

Cecil worked in the colony as an accountant and demonstrated considerable ability in the profession. His work brought him into direct contact with both the finances of the Laegel estate and the conditions under which the Tarr population lived.

In 1688, Cecil travelled to Normark to pursue a formal certificate in accounting. While there he met Áidna Gárasavvon, a woman of Reindeer Herder ethnicity. The two fell in love and married in Elijah's Rest, in 1690.

That year also saw the end of Laegel rule in Tarrland. Elwynnese authorities seized the colony, emancipated the Tarr population and renamed the territory Kaamiozyr. Cecil did not return to the former Laegel establishment as a resident, but visited Kaamiozyr several times to keep connections to members of the Tarr people.

Following his marriage, Cecil and Áidna moved to Hurmu in 1690, taking advantage from their membership in the Order of the Holy Lakes. Their first child, Jonathan, was born there in 1691. In Hurmu, Cecil initially continued to work professionally as an accountant.

Tarr genocide and adoption of the Lentworth name

The Tarr genocide of 1693–1694 became the defining political event of Cecil's life. Over a period of seven months, culminating in the second month of 1694 during the Second Elwynnese Civil War, close to 200,000 Tarr were killed by Humanist auxiliaries serving the Raspur Pact, with support from elements of the Black Legions and Union Defence Force. Survivors were subjected to further abuses, including enslavement and, in some cases, eventual transfer to Project Iakobson as test subjects.

Cecil was horrified by the genocide. For him, it led to a lifelong political and scholarly commitment to Tarr survival, historical memory and justice. During the course of the genocide, in 1693, Cecil's father Mastadir formally repudiated his membership of the House of Laegel. He abandoned the Laegel name and adopted the surname Lentworth, which had belonged to his own father, Jonathan Lentworth. Cecil, along with his siblings, followed their father's change of name.

Writer and campaigner

During the decades following the genocide, Lentworth became one of the most persistent advocates for the Tarr cause. From Hurmu, he wrote books, essays and articles dealing with Tarr history and culture, the destruction of Tarrland, the circumstances of the surviving diaspora, and questions of justice and restitution.

His accounting background influenced his scholarly work. In addition to cultural and historical subjects, he took an interest in population records, property, displacement and the practical circumstances of Tarr refugees and their descendants. He also maintained contacts among Tarr exiles throughout Micras, helping to preserve links between communities that had been dispersed by the destruction of Tarrland.

A significant change occurred in 1717, when the former Kaamiozyr territory passed into the hands of Çakaristan and became the Çakari subah of Tarria. The new political circumstances permitted limited settlement by Tarr exiles and their descendants.

Lord of Tarrland

Heraldic achievement of the Lord of Tarrland

In 1759, Tarria was ceded to the Three Kingdoms. Rather than incorporating the territory into one of its three constituent kingdoms, the Three Kingdoms reorganised it as the Lordship of Tarrland, an overseas territory directly subordinate to the Three Kings.

The restored Tarr community selected Cecil Lentworth as its first Lord of Tarrland.

Cecil was ninety-three years old at the time of his accession and was no longer capable of personally conducting the ordinary administration of a distant territory. His position therefore assumed primarily constitutional, representative and symbolic functions. His son Svend was appointed Steward, taking responsibility for the day-to-day government of the lordship.

Cecil's selection was to be understood in the context of his long association with the Tarr cause. He had first arrived in the territory in 1687 as a young accountant belonging to the extended family that administered it as a colonial plantation. He subsequently rejected that system, maintained ties with the Tarr after the fall of Laegel rule, advocated Tarr self-government, campaigned for survivors following the genocide, documented Tarr culture and history, and assisted the repatriation movement after 1717.

His elevation in 1759 represented a reversal of the political relationship between the Lentworth-Laegel family and Tarrland: Cecil did not acquire the territory through inheritance from the House of Laegel, but received office through the confidence of the restored Tarr community.