House of Nerrolar
The House of Nerrolar, a southern Benacian offshoot of the Shirerithian Line of Mortis, which occupied an eminent position in both Shireroth and Minarboria for many years. Founded by Kaiser Mors IV, who had taken on the epithet Nerrolar - "Arbiter" - and later adopted it as a sort of surname, the House consists of Mors himself, and "any descendants that may be derived from my undead flesh".
While Mors himself is not confirmed to be permanently dead and may therefore technically produce other descendants in the future, as matters stand his only known eligible descendants have consisted of the royal house of Tiěyá, which at Minarboria's height was one of the Empire's Cibolan territories. At the fall of the Empire, the remaining membership of the House fled to Kalgachia; the current heir is a citizen there. With the apparent death of Mortis heir, and Minarborian Second State Arborist, Shyriath Farstrider during the fall of Minarboria, it appears that the Nerrolars may now also represent the entirety of the Line of Mortis.
The Sword of Death, a Mortis heirloom which was in Mors' possession while Kaiser, was later given to Shyriath, who in turn carried it with him to Minarboria. It was apparently stolen back by Mors prior to the fall of Minarboria, and may possibly remain within Kalgachi territory.
Mors Nerrolar
Born Mors Letifer Funestus of Mortis. After his second abdication as Kaiser of Shireroth, he became known as Mors Nerrolar, by which name he went thereafter. In Tiěyá, where for a time he ruled as a warlord, he was known unofficially as Pàn Sǐrén 判死人.
Pàn Shuānghuā
Born Geliflora Segovia Nerrolar. Spending a substantial portion of her childhood in Tiěyá, she chose the Tiěyánese personal name Pàn Shuānghuā 判霜花 in adulthood; however, she was better known as the Sàohuáng Queen, the use of personal names being taboo for royalty.
Pàn Tiǎomín
Pàn Tiǎomín 判窕珉, titled the Royal Princess Guāngmíng, was born in 62 AL at the Royal Palace in Héchéng, capital of Tiěyá. The first child of the Sàohuáng Queen, under Tiěyá's Basic Law she was her mother's heir. The Queen, believing firmly in the virtue of learning by immersion, gently banished her from the palace in her teens to spend several years living among the common people and holding down an everyday job; having survived this, she returned to begin her tutelage in statecraft and to be rendered into lichdom. She was later appointed by her mother to oversee the Tiěyánese colonies in Nordmark, a possession under the jurisdiction of Empress Lyssansa. In 112 AL, she married Zhāng Xiǎogǎn 張小桿, a bureaucrat in her service.
By 128 AL, the degeneration of Minarboria and the loss of many lichly civil servants caused the collapse of the Nordmark administration, and the pair fled back to Héchéng, which they administered in the name of the Queen (who, at the time, was in Minarboria proper, searching for her lost father). There, fearing for the future, they submitted genetic material to the Royal Creche; their son, Kǎixù, was decanted the following year. As conditions continued to worsen even within Tiěyá itself, the royal couple began to realize that Cibola was lost, and, in desperation, sent their son in 138 AL to Minarboria, where they hoped the Queen or the Empress would be able to protect him.
The Royal Princess Guāngmíng and her husband remained in Héchéng until at least 140 AL, where they were last known to be in the Royal Palace. It is believed that, when they felt their end nearing, they laid themselves to rest in the crypt there; certainly they were either unable or unwilling to object when human authorities took authority in the name of a resurgent Treisenberg, or when the same authorities disestablished Tiěyá.
Pàn Kǎixù
Pàn Kǎixù 判凱續, titled the Royal Prince Ānxiáng, was born in 129 AL at the Royal Palace in Héchéng, capital of Tiěyá. The only son of the Royal Princess Guāngmíng, and the only grandson of the Sàohuáng Queen.
In Kalgachia, he went by his personal name, with the orders of the names switched for cultural familiarity; mispronunciation led to him being persistently referred to as "Cadgy" Pan.
Chlorocyphida Pan
Chlorocyphida Pan was legally named so at the insistence of her mother, though she was nonetheless privately christened Pàn Qīnglíng 判蜻蛉 by her father, in Tiěyánese fashion. She was born in 168 AL in Khalsk, a small farming town in southwestern Schlepogora Lieutenancy, on the road between Tealsburrow and Oktokamensk. Unlike her father, Chlorocyphida rarely laughed or smiled; she was not, at least at first, a grouchy or discontented child, but sober to the point of being grave. Some of her fondest memories of her early life involve those many times that her father attempted to get her to crack a smile, especially when he succeeded. Her relationship with her mother was considerably cooler, and worsened over time; aside from the impression left by the way her parents interacted, Calumma rarely saw fit to take an interest in her daughter except to issue commands or react if they were not obeyed.
Chlorocyphida was both studious and obedient; she did well in school and was praised for attentiveness at Church services. Nevertheless, she did not bond well with those her own age, who were put off by her serious demeanor and her lack of interest in play. She became taciturn around those she did not know and like, and preferred to socialize with adult authority figures, who she felt understood her better; among the factors souring her relationship with her mother was the tendency of the latter to insist that she "stop pretending to be an adult" and leave her betters alone. Nonetheless, the habit served her well during her Urchagin, where, arms folded across her chest, she eloquently insulted the ancestry, descendants, appearance, personal hygiene, and culinary taste of the most offensive guards during Yoke Week, occasionally for half an hour at a time.
Her admission to the Lithead Gymnasium in 180 AL was a source of intense pride for both parents - though she felt that in her mother's case it was more a matter of pride in herself rather than for her daughter - but for her it was an escape from a home life that felt increasingly intolerable. She took refuge in her studies, developing an increasingly keen interest in biology, and, by extension, the lost biomantic and necromantic techniques of Minarboria, though her curiosity about the latter remained woefully underfulfilled. What free time she kept clear was spent engaged in long, meandering walks and in shooting practice - originally to improve her odds of hitting specimens with tranquilizer darts, but eventually also out of satisfaction at hitting difficult targets.
Her visits home became increasingly painful, as it was clear that her father was suffering from both the absence of his daughter and the presence of his wife. Even Chlorocyphida was taken by surprise, however, when he passed away from a heart attack in 190 AL, all the more so because her mother had neglected to inform her until her subsequent visit. Calumma's stated reason for the omission - that she had not wanted to disturb her or impact her studies - proved hugely unsatisfactory, and after an exchange of words and the loss of several teeth by Calumma, Chlorocyphida departed home and returned to her studies, never to return or to speak to her mother again.
