Manus
From Wessexwiki
Manus Dei is the current King of Hyperion. He is the son of Patricius and Lady Sophia. He is known to be a skilled jouster.
To properly capture the essence of what the duke is supposed to be, some background about his personality and history should help. Above all, the image should capture the idea of a young man in his late 20s who only recently mastered himself and his responsibilities, but in a way that brought a major change over his personality and approach to life. The duke's eyes should show a determined, patient, educated, cunning and insightful leader, but with a deep cast hidden behind of someone who might have been a carefree, wenching, carousing and prank-playing youth in his late adolescence. His demeanor should bear an overcast brought on by a recently won and hard-wrought wisdom created by loss, responsibility for the welfare of others and the necessity of self-mastery.
While always naturally shrewd and talented, his late adolescence found him shirking and scorning his position and its expectations. Behaving as a reckless dandy and a son to a father whose near moral and spiritual perfection he found overwhelming, the sudden loss of the elder duke forced the twenty-something Manus to rapidly come to terms with his responsibility to the people of Wessex, his father's legacy in terms of what Wessex is in comparison to other Mercian fiefs, and the unique spiritual inheritance of his ancestors. The new duke not only applied sudden and severe moderation to his wild ways, educated himself in the affairs of state, and comported himself with temperance and assurance among his retainers, he also allowed himself to be initiated into his father's secret society, and underwent deeply austere mental and spiritual training.
The irony is, he always was his father's son and had all the same traits and potential as Patricius; he just suppressed them out of rebellion and an eccentric need to manifest a unique identity. The duke and his father are not holy knights of Morgaine. They are mystics with a deep and educated understanding of human psychology and drives and their relationship to the history of the world. The initiations into the secret society which the duke endured are not mere ceremonies-- they are ordeals, and the training yields someone who can master desire, focus the mind, and quiet thoughts to improve perception
