Malcolm Carlisle

Malcolm Carlisle is the eldest living son of Targan Carlisle, and in his father's absence, the de-facto ruler of the Earldom of Trethclyde. He is also, through his father, second in line for the throne of Erayis.

Personality & Appearance
When one considers Malcolm Carlisle, one is struck by the difference between him and his father, the wild Earl of Trethclyde. Where his father is bold and valiant, Malcolm is meek and weak, and prefers the solitude of reading to the chaos of battle. He is but an adequate swordsman, and has professed a dislike for the art of the blade. Though considered handsome, he is also gaunt and always displays a certain anxiety.

Biography
Malcolm Carlisle was born in Trethclyde Castle in 882.6.14, to his father's first wife, Lady Issa Maelfon, the second child after his older brother Fergus. Before he could walk, however, his mother was murdered while ridding through the forest. Though the Stormborn were officially blamed for her assassination, men whispered that it was the Earl himself who had killed his wife, though the why of it varied from teller to teller. Needless to say, Malcolm and his brother had a strained relationship with their father in their childhood.

Their father remarried before his wife's corpse was cold, with the new bride suffering an equally suspicious death seven years later. Through his various wives, Targan would go on to sire five children, in addition to his two oldest sons, with two younger daughters, and a boy the youngest. Growing up, Malcolm was revealed to be the opposite of his father: where his father was mercurial and prone to fits of both rage and merriness, his son was a shy, anxious youth, who shunned the art of the blade his father so loved in favor of the scholary pursuits. It was his older brother, Rudolf, who had the temperament of their father, yet it seemed like this resemblance only served to earn Rudolf the dislike of Targan.

They heard and saw all the terrible deeds their father would commit, and it was Rudolf who would always try to rein the wild Earl in. This would inevitably only make Targan more angry and more unpredictable. One day, he returned to Trethclyde from a raid in Stormtir with a train of captives in tow. He gave the women to his garrison, and had their throats slit afterwards. He was not so merciful to the men; Declaring them all to be pillagers and savages, he erected wooden stakes in the castle courtyard, and had the captives nailed hand and foot to them, before leaving them to slowly starve to death under the burning sun.

Their dying cries proved to be too much for Rudolf, who confronted his father in the Great Hall, in front of the entire court. He berated the Earl for his cruelty, and demanded the prisoners be put out of their misery. Outraged at his son's defiance, Targan grabbed an iron candlestick and beat him to death, as his younger siblings could only watch. When he was done making a bloody mess of Rudolf's face, he ordered Malcolm to toss his dead brother into the river. Malcolm did as he was bid, dragging the corpse out of the castle.

However, when Malcolm's uncle, King Maendon Carlisle, heard about his brother's kinslaying, he was outraged, and sent a courier to Trethclyde to inform the Earl that he was no longer welcome within the kingdom. Leaving with his retinue of loyal followers, the Black Dog of Trethclyde began his exile, and would go on to serve as a sellsword in foreign lands. Malcolm was thus left in charge of the castle and earldom.