Horth is Liege Nersal during the events of the novel Throne Price.

Distinctive Horth Quotations:

"Some people need killing, Erien."

"You didn't need help."

"Then no quarter will be asked, and none given."

Horth Nersal

Liege of Black Hearth throughout most of the saga, Throne Champion and admiral of Sevildom's most effective fleet, Horth Nersal is - first and last - kinf'stan: a member of the Nersallian elite who can claim the right of challenge to his title.

His genetics and culture are Vrellish, with some early Nesak influence.

Horth very seldom engages in exhibition duels but his lethality in the real thing is legend: a reputation earned at the cost of kinf'stan deaths. Horth is a force to be reckoned with in space, as well, but baffled by court intrigue he is often oblivious to the side effects of his decisions and like all kinf'stan, considers his life his own to risk.

Not that he will take risks lightly. It is perfectly in keeping with Okal Rel to watch a mekan'st or friend die if the terms of conflict are honorable and the issue none of your concern.

Horth goes by Vrellish fertility manners which leave it up to a woman whether or not she wishes to try to conceive. He prefers Vrellish women, almost exclusively. Exceptions are those Demish women inclined to be 'tom-boyish'. It is generally bad manners, among the Vrellish, for a male to use the Luverthanian birth control drug, ferni, with a fellow Sevolite. All the moreso if she is an inferior. Horth fathers hundreds of children during his reign as Liege Nersal, mostly with fellow kinf'stan or by way of rewarding deserving vassal houses.

Child gifting outside House Nersal is more of a big deal, and Nersallians can be possessive of children in their "soul line" who are accidentally conceived. Outsiders may, also, have qualms about possible future complications with Nersallian challenge rights.

Horth likes machines and engineering challenges. Aristocratic at core, in an austere Nersallian fashion, the most likely inducement to get his hands dirty is dismantling, fixing or re-inventing vehicles of all descriptions.

HISTORY

Born the third son of his liege-father's controvertial contract with a Nesak princess, Horth was no more likely than any of his hundred eligible relatives - the kinf'stan - to become Liege Nersal. In fact he was considered by some to be a rejac't, for the sake of his verbal handicap.

Horth rises in the fleet as a hand-leader, acquiring the powerful Liege Bryllit as his first mekan'st: the woman determined to stop his father's conversion to his mother's orthodox Nesak beliefs, from driving Black Hearth to the brink of civil war.

Only through Okal Rel, the Gelack promise to their Waiting Dead that world-threatening conflicts will be settled by the sword on challenge floors, can Horth honor both family and kinf'stan. The lives lost, and principles upheld, remain at the foundation of his committment to Okal Rel throughout the reigns of sometimes suspitiously progressive Avas, in wary conflict with the hope that Erien, at least, can achieve acceptable results with fewer casualties.

Page last updated: 14-Nov-2003

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