Sayid ibn Maimun
Sayid ibn Maimun is, perhaps, one of the most important and controversial of the members of Alexandria's First Stand, second only to Steros Meroand himself, as the two were most influential early mentors of Alexandria. Sayid's testimonial, which predates all but those of Dadtim and Kivan, is the foundation of the Petran Heresy, which asserts that Alexandria is not the Omnity herself, but rather a warrior/prophet sent by a monotheistic deity to put down the Dark Lord. According to the Alexandrian Canon, Sayid betrayed Alexandria in her moment of greatest need, necessitating the Martyrdom. Considering his closeness to and obvious fondness for Alexandria, the cause of his treachery is still the source of extreme debate. The Canon of Orthodoxy and the church proper give no hint, but in drama, literature, and folk tales, two motivations are usually suggested. First, it is often hinted that Sayid grew bitter and resentful of the comparatively massive influence that Steros' wielded with Alexandria during those last years when the First Stand was reunited. Others place the blame on Sayid directly, but rather suggest his famed arsenal of cursed arms and armor turned against him at the critical hour.
Origins and Pre-Tragidore Life
Sayid was born the youngest son in a large family of successful merchant-marines in coastal Petra. As the baby in a wealthy family, he was afforded tremendous luxury and freedom from the responsibilities of his older siblings. Growing up, Sayid was predictably rambunctious, energetic, and entitled, but also contained the seeds of competence and ambition. Without managerial obligations to tie him down, he threw himself into the most most appealing and exciting part of his mercantile heritage: adventuring, traveling, and treasure hunting.
As a young man, Sayid arrived on the mainland aboard one of his father's merchant vessels in search of adventure and gold. The ship, returning to Petra from the Sidhe-Praxen isles, carried with it the war-mage princess of the Elven Kingdoms, Marrwyn Teldandilion, who was on the run from the boredom and responsibility of her heritage. In the port city, the pair were tied to Steros and Dadtim the Elder when a holy man prophesied that the four would assist Gods with an ancient battle. It was this prophecy that brought the four to Tragidor, and introduced them to Alexandria and Arek.
Mentoring Alexandria
After the destruction of Tragidor, Sayid was responsible for mentoring Alexandria, and adopted several of the Children of Tragedy, including Mikos Lygit. While Steros raised the majority of the Tragidorian orphans in the disciplined and severe barracks of the Church of Tarlos, Sayid gave Mikos an upbringing more akin to his own. He taught the two of them how to look good, gain advantage, fight, and most importantly, to win, but turned a blind eye to any trouble they caused. Predictably, this caused significant conflict with Steros and his crew of monastic law-enforcers, led by the orphan Mythrian Arabelle.
Under his tutelage, Alexandria learned a level of polish and trickery that would become essential as she rose to power and importance. Sayid, himself a deeply cunning and adept socialite, taught Alexandria to predict and exploit opportunity, to be attentive to and competent with trickery and deceit, and to carry herself with poise while doing it. Many of the adept social manipulation Alexandria used to gain alliances in the Prophet's War, and to steer her people to action against the Dark Lord awakened, can be attributed to Sayid's mentorship. It was during this period he discovered the Black Scythe, the cursed Scimitar that would become his trademark weapon.
The Petran Civil War
After the First Stand rescued Marrwyn Teldandilion from her captivity and forced marriage in 34 BI, Sayid received word of family problems, and so the Stand divided. Sayid, Mikos, Marrwyn, and Sharksy Seven-Fingers traveled to Petra, while Alexandria, Steros, Dadtim the Younger, Mythrian, and the remainder of the Stand traveled to Hakan City to meet with Antioch and study the Prophecies. Once returned to Petra, Sayid discovered his father and most of his family murdered or dispersed and his family fortunes in ruin. While petitioning Emperor Haddad VIII for aid and redress, he was approached by Haddad's daughter, Hadiya, and involved himself in a plot to raid the abandoned tomb of the last Pre-Petran Pharaoh, which Hadiya had uncovered with illegal divination. Hoping to restore something of his lost fortunes, Sayid and his friends, along with Hadiya, descended into the tomb and defeated its horrors. It was in this tomb that Sayid received the cursed Bracers of the Moon King. Unknown to the group, the Bedouin tribes of Petra - the descendants of the Pre-Petran Moon Children, never completely abandoned their old ways. When ambushed by one such tribe on the trek back to civilization, their recognition of the Bracers of the Moon King convinced them Sayid was the return of the Pharaohcy of old. Sayid himself encouraged such thoughts, and before long was in command of a significant contingent of Bedouin horse and spear. With this force, as well as discrete assassinations via the Bracers of the Moon King's powers of teleportation, Sayid soon forged an iron peace among the feuding tribes and was declared Ishkahn, the Reborn King. According to his own Testimonial, Sayid's time with the tribes was his darkest hour. He was deeply uncomfortable with the zealous religiosity of the nomadic tribes, and he missed being in the city. Worse, the fate of his family had come to light : his eldest brother was colluding with servator elves, a large force of which was conducting raids from within the Empire. The Emperor, fearing Sayid's unification of the tribes indicated involvement and growing fear that Sayid had actively kidnapped his daughter, exiled the entire surviving family and confiscated its remaining wealth. Sayid sent two of his adopted wards, Thidrall and Klane, to sort things out and offer alliance with the tribesmen. They were executed on sight, and their heads shipped back to Sayid in wooden boxes. Furious with grief, Sayid stirred his forces into a religious fury over the incident, forced a marriage on Hadiya, and made war with both the forces of the Empire and the servitor armies, all the while restarting his secret, personal assassination missions against key military leaders. In his Testimonial, Sayid indicates he consciously spared the Emperor himself from these nightly raids, so that he could "witness the entirety of his ruin." Using the powerful elemental magicks of the tribesmen, he brought storms on the Petran forces, neutralizing their one key advantage: firearms. As the servators and Imperial forces had weakened each other considerably, the campaign was a short one. On the 3rd day of Harvest 31 BI, a small force, led by Sayid himself, stormed the Eternal Halls, killed the sons of Haddad VIII, followed by the Emperor himself, and finally declared himself Emperor Sayid X. He spent the majority of the next decade solidifying his power as Emperor. He took no significant part in the Prophet's War beyond providing Alexandria's forces with material support when possible.
Sayid and Alexandria Reunited
In 21 BI, when Alexandria returned from the West and finished the Prophet's War, Sayid did not immediately return to her side. He had become absorbed with the business of state. As Sayid never fully believed in the threat of the Dark Lord, and with the War ended, it did not seem a compelling need. Although his Petran Empire was the first to recognize Alexia, he did not personally visit. Alexandria, having deeply absorbed the culture and mindset of The Lost people, she felt it critical to regain her oldest trusted advisors. She left the Alexian affairs of state in the hands of Steros and Mythrian and sailed the Lost Fleet to Petra to personally convince him to join her. Oddly, Sayid mentions nothing of what they spoke of that night, but when the sun rose the next morning, he was convinced. He committed his forces to her cause and, the alliance of Alexia, Petra, and Ubrekt began the task of uniting the nations of the mainland under one banner to resist the Dark Lord. Shortly thereafter, Alexandria assumed the Omnity after entering the Ivory Obelisk. This action released the bonds on the Dark Lord's prison, and the resulting invasion of the Shadow Horde quickly united the other kingdoms in her Crusade. During the Crusade, Sayid acted as one of the Omnity's key generals, and Alexandria's forces, repelled the invasion and launched a counterattack into the Kingdom of Shadow itself. What happened in the twisting and illusory confusion of the Kingdom of Shadow differs markedly from account to account, even within the Canon of Orthodoxy itself. Sayid escaped the Martyrdom Blast, and returned with his remnant forces to Petra. As accounts of the battle began to spread, and survivors began to write their own testimonials, the general consensus was that Sayid critically wounding Alexandria as she battled the with the Dark Lord, forcing her into the Martyrdom. Sayid's own account lays the blame on Antioch, the former Sorcerer-King of Hakan Free City. Sayid guided Petra through 28 years of general peace and prosperity. He was succeeded by his adopted son Mikos Lygit, who took the title Ishkhanats-Ishkhan, literally: "The Renewed Promise of the Reborn King."
Personality and Testimonial
Controversy and Conflict
