Isardsund Urbrald
Isardsund Urbrald (born YC 37) is the leader of the Vherokior tribe in the Minmatar Republic. He is known for being a hands-off leader, allowing the clans under his command to act how they see fit. Similarly, he has stayed remote from greater Republic affairs, having long espoused a decentralized government where the tribes maintain more power and see to their own affairs.
Contents
History
Early Life
According to official biographers, Isardsund's parents met when his freedom-fighting father participated in the raid that freed his mother from slavery on an Amarr plantation. The two spent a night together; the liaison resulted in a pregnancy. Perhaps feeling responsible for the unborn child, his father married his mother quickly, though the two had barely met. Isardsund was born nine months later in March, YC 37.
Due to his father's commitments to his freedom fighter cell, Isardsund rarely saw him. Instead, he was raised mostly by his mother, whom had been left emotionally fragile and subservient from the years of slavery. Her passivity apparently led to tension with her husband, who was apparently frequently verbally abusive when he was present, and absent on various missions most of the time. The family survived primarily through menial work done by his mother, supplemented by money sent by his father, gained through the fencing of wealth looted during raids on Amarr slave colonies.
The family frequently moved from location to location as necessitated by money and his father's freedom fighting. With these difficulties, Isardsund was unable to do well in school. He was frequently withdrawn, rarely social, and apparently made few friends and put little effort into his work. During this time, his mother gave birth to two more children: a daughter and another son.
In YC 48, Isardsund's father was captured during one of his raids and was assumed dead by his fellow freedom fighters. Despite the emotional instability of their marriage, Isardsund's mother was left distraught. Without a proper source of income, she relocated the family to the Gallente Federation.
Life in the Federation
Posing as a freshly freed slave, Isardsund's mother found the family shelter with a Federation charity that assisted escaped slaves with vocational training, low-rent housing and amenities. Isardsund attended school with other Minmatar immigrants, though they were taught by Gallente teachers. With some stability in his life, Isardsund began to improve and show the beginnings of his charismatic abilities that would later propel him to political fame.
He became deeply involved with his school's political clubs, including joining the school's debate team. However, he never actually participated in any of the school's competitions. Isardsund later attributed this to being uncomfortable with being a Minmatar while debating Gallente politics. When the topic did turn to life in the Republic, however, Isardsund was extremely vocal and often impressed his teachers and peers with the breadth of his knowledge and depth of his understanding.
In YC 54, Isardsund's mother remarried, to a member of an important clan in the Vherokior tribe. The family uprooted again, moving back to the Republic. As Isardsund's paternal ancestry was Vherokior, he was officially made part of the clan and the tribe.
Rise in Clan Ranks
Though initially perceived as an outsider by the majority of his clan, Isardsund quickly ingratiated himself to its younger members. Thanks to his Gallente education, he was able to garner a job working for the clan's administration. He started as a simple file clerk, but used his charisma and love of politics to quickly move through the ranks. By YC 58, he was the personal assistant to the Chief of Records, tasked with keeping records on virtually everything in the clan, from the results of Voluval rituals to trade agreements to tax records.
Isardsund was not content to remain a simple assistant, however, and sought for some way to take a more active role in the clan's leadership. An opportunity seemed to present itself when one of the clan elders passed away, leaving a hole in the clan's council. Isardsund attempted to win the position for himself; however, despite some support from younger members of the clan, he was unable to achieve a nomination for the seat. Rather than sulk, Isardsund threw his support behind another candidate. That candidate wound up winning the post, giving Isardsund a powerful ally for the future.
Soon after, he was appointed as an ambassador to the other Vherokior clans. His duties were mostly ceremonial in nature, consisting of meeting with other clan's representatives and reaffirming old agreements. When problems did crop up, he was expected to carry them back to clan leadership instead of acting on his own. However, he used the opportunity to forge bonds with other clans in the Vherokior tribe and spread his influence beyond his own clan.
Tribal Councilman
In YC 72, Isardsund was nominated for a position with the Vherokior tribal council. The position was the first real piece of power that Isardsund was given, though he was still considered subservient to the clan leadership and more senior members of the tribal council. He proved his worth quickly, however, when he helped mediate a dispute between two of the tribe's most influential clans. The dispute was over old territorial rights and the discovery of documents that would have ceded a large part of one clan's lands to the other.
The two clans were on the verge of taking the matter before to the Republic courts when Isardsund proposed a compromise, dividing the lands according to ancient Vherokior customs that had been mostly forgotten. His knowledge of tribal custom and history drew him wide praise from his fellow councilmen. Over the following years, he would continue to display an acumen for solving disputes without getting the other tribes involved in the Vherokior's internal matters.
Tribal Leader
The previous leader of the Vherokior tribe stepped down in YC 88, citing ill health. By this time, Isardsund had become one of the most influential tribal councilmen in the clan and was well-known throughout the Republic for his work in maintaining tribal stability and intra-clan harmony. His selection as the new leader of the tribe was considered academic; though there were some challengers, none achieved significant votes.
Isardsund initially continued the policies of his predecessor, keeping the Vherokior tribe closely aligned with the rest of the Republic's policies, while remaining on the fringes of the government. Over the years, however, he began adopting an even more isolationist posture. During meetings of the Parliament, Isardsund regularly abstained from votes that did not directly affect the Vherokior and often instructed the other Vherokior members to do the same. He also supported laws that strengthened the tribes at the expense of the central Republic government; however, these laws were often blocked by the Sebiestor tribe and, in later years, Prime Minister Karin Midular. Uninterested in fomenting conflict between the tribes, Isardsund rarely pressed on the matters.
Within the tribe, he continued to allow the clans to flourish or flounder by their own devices. Only when the stability of the Vherokior tribe as a whole was threatened did he step in.
Modern Day
Following the Elder War, Isardsund has maintained his position that the tribes should hold the majority of power in the Republic, with the federal government being fairly weak. To this end, he has pushed for the newly forming Tribal Assembly to be mostly a body of negotiation and diplomacy between the tribes rather than a policy-setting and -enforcing body.
Unlike some of the other tribal heads, however, he has not gotten involved heavily in the selection of leadership for the Starkmanir and Nefantar tribes. Though he could gain much politically by becoming involved, his ideals of tribal independence have kept him from stepping in, even when those tribes would benefit from someone of his leadership assisting them in the processes.