As the youngest of four royal siblings, Giovan was deliberately positioned from an early age to have as little contact with the throne and succession politics as possible, in order to minimise his potential risk as a contender. He grew up mostly away from the palace and capital, instead spending most of his time at the Mirian countryside estate he was to one day inherit. Although he still received the royal education and upbringing a prince of his status deserved, his tutors directed his focus firmly to the management of his land and local people rather than any ambitious pursuits. The royal family and its advisors had it all planned out: the oldest child and heir would be groomed for a world of politics, the second-oldest for the military and the third-oldest for the Church and scholarly circle. The fourth, Giovan, would be the royal family’s face and footwork among the common folk – not quite important enough to be missed at court, but definitely royal enough to give an impression of involvement and care to the populace.

Giovan, always a sociable type and at the time unaware of these intentions, took to his role happily enough and spent a relatively easy youth in the countryside, learning husbandry and traditions, hunting, jousting and paying courtesy visits to various townships and minor local nobles. Things were panning out smoothly, until one day when Giovan was 24 – word came that his oldest brother, the Crown Prince, had died in a hunting accident, and Giovan was to return to the capital for mourning.

He did so, but even after the funeral, he was not permitted to leave the palace. Eventually his third sister pulled him secretly aside and laid out the situation for him, which was basically a mess – their oldest brother, while kind-hearted, had not been a very competent politician, and their second oldest sister had not liked this. Overly encouraged by her supporters, she had orchestrated the accident which led to his death, and this in turn had galvanised a faction of the royal advisors to remove her from the succession – although smart, her ideas on how to rule were too harsh and dangerous to end well. The third sister was therefore being used to usurp the second’s position, which she went along with out of both necessity and her own desire to bring their sister to justice.

A long and ugly game of intrigue and politics played out. At the end, the second sister was successfully defamed and incriminated, but the third sister had not gotten away unscathed either. With her reputation damaged and exhausted by the entire thing – as a devotee to the Church, the third sister had never actually wanted to take up the throne – she renounced her position in the succession without warning. The title of Crown Prince came unexpectedly to Giovan and everyone scrabbled – Giovan to grasp this sudden, new, flabbergasting role, and the court to re-establish itself around him.

He was crowned at age 29, both due to the increasing infirmity of the previous king and to end any more succession struggles. Deeply wary of being influenced after seeing what had happened to his siblings and extremely aware of his own lack of experience in royal politics, Giovan shouldered his duties cautiously. Soon, he found that a combination of charm and talk while in public, extensive consultation in private, and then the firm adhesion to his own practical, civilian-oriented priorities that he had adopted in his youth, would get him through most situations adequately. He listened well, learnt constantly and made astute judgements of individuals and how to best navigate them. And gradually, laboriously, Giovan found his feet in governing and grew to fill his position as king.

His rule never was and continues to never be particularly ambitious or revolutionary. Instead, a steady stream of little achievements and improvements for the Kingdom has characterised it, as well as a solid maintenance of peace, and this has always been enough for both him and the people.