Lord Burdock is the toponymic title of Iskander Basileon, nominal archon of Burdock Valley and half-brother of the empress Juliana X Bellatrix. He received the investiture but not its exercise, which he delegated to his three children.
| Type | Character; imperial aristocrat, archon |
| House | Basileon |
| Office | Nominal archon of Burdock Valley (investiture c. 2960 AEP) |
| Children | Lady Alexia, Lord Argus, Sir Glastum (unofficial) |
| Spanish entry | Lord Burdock |
Office
Iskander was invested as nominal archon “some decades” ago; the date is not given precisely. Daily presence, frontier duty and the routine signing of patents passed to his children. The Decadian, in book VII, classes him under the type of the nominal archon: a juridical rather than personal figure, whose office has become protocol while its operation has passed to delegates. The Archontean Empire currently holds several regions through such archons.
Imperial blood
As half-brother of Juliana X Bellatrix, who led the Archontean Reconquest 354 years ago by the Decadian’s count, Iskander brings House Basileon into the imperial order by blood. Basileus Drusus IX still heads his letters to Burdock with the old formula “Al primo del trono, salud” (“To the cousin of the throne, greetings”).
Children
| Child | Position | Seat |
|---|---|---|
| Lady Alexia | Eldest legitimate daughter, the Green Lady | Analogous to Glastum’s settlement, in parallel geography; governs the valley’s political center |
| Lord Argus | Second legitimate son, Baron of Ritornello | Gray castle of the plain |
| Sir Glastum | Unofficial son, castellan of the Azure Fortress | Top of the Ardisvala waterfall, with Glastumville at its foot |
Argus at Ritornello and Glastum at Glastumville form a frontier pincer, while Alexia governs the center. Arkos, who has read some of the archon’s private letters, holds that the arrangement was deliberate: a frontier valley over a living mega-dungeon is governed from its outposts, best when the two outposts watch each other.
Absence
He does not appear in the frontier valley: not in Ritornello’s papers, Glastumville’s censuses or the Azure Fortress’s audiences. His signature upholds Argus’s baronial rank, his silence Glastum’s unofficial castellany, and his blood, through Juliana, the imperial recognition of the house. Alexia is his political heir to the archonship.
Timeline
- c. 2960 AEP (imprecise): receives Burdock Valley as nominal archon by imperial grant; delegation begins almost at once.
- His children are placed: Argus to Ritornello, Glastum to the Azure Fortress, Alexia to the center of the valley.
- 2993 AEP: the valley’s papers record him as sitting nominal archon.
- Present cycle: the nominal rule continues, with the valley sewn to the misty domain.
Open questions
- Whether Iskander and Juliana share a father or a mother is not recorded.
- How he responded to the fall of Ritornello, whether he aided Argus in his exile as a woodsman, whether he ever acknowledged Glastum or came down to the valley, is unknown.