Roele Andu, hero of the battle of mount Deismaar, champion of the god Anduiras, brother to the god Haelyn, half-brother to Raesene Andu, now known as The Gorgon, mightiest mortal ever to walk Cerilia.

Roele Andu, the man who forged the warring tribes of the Andu into the Anuirean Empire, and then expanded the borders of that empire to cover the bulk of Rjurik, Brechtür, Khinasi and even some of Vosgaard uniting almost the entire continent of Cerilia under a single system of law.

Roele laid down the laws of Anuire, defined the rights and duties of each feudal rank, and created the twelve duchies of Anuire which survive, more or less intact as entities today (albeit frequently under new management).

Fifteen centuries after his death the 'common law' of the empire still forms the basis for much of the law of the Khinasi and Brecht, the right of an individual to own property without fear of confiscation by another without recompense, the right of the owner of a land to charge for its use, the right of the nobility to levy taxes, the right of all free-men to a trial, etc. Even the Rjurik in settled areas tend to follow the guidelines of this ancient Andu law, although they have a far less formal system of law and much of the land is common to all or property of the tribe not the individual.

Roele himself was, by all accounts, surprisingly modest, frequently joking that his brother Haelyn was 'the one who made something of himself, I just swing my blade and talk all day'. A natural gift for understanding the needs of others, and the wisdom to know when these needs should be met and when they must be denied, and an ability to tolerate and shape the ambitions of others to serve his ends, made him a great leader, even more so than his gift for strategy and war-craft.

Although Roele was a conqueror without peer, he was respected, if not necessarily loved, by the majority of those he conquered (with the notable exception of the Vos) for having brought widespread peace, low predictable taxes, and with both prosperity. When Roele died real grief was felt by as many outside Anuire as within and tens of thousands traveled from distant parts of the empire to pay their respects during the year he laid in state.

Roele understood (unlike some of his descendents) that a ruler can rule only with the consent of those ruled, and so he strove to ensure that the empire was fair (if not necessarily kind or gentle), defended the rights of its subjects as much as it did its own (admittedly the rights could be scant but the principle was there), outlawed slavery and banditry, and left its subjects alone so long as they paid their taxes and caused no trouble.


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