Duder, King of Trellin

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Duder
King of Trellin
Reign115-124 AD
PredecessorStediz II
SuccessorLorel I
Bornc. 80
Martheqa, Trellin
DiedAugust 124
SpouseTilza, Princess of Morikz
IssueLorel I
Iyarsin, Duke of Ka'alkë
Full name
Duder Azarinë
HouseHouse Azarinë
FatherStediz II
MotherLisian of Radul
ReligionChristianity

Duder (c. 80 – August 124) was the son of Stediz II. He was King of Trellin from 115 to his death. He was Trellin's first Christian monarch, and his attempts to convert his entire kingdom led to a series of large uprisings in which he was ultimately killed. He was succeeded shortly after by his daughter, Lorel I.

Duder was, at the time of his birth, the second in line for the Sidereal Crown after his brother Stediz the Younger. The king quite openly favoured his first son over Duder, who as a result resented them both, and hired the best tutors to prepare him for the throne; Stediz the Younger, however, died in a hunting accident in 114 when his horse ran over a cliff. Stediz II was forced to name Duder as his heir, and arranged for the tutors to train Duder who was by now in his early 30s. When his father died suddenly the following year, Duder was named king of Trellin.

The new king quickly distanced himself from his father's policies, posturing aggressively against the Hyseran Empire, and he planned numerous military expeditions against Trellin's eastern neighbours. From 119 he began accepting Christian refugees from Hysera and, in 122, he publicly converted to Christianity. This action provoked further discontent among his subjects, who clamoured for him to renounce his adopted faith and return to the religion of his people. Instead, he ordered them to join him in his Christianity and commanded his generals to arrest anyone who refused to convert. The result was an immediate mass uprising throughout the kingdom, and the nobility in several cities entered open revolt. In late 123, his young daughter Lorel was encouraged to officially lead the revolt, and many of Duder's commanders rallied behind her. In August 124, a mob attacked Duder and his bodyguard outside the palace and killed him. "Quite simply", writes Duder Dudriqi, of the Cadenzan Institute of Duderology, "the world was not ready for King Duder." The ignominy of his fall is such that no other Trellinese ruler has been named Duder since.