King Ferran the First

Ferran the Miner was the first King of Ferraria. He was killed by his uncle, Spastian the Cowardly. Ferran was the only child of Ulasce Oboror, a tribal chief who resided in his ancestral family keep of Oboror. Ferran heard rumours of great wealth beneath the skin of the earth, and started digging beneath the keep.   When he discovered rich iron deposits there, he used all of his family's wealth to hire great metal workers from Republia to appraise and refine the ore. He set up a small furnace near the keep, and began refining the metal. Using the wealth created from that, he hired mercenaries and bought slaves from the Red Sea to expand his business to the whole of his family's land, and then, many of the surrounding regions.   Ferran spent much of his time planning the expansion of his city and holdings, preferring to delegate to build the mines and factories need to sustain the growth of his empire. Ferran rarely left the family keep as the city of Ferran's Hold grew up around it. Ferran devised the laws and plans needed to maintain the economic and political growth of the empire. One of his longest lasting legacy was the Decarchy system he had set up to govern the empire once it got beyond his own personal control. He raised several friends of the Oboror family to high places to take a role in the Decarchy. The most prominent raising was the Branuk family, whom he made the second richest family in the realm after Ferran himself.   Ferran had one son, Hematitus, with his wife Vika. Ferran raised his son to be his heir, teaching him what would be required of his if the empire was to survive any longer than a single generation. While Ferran died prematurely, Hematitus was still ready to take over the reigns from his father. At the time of his death, Ferran was the richest man on the continent.