Rupert Jovanovik

Rupert was the first born son of Magdalena Jovanovik Empress of Dredaria, and Konstantin Maximovich her consort. He was incredibly close to his younger sister Minerva Jovanovik despite his jealousy at the constant attention on her from being the first born daughter. Dredaria followed the maternal bloodlines of a family for determining succession, and the first born daughter would always receive the crown. Since he did not have to worry about ruling the Empire once Minerva was born he was allowed to try many different hobbies such as horseback riding, hunting, and swordsmanship. He was shaping up to become a very well loved and powerful Grand Duke once he came of age, however it was not to be.
One day he simply never returned from his daily horseback rides through the palace grounds. His horse was found wandering the gardens, saddle cut from its back and bleeding from a few arrows in its haunches. A search party was sent from the elite guard and the then Empress Magdalena, donning her armor and weapons in preparation for the worst. Ruperts body was found in the woods at the edge of the palace with an arrow through his throat and the stone wall that marked the edge of the grounds had a hole dug underneath of it just big enough for somebody to squeeze through. Magdalena Jovanovik was heartbroken, and furious.
The death of Rupert led to her suspecting the small neighboring kingdoms as well as her own citizens who had begun to become dissidents during her early rule and a manhunt was formed with titles, land, and money promised to whoever turned in the one who assassinated her son but none came forward. In her rage she had any suspects dragged from their homes and questioned in the palace dungeons with many never returning home and the small kingdoms bordering Dredaria were absorbed in an extremely bloody second expansion, her first occurring shortly after his birth when a few villages on its borders rebelled against its Dredarian governor. Ruperts death caused both his mother Magdalena and his sister Minerva to lead bloody expansions in pursuit of the truth of his murder which is still unsolved to this day.