King Aldren Veyrath had never wanted to be king.
This was not a pose — not the affected reluctance of a man who desired power and pretended otherwise. Aldren had genuinely wanted to be a builder. A stonemason. The family tradition — three generations of Veyraths in the construction trades, before Edric Veyrath had distinguished himself in the Second Demeterra War and been elevated to the first mortal kingship in a kingdom that had previously been governed by divine fiat.
The Sovereign had chosen the Veyraths because they were competent, popular, and — crucially — humble. A king who didn't want the crown served the crown's purpose better than a king who did, because an unwilling king didn't accumulate personal power. An unwilling king executed the Sovereign's administrative functions without developing the ambition to expand beyond them.
