Sahir the Proud

King Sahir al Din the Fifth, or "Sahir the Proud" was the king of Taneth from 5E 387 to 5E 432.

Background
"Sahir the Proud" came to the throne of Taneth upon the death of his grandfather, King Julius. He was thirty-four years old when he ascended, his elderly father having abdicated the right to rule in favor of his son--King Julius, as with most al Din's, had lived for an extraordinary amount of time and thus most of child were nearly as wizened as he.

Sahir was the youngest of four children, but the only male of the patrilineal line, thus, when his father abdicated, he had the strongest claim. Ruling for fourty-five years, he would marry a prominent member of Rihad, the neighboring kingdom. He had two children, Emir Jarrah al Din and Emira Nadine al Din.

Sahir set his goal to improving the prestige and wealth of the al Din dynasty. To do so, he married his children to two prominent No Shira families, using the wealth acquired from their marriage contracts to set about innovating the royal palace, as to become a patron of the arts. He had various statues and works commissioned of famous members of the royal family. He had a brief foray with prominent artist, a famous painter who Sahir become immensely infatuated with. Dayang Mirdin was the result. Sahir, Jarrah, and Emira were all threatened by Dayang's existence, and the king wanted to have her smothered in her crib, but it was Sahir's eldest sister, the future mother of Youssef al Din, who would convince him to spare Dayang.

Sahir ruled in this fashion for the next forty years--liked, but not spectacularly so. In his mid-seventies, about three quarters through his life for a typical al Din, the Starborn Wars occurred. Threatened, but refusing to submit, Sahir did the unthinkable and united with Taneth's longtime rival, Sentinel, going back on a millennia of tradition by doing so.

When he heard of Daea's followers moving into Hammerfell, he sent the Janissaries to put them down. Her followers were massacred, and in response Daea razed Taneth on her dragon, Maegor. Sahir was cowed and hurried submitted, but it was too little to late, and Daea had him and his two children fed to Maegor.

Legacy
Sahir the Proud was noted for his generous patronage of the arts. Unfortunately, most of what he commissioned was destroyed by Daea Morgan. He was a stubborn ruler, although just and fair.

Two great controversies surrounded Sahir. Firstly, why he wouldn't submit to Daea in the first place, although many believe it was because of his innate stubbornness and pride. Secondly, was his attack of Daea's followers. Althoguh widely accepted to have been an accident, there are some who believe that Sahir was aware of the civilian status of Daea's followers, but ordered the attack on them anyway, as a way of sending a message.

Ultimately, it is because of Sahir's pride and mistakes that led to the first ever governor being place in control of Hammerfell and the first period of direct Imperial control, incomparable to anything since the age of Tiber Septim.