Hailing from the great Rashemen, Vlad was indeed lucky from the start. Even his nature as a bastard couldn't obscure the fact that his father, Rajkish Stayanoga, was a great berserk and leader.
Vladistak never knew his mother, but grew up as a true natural son of a noble, his training from an early age focused on becoming a great warrior and his father successor.
He dreamt of the day were the few who doubted him for his nature would understand that he deserved to be a Stayanoga by virtue of blood and effort.
But the great Rajkish fell in love and married a rashemi woman, a nobleborn indeed. And from that love came Faurgar when Vladistak was 8 years old.
Vlad was still a beloved member od the family and his father's son after all, with love and attention divided equally between the half siblings... but Vlad knew better. He knew his father wouldn't choose him before a natural son as his successor. He knew he wouldn't get the power and respect he rightfully deserved.
For Mielikki's sake! He was the first born! The true heir! The one who bled and sweated and cried after each lesson, because he knew his place in life.
And the seemingly admiration that Faurgar professed to him only worsened his thoughts. The usurper dared obscure his true motives, his joy because he would get what Vlad rightfully deserved.
So Vladistak Stayanoga... no, Vladistak the Bastard -as he decided to make that fact his own weapon- bade his time.
When he was 25 he decided the time for his Dajemma had come -a pilgrinage that Rashemi embark on to explore and understand the world before returning to their rightful home- he bid farewell to his father and half-brother before parting ways.
Vlad smiled, because he knew nobody would recognise the letters he forged as fake. Letters that framed Faurgar as an adulterer, with one of Rajkish most trusted allies' daughter, a married woman to boot.
And he laughed too, because when his father's people would encounter the daughter's husband lifeless husk in the forest clearing, it was Faurgar's sword the one who would stick from his chest.
The laugh came to an end as he remembered the note left to his half-brother, a note to make sure Rajkish understood who planned everything.
And Vlad smiled as he rode away.
The reader might think that Vlad did this as a scheme to safeguard his position as Rajkish' true son when he returned... the reader would be wrong.
He wasn't planning to return, not before becoming a true legend by himself, not before he was sure his father would bend a knee before him and beg for forgiveness. A forgiveness that would never arrive.
He did it because if he wasn't going to win, he would make sure no usurper would.
He is a true bastard, after all, and he is proud of it.
