How many Arkonas?

[wspatterson]

I got the impression that the Arkona family was bigger than it was shown to be in Escape from Old Korvosa, including charmed human members.
So, are there still human Arkonas? Are there other rakshasas in the family besides the six shown?
Thanks.

[tbug]

I had a player choose to play an Arkona as a PC, so I worked up some more data. This is data from the public records.

Spoiler:

Lord Cleliel Arkona (b. 4390, d. 4450)
Lord Garath Arkona (b. 4420, d. 4483)
Jenkson Arkona (b. 4425, d. 4483)
Landel Arkona (b. 4448, d. 4480)
Lord Basant Arkona, son of Garath (b. 4459, d. 4518)
Devika Arkona, daughter of Jenkson (b. 4459, d. 4516)
Lord Girish Arkona, son of Basant (b. 4490, d. 4546)
Lord Kunal Arkona, son of Girish (b. 4421, d. 4479)
...
Lord Mahavir Arkona (b. 4644, d. 4704)
Lord Glorio Arkona, son of Mahavir (b. 4671)

Byjin Arkona, son of Landel (b. 4478, d. 4527)
Neelam Arkona (b. 4636) m. Daisy Chevar (b. 4655, d. 4692) in 4672
Briarok Arkona (b. 4675, d. 4697)
Thorn Arkona (b. 4681, d. 4702)
Harospine Arkona (b. 4686)
Rosedale Arkona (b. 4690)
Spike Arkona (b. Erastus 30, 4692)
Hethibarb Arkona (b. Erastus 30, 4692)

Lord Cleliel Arkona (b. 4390, d. 4450) had five children: Garath, Jenkson, Eijon, Girni, and Landel. When Lord Garath died in 4483 and was replaced by a previously unknown son from his trip to Vudra (Lord Basant), the families of Eijon and Girni rejected the claim and caused a schism in the family. In the resulting bloodbath, their extended families and the cousins who had supported them were wiped out. Landel was already dead by this point, and his only surviving son was a five-year-old named Byjin (b. 4478, d. 4527).

Neelam is a descendant of Byjin.

[edit: cut for length]

Is this helpful? It's completely non-canonical, of course. I've said that Neelam and his sons are the only non-Rakshasa Arkonas living on the estate. I've also established that the deputy mayor of Magnimar is an Arkona, and he hates Glorio (but doesn't know he's a Rakshasa).

[James Jacobs]

wspatterson wrote:

I got the impression that the Arkona family was bigger than it was shown to be in Escape from Old Korvosa, including charmed human members.

So, are there still human Arkonas? Are there other rakshasas in the family besides the six shown?
Thanks.

The basic problem with the Arkonas was that what Mike did developing them for "Guide to Korvosa" and what we were doing with them concurrently in Curse of the Crimson Throne didn't quite match up. Just before Guide to Korvosa shipped, there was a panicked attempt to shore up the differences by adjusting things in the Guide to Korvosa, but we weren't able to COMPLETELY mesh things up.

This is the way things were intended, and basically the way we went with in Pathfinder Adventure Path #9 in "Escape from Old Korvosa."

Spoiler:

There are no actual human Arkonas; they're ALL rakshasas, and there aren't a lot of them. They DO keep a large number of servants, and many of those servants sometimes "pose" as lesser Arkonas at times so that the public doesn't get the idea that there's much more going on in the family than what they want folk to know about. One of the surprises that the PCs should get in Escape from Old Korvosa isn't just that the Arkonas are all rakshasas, but that they're nowhere NEAR as populous as they seem. Basically, the Arkonas operate on the theory that 1 rakshasa is worth a dozen humans. They might be right...