I recently purchased the Kingmaker Remaster and am going to be running the adventure path for my next campaign. I noticed what appears to be a discrepancy in the book regarding Maegar Varn, but I may (probably) just need to brush up on my lore.
In the book, Maegar is listed as being a "Male human swordlord 8". I was under the impression that all the Aldori Swordlords took the surname "Aldori" as a part of their pact. Why is Maegar's surname still Varn? He's also listed as having used a Longsword as his weapon (by virtue of having it as the only weapon amongst his belongings). Is this a slight error in how he is titled, or are there other "swordlords" than the Aldori ones?
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It could be simply that nobles care more about being recognized for their lineage rather than taking on the traditional title of Aldori. For example, House Lebeda is said to "epitimize Rostland" & "loves sword fighting", which seems very Aldori-coded, but you don't see any Lebedas carrying around the Aldori name. In-fact, I'd wager a noble taking on a hyphenated name like "Sir John Lebeda-Aldori" would still be the talk of the nation within gossiping circles.
It could also be a political survival tactic: Aldori IS the name of Rostland's original leader. If a member of the Houses bore his name, they'd most likely lose the privilege of being recognized by the ruling Surtovans. Afterall, the Aldori swordsmen HATE the Surtovans.
It's also worth noting that Maegar's sword is particularly special to him. In the "appearance" portion of his Influence stat-block, it's described as having his family's Crest: 4 hatchets arranged in a circle, located on his pommel guard.
How true Aldori Swordsmen see these nobles that walk the walk but don't talk the talk is up to you, but personally I'd see them as posers.
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Varn is described as a swordlord in the non-crunchy bits as well ("a low-ranking but eager-to-impress swordlord named Maegar Varn," page 40)
Perhaps he's so low-ranking that he hasn't taken the name or sworn the oath yet.
For myself, I'm going to play it that Jamandi's ploy includes having a loyal, but technically non-Aldori controlling the lands opposite the likely front of the coming civil war. Thus Varn is complicit in, and benefiting personally from, the political war games in Brevoy. Maybe after the dust settles he'll take the Aldori name, or maybe he gets to keep his little kingdom...
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Maegar is an exception to the tradition—he's a swordlord, but he's chosen to keep his own surname, since he's establishing a new community in the Stolen Lands and for political reasons (the same reasons why the PCs are allowed to build thier own kingdom) he's not using the Aldori name because Varnhold is intended to be it's own thing.