Family's Complicated

  Infodump #8: The Royal Family Tree

In the city of Apollon, the decision of who is the next ruler/king/queen is unique. Anyone can marry into the royal family, (theoretically), but they must choose a child/heir from the family of Iapetus. 

To explain who this family is, we must go back to the origins, the time of the two great queens. When enchanters and Vulcans separated, they were completely isolated from each other. When the Vulcans began to build up a new society, an enchanter came with his family and offered them a deal. As long as his bloodline was royalty in their city, he and his family would protect them. They agreed and thus began the secretive agreement between city officials and the royals. No citizen of Apollon knew that their rulers were enchanters. 

Iapetos took on many husbands, wives, and partners, fathering children with city officials for the most part and other enchanters from outside the city's walls. Pallas and Aeneas are among them, born from Simon, King Adrien's deceased husband. Simon bore the two with Clymene, the child of Tethys and one of Iapetus's direct descendants. 

Pallas does not know that they are a direct sibling of Aeneas, they believe that they are a biological child of at least one of their parents. They spent the first 5 years of their life (not a concrete timeline) in the royal family's childcare institute with the dozens of other children born from Iapetus's descendants. The children that are not chosen to be the next in line are given away to families who want children or who agree to take them in within Apollon. 

Kosmas is also a descendant of Iapetus, he had a particular talent for spell casting but didn't want to be the royal enchanter. When he finds out the truth about Apollon and what they do to enchanters outside the wall he tries to run away. He is stopped and they (the city officials at the behest of the royal family) kill his adoptive family to teach him a lesson. He is forced to stay and becomes a shell of his former self.