The Balduins are an old Family. Not a family in the way we simple people view family. That is, the mother, the father, their children and the elderly grandparents who might or might not live with them. No, the Balduins were one of the Elites, (though they refer to themselves as Bloodlines) the true Masters, those who hold the power behind the power. To them Family is an altogether different thing. It is not people, rather it is an ideal, an entity in itself that transcends history and time. You see, to them, the mother, the father, the children, the grandparents, none of that matters. All that matters is the name and continuation of their line. Not a continuation of living through individuals but a continuation of power and wealth through the collective. Where the goals and ambitions of one are set aside for the stability and maintenance of the whole. Not a family, but a bloodline.

This is why Felix was such a complication. He forego all of that to pursue what he desired, to pursue what he felt was right. But we shall get to that later.

I am no Balduin, I do not hail from such a family of history, power and strict ancestry. I merely served them. That is all.

Think of me then as a chronicler of sorts, unofficially of course. Felix, it would follow, should be considered as the hero of the piece …..though hero is a strong word to use for the boy. He was many things, heroic was generally not one of them.

You will learn the story of Felix’s ambition, but to understand it, you must understand them, the Balduins. Those of you with an interest in European medieval history might see that name and wonder why it seems familiar. As well it should to any who have studied it.

The Family line began with Balduin Iron Arm, the progenitor for all subsequent Balduins beginning in 830 AD. Over the course of the next four hundred years Iron Arm and his descendants played roles both small and major in the history and formation of Europe.

Most notable of them were the three sons of Eustace II. Each one of them amongst the finest warriors and greatest leaders during the First Crusade. Godfrey and Baldwin had even gone on to hold the throne as Kings of Jerusalem.

Two more of Iron Arm’s line went so far as to claim the title of Emperors, Baldwin I and Henry reigning over the ill-fated Latin Empire of Constantinople from 1204 to 1216 between them.

The female line too had made its mark.

Matilda of Flanders was once Queen of England and Duchess of Normandy by marriage to William the Conqueror, and regent of Normandy during his absences from the duchy. She was the mother of ten children who survived to adulthood, including two kings, Eustace II and Henry I.

Her namesake Matilda I likewise ruled as Queen consort of England for over 20 years in the period 1135 to 1152.

England alone was not enough for the Family, Isabella of Hainault once held the title of Queen consort of France through her marriage to King Philip II, (the first to style himself King of France) in the decade spanning 1180 to 1190.

The line became extinct in 1280 with the death of Margaret II, Countess of Flanders. Or at least it did, in theory. Thereafter no further Balduin would be heard or read of in any book, historic or contemporary.

Such was and remains the way of those self anointed Bloodlines. The Balduins disappeared into history, but not without reason. Even in those far off times there were members of the House who recognised the need for secrecy, the need to move and influence affairs unfettered by the titles of power.

Make a man King and you make him a target, a focal point for all and any enemies to probe and pick away at. However, control that King from within and you move and play while he lays at risk. Even I have learned as much.

Such reasoning had been the primary motivator for the Balduin family retreating from the public sphere.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Families of a similar ilk had done just as they had, some like the Ptolemys much earlier, some like the Rothschilds much later. They all did it eventually, those who didn’t would inevitably burn bright and fast for a time, but their fame and public openness would always lead to destruction in the end. So had been for House Romanov, as it had for House Medici and many more with them. Though they might have survived in the Cadet Branches, such survival was purely symbolic. The Bloodlines have no love for them, to them a Cadet Branch was as good as another tree, worse even because it clung to the first for life, taking all of its history and acclaim for their own lifeforce.

All of this the young Head of the Balduin Bloodline of my day understood. Felix was a smart young man. He understood then why his Family had retired from the public eye, but understanding was not the same as accepting. It had proven its worth, House Balduin now ruled in proxy each of the four largest alcohol companies in the world, effectively monopolising one of the most profitable industries to their own ends. Felix had grown up surrounded by luxuries befitting a King, he may have been disillusioned true, but there was nothing he ever lacked for. Their Family home on Bermuda, more castle than house, was one of a myriad of homes and apartments owned by the family. There was nothing the Family could not provide or attain for their members. Certainly not in the material sense.

His feelings of discontent then were all the more worrying to the others of his family.

Felix returned to the family home in Bermuda in the summer of 2023. He had just completed his four years at Hellenic Military Academy, a tradition long held for the family’s male line. His first few months at home were largely uneventful despite the endless celebrations and relentless partying on his return. It was only after he settled when things began to change. As I have said, tradition stands above most all else amongst the Bloodlines. One which features more prominently than most is the title of Head of the Family being conferred on the next in line at the age of Twenty two. Why twenty two became the decided upon age I am not sure. But I know from Felix himself that the tradition is one present in all of the Bloodlines. Twenty two seems to be an age of great significance for them. The beginning of a man’s true prime, in both mind and body.

I am not wholly sure I would agree, but it must be remembered that on most occasions the new Head would have inevitably conferred and passed a great deal of the Family decisions onto the old Principale. Not Felix.

At the age of twenty two it was finally time for him to be formally made Head of the Family. A mantle his uncle had held since the death of Felix’s Father Joaquin eighteen years previous.

It was at that passing of the mantle where he first made all of his plans clear. And such plans they were.

Before the meeting is explained I feel I must divulge some details on those who featured most prominently in it. Felix, as always, was centre stage.

He had always been an eccentric boy. The loss of his Father at the age of four certainly added to that eccentricity, though it had always been there. His streak of independence and recklessness never left him, his time abroad studying might have tempered it, but could never expel it.

On his arrival home all marvelled at how well and how much he’d grown. A handsome boy he had grown into a powerful man during his time away. Tall and athletic he had the build of one well used to the outdoors. His youthful face was clean-shaven which served to enhance his well chiselled jawline and high cheekbones. His hair fell in something I later heard described as a messy man bun.

Felix never lacked attention from the opposite sex, even without the money there were few ladies that did not seek his companionship, his large green eyes had a draw to them, a draw which most women did not resist. Most People for that matter.

You will think I exaggerate, that I am describing a character rather than a man. I’ll admit a fondness for the boy, but I do not admit exaggerating. The Balduins did not marry easily, nor grant anyone into their family line which did not conform to their ideas on beauty. Not discriminatory, the Bloodlines in fact, care little about culture, creed or race. Think of them as more Brave New World than 1984. Such matters were beneath them, methods of controlling the People seen as altogether irrelevant to their overarching aims.

They paid little attention to, but they were quite insistent on any new blood being worthy of passing on the Balduin gene. Power is Beauty, Beauty is power, was an expression oft heard in the Balduin home, one favoured most particularly by Felix’s Grandfather Eustace.

Those first few weeks home Felix had appeared to spend in a drunken daze, an endless mass of parties, girls, drugs and whatever other vice he could fit in. He flew one week to the Family home in Milan, another to London, another to Seoul.

All that, however, did not last long.

Such a life was not one he longed for. He had no interest in being locked into a constant state of frivolity. Nor did he have any much interest in the corporate world, a world that his uncle had long dominated. The only thing that interested him was power, and how to acquire it. But he did not only want covert power, that which the Family already held. He wanted visible power, open power. It was no surprise then when he called on all members of the Family to attend his official inauguration, they were all to witness the new dawn of the Balduins.