Dalat was Prince Regent.
But he didn't think about it because it was too far in the future.
He thought about the game, beating his opponents.
And not simply winning, but crushing them, completely humiliating them.
But then disaster struck.
His father's entire empire collapsed.
Enemies took every city.
Judgement came.
The kingdom was proclaimed ended by some being that seemed to be a sort of Lord, even though it was only a bird.
His father was struck dumb and deaf, motionless, empty, but not dead.
Intense Publications The boatwright, paperback/gordon saunders
