Cliopher "Kip" Mdang

Cliopher "Kip" Mdang of Loaloa is a bureaucrat and tanà from the Vangavaye-ve.

During his career in the civil service of Astandalas before The Fall and Solaara after it, he rose to become The Hands of the Emperor, Lord Chancellor of Zunidh, and eventually Viceroy of Zunidh, ruling the world in Artorin Damara's stead while he went on his quest for an heir.

Early Life
Kip grew up in the large house his grandmother had built, which was in the Tahivoa district of Gorjo City. He lived with his two older sisters, Vinyë Vawen and Navalia Mdang, his mother Eidora Mdang, his father Vinyo Varga, his grandmother Aurenia Mdang, and multiple aunts, cousins, and other relatives.. When Kip was eleven, his father died by drowning. Kip coped with his grief with petty larceny and fistfights, until he was sent to Loaloa with his great-uncle Buru Tovo. Tovo taught him how to dive for pearls, the family dances, the Lays, and other traditional knowledge. Kip stayed on Loaloa for a year before returning home.

When Kip was around twelve, his cousins Basil, Dimiter, their older sister, and their parents came to live at his family house. Kip became good friends with Basil and Dimiter, and they were close as brothers into adulthood.

Kip attended the University of the Vangavaye-ve, where he studied history and statistics. He became friends with Ghillian Poyë, Falbert Kindraa, Cora Laianyo, and Toucan Nevan during his first term at university, and was convinced to join Traditional Culture events with them.

Kip was twenty-one when Artorin Damara became Emperor. He visited Saya Dorn not long after, where he saw a portrait of the new Emperor. He felt their fates were intertwined and was determined to join the Imperial Bureaucratic Service. He took the exams, failing four times due to cultural assumptions baked into the etiquette questions before succeeding on the fifth try. It then took him six months of travel to get to Astandalas.