| abstract
| - "Lord Paramount" is a title in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. It was created during the War of Conquest three centuries before the War of the Five Kings. It is a hereditary title bestowed upon the head of a Great House charged with ruling one of the nine administrative regions of the Seven Kingdoms. They rule their region on behalf of the Iron Throne, the absolute ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. When Robert Baratheon became king after Robert's Rebellion, he kept the Lords Paramount system intact.
- Prince Vlad Brâncoveanu, a.k.a. Lord Fredrick Paramount a.k.a. Fredrick Coveanu is the mutant sovereign of Wallachia. Being a Whateley alumnus and major financial contributor, he requires that all new Whateley students be shown a painting of himself posing in front of a bust of Vlad Tepes Bessarab, better known as Vlad the Impaler or Dracula. Described as ‘a cross between a pretty Doctor Doom and Vlad the Impaler. Ruthless, merciless, but with his own code of Ethics and honour.’. During the Soviet crash in the 1980s he gathered a band of militants and conquered (or liberated, opinions vary significantly) a part of Transylvania, a region in northwest Romania and east Hungary, and made it an independent country under his power, naming it Wallachia (not to be mistaken for the historical region of the same name, which is located more in the southern part of Romania). He maintains his rule by acting as the impartial arbiter for the many political, religious and racial groups within his domain and keeping major hostilities from breaking out. Physically, Paramount (as portrayed in the painting shown to the students) is a trim, athletic man, with classic patrician features. In other context, he was described as "a tall man with his hair slicked back and a narrow mustache." Bek D. Corbin offered some additional information in the forums: The country now known as Wallachia was originally the north-westernmost provinces of Romania known as Cluj, Mamares, and Crisana in the real world, and it shares borders with Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine. As the Warsaw Pact fell apart in the 1980s, the Pax Sovietica lapsed, and the Ceaușescu regime fell, that part of Romania fell into civil war, spurred by ethnic, national, religious and historical grievances that the Soviets had covered over with a coat of Red paint and kept under heel with brute force. Into this morass of blood, steel and animosity came the mysterious mutant supervillain known to the West as 'Lord Paramount'. Lord Paramount first offered his services as pretty much a one-man-tank battalion to the highest bidder, but eventually maneuvered himself into the command of an increasingly large coalition of factions that eventually dominated Mamares, and then all three regions. He declared independence from both Romania and Hungary, and named the new state 'Wallachia', with German as its official language. The USSR was in no position to challenge his claim, the Rumanian government was busy putting itself back together, and the USA had not intention of getting involved an any place to touchy at that moment. The international Diplomatic community decided to humor the superhuman freak, and let him try to run that madhouse, just to show the rest of the supervillains that it's a lot easier in the comic books than it is in real life. That decision has come back to haunt them. Lord Paramount has set himself up as the Ultimate Impartial Arbitrator of the various factions that make up Wallachia, and plays the frictions to his own advantage. He's even been known to sucker one faction into an open uprising, just to show that he's capable of handling it personally, by himself. Or, maybe that's just his way of getting a really good workout. Wallachia has a national budget that can't be explained by its GNP or taxation rates. It's widely suspected that Lord Paramount funds his government and army with monies gained through various criminal enterprises abroad. Its known that he has large personal business holdings in South America, Indonesia, and India, and that he's a major investor in the Commonwealth of Independent States. It's suspected that he's still a member in good standing with the Syndicate, and it's rumored that he's even on the Board of Directors. Lord Paramount enjoys open and profitable relations with Karedonia, and GizTech 'Daleks' are a routine sight patrolling the back roads of Wallachia. Lord Paramount offers Eastern European mutants asylum in his country, but does so very quietly. Oddly, Lord Paramount remains on good terms with the United States, which has recently opened up an embassy in Baia Mora, Wallachia's capitol. Wallachia is a Constitutional Monarchy, with a bicameral parliament. Lord Paramount applies the 'divide and rule' basic strategy, and surrounds himself with the expected Cult of Personality. Paramount's governing style can be described as an odd balance of Parliamentarism and Strongman. "If a man raises his voice, let him be heard; if that man raises arms against the State, I will personally tear them off at the shoulder." As for Lord Paramount himself, he currently claims that his given name is Vlad Brâncoveanu, a reference to an old Rumanian hero, and claims to be a native son of the region. He has also used various names and origins in the past, claiming to have been born and raised in Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Anyone catching him on any of these points is simply met with a glib dismissal of the 'and your point IS?' variety. Lord Paramount is a high level exemplar, and a PK superman, with noticeable telepathy and remarkable clairvoyance. Exact levels are a matter of state security, and Whateley Academy has agreed not to divulge them. He routinely enhances his remarkable innate powers with a constantly shifting array of defensive, offensive, sensory and communications personal technology. He is a savage and canny hand to hand fighter, and a more than competent strategist and tactician. Lord Paramount has ruled for a little over ten years, and has yet to marry, despite the fact that he obviously has a taste for the ladies. One critic, bemoaning the fact that they had originally hoped to simply outlive him lamented, "He will bury us all!" To which, Lord Paramount asked whether the critic had a preference to a shovel with an ash handle or a pine handle for the job.
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