Ambrai VIII

Prince Edrel Ambrai VIII was born at Reiza Palace in 582 to Prince Rihani Ambrai VII and his wife, Princess Alexia. The third of three children, and the only male heir, his birth came in the middle of the war with Vermunn, up until then the costliest and deadliest war the country had ever faced. The family was forced to evacuate the palace several times and Edrel would later remark that he saw such things as normal, as he had never experienced any other way of life. As the years passed and the war waned, life at the palace returned to a semblance of normality and Princess Alexia insisted on tightly-structured schooling for the children, as for the last few years their education had been sorely neglected. Edrel was at first tutored at home but eventually was sent away to the typical private school. At the age of fifteen, he left school and immediately joined the Ossetian Royal Army, and was assigned to the 67th Infantry Battalion. He remained with this group, winning several commendations for bravery in battle during the Prochazka Crisis.

In Christmas 601, when he was on leave from the army, he attended a ball at Reiza Palace where he met Lady Iliena Feiran, daughter of a prominent noble of Feruche. They were both very young; he was nineteen and she two years younger at seventeen, yet it was obvious to friends and family that they were attracted to one another. They promised to meet at some point in the new year, with Edrel visiting her at her home in Feruche whenever he was granted leave. He was given an honourable discharge from the army at age twenty when his father Rihani gave him Wentyn Castle to be his main residence in the age-old tradition. Yet he never stayed for very long at Wentyn, preferring to stay at Reiza so as to be closer to Iliena, with whom he was very taken. Later the same year he proposed to her and she accepted, and preparations were made for their marriage to take place in the new year. Iliena moved to Wentyn with Edrel and begun her training as the Neva'Reia, while Edrel alternated between running Wentyn and visiting Reiza to discuss matters with his father and the heads of the military. Iliena became pregnant.

Eight months after their wedding, Edrel's father Rihani was assassinated by the Hylian HLA terrorist group. The 67th Infantry Battalion was one of the units assigned to protect Edrel and Iliena when they were moved from Wentyn to Reiza - such extreme measures were necessary because of the slow pace they had to take because of Iliena's pregnancy. Edrel was crowned there within days of his arrival, and one of his first orders of business as the new ruling prince was to form a secret organisation within the highest levels of the military, the OSS. The sole aim of this organisation was to infiltrate the HLA, despite the Hylian royal family's assurance of an top-level investigation. In the meantime, Iliena gave birth to Elsen, the new Crown Prince. Edrel stayed with her at Reiza Palace for three days until, against her wishes, he left to meet with the Hylian monarch, Prince Camanto Antrai IV. Very close to where his father was killed, Edrel was murdered, again by the HLA. He was killed with a musket shot to the head. This time, members of the organisation who carried out the assassination were captured, and under torture admitted to their membership in the HLA, and the HLA's intentions to kill all of the extended Ossetian royal family.

Edrel was buried next to his father in the Dragon Crypt below Stronghold Castle two days later. His death, and the involvement of the HLA, were decried by Prince Camanto Antrai IV, who promised to get to the root of the organisation and destroy it. The powerful banking alliances saw their chance and began a campaign to smear the Hylian royal family, accusing them of Ossetian sympathies (at a time when Ossetia was hated by much of the Hylian population). They deposed the royal family and formed the new Republic of Kanosia, which utterly changed the politics of the region for many decades to come. Historians often wonder that, if Edrel had lived, if the old two-princedom system would still be going. In any case, he was generally loved by the people and seemed ready for the task of ruling Ossetia, but it was not to be.