Turns out VK's mother's brother took charge of the martial arts for my VK, so mum had some semblance of control there as well. Dad was very much a scholar/linguist/intellectual, which drove his mother up the wall. She expected a man so well-travelled to be exciting and dashing and all that.

Turns out, he'd travelled to map out interesting lands and make interesting contacts. He looked fine and buff when she met him, if slightly more aloof and distant than he otherwise would be, because he had the left-over remnant of sunstroke ;) Still, he was all dark-haired, pale-eyed (something Scandanavian managed to slip into his blood line some time back) and intrigingly tanned and she decided she should have a nice, handsome soon-to-be-Graf, if the rumours were to be believed.