Dertan has spent most of his life trying to please other people. As a quiet, studious boy he spent his time trying to gain approval from tutors and his often absent parents (his mother is the sister of the famous dragon herself, Isabel Sokar). As a page and squire he was trying to prove his worth as a knight, despite the fact he had (and still has) no aptitude for the traditional skills of knighthood. By the time the knight in charge of his education died in the early days of the civil war everyone, Dertan included, knew that this was not what he should do. For several months he dithered, trying to work out what he could actually do that would serve the house and his need to be useful, aware that this decision would shape him for the rest of his life. He seriously considered the priesthood, thanks to his talent in academics and his strong belief in the virtues of religion as a concept, but in the end it was the war that drew him in. He knew he had an aptitude for the bow, having already managed to progress to the longbow, and so one day he left and found himself a place amongst the Sokar Longbows. They recognised him quickly enough of course and he was almost immediately given the command of a section although the truth in those early days was more that the section was given the task of protecting and guiding him than the other way around. It worked too. Surrounded by people who could see his natural talents and given the constancy of familiar faces he grew into an adept longbowmen and over time gained more and more responsibility until he was one of the main ranking officers within the Duchies Longbow Battalion. In the end he earned his spurs and knighthood anyway, awarded for battlefield achievements in his twenty first year. But beyond that brief moment in the sun he never had the need, nor opportunity, to prove himself as anything but a highly competent archer and unit commander.
In 66, when Dertan was a mere twenty three years old, the last death-throws of the succession war ended with the Rose (on who's side he fought) victorious. Once again he was left with the uncertainty of how he could (and should) be useful. He went back to Dalcen but found that the skills he had learned on the battlefield were woefully unsuited to courtly life. It was a difficult time for him but in the end he found a place amongst the old Sokar engineers where he could at least spend time talking about his passions for mechanics and mathematics, engineering and knowledge. He learned a lot yet when the the west war opened he barely needed to think about it before he went west to join the latest military effort.
Thus he ended up in Goldhollow during the siege of '68. To begin with he found a place amongst the archers attached to the shadowsnakes and met many of the people who would become so important to him in the years ahead. With the battle turned to street fighting he adopted a rooftop fighting technique which had little honor about it but a great deal of effectiveness. He even, once or twice, ended up in the streets fighting with blade and ambush. It was an eye opener that taught him a great deal about the strengths that he had not realised he had. More importantly Thomas saw potential in the young man and gave him his first real command position: Assigning him control over all the various ranged troops that were present in that beleagered city. That is the place when he realised he was more than just a scholarly soldier and when his idea to mount some of the scorpions off the walls onto wagons so that they might be placed in lethally effective positions proved so vital he felt a great deal of pride. Everyone remembers the ice storm that came out of nowhere and saved the day. His first encounter with sorcery.
So too it was at Goldhollow when he received the letter from Isabel telling him to 'make a marriage happen' between him and Sonya Kaedon. He did what he could, offering her what support he could about the magic she had revealed at that battle, but is far from certain that his efforts changed anything. When they married in '70 the Kaedons, now including Dertan, were not highly involved in the west war. Instead they focused on building up Kaedon's strengths. This is something that Dertan sometimes feels guilty for - Whilst great strides were made in the next three years, including the construction of the city and fortress at Silverhill under Dertan's direction - Perhaps he should have spent more time on the battlefield. Perhaps then the queen would have been more inclined to give Sonya the benefit of the doubt instead of sending Duke Tarris, and an army, to chastise her. On the other hand, if Dertan had not been close, when his wife was heavy with the twins, he would not have been able to protect her from the assassins and he cannot regret that.
Yet somehow, at the end of it all, with affairs once again influenced by Thomas, Dertan was granted the rank of Royal Brigadeer for the Riverwatch region. Its hard to say just how much he cherishes this job and opportunity. The last couple of years of relative peace have been spent trying to deserve that position. He's built up the force, adding two new regiments of his own design, and designed things intended to bring artillery into the field with more efficiency. The partharian invasion will test his choices and prove his worth. That is his hope for the days of battle ahead.
These days saw him discover another thing: The faith of the Many was struggling not because it lacked virtue but because it lacked the same formal structure as the church of the One and he knows, truly deep down knows, that the gods are real. One of them left a mark on Sonya when it personally awoke her magic. And with the origin of the Gods was the fight against some great evil does that not mean that it is vital, truly truly vital, that the faith does not wither away? If the Gods are lost - what will protect us from the demons?
1874 was a hard year, a year that saw him struggle with his own weaknesses and encounter creatures and situations that he was not even close to prepared for. He will be prepared for them next time. Its time he stepped out of the shadows cast by the great people who surround him and find a place amongst them, as an equal, instead.