His Royal Highness Prince Láng Méi-Qián (狼 没钱), Major the Baron of Orpington - Silver

Player: Silver K.-C.
Rank: Baron (Rank 2)
Religion: Church of England
Email: lang_mei_qian@albion.chaosdeathfish.com

His Royal Highness Prince Láng Méi-Qián is, as he often recounts, the fifth and youngest prince (with no sisters) of an exotic far-away kingdom who, bored in own land, left it to adventure. His exotic tales of his home country and his travels quickly gained him the King's favour, as did his swiftly proffered oath of fealty. He has risen quickly in the ranks of the Dragoons to become a Major and for his dashing style has been rewarded with the title of Baron of Orpington. He also possesses a Letter of Marque though there is no evidence (that would satisfy a court of law) that his ship the White Tiger has made use of it.

He is perhaps most famous for his outlandish, and still expanding, collection of cheese knives.

A Major in the Dragoons. The Master of the Rolls considers him to rank with the barons of Albion.

From the historical information presented to visitors of the Láng Cheeseknife Collection.

The deeds of His Royal Highness Prince Láng of the Royal Kingdom of the Philippine Archipelago of Tungning in his later years consistently outshone those of his elder, and generally more reputable, brothers. The eldest brother Láng È-le spent his life as a senior adviser to the Cathayan Empress Chang Ping, once the very pinnacle of the family's ancestor's hopes for betterment, and served that long-lived monarch capably until his retirement to his estates in the north.

His Majesty King Láng Kě-le, second brother, ostensibly rose to an even greater height as ruler of the Royal Kingdom of the Philippine Archipelago, Taiwan and Hainan of Tungning. However, history has never shown much interest in this acceptably capable king. It was Commander Lang of the Noble Wolf and Dragon of the troops of Cathay of the Just Fall of the Manchus and the Righteous Death of the Traitor Regent Dorgon, the youngest scion of the Láng clan, that first captured the Philippines from their former Spanish masters and set the flag of Tungning flying above the capital of Manila. Further it was that same Prince that brought with him allies from Albion and further troops to secure the conquest against Spanish reinforcements and then reprisals. Even during his reign King Láng Kě-le was regarded with only scant interest by his subjects who clamoured for news of his younger brother.

News and scandal were both plentiful. In his domestic affairs Prince Láng of the Royal Kingdom of Siam, wed to her Royal Highness Princess Chaiama came to a stormy truce with his young wife, a hasty marriage to the conquering hero shortly after the taking of Manila in some small way compensating for her public humiliation before the majority of the Court of King Matthew of Albion. Gossip abounded about the frequent visits she received from the third brother Láng Sǐ-le while His Excellency Ambassador Láng of the Royal Kingdom of the Islands of Taiwan and Hainan of Tungning was abroad on one of his infrequent diplomatic missions and more frequent run-ins with Admiral Greyhawk of the Venerable Order of Sir Walter Raleigh.

His Royal Highness Prince Lang, honourably allied with Albion’s Horticulturalists and formerly of The Most Ancient and Venerable Order of Sir Walter Raleigh had remained a member of the latter for less than a year before he was publicly expelled by Admiral Greyhawk, then leader of the Privateers. The source of this enmity has never been firmly established though, given the Prince's low standing at the Court of King Matthew in that period, it is perhaps more surprising that the previous leader of the Order - Captain Dick Smashing - has invited the piratical prince to join at all!

Greyhawk became His Royal Highness Prince Láng Méi-Qián, formerly His Royal Highness Prince Lang, fifth Prince of an Exotic and Far-Away Kingdom nemesis and most treasured enemy for a period of more than forty years, implacably tracking down the Cathayan and driving him from ports at cutlass point and pursuing his whimsically named ships, such as the Silver Cheeseknife and White Tiger II, into the teeth of howling gales and treacherous seas. One collection of popular tales of the battles of wits and cannon between the pair, The Briny Battles of the Hawk and Wolf, was over 700 pages long and reprinted five times.

These tales were enlivened by the companions of His Royal Highness Prince Lang, former Major of the Earl of Essex's Dragoons Regiment. Accompanied by Lang Xiao-Lang, Lang Long, Lang Yang, and Lang Yin - werewolf and dragons - each voyage took on some of the aspects of a travelling menagerie.

Prince Lang's correspondence shows a growing melancholy as the occasions upon which one of Admiral Greyhawk's fleets pursued him to the protection of the guns of the island fortress of Corregidor gradually grew fewer and fewer as the fierce old privateer aged. The Prince himself showed few signs of age over the course of his own life and by the age of sixty older portraits at his Manila Palace were discretely covered to allow guests to pretend that nothing unusual was happening. Whether rumours of Golden Apples or drinks from the Fountain of Youth were true or not, it is certain that the Prince was no immortal.

Prince Lang having lead his opponent Greyhawk upon a final merry chase across the globe, escaping many times from the claws of justice, was resting on his ship one evening when he unexpectedly detonated! Later reports from the stunned crew indicated that a dove made entirely of black Hellfire and wielding cheeseknives was somehow to blame. The being once known as Nicholas Lovecraft could never be conclusively linked by this event, though few chroniclers have posited more plausible tales.

The Prince Láng Cheeseknife Collection was bequeathed to a grateful nation and remains on public display in the Royal Palace of Ateneo in the Intramuros of Manila.

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