August Magnus Donia

"Baron" August Magnus Donia I (February 12, 1946) is a well-known Lovian person who lives in Castle Donia in the Lovian mountains, where he enjoys long walks trough the forrest and hunting parties. He likes to say: "Drommels, drommels, drommels!" whenever his evil schemes have failed. He calls himself "Baron", and many Lovians adapted to the odd fashion of considering him a nobleman. He is the father to famous model Dalia Donia.

Early life and family
The baron was born in Alabama, the USA, into a poor redneck family. Unlike other members of his family, young Derek Vandyke, as was his given name, turned out to be an intellectual. He did well at school, unlike his alcholic and unemployed father and dimwitted siblings.

It was in the year 1968, when Derek reached the age of twelve, that he discovered the truth about his ancestry, when he got a birthday present from his great-grandfather, 83 at the time, and in bad health. It was a book containing a family tree.

Derek Vandyke could suddenly realised his family tree dated back hundreds of years. And he saw that one of his earliest known ancestors had been Gerlof Piers Donia, the son of the legendary Frisian freedom fighter Pier Gerlofs Donia! In 1715, the great-great-great-great-grandson of Pier Gerlofs Donia, Ivo Douwama-Jelckama had left Holland for America, accompanied by his wife and six daughters. Derek Vandyke was his decendent, and one of the many decendents of Frisia's greatest folk hero and legendary warlord!

Business
After dropping out of high school, Derek Vandyke began working as a mechanic. He made a modest living, but saved out his money until he got enough to buy himself a store for himself. He expanded this store, and made a chain of stores. He went into the real estate business and became the landlord of entire city blocks. He later purchased a taxi-company. At the young age of 26, Derek became a millionaire, and by the time he was thirty, he already made three million dollars a year! In Libertas, he has invested in the business of Dr. Magnus since the 1970's when both men where young hippies.

Noble ancestors
Derek Vandyke badly wanted to restore his noble title. After visiting his grandfather in Montréal, Canada, he discovered his family tree dated back further then he had thought at first: it dated back all the way up to the First Crusade! His forefathers had participated in almost all the crusades to the Holy Land that where ever made. One of Vandyke's ancestors had even died at the siege of Antioch, and his bones where buried in the sand of the desert next to city walls.

His grandfather said he had traveled to Palestine once, with a fellow traveler by the name of Abdul Muhammed, a man from Mecca. On their way trough Europe and the Middle East, the two men had come across Turkey, and they where staying in the Turkish province of Hatay for the night. At the city of Antakya, they discovered a family of tall people, their hair was blonde, and their eyes were grey. According to the patriarch of this family, they where the decendents of Ygo Gales Galama, a Frisian knight who had fathered children with a Morish slave girl back in the 1100's. They kept an ancient shield and armour to prove this, the knight had given his shield to the Morish slave girl so she could buy back her freedom. He died in battle the next day, and the family honoured him every year.

This was the story Derek Vandyke had heard from his grandfather, and his old grandfather had taken pictures to prove it, since "a picture says more then a thousend words"... Derek Vandyke's grandfather also kept letters from Antakya, written by Abdul Muhammed who had fallen in love with a green eyed Morish girl from Antakya, a decendent from Galama.

Restoring his Titles
Derek Vandyke reclaimed his noble titles at the age of 32, less then a year after having heard the story of Ygo Gales Galama from his grandfather. He traveled to Antakya, alone, and there he found Abdul Muhammed and his wife, Aise, who indeed had green eyes as Muhammed had written. The couple had grown old, but they had ages well and done good for themselves, Abdul ran a small hotel and Aise rented out rooms for guests in their own home.

Aise Muhammed took Derek Vandyke to her ancestral home nearby, the house of her grandfather in which she was born 71 years ago. The house was inhabited by her youngest uncle, a blind and nearly death man who was the patriach of the family. He showed Derek Vandyke the shield of Ygo Gales Galama, after Aise had insisted. Derek stayed for some time, but left two weeks later.

Back in the USA, Derek began calling himself Baron August Donia I. His family ridiculed him, and his fiancee left him calling him insane, and their planned wedding was called off...

Lovia
Baron August went to Lovia in the year 1983. He married Aise Muhammed's granddaughter, a grey-eyed Morish girl known for her wit and beauty and settled in Lovia. He had the magnificant Castle Donia built in the Mountains in 1986 where he has lived ever since. He has become a rich socialite and businessman since.

Family
Baron August I and his wife Dalia Muhammed (1965) had the following children:
 * 1) Ygo August Donia (1984)
 * 2) Bernd Bernard Donia (1986)
 * 3) Ivo Carlton Donia (1989)
 * 4) Dalia II Donia (1991)
 * 5) Linda Donia (1993)