Podveyka[1] was the rightful princess of Malleore[1][2] and King Niedamir's wife.[3] She bore him two sons.[4]
Biography[]
Podveyka was born sometime around the 1230s or 1240s. Her parents died relatively early[2] and her brother Yogin Pieters had no right to the throne,[3] thus making her the sole heiress.
A young King Niedamir, wishing to combine Malleore into his expanding kingdom, asked for Podveyka's hand but the Malleorean nobility, wishing to push their own agenda to gain more power themselves and where such a marriage would make this difficult, found an ancient law that stated the princess would only be allowed to marry a man who had killed a dragon.
Not one to back down from this, Niedamir organized a dragon hunt after the green wyrm which was terrorizing the nearby free state of Barefield. Though the hunt proved unsuccessful, Niedamir eventually took Malleore by force, having taken advantage of the insignificant number of its armed forces.[2][4] A conflict arose soon after between Niedamir and Esterad Thyssen of Kovir when the former raided Creyden, for ages a Koviran vassal.
After a short war the Fourth Treaty of Lan Exeter was drafted and one of Esterad's demands was that Podveyka would marry one of his Thyssen relatives.[1] However, that was changed and Podveyka married Niedamir[3][4] though their two sons were meant to be married off later to Thyssens. Podveyka later died sometime prior to 1267[4] – possibly from unnatural causes as Niedamir had publicly mentioned an idea to poison her after giving birth to his children even before he married her.[2]
Notes[]
- Her name appears only in Wiedźmin: Gra Wyobraźni.
- According to the dialogue cut from The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings she had an affair with Dandelion – without realizing the bard was spying for Dijkstra.
- Due to similarity of names she may be either related to Bernika and Zuleyka or share ancestry with them.