Roderic Swanzen
Lord of The Twighlight Manor

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By EelKat Wendy C Allen

Young Roderic
Roderic Before

The original main character of The Twighlight Manor series. The main character of Friends Are Forever: Vol. 1 of The History of The Twighlight Manor, by Wendy C. Allen.

Young Sir Roderic was the bizarre, eccentric prince of Planet Flame, during the early years of the Flamite invasion of planet Earth.

He was born Sir Roderic Lincandonia Swanzen on October 13, 1560. Roderic is the only child to Melaca Swanzen. Melaca was a savage Flamite, the bloodthirsty twin brother of most fearsome Flamite in recorded history: King Vielder Swanzen. Melaca was a tall blue eyed, white haired, white skinned Eccrodon Flamite, known for his treachery and cruelty.

Little is known of Sir Roderic’s mother, other than that she was an unknown species, from a distant solar system on the far end of the galaxy, where she had been captured by the Royal Flamite Army during their invasion of that sector of the galaxy. She is described as being very small and very thin, with grey tinged white skin, and large black rims around her eyes. It is rumored that the Flamites decimated her home planet leaving nothing alive. Bodies of many of these creatures are stuffed and on display in Vielder’s trophy room. Roderic’s mother was kept by Melaca, and was referred to only as “Melaca’s wife”. She never learned to speak their language, and it was said that she was more a slave than a wife. She was on board the VISION~D8 when it crashed on Planet Earth, leaving the Flamites stranded here. The Flamites used the VISION~D8’s small shuttle-crafts to travel throughout the planet, but they were not able to repair the VISION~D8, and thus made Earth their new home.

Though the VISION~D8 crashed in what is now Maine, USA, Melaca and his wife were living in Transylvania at the time of Roderic’s birth. It would be upon learning of his place of birth that would later result in Sir Roderic’s belief that he was a vampire.

Though the Flamites were able to acclimate to the Earth’s climate, Melaca’s wife could not. She slower succumbed to an unknown illness, and died at The Twighlight Manor when Roderic was about three years old.

Roderic was raised by Melaca’s younger brother Gwaneesh Vangoneese Swanzen (later to be known as Dr. Vangoneese). A very small child, he grew up to be a very small man, only 5’ 5” tall. He looked remarkably like his alien mother, with his ghastly completion and black-rimmed blue eyes. He did not resemble the other Flamites, which marked him as a half-breed and an outcast. Though very intelligent, he seemed to never quite grew up, and acted always like a small child, even in adulthood. King Vielder to a liking to his brother’s son, preferring him to his own son, Talksa (whom he’d disinherited). Vielder declared Roderic his next of kin, changing his name to Sir Roderic and making him the official lawmaker of the Flamite people. From that day forth, everything Sir Roderic said or did was instantly considered law and must be obeyed. To disobey him was punishable by death.

As a young man, Sir Roderic, as did many fashionable young men at that time, developed a fond affection for elaborate clothes in the brightest shades of pink. In his early twenties he ordered clothes made by tailors from around the globe, all commissioned to sew him, elaborate tunics, jerkins, cloaks, and hose of velvets and brocades in various shades of pink, richly embroidered with blue and silver threads. Pink fashions (cut from patterns about a hundred years outdated) would become his trademark and for the next 130 years he would wear nothing but.

Young Roderic, was a financial genius, he borrowed on his inheritance, to buy out countless mines, factories, business, farms, and merchant fleets, making him the wealthiest man in the galaxy before his thirtieth birthday. He was than able to live the rest of his 500+ years, doing absolutely nothing, while his businesses ran themselves, leaving him free do whatever harebrained thing came to mind While his father Melaca and uncle Vielder were traveling the Earth collecting specimens for Vielder’s trophy room, Sir Roderic Lincandonia Swanzen set out on his own travels, in search of culture, art, books, and things of beauty to decorate The Twighlight Manor with. In his travels he visited nearly every country on the planet, learning to read and write in 27 different languages as he did. His book collection became so large that he commissioned a new room be added to the Manor. A giant room, two stories tall and 100 feet across either side, it would eventually become known as The Twighlight Manor Library.

Though he called The Twighlight Manor his home, his visits to The Manor were rare and few. As a young man he never spent more than a few days each year there. It was during one of these infrequent visits to The Manor that he met a terribly frightened and badly beaten Sirean (mermaid) girl, named Melneeva Liore. The girl, he learned, had been captured by his father, Melaca, and was intended as a new addition to Vielder’s trophy room. Disgusted by his father’s actions and awed by the girl’s exotic beauty and fish-like features, Roderic hid her in his apartments in the West Wing of The Manor. Roderic canceled his travels and stayed at The Manor to care for the injured mermaid girl that had now mesmerized his every thought. He kept her hidden for nearly a year, before returning her to her family. Melneeva returned to the Manor a few weeks later, after the discovery that she was pregnant with Sir Roderic’s child.

The birth of their first son Vwoodell, was met with a fierce and violent confrontation between Melaca and Sir Roderic and his savage father, Melaca. Roderic suffered a cracked skull and severe brain damage as a result. He was not expected to live. Melneeva became his ever-devoted nurse for the next two years, never leaving his side. For a time he was unable to talk or move and required complete retraining in both. He never would be able to speak in a normal coherent way after this. His new found difficulty in speech would later result in deep frustration and violent outbursts of temper against those who would label him as retarded. He retained the ability to understand what was being said, but his motor skills and responsiveness was badly hampered, making it seem to others as though he could neither understand nor comprehend what was going on around him.

Though Melneeva and Dr. Vangoneese did everything they could to help him, it was clear, upon his recovery, that the happy bubbly Sir Roderic was gone, replaced by the now paranoid and temperamental mad-man. Over the next 40 years, Roderic would begin developing increasingly more paranoid delusions that The Twighlight Manor was alive and was eating its inhabitants.

Though there were other children, only four survived infancy, the second being Kramer Heinrich, born a few years after Vwoodell. Sir Roderic Lincandonia Swanzen seemed not to care about, nor even notice the existence of his children. His mind was closing ever inward, as his obsession with The Twighlight Manor being cursed, grew worse. In spite of Lady Melneeva’s enduring care, Sir Roderic’s insanity was growing worse as each year went by. In frustration over her husband’s growing madness, Lady Melneeva sought the affection of Sir Roderic’s caretaker Dr. Vangoneese. The affair was short lived, and only served to pit Roderic’s anger against his wife, further fueling his already violent fits of paranoia.

Several years passed, since Roderic’s change. His sons, Vwoodell and Kramer, now young men, had left home. Vwoodell to become a crime lord, and Kramer to follow in the path of the Damballah Wedo cult leader, The Lansquin. Melneeva began to spend more time away from The Manor, spending long weeks with The Lansquin himself, at his white marble mansion 300 miles away in the tiny backwoods town of White Rock. Sir Roderic Lincandonia Swanzen, turned a blind eye to Melneeva’s increased absence, and set about to studying this new cult that was sweeping over the area.

Though never again unfaithful to Roderic, Melneeva’s time spent with The Lansquin was brought to question when she became pregnant with Sir Roderic’s third son, Razzbury. Remembering her past affair with Dr. Vangoneese, Roderic accused Melneeva of unfaithfulness yet again and refused to believe her innocence or acknowledge Razz as being his son. The result was a lifelong bitter hatred for his son Razz and the beginning of a plot to destroy The Lansquin. To spite Melneeva, Roderic married his second wife, Ouintanga Kracov. Melneeva and Ouintanga were ever at each other’s throats.

To seek revenge on Sir Roderic for taking a second wife and The Lansquin for not defending her honor, Melneeva set out to destroy Sir Roderic financially and pin it on The Lansquin.

Knowing that The Lansquin would stop at nothing to get his hands on the Blood Star Ruby, Melneeva tricked him into an agreement. The Lansquin, however, was far more devious than Melneeva had believed, knowing of Melneeva’s trap, had set up a trap of his own

On September 23, 1664, arrived a large floor clock and Eggneesa (the giant pipe organ) to the Manor. Beyond the arrival of these two objects, the events of that day were a murky and blurred mess, retold by all who were there, in markedly different ways. Each witness telling a story far different from every other witness. What actually happened that day remains a mystery, save for these facts, in which all accounts agreed:

      1.) Melneeva, at the time 6 months pregnant, began to fight with Ouintanga over the exhorbate cost of the pipe organ.

      2.) Ouintanga went to Sir Roderic, pleaded for him to force Melneeva to return the organ.

      3.) Melneeva, attacked Ouintanga intending to kill her, before she could tell Sir Roderic why the organ should be returned.

      4.) Sir Roderic Lincandonia Swanzen tried to separate the two women.

      5.) Melneeva fell from the third floor balcony, down two floors to her death.



What exactly happened, remains unknown. Some point to accusing finger of murder at Sir Roderic, claiming he threw her off the balcony. Others say that Melaca had intervened and had thrown her. Some say that she simply slipped and fell. In any case, Melneeva fell from the third floor, down to the first floor. She never woke up, and died a few hours later. Of the unborn twins she was carrying: one died with her; the other, an alarmingly small fish-like creature survived, and was named by Roderic: Etiole de Blue be Azure. Etiole would forever be thought of by Sir Roderic as “his baby“, becoming the only thing of any importance to him from that point on.

Devastated and heartbroken over the loss of his beloved Lady Melneeva, Sir Roderic retreated into the heart of The Twighlight Manor, rarely to be seen by anyone again, leaving only to morn at her tomb in Crystal Caves. Roderic's madness was greatly intensified by Melneeva's death, for he now believed that The Twighlight Manor itself had murdered her.

Fourteen years after Melneeva’s death, King Vielder died, and Sir Roderic inherited The Twighlight Manor. Earlier that same years Violet ran away from home, he was soon followed by Razz. Sir Roderic now alone in the Manor, began to wear black and lived in the terrifying world his mind was creating for him.

The Sir Roderic Lincandonia Swanzen that was found 5 years later, by his cousin Al~Keeme, bore no resemblance to the lavish pink clad Sir Roderic Lincandonia Swanzen that once was. Sir Roderic Lincandonia Swanzen had now become the dangerous raving madman who answered to the name of Rod Lincoln, Lord of the Manor. And so came the end of the era of the young Sir Roderic, eccentric prince and the start of the era of the old Sir Roderic, Lord of the Twighlight Manor.


Older Roderic
Elderly Roderic
Roderic After

One of the four original characters, along with EelKat, Emperor Blue, and The Goldeneagle, created in 1978. Rod Lincoln was created for the very first Twighlight Manor story "Friends Are Forever" in its original 1978 first edition version. Originally the main character, Roderic's extreme manic mental instability lead to his being used less and less often, resulting in his youngest son Etiole (originally known as Captain Goldeneagle) to take the staring role as main character of The Twighlight Manor series.

Sir Roderic Lincaldonia Swanzen was born on October 13, 1560. He is the only child of King Vielder Swanzen's twin brother Melaca Swanzen, by a mother of unknown heritage, from an unknown sector of the galaxy.

Roderic has four sons by his first wife the salt-water-siren Lady Melneeva Liore. They are Vwoodell, Kramer Heinrich, Razzbury, and Etiole de Blue de Azure.

The young prince of the Flamite Empire, was a bold and extravagant man, known for his wild ways, and eccentric cloths. Sir Roderic wore one color and one color only: bright eye popping pink, with rich blue embroidery.

Travel and culture was his passion. He set out to collect every book in the world, building the massive library collection of The Twighlight Manor. In his travels he learned to speak 26 languages.

For a time he lived in Carpathia. Somehow on this trip, he convinced himself he was a vampire and developed a dread fear of werewolves, though no one was ever able to explain how this had come about. These were the first early signs that Roderic was slowly loosing his mind.

Shortly after the birth of his first son, Vwoodell, Sir Roderic suffered a blow to the head that left his brain permanently damaged. It was several years before he learned to speak again, but his speech was badly hampered and very slow. His response time to a question, can be several minutes, to several hours from the time the question was asked. While Melneeva was alive, Roderic was generally peaceful. Temperamental, but easily quieted.

Hours after the birth of their youngest son Etiole, Lady Melneeva died. Having no real concept of death and no one patient enough to explain it too him, Roderic convinced himself that his house, his beloved Twighlight Manor, had eaten his wife.

As the years passed, Roderic became more and more moody, retreating farther into the depths of the Manor, speaking ever more of ghosts, haunting, and telling everyone he met that his house was a living being bent on eating all who dared enter.

Cut off from the world and in complete isolation, Roderic, became a wildly violent and dangerous man, suspicious of every one and believing everything to be around for the sole purpose of attempting to kill him. Madness overtook him and his once magnificent Twighlight Manor, began to crumble into ruins around him.

Several various members of his family, one by one moved back to the Manor to help in it's upkeep and to watch over the now very ancient 450 year old Roderic.

By the 1980's Roderic had lost all semblense of the bright and colorful young prince, and was now an elderly man cloaked in blackness and insanity.

In 1984, after nearly 200 years in hiding, the Red-Dragon made his grand re-entrance into the lives of the inhabitants of the Manor. This time he did the one thing no one had ever dared attempt: kill Sir Roderic. His plan was upset by the addition of 2 unexpected guests visiting the Manor: Micha and the Major Tasha. While Micha survived unharmed, the Major Tasha was slaughtered, and Sir Roderic left marred and crippled, losing both of his hands and most of the left side of his face. His hands were replaced with knife-like metal claws.

Depressed, Roderic shed the last element that connected him to being Sir Roderic, changing his name to Lincoln, and locking himself in his room on the third floor of the Manor. Roderic now believes without a doubt that his house to be alive, an evil entity that eats people and fears to leave his room for fear that the Manor well eat him. Too many years living in The Twighlight Manor have driven him insane, or maybe it was too many years of living amongst humans.

When asked Roderic says:

      My favorite color is pink.
      My second favorite color is blue.
      My favorite place to walk is The Twighlight Forest.
      My favorite view is the rocky coast of Maine.
      My favorite trees are white pines.
      My favorite flowers are the pink roses that grow on the beach.
      My favorite car is a 1917 Lincoln.

This article was originally written on: September 23, 2005

This page last updated on: October 31, 2013








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