You are hardly a sovereign or much of a top dog at all unless you get your name entered into canon. The Sumerians, who else?, started the tradition once they had invented writing. Ancient history indeed. And so what’s good for them is good for me. Here is the definitive list of Ana rulers:

1. Ayana
2. Kanekina
3. Anaster
4. Ankelika
5. Anatai
6. Akanai
7. Antonaster
8. Jakanesar

Human king lists tended to have superhuman reigns claimed for their most ancient generations. Sumer’s was that way, and so was Japan’s as recorded in the Nihon Shoki, half a world and half a human history away. In both cases, state religions depended on the divine origns of the dynasty. The earlier the king, the closer to a god. Not exactly a perfect instrument for calculating dates then.

The Ana king list isn’t such an arrow to the heavens. At least in quite the same way. But the details can wait. Instead, here’s the basics on Andala’s single pre-eminent dynasty.

Ayana was the first Ana to rise to such prominence that she unified the nation. Her name in Anatara means “of Ana”, or more rightly “of us”. Like the human examples above, she may be at least semi-legendary rather than real. Her character is veiled in the Ana and subsequently Andalan nation-cult. As you might guess, the city of Ayanakert is named in her honour, seized from the Azu at the dawn of Ana supremacy. She is both the most renowned and least known queen.

Kanekina, Anaster, Ankelika and Anatai were all women. For four successions, then, the Andalan throne was a strictly female affair. Descent through the feminine line is quite a feature of many things Ana, and was a natural fit at the top of their society. During this period, the “underworlders” of Katani and Aitiri were added to the Azu in Ayanakert’s orbit. Andala became a single kingdom, albeit of four very different parts.

Akanai was among the most signifant of Andalan rulers. He was the first king. A precocious only son of Anatai, who died bearing him, his rise to the top rôle was far from certain and a matter of great tumult at the time. One of the most naturally gifted in aner ever known, he prevailed nevertheless. And it is he who is in power when Proteus arrives. Akanai is the first Andalan leader we get to know.

Akanai’s son, Antonaster, shares one trait with his father in their prodigious aner. But Antonaster is a polar opposite personality. While Akanai is welcoming enough of the humans to send Tani to Earth, and eventually even goes there himself, his son is hostile to the Proteus crew from first sight and remains that way throughout his life. When Akanai leaves for Earth, Antonaster rules as his distant proxy. And when the old man never comes back, Antonaster ends up at the heart of the cataclysm which is Andala’s civil war.

Finally, with Jakanesar, we are current up to the start of Alpha, though only just. Events kick off with the news that the middle aged king isn’t exactly in great shape. But what of his children? A certain Jocaster and Madala. The first a pupil and the spiritual successor to his grandfather, the prodigal and divisive Antonaster. The second a woman trying to make her way, unnoticed, among us here on Earth.