Helgher Tharki

Helgher Tharki, Karl of Rodmuthia, Chief Magistrate of the Great City of Rodmuthana and Habul of the West, is one of the most renowned political rulers and merchants of the Grey Sea region. Renowned for his great wealth, some claim that he is the single wealthiest individual of all Moaseirana.
== Early life ==
The exact year of Helgher Tharki's birth is not known, but he was the son of a free farmer named Helki anointed into Gár by Pelir, and thus born into lower nobility. Despite his class status, his father did not possess more than a farm, a horse, a spear and a shield. Helgher is estimated to have been born around 288-292 ABV. During the period of 304 to 312, the whereabouts of Helgher are unknown, though it appears he took part in the Rodmukina campaign and possibly was taken prisoner by the Za'ahenes.
== Rodmuthana's Occupation Government, 312-317 ABV ==
Following the Great Fire of Rodmuthana, and the subsequent Naval Encounter between Haldad's fleet and the Imperial Fleet outside of the harbour, the capital of the Gates was occupied by a joint occupation of the Rûkhene Empire and the Free City of Veigholmoä. An occupation administration was established to control the city, and while the true power in control was a Ni'za woman named Esha, the man in charge of the occupation became Helgher Tharki, in 313, who at that time served in her retinue.
During this period, Helgher was viewed with suspicion as a Za'ahene Imperial puppet, and was unrecognised by any of the warring parties of the Anarchy. Yet, using the reconstruction fund to build up a personal fortune of silver and even gold menya, he began buying real estate and then selling it as construction began, thus further enriching himself. As the Cult emerged south of Rodmuthana, many refugees entered the city, driven by the high wages caused by the reconstruction efforts and the lack of qualified workers given the Anarchy, meaning that many Za'ahene and Syannic workers also helped reconstruct Rodmuthana. Za'fah, God Empress of Za'ah, also took pity on Rodmuthana and used the vast wealth of the Empire to construct a new citadel, a new wall and a new temple, whereas Veigholmoä funded baths in Rodmuthana following the debt agreement for the Pogrom of 309.
To some extent, Helgher oversaw a quite draconian administration, aimed at actively changing Vidstossi culture from one that was insular, war-like and xenophobic to one that was mercantile and xenophile in its outlook. For example was railing against foreigners and foreign residents of Rodmuthana deemed a capital crime, punishable by the removal of the tongue. This would cement Helgher's reputation as a foreign puppet.
Gradually, Helgher gathered a city council as the occupation loosened.
== Rise to autonomy, 317-330 ==
In 317, several political changes occurred which would consolidate Helgher's grip on power. The first one was the end of the Anarchy, with the deaths of Rodmuth IV (314), Pelir II and the Lord of Ravens (315)- and then the coup of Lán-drej Mökdef in 316 ABV. Lán-drej's subsequent death without issue following his defeat at the hands of Galáspatri in the Battle of Atharaxa. Seeing the end of the Anarchy, Helgher asserted his autonomy by murdering Ni'za Esha and taking power himself, cementing it in 320 with a marriage to the granddaughter of the Haddadid Karl. This allowed him to, following the fall of the Varedi dynasty, assert himself as the Karl of Rodmuthia, while still being the Magistrate of Rodmuthana - ruling de-facto as a despot.
During the decade of the 20's, Rodmuthana would have repaid its debt to Veigholmoä, and became an important trade hub as it would connect the interior of the Gates to the Grey Sea economy, especially the Copper Island and the Rûkhene Empire. The city would grow to 45 000 inhabitants. Helgher's popularity would increase, but as one historian put it:
During these years, Helgher Tharki became the wealthiest man in the Wérgómea - richer than Ragnok and Eryar. Richer than even the Haddadis.
He controlled the tolls of Rodmuthana, the largest port city of the Grey Sea. But he also controlled the underworld smuggling into Rodmuthana, and ensured hefty personal bribes to allow corruption to flourish. While taxation was low and effective during his mayorship of Rodmuthana, merchants and artisans all had to pay expensive and illegal insurances unless they wanted "accidents" to happen to their establishments. Thieves, murderers, rapists and blasphemers could escape penalties if their relatives afforded to pay the mayor protection money. Helgher used his wealth to buy land from vihnds and free farmers, later on increasing the prices by spreading rumours of development projects on said properties, selling them expensively to the city.
Rodmuthana was the cleanliest city of the Gates, and few were those who were poor or unemployed. Mercenaries were stalking the streets at night, if they found homeless people, or more often common drunkards, these were soon placed in a hidden cellar under the granary, branded as thralls and sold to slavery in the Za'ahene Empire. Able men bound to be executed for murder were also secretly sold as slaves, or if intelligent taken into the mayor's employ. Children running around at nights disappeared, five to a dozen gone every morning, and fathers feared allowing them outside. At the last day of each month, they were brought in sealed carriages into Za'ahene slave ships, some of them branded to be sent to the mines and emerging cotton fields, others - especially the prettiest boys and girls - unblemished and sent to brothels in the Empire.
While there was a hidden slave trade, it was not as lucrative as the open slave trade. As many vihnds were indebted, often to Helgher Tharki himself or his underlings as they provided luxury items, fine horses, chariots and salt, they preferred paying their debts in terms of thralls. This proved fruitful, as it increased the wages of peasants, driving the vihnds into further destitution, making them sell their lands to Helgher who then sold them for higher prices, often to foreign merchants or - quite usually - to wealthy Rodmuthana burghers who wanted to attain titles. Helgher never appointed vihnds, he created a title which could be bought and gave nobility status - but it was only accessible to ethnic Vidstossi free subjects. Possibly he had some shame after all, or more likely he just realized how it would look like if he gave foreigner noble titles. Thus, the number of vihnds in Rodmuthia increased from 12 to 69, but most of these new vihnds never visited their levies nor left Rodmuthana. Instead, they became Helgher's courtiers, while the Karl of Rodmuthia continued his slow, arduous process of creating a Za'ahene-style professional army, half of it consisting of foreign mercenaries. With a standing force of 16 000, it was a formidable army.
Helgher Tharki got a monopoly on the cotton import from the Empire, though he eschewed Jarene silk from the legendary lands beyond the jungle, calling it too expensive. He ensured lucrative contracts with Rothinji smugglers, dissidents against Jögae Majzari and ensured a steady stream of amber, something which the wealthiest Vidstossi women craved hanging between their breasts. He imported beautiful slaves, holding them in the luxury brothels which he owned and operated in Rodmuthana, palaces built with pools and tiles in Za'ahene style, lush gardens outside and with a splendid view over Rodmuthana. 
On the countryside, it was rumoured that he owned even more brothels, hidden places were human sacrifices and the most depraved and disgusting acts took place. It was known that he owned over a hundred estates in his karldom, as well as estates in Marusia, Veigholmoä, Sturoana, Risana and even in the Za'ahene nomarchies. Agriculture, fish farms, mines, lumber camps, peat, husbandry, construction, he had dipped his fingers into everything.
Officially, Helgher Tharki showed a public persona of a restless civil servant, a good family man, a man of the people, who raised Rodmuthana from the ashes, in reality he had become one of the most powerful men in the West.
His fortune, official and non-disclosed, would be the equivalent of $100 000 000 000, making Helgher Tharki the wealthiest single individual in the world, only rivaled by the splendour of the Devayani themselves.
Once, during a garden party he joked, "Everybody knows I don't want to conquer the world - owning it is just so much more fun!"
== The End of the Interregnum, 329 ABV ==
The end of the interregnum, with the re-coronation of Ragnok II, Helgher skillfully managed the crisis, and has been appointed Habul (vice-roy) of the West, the first such holder of a title in generations. Yet, what some detractors call out as cowardice during the Sixth Vidstossi-Doryi War has enraged the Thing of Sturoana and has put Helgher's standing in jeopardy.