Yaron Nihlas

"The shadow that lurks and the eyes that watch. His grip is a coiled, iron serpent around thousands of necks." -Author regarding Yaron Nihlas.
Yaron Nihlas, also known among Syndicate circles as Qinu Shalin, Tiber Engral, and to his Numeri agents as Valus, is an Arlion spymaster and emeritus professor of Vestilon University. Having served since the Great War and amassing a great amount of personal power as well as security for the Arlion Hierarchy. In modern days, Yaron Nihlas owns and manages a Core tailoring and clothing company that serves as a front for his Syndicate work. His true work is as a Numeri Shadowmaster, managing the Imperium's spies and agents in the Core and Reach. A master of political manipulation and espionage, Yaron works from the shadows to ensure Arlion dominance in Aeos and overall economic and social stability in the galaxy.
== Appearance ==
An average height, middling Arlion with short, dark green hair that appears black unless the sun shines on it. His eyes are a bright dandelion color. Severe burns cover the left half of his head and upper torso, exposing his cheek bone and jaw through a hole in his cheek. His left eye has been reduced to a blind white from the damage. He keeps his disfigured face concealed behind a metal mask with a respirator and a metal covering over his mouth and his ruined eye. He traditionally wears bright, rich robes in fine fabrics with a dark blue toga over them. Over socks he wears sandals with straps leading up to his calves. His hands are generally covered in soft, leather gloves.
Yaron speaks with an Arlion Undercities accent denoting his low birth, with a deep and callous voice. He is described as smelling of rich, steely colognes from his homeworld.
== Personality ==
"Know the stakes. Understand your allies and enemies alike. Get to the heart of every problem. If it can be quantified, it can be resolved." -Yaron Nihlas
Born to one of the many bleak and impoverished undercity hubs on Arli, the boy who would grow up to be Yaron Nihlas faced a daunting and perilous life each day. From what little he has shared of his past, Yaron grew up to be a ragged and cynical youth with a destructive and selfish streak. He recalls learning the "finer points" of himself from a man he called the "Hammer", a wealthy smith working in one of the better off forgeworks in the hub. The Hammer instilled a sense of pride and achievement in Yaron and instructed him to let these feelings drive him, no matter his opposition. From then on, Yaron persevered to escape the undercity and, eventually, to rise all the way to Cypron of the Arlion Shadownet, the intelligence agency charged with the protection of the Hierarchy and its secrets.
Yaron is a crass and sarcastic man with a realist's look on life. Like many Arlions, he has a mathematical approach to life, viewing his many spies and informants as numbers with varying values and skillsets. This helps him to keep detached enough to give suicidal orders and command the deaths of those who threaten him or the Hierarchy. Yaron has a sharp cunning and has studied on the military and espionage practices of the various Core races and some in the Reach, even managing to learn many of the coveted secrets of the Saleluki's Sarai.
He places a heavy importance on information and the proper use of resources and personnel. He uses Vahler Haress as his enforcer and representative in much of his underworld dealings due to his background and contacts, Shroud for delicate assassination and sabotage work, Rifu Mace for Saleluki intelligence, and so on. This displays a keen observation of training and skill sets as well as how well backgrounds and upbringing play a part in them.
While generally detached from the pieces of his grand plans, Yaron claims to have a select group of underlings he does genuinely care a modicum for and while he does not go out of his way to be overly courteous, he defends his callousness by stating that he generally attempts to take care of his men and never send them on assignments he knows to be futile or suicidal.
== History ==
Yaron never knew his parents, being delivered as a newborn to a fosterage center in the Pedrage district of the Undercity Kangro-Kand. He looks back on his days at the fosterage with resentment, learning from an early age the problems that plague his homeworld. Malfunctioning Droid caretakers and poorly paid social workers ran the fosterage into disrepair, with many of the Arlion workers eventually leaving and the Droids, lacking any maintenance, eventually shut down. The handful of workers left neglected the children and, in time, abandoned them to die. Yaron fell into an urchin gang with his closest friend, Igna. Not long after, Igna was discovered dead in a gutter, and Yaron fled the fosterage after killing their gang’s leader in revenge.
Yaron lived in poverty for several weeks following this incident, competing with several other homeless children for scraps of food or for work. He once recalled an incident to Arandar about how he had lost a Tipura bird to a pack of older boys, but not before breaking the oldest boys' nose and having his own arm broken in the scuffle. He had once stolen a purse of credit coins from a debtor and, having spent it on food, was later found by the man's men and was beaten within an inch of his life and left bleeding at the steps of the Iron Works where he was saved by an Arlion trade worker he called the Hammer. A gruff but strong man who understood the power of trade skills and professions in the Arlion underworld, the Hammer made Yaron one of his assistants in the Nihlas sector of the Works.
=== Learning under the Hammer ===
Under the care of the Hammer whose skill with shaping metal was as equal as to his wits, Yaron learned how to survive life as an Arlion underworlder. The Hammer taught him how to read and write so that he may be able to type up receipts and shopping lists for the smith. Over time, he became the most trusted and skilled of the Hammer’s assistants. Yaron recalled that his first master was a hard, diligent man who was most at peace when at his work and that is how he hoped to be. Like the Hammer, Yaron found solace in his duties and became just as diligent.
However, poor investments left the Forgemaster of their smithy to shut it down to save costs. The Hammer refused to evict the premises, too proud and devoted to his work. He sent the assistant’s away with the leftover money in the registers and the remaining stores of food, but not before instructing Yaron To flee to the Overcities and pursue a better life. He instructed him to take what the Hammer had taught him of smithing and metalworking to the Kren-Fah-Tua Guild where the Hammer himself had studied and present a Token of Mastery to their trainers. There he could begin a new life and escape the gripping poverty of the Arlion underworld.
=== Escaping Kangro-Kand ===
As he and the rest of the assistants were registered into the system of the smithing company, security Droids were dispatched to round them up and secure whatever valuables they had stolen. One by one, each had been detained, killed, and their credits and food taken. All but Yaron, who evaded the Droids at every turn. Managing to smuggle himself into a shipment of machine parts to the Overcity, Ahron Kai, Yaron had used what remaining money he had to have a new identity forged for himself - Yaron Nihlas, Apprentice Smith.
Transported to the docks of Ahron Kai, Yaron spun a background to customs that he had been the son of the “late Armsmaster Nihlas” who had shipped his only son off to hone his skills at the forge in the Kren-Fah-Tua Guild Hall. The customs agent took pity on the youth and escorted him to the Guild Hall, where a young Yaron was admitted entry.
=== Joining the Kren-Fah-Tua Guild ===
Yaron honed what little skills he had with shaping metal but faced great adversity from rivals of the upper class. His masters noticed that Yaron had a keen mind and a hunger for knowledge and soon found that by the time he had achieved the rank of Junior Apprentice, he was practically a Journeyman in skill level. He developed a strong rapport with several masters in the Guild, protecting him from his rival Apprentices. Eventually, word reached the Waylon Academy of this prodigy from the Underworld and an invitation to their halls was extended and accepted by Yaron, who felt he should explore as many options as he could before deciding on a path. He kept his connections in the Kren-Fah-Tua Guild and used them as references for his entry into the Academy.
=== Life in Waylon Academy ===
As a student at Waylon Academy, Yaron’s options were limitless. He explored biology, chemistry, social studies, the arts, mathematics, and even some Magick. By the time he had reached sixteen, he was a fully graduated man with honors and a mastery over Social Sciences, Political Sciences, and more. He went on to enter the even more prestigious Vestilon University not long after to pursue a career in the Arlion Shadownet, the security arm of the Hierarchy.
=== Meeting Nuvinarch Kivan Trosk ===
== Weapons and Equipment ==
== Ships ==
*The Parliament - A Destra-class luxury barge, the Parliament is fitted with an intricate security network and state-of-the-art scanner technology. The Parliament is Yaron’s home away from home and has been built to accommodate both his professional needs and his wants. His personal cabin has been tailored to fit an office, kitchen, living room, and a hidden passage way leading into the ship’s inner hull framework. Yaron has a complete schematic of the ship to serve as a map with quick routes from his cabin to a discrete escape pod located near the aft nacelles.
== Skills and Abilities ==
*Vast Intellect - A master manipulator and tactician, Yaron plays the long game, forming conditions for victory and adapting to shifting situations.
== Quotes by Yaron Nihlas ==
*"Vain charges are a fool's gambit. Better to tuck tail and save your strength for better odds."
*"Cunting Heskra."
*"I respect the man, aye. Even helped fund many of his operations. Doesn't mean I trust him." -in regards to Q'rey Raxos.
== Quotes about Yaron Nihlas ==
*"The man is a viper, Major. He may seem still and friendly now, but look too close and he'll sink his knives into your throat before you can blink."
== Trivia ==
Category:Characters