Loriv Thieodin

**Sudra Loriv Thieodin** (*lohr-iv thy-oh-din*) is the Chief of the Provost of the Ushocon, commander of the Ushanran Empire's intelligence and counter-espionage operations. He is a senior member of the Cabal and serves as the spymaster and counselor for Kailar Mascad i-Apsa.

He personally mentored and trained Freyhe during the Valpriot War.

## Titles and nicknames

* **Kaiquine** – a nickname Freyhe gave to Loriv during her training under him, a legendary folk hero in Liashan mythology, the Monkey King Kai Quin who cut off his own tail, giving up his godhood, to become mortal and live among the elves to guide them.
* **Sudra** – awarded the epithet and title "luminary" for his creation and training of the Owl Corps, the Ushocon's special operations and intelligence branch.
* **Horned Owl** – as the founder and director of the Owls, Loriv operated under a pseudonym.
* **Timberwolf** – Loriv has been secretly orchestrating the operations of a separatist group in Valprus called the Wolf Claws which has been undermining President Faraleo Seton's regime.

## Characteristics

### Personality

Deeply admires Ishanah the Widow.• Loriv had a long history of duplicity and incendiary rhetoric that has always given him the reputation of a maverick. Many judge him with suspicion, especially after regarding 'field accidents' on missions.

— disciplined; skilled martial artist; restless

— intelligent; eloquent; educated; inventive

— maverick; revolutionary; radical; idealistic

— unclear end goals; loyalty to the empire? himself?

— created the Owls; much prestige

— conspired to depose Empress Mizaara and elevate the Cabal during the Valpriot War

— known to study Ban'Sangra's Last Words

— "dark hero" of the previous generation; lack of regard to ethics as the ends justify the means

>> Bruce Lee
• (?) After the Cabal's rise, Loriv was promoted to Chief of the Imperial Provost.

## Behind the Scenes

### Wolf Claws

Loriv was disappointed with the complacency of the Cabal's leaders, Himasser and Mascad specifically, in not using the power he gave them to force real change in Ushanra—instead toeing the lines of tradition and custom. Loriv, being a man of action and decision, feels that a strong, disciplined, militant leadership is what the empire needs, and that the entire Divine Sky should "fall." To this end, the Sudra wants to completely eliminate the [royal bloodline] from Ushanra and make the empire democratic, albeit with an Itzhin constitutional monarchy—one that is pure and whose bloodline cannot be penetrated by any other race.

## Biography

### Adolescence: The Isfadanno

In DATE, Empress Fayza lowered the age limit for the imperial draft, again, from sixteen to fourteen. At the age of fourteen, Loriv was conscripted into his provincial militia, a platoon of conscripts his age from around the area who were to serve a mandatory service of four years in the isfadanno.

He thrived in the training campus—cunning, strong, fast, and good-humored, Loriv was an arrogant and restless young man.

### [El Dorado]

At seventeen, Loriv became the center of a controversy. A capable sergeant of his militia, Loriv accompanied an Imperially-sponsored archaeology dig in [El Dorado] as its security detail against dwarven fundamentalists who opposed the excavation of the ancient, sacred grade. The Diabran archaeologists hoped to recover ancient Esshian relics from the sealed dwarven necropolis, stolen from Eloviden when the dwarves first fell upon [Spain].

- found and ransacked ancient library

- killed some of the dwarves.

#### Kaiquine

> "They fear indelicate, inappropriate measures. They could not do what needed to be done. Ushanra does not need to be continued; it needs to be resurrected. You have to cross the lines of circumstance if you ever want to get anywhere in life. There is no in between. You either leave it all behind or you get dragged down with it."
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One nickname Loriv inherited from Freyhe comes from a private story from his youth serving in the isfadannoi: Kaiquine, a Biascian variant of the Monkey King Kai Quin. He disclosed the story to Freyhe in confidence, having omitted the truth about the incident years ago, as truth would have had him arrested for killing his own comrades. Loriv circumvented suspicion due to the fanfare surrounding his uncanny success, and he has remained silent about the events of his mission to a select few.

While scaling a cliff face with other soldiers, Loriv realized their shared rope was wearing thin due to the weight, and boldly "cut the rope" to save himself and complete the mission single-handedly, letting four men die below him.

The rope is the "tail" he was bound to with the other soldiers, and by cutting it, he saved himself and survived.

### Adventuring

- looted ruins for a while(?), collecting treasures to learn from & sell.

- found Ishanah's memoirs (secret oracle)

- she inspired him from beyond the grave towards revolution

- feels itzhin and demons can cooperate, like Arukain and Abranata.

- found the book of Medas and sold it to the Dimuwari
- the Dimuwari traded the Book to Aklys

- (?) Loriv encountered the numoi during his treasure-hunting days, where they offered him a pact.

- (?) Loriv encountered the numoi during the Valpriot War, where they offered him a pact.

### Post-Valpriot War

- After the Sacking, Loriv disputed with Himasser's "diplomacy" with Mizaara & Fayza.
• He excused himself from court and went to Salavia to direct his own war of intrigue in the chaos there. // Loriv was angered at Himasser's 'moderate' coup, and left to Salavia to sort out his own agenda.
• Loriv was involved in Salavian Wars
Recalled to Usharbanipal by Mascad after Himasser was killed (leashing the dog).
– Loriv and his agents were hunting for Aklys on behalf of Irreipej.

Loriv was on his own reconnaissance, "advancing the goals of the Empire" before the Kailar asked for his spymaster back—by way of promoting him to chief of the Provost. During this time, he was secretly establishing the Wolf Claws in the Valpriot hinterlands.

At court, the restless Loriv feels confined and has repeatedly petitioned Mascad for field command, only to be denied, as Mascad "values his wisdom and counsel."

## Involvement

> "If Valprus falls, Ushanra falls."
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Through Keyara, Loriv manipulated Baharra into using her authority as Rumsa to dispatch the Sudra on a holy mission against the Serag, overriding Mascad's command (much to the Kailar's ire). Loriv instead uses this opportunity to whip his disorganized Wolf Claws back into shape. He finds Freyhe after her kidnapping by the Modeans.

### Black Garden

"Built from the ashes of our dead in Alvard...risen to avenge their wasted deaths."

*Loriv the Incorruptible* - can't be affected by sorjin, because of his lacking an animus.

Loriv wanted Ushanra to have an answer to the East's mana bomb. The Black Garden was Irreipej's answer and his part of the bargain to the allegiance with Loriv. Xipe Darum donated one of his mourasta to the Exarch for the enterprise.

Loriv has been reserving sorjin [mana substance] in silos, and selling it for a profit to finance his revolutionaries.

The Gardeners & Farmhands: Irreipej has staffed the Garden with a cabal of sorjin-channeling warlocks loyal to him, led by a prelate and protected by numoi. He set up the black site in the Horrormarch, with Shehu diverting attention in Valprus.

FREYHE

Freyhe is pressured against revealing Loriv's complicity (and by extension Ushanra's) in the Black Garden's creation, and thus linking them to the Sorjachani.

"And what will you tell them? That Ushanra is conspiring with demons? Will you bring down Modeon's wroth upon your home?"

Having just escaped from her Modean captors, Freyhe knows firsthand Rennard and Bendet's intentions for Ushanra.

FREYHE

Loriv finds Freyhe after she escapes the Modeans. Loriv brings Freyhe to the Horrormarch and the Black Garden.

Loriv had told her years ago when they first met that he preferred the ugly, dun feathered matriarchs over the splendidly colorful cockatrices that were the bounty of the rich. He said they looked more menacing. It brought her back to when she, sixteen, and Loriv, twenty, were walking together from drills in the campus grounds. He had walked perilously close to her that afternoon, she could remember feeling how close he felt, from the warmth in that cool afternoon.

She was rubbing the soreness from her arms, brownish welts forming around the bruises.

"You don't make it easy, do you?"

"Did you want any less?" he asked calmly. She didn't answer, and he pressed his palm to her back. "You're very keen, observant....
<details of the drill>
She kissed his collarbone, him being so much taller than her that she couldn't reach anything else.
"You scare me, Little Bird. So much."
"Are you calling me ugly, then?" Freyhe accused him devilishly.
He grinned, taking a step back and pinching her chin. "See. You are observant."

Now there he sat in front of her, jostling casually on the back of his hideous she-turkey. A thought came to her, involuntary and primal. She straightened in her seat, the urge to voice it sudden and necessary, if she thought Loriv would understand her, but she stayed quiet. 'No, I didn't want any less,' she would have answered him. 'I wanted /more./'

CIREIAS
• [The Group] discovers the Black Garden when forced to travel through the Horrormarch. They reconnect with Freyhe in the valley.

FREYHE

• (?) When Freyhe defeats Loriv and fouls his rebellion, an Ushocon general by the name of Tefan asks her to give credit for the victory to the Kailar and declare she was collaborating with the Ushocon // asks her to give the Ushocon credit for the operation, absolving her of her involvement. Defeating the Wolf Claws and Loriv Thieodin would make a worthy gift to Baharra from Mascad and ultimately win the public favor he requires.

> As a Congressional Legate, Freyhe's involvement adds weight to Mascad's gift, as it reinforces the inclusion of the Ushanra Empire in the CC that the Kailar upholds. However, her interfering in internal affairs as a Congressional Legate would mean a conflict of interest in her position of privilege and she would risk a Congressional Tribunal for code violations.
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When ArEm investigates the ruins of the Black Garden, they take note of how the [hound]s naturally started devouring the mourasta with a special craving.

• They deduced that the [hound]s and mourasta came from the same plane.

The presence of a Dromut in the numoi-run Black Garden implicates the High Triune of the Half-Cur Xipe Darum in its sanctioning.

## Relationships

### Freyhe

Loriv mentored and trained Freyhe in combat and as an Owl. They had a short intimate relationship, but he was too self-involved and driven; she was half his age and barely a teenager.

• Loriv explains to Freyhe how owls are always vigilant, their eyes open for anything, any weakness—and then he lashes out in a feint, "You can always see things in their most raw in a killer's/an owl's eyes."

"I hope I don't ever see myself in your eyes, then."

"You're always in them, Freyhe."

### Mascad

Loriv opposes Mascad, who intends to legitimize a Jibrendi shuridanno and abide by tradition. Mascad wants to avoid conflict, preferring to resolve the exclusion of itzhin from the Shuridiaar by breaking the reproduction barrier and earning his people's place in the empire honorably and indisputably. Mascad believes an outright military takeover and the violent disposal of the Rumsa would not have the support of the people nor the Continental Congress and would ultimately fail.

Loriv is a radical whereas Mascad is more moderate.

### Shehu

"You are the beta wolf."

> – to Shehu.
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Shehu is the face of the Valpriot insurrection.