Floris Gill

***“**The commoners don't see the beauty of our work. Then again, we don't expect them to.**”***
— Floris Gill

**Floris Gill**, nicknamed the **Red Terror**, was a Crestian terrorist and the leader of the Great Orchestra. He was the most wanted criminal in Crestian history, even surpassing Edmond Heyer.

### Early Life

Born to Fabian and Margareth Gill in 1176 AW as their firstborn child, Floris Gill was destined to inherit the Gill Family's vast fortune after his father's death. The Gills, the current heads of the League of Whitecrest, enjoyed a great deal of wealth and political might, and Floris grew up in extreme luxury.

Growing up, Floris Gill ignored every lesson his father tried to give him in business. Instead, he would often sneak off to the various inns and taverns of Whitecrest, where he would be fascinated by the musicians and the dancers. He also spoke to the God of Fun and Pleasure, Eitrius, on multiple occasions.

Each time, a mad search for the boy would be arranged by Fabian Gill, and each time he would be dragged back by soldiers of the First Army to the League's Palace, where Floris was punished for sneaking off. Fabian stubbornly tried to get his son to follow his lessons, and Floris would stubbornly continue to defy his father. When words failed him, Fabian began physically abusing his son, often beating him and locking him up, sometimes for days on end.

Ultimately, it was Floris' mother, Margareth, who acted as his guardian angel. Floris was reported to have had a very close relationship with his mother as a child, and it was Margareth who convinced him to pick up a musical instrument. Margareth bought him a violin and paid for musical lessons, much to her husband's annoyance.

Entering his teenage years and still bitterly antagonistic towards his father, Fabian Gill gave up on trying to make Floris the heir to his mercantile empire. With his daughter Hannah not being the brightest, he ultimately began tutoring Hope to be the heir to the Gill Family fortune. For all Fabian cared, Floris could spend the rest of his life playing his damned violin, but it didn't end there.

At the time, there was as a growing desire for change in Whitecrest. The League of Whitecrest had grown largely corrupt over the previous centuries. It now held a total monopoly over the City-State's economic and political landscape, removing opposition with an iron fist. Together, these reformers, philosophers, and artists formed the Crestian Reform Movement, which Floris would ultimately join.

At first, his membership was secret, and it enraged his father. However, soon after, Floris publicly became a follower of the movement to embarrass his father. During this time, Floris also fell in love with a Faerian from the Eastern Districts, a girl named Leraenor. The Eastern Districts were little more than slums and had been physically separated from the rest of the city for decades. Overrun with criminals and all manner of scum, his son dating someone from this part of the city was another scandal for Fabian Gill.

With the political position of the League becoming more unstable with each passing week, something had to be done about the Reform Movement. Ultimately, Fabian Gill settled on drastic measures when urged on by the other members of the League; the Reformers would be put down by force. When asked whether or not to spare his son, Fabian refused, stating that his embarrassment of a son had sealed his own fate. In 1193 AW, deep in the night, Crestian mercenaries began raiding the city, going door to door. Members of the Reform Movement were dragged out into the street and executed on the spot. Some armed resistance broke out shortly after, though they were small in numbers and disorganised. This attack would eventually become known as the Purge of Whitecrest.

Floris Gill barely managed to escape the mercenaries his father had sent after him, hiding out until the next day. When he crossed into the Eastern Districts the following night, he reached the hovel in which Leraenor lived. All he found was rubble and ash and his lover's charred corpse. She had been trapped in the building when the whole street went up in flames. With nothing left for him, Floris Gill left the city, fearing any further attacks by the League. He travelled south through Western Innyria. His violin no longer brought him joy, and he ultimately tossed it into the River Suttock. The only feeling left was a quiet burning hatred inside him.

### Exile and Return

Floris Gill ultimately made his way to Freistadt in the Kingdom of Fühlgart, though the specifics of what he did there remain a mystery. What is known is that during this time, he picked up so-called Dishonourable Weapons, mastering the pistols and becoming an explosives expert. Floris was not the only refugee of the Purge in Freistadt, and he met his soon-to-be second-in-command, Kenneth Heiway, while in exile in Freistadt.

Uncontent with taking the defeat lying down, Gill and Heiway returned to Whitecrest in 1197 AW. Already familiar with the Innyrian District, Floris Gill set up his base of operations from there. Together with Kenneth, he began recruiting other Purge survivors and former Reform Movement members to return to Whitecrest and join him. A notable person to join him was Melody Rowen, a former poet and significant figure within the Reform Movement. Together, they formed the Great Orchestra in 1198 AW, briefly after the Syndicate was founded.

Unsure of their plan of action, Gill and the Orchestra began recruiting and training and stockpiling weapons and supplies. Melody Rowen stated that this is where the first disagreements between Gill and herself took place, as Gill wanted to take down the League and destroy his father's legacy, whereas Rowen represented a more moderate branch that wished to revive the Crestian Reform Movement.

Ultimately, Gill and Heiway's more aggressive policy won the day, and they planned to start their spree of attacks with perhaps the largest of all. The Day of Life on the 1st of Greenburst was a major yearly event. However, as Enselonde was entering a new century, the festivals would be even more prominent in scale and attendance. That would be their first target, a goal to strike fear into the hearts of the League.

On the 1st of Greenburst, 1200 AW, Gill and the Orchestra carried out the Temple District Massacre, setting off a series of bombs and attacking with pistols and daggers. It killed hundreds of civilians, injured many more, and collapsed parts of the Temple of All Divines. In an act most likely fueled by ego, Gill left behind multiple pamphlets, notes, and warnings accurately describing the Orchestra's identity and heralding Floris' return to Whitecrest and intention to take down his father.

Upon hearing the news, Fabian Gill placed the largest bounty in Crestian history on his son's head and a significant bounty on any Orchestra member. While this made them ripe targets for any would-be assassins in the Eastern Districts, the Orchestra had developed a dreaded, almost superhuman reputation and instilled fear in both the League and the Syndicate as they began a spree of bombings, arson attacks, and assassinations across the Western Districts.

### Rise, Fall, and Death

Edmond Heyer, the leader of the Dirtcloaks and the larger Syndicate, was also concerned about the Orchestra. However, if they could convince them to join their side, it would strike fear into the hearts of the League's mercenaries. Floris Gill ultimately agreed to join the Syndicate. However, his loyalty to the organization was ceremonial at best, and he only joined to stop any gangs from attacking the Orchestra while their attention was elsewhere.

Between 1201 and 1203 AW, with the Syndicate on his side, Floris Gill began to increase the scale and frequency of his attacks in the city's western half. Combined with attacks by the Dogs of Whitecrest and Anti-League, Whitecrest's economy and stability began to collapse as the League failed to defend their half of the city. During these two years, the Orchestra and Floris Gill were at the height of their power.

However, Floris Gill would cause his own downfall when he received news of a target. Every now and then, Margareth, Hannah and Hope would go on shopping trips in the Market District. These trips were irregular and didn't follow a schedule for security reasons, though an Anti-League spy had managed to send word of the next trip a day in advance. Floris hastily staged an ambush and attacked their carriage, killing their escort. As the Orchestra and the Second Army mercenaries fought around them, Floris had the three lined up. He executed them himself, shooting all three at point-blank range through the head. He reportedly hesitated when killing his mother, briefly pausing before taking the shot. With their goal achieved, the Orchestra retreated back into the Eastern Districts.

While Floris had achieved his goal of killing the pair and, as a result, ruining his father emotionally, he was ill-prepared to deal with the consequences. Fabian Gill gathered the entire elite First Army and ordered them to cross into the Eastern Districts. The resulting Second Purge of Whitecrest saw the First Army search house by house for his son. While Floris managed to evade them, many of the Orchestra's soldiers did not and were subsequently killed.

More significantly, the Second Purge saw Edmond Heyer captured and imprisoned in Greihill Keep in the Western Military District. Without their leader, the Syndicate was quick to turn on each other. However, one thing united them despite the chaos: they all blamed Floris Gill for the Second Purge. The Dogs of Whitecrest immediately launched an attack against the Orchestra, forcing them from their headquarters and scattering them throughout the Eastern Districts in the Dog-Orchestral War. The most powerful gangs of the Syndicate unanimously voted to kick the Orchestra out of their organisation, making them fair game for any gang in the Eastern District.

As a result, Floris Gill was hunted by League and Syndicate alike, as the Orchestra was forced into hiding. However, one more problem would arise. Rhia Gill, the last living daughter of Fabian Gill and Floris' only remaining sibling, had crossed into the Eastern Districts and allied herself with the Dogs of Whitecrest. Driven by a similar desire for vengeance, she singlehandedly tracked down and killed two dozen Orchestra members, including Kenneth Heiway. Twice she found Floris, twice she had injured him, though he managed to barely escape both times.

Spending two years in hiding, Melody Rowen had enough of Floris' antics and ultimately defected alongside the Orchestra's remaining moderate elements. She founded the Redcloaks and was quick to rat out any remaining Orchestra safehouses' locations. With barely twenty men left, Floris abandoned the Eastern District entirely and fled to the Western Districts, which, ironically, had become safer for them. He hoped to rebuild from there or, at the very least, get out of the city, but he was tracked down a third time by Rhia Gill. While she could hardly take on Floris and all his men simultaneously, she did inform Sebastiaan Kenven of her brother's hiding place. In the resulting skirmish, the Dogs of Whitecrest overran Floris Gill's last hideout and killed him. His head was cut off and granted to Rhia Gill to claim the bounty, but she ultimately refused, and his body was burned.

## Military Career

* War for Whitecrest
	+ Temple District Massacre - Victory
	+ Great Orchestra Terror Bombing - Victory

## Career

* City-State of Whitecrest
	+ Noble (1176-1193 AW)
	+ Musician (1188-1193 AW)
	+ Member of the Crestian Reform Movement (1190-1193 AW)
* Leader of the Great Orchestra (1198-1206 AW)

## Personality

While it's easy to label someone like Floris Gill as a deranged madman, the reality is a bit more of a grey area. While ruthless to his enemies, the man was a very calm and collected person on the outside, even when he was seething with rage on the inside. Never too hasty in his actions and always coming prepared with a carefully crafted backup plan is what allowed him to survive the combined wrath of the League and Syndicate for as long as he did.

## Relationships

* Kenneth Heiway - Heiway was Gill's closest ally through thick and thin, and they shared a similar mindset.
* Edmond Heyer - Heyer and Gill viewed each other as tools for their own goals. Calling them allies would be a stretch.
* Melody Rowen - Rowen and Gill fought under the same flag, though they often disagreed and ultimately became enemies.

* Fabian Gill - Fabian and Floris Gill utterly despised each other; their mutual hatred was felt across Whitecrest.
* Sebastiaan Kenven - Gill viewed Kenven and the Dogs of Whitecrest as a loudmouthed fools who frequently got in the way.
* Rhia Gill - Floris Gill considered his sister as a pawn of his father and as a major annoyance.