Lylebor

## Just act

*“The first answer that you come up with is almost always the best one you’re gonna have, so just roll with it. Don’t second-guess yourself, don’t hesitate, just act. You’ll live longer that way.”*

-Lylebor

## History

Lyle Goodman would be the first to tell anyone that he never wanted to be a monster. Born in the former district of Korvosa, his family lived on the edge of the Southside Slums and were prey to rampant poverty and gang violence. At the time that Lyle was growing up, several strains of lycanthropy were running amok. These misbegotten creatures were the target of violent purges, and many of the were-creatures that survived became dangerous outcasts. Growing up in this environment, Lyle and his childhood friend Mór both dreamed of a way out, and made plans to join the Druid Order. An energetic and bombastic youth, Lyle made certain that everyone knew of his ambition to become Great Druid of Dragonsmouth and use his power to make a better life for the people of his home. Disaster struck when Lyle himself was stricken by lycanthropy and became a wereboar. As he succumbed to the curse, he was nearly murdered by his own parents, who faced the pressure of their frenzied neighbors, and only survived when Mór smuggled him to safety. Lyle, now called Lylebor, lived a violent life on the ragged fringes of society, consorting among others of his kind and. Though he lived among the lycanthropes, Lylebor did not completely succumb to nihilism but instead held himself above others of his kind, clinging on to his dream of returning to civilization. In the midst of the violence, his dream brought him focus, and his focus brought him strength. Opportunity arose when Korvosa fell, plunging its inhabitants into chaos. Some of Korvosa was taken by the Military District, and the wealthier part became the South Merchant District under the control of the Herman Brothers. Lylebor’s home remained a crude no-man’s land, abandoned by the Herman Brothers but outside the grasp of Gallow the Underhanded. Seizing the opportunity, Lylebor made common cause with the most dangerous of his kind, the Kin-Killers, a brigade of Ratfolk race traitors who worked for human bounty hunters to exterminate other lycanthropes. Like him, the Kin-Killers had aspirations to civility, and saw in the mighty, ambitious wereboar an employer who could give them the legitimacy they sought. Lylebor had allies in the Druid Order as well, through his childhood friend Mór, herself ascending the ranks of the society. With his odd coalition, Lylebor went about browbeating other lycanthropes into service, killing the marauding gangsters from the Southside Slums, and rebuilding the infrastructure for the manufacturing guilds to flourish. Korvosa had been a manufacturing hub, and other economic powers in the city saw benefit to the restoration of the craft guilds. Lylebor’s first outside ally was none other then the Redshire Trading Company, which provided the funding and stamp of legitimacy for his plans to build a great open market in the center of his homeland. The Lylebor Craft Market was built, a trade deal was signed, and a warlord was born. The people of the new Southern District did not know what to make of their monstrous new leader, no more then the druids knew how to think about their unnatural champion. Lylebor found support amongst the common man, who respected him for restoring pride and stability to their home, though Lylebor himself did not return the veneration. He had not forgotten the fear and hatred of mankind. His only true kin were the equally self-loathing Kin-Killers, and his only friend was Mór, now Great Druid of Dragonsmouth. He regarded her with envy, and she regarded him as a monster.

## Personality

In the modern day, Lylebor is not content with economic success, for he has not forgotten how the other warlords allowed the plague to run rampant. It makes him sick to see them embrace him with open arms now that he is their equal and now that his district is manufacturing goods for them to buy and trade. Lylebor may have retained his humanity, but he only managed to hold on to the worst aspects of humanity: cruelty, ambition, envy, and vengefulness. His strength is crude and superficial, his nobility tarnished. And he is blind to this.