Thorgils Tarjeisson

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Thorgils Tarjeisson
Full Name: Thorgils Tarjeisson Einhorn
Alias Thor Tanglefoot, Limpfoot Gils

Thorgilssansmaskiii.png

Physical Description
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Race: Norse
Hair Color and Style: Chestnut brown hair, gelled and combed. Notable forked beard and waxed moustache.
Eye Color: Blue
Skin Color: White
Other: Prosthetic left foot

Biographical Information
Father: Tarjei Einhornsson
Mother: Mira Mikelion-Verion
Date of Birth: 1593
Place of Birth: Slevik, Normark
Date of Death: n/a
Place of Death: n/a
Current Residence(s): Eliria, Ardashirshahr, Goldshire Hamlet, Teldrin
Nationality at Birth: Normarker
Current Allegiance(s): Elwynnese Union, Imperial Government
Occupation: Royal Instructing Justice of Elwynn, Arandur of Alalehzamin and Utasia, Count of Ran, Minister of Military Affairs, Chairman of ESB-Jörmungandr Group & Dean of the Library of the People's Academy of Elwynn.


Thorgils Tarjeisson, Administrator and public servant

Early Life

Born in 1593 in the city of Slevik, Normark. Emigrated to Elwynn in 1608 as an undocumented migrant amongst a party of two hundred and fifty displaced persons. Settled in Caligae. Shared dormitory with Aasmund Vigeland. Joined the Union Defence Force in 1613 with a recommendation from General Secretary Vigeland. Transferred to the People's Militia in 1615. Deployed to the Green Valley (Araxion) in 1616. In the same year he was inured and captured by Church of Wayne fanatics after falling into a concealed bear pit (a large earthen pit with sharpened pikes in the bottom). A prisoner of war, he was transferred into the custody of Brettish forces and held for three years in captivity across the Blue Elwynn in unsettled territory. During his imprisonment, his left foot turned gangrenous and had to be amputated. Released after the armistice was signed in 1619 and repatriated in a prisoner swap later that year. To replace his foot he was provided with a government issued prosthesis that was unfortunately moulded to a right foot of a different size. Sent to Echo City for rehabilitation therapy. Assigned to an administrative post in a refugee reception centre in Islus in early summer 1621.

Sentenced by the Star Chamber to six years of contemplation in a monastery on Raikoth for the rape of Ergonian asylum seeker Kelly Kupliva in 1621. Released early from the Kphoraban Monastery on the Nadir mountain range in 1623 after attaining 'proper perspective regarding his past misdeeds' (or in practice by ingratiating himself sufficiently to the Abbot to earn favour) he was taken by sleigh to the city of Tala and there permitted to study amongst the ruins and work for opals, the local unit of currency. Employed by Councillor Ulni to read and interpret correspondence to the new royal government in Eliria. He was dispatched by Ulni to Amokolia in 1624 to observe and report back on rumours that the Steward's daughter was performing in public martial arts competitions. Thorgils was able to confirm that this was, indeed, the case. Scandalised the Council of Nine refrained from further cooperation with Eliria and even declined to report the disappearance of the Duke who had been dispatched to rule over them.

Instead of returning to Raikoth, Thorgils pressed on into the interior of Benacia, passing across the border and through separatist regions of Amokolia and down the Blue Elwynn to Shirekeep.

After arriving in Shirekeep in early summer of 1625, he found shelter amongst the dosshouses of the docks district where he was known as Thor Tanglefoot and Limpfoot Gils. Being no good on his feet and having no interest to go back behind a desk for a while, Thorgils learned a new trade as an abattoir slaughterman down in the bloody shambles of the Old City. It was discovered that Thorgils had a knack for the butchers trade and could readily turn a cleaver and saw to the hewing of any variety of meat from sinew and bone.

Citizen

In 1634 he applied for formal recognition as a citizen of the Elwynnese Union. Owing to his chequered past, the Royal Court in Eliria refused to grand acknowledgement and instead Thorgils took a boat down to Teldrin in the Grand Duchy of Goldshire and received citizenship there from the Grand Duchess Noor Bint Simrani-Kalirion.

Not long afterwards, a new pamphlet was distributed in Shirekeep entitled 'the Semblance of a Mild Dilemma'. Written as an expression of regret at not being allowed to return to his adoptive homeland it was also a polemic calling upon the Elwynnese to not let their ancestral cultures not be drowned out but through diligence and hard work to instead preserve that heritage long into the future. The pamphlet was well received and convinced the Court of King Noah to rescind their original ban and to grand Thorgils permission to enter Elwynn.

Businessman

In the meantime, Thorgils had been busy. After taking up lodgings in the Bethlem Hotel, formerly Bethlem Asylum, he encountered two other exiles, Daniyal Siskander Dravot, an infamous ex-cudgeller, and Ernst Cryptsinger a former Instructing Justice of the Court of Star Chamber. Both had been exiles since the Communist Revolution. They were living a discrete but not uncomfortable existence in Teldrin, the least lunatic of the notable towns of Lunaris, and were willing to invest their remaining capital into the venture that Thorgils now proposed.

On his journey south Thorgils had noted the unregulated nature of the river trade between Shirekeep and Musica and how no tier of government was asserting itself in either monitoring or taxing that trade, to the extent that smugglers were growing lax and river pirates were plaguing the Red Elwynn. If a company was put together with a monopoly on trade into Teldrin, they might soon be able to fund a river patrol to ward of pirates begin levying tolls on the river. This proposal the three men took to the Aldermen of Teldrin and found them amenable. The next step was to lobby the new Grand Duchess herself. This they did by promising a tenth of all yearly profits. The result was the issuance of a Ducal Warrant and the formation of the ESB-Jörmungandr Group.

The Resistible Rise of Thorgils Tarjeisson

The Lunatic Gazette, a periodical of the County of Lunaris, took aim at the ascent of Tarjeisson in Goldshire with this satirical cartoon.

Appointment as Arandur of Alalehzamin and Utasia
On the 23rd of Elroqpin in the year 1634, Queen Noor, as Emira of Alalehzamin and Utasia, issued a Farman transferring the government of the precinct to Thorgils Tarjeisson. Uncomfortable at accepting an aristocratic title with Babkhi overtones, Thorgils declined to be recognised as Emir, instead returning that title to Noor. He was however prepared to take on the duties of Governor and asked to be recognised as Arandur (Steward) of the Emirate. This was achieved through special dispensation in the Royal Decree of the 5th of Vixaslaa, 1634 granted by King Noah.

His first act after appointment was to reform the Elwnameh, the customary body of law in Alalehzamin and Utasia, based off the laws of Baron Ardashir and the ordnances of the County of Lesser Zjandaria. In their place was a single fundamental law of the Emirate of Alalehzamin. The Farman created a Durbar of all the duly elected Mayors of the Bailiwicks of Alalehzamin and Utasia that would meet annually to legislate on matters within the purview of the powers devolved to the Precincts by the King's Court. The new Elwnameh also set out the nature of the social contract between the Emirate and civil society as well as establishing the Emirati Riddare as a Civil Defence Force.

In addition the Elwnameh also contained significant new regulations concerning transport, sanitation and household infrastructure. Although criticised as absurd reproductions of the worst elements of Babkhan bureaucratic excess, the regulations contained in the Elwnameh provided an element of standardisation that had hitherto been largely absent. The largest single project initiated as a result of these reforms was the construction of the Royal Road that would link Ardashirshahr with Islus and Eliria. The Royal Road was intended to be built on a gargantuan scale, with a uniform layout consisting of two carriageways comprising of four lanes each proceeding in opposite directions, with a central partition set between the opposite carriageways carrying two parallel railway tracks for a high-speed commuter train service. The entire structure was set upon a raised platform of pounded earth five hundred metres in width and raised eleven metres above ground level on level terrain and of whatever height would be required to follow the gradient incline. The road was then to be flanked with a dyke of eleven metres depth and eleven metres width on either side.

To finance this project in particular, the Elwnameh reforms included the introduction of a monopoly on the production, distribution and sale of all psychoactive substances, a notoriously broad category extending from opium to coffee. The predictable result of which has been an explosion in black market racketeering and an equally vicious government led crackdown and enforcement effort by the Gentlemen-at-Cudgels and the Emirati Riddare. Opinion remains divided on whether the Monopolies are a lucrative source of revenue or a massive and unsustainable drain on the law-enforcement budgets.

What is known is that the promise of revenues derived from the enforcement of the Monopolies have been pledged as collateral for the operating costs of the Imperial & Emirati Bank of Alalehzamin which provides Banking Services to the Emirate, essentially permitting the importation of Teldrin Thalers as currency and the issuance of letters of credit by the Emirati Government. The contract for the administration of the Imperial & Emirati Bank of Alalehzamin was awarded to the Financial Services Directorate of the ESB-Jörmungandr Group, of which Thorgils Tarjeisson is of course Chairman. The suggestion of impropriety is naturally rejected by the Emirati Government which goes to great lengths to point out that the Financial Services Directorate is headed by Dr Ernst Cryptsinger and that a Jingdao Ethics Wall exists between the Financial Directorate and the Commodities Directorate headed by the Chairman and also within the Financial Directorate to separate the Imperial & Emirati Bank from the Bountiful Harvest Limited which administers the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Alalehzamin & Utasia, currently heavily invested in the Royal Road Project, and the expanding sub-prime derivatives market that is fuelling the household Ziggurat construction boom, through loans to the Emirati Government which in turn makes grants to facilitate the construction and proper maintenance of the required building infrastructure required for a lawful household residence (10 metre high raised mud-brick platform with a five storey residence built on top, surrounded by 15 metre high outer perimeter wall and 3 metre deep dry moat), in addition to the regular mortgage for other residential structures within the household ziggurat complex.

Arandur Tarjeisson seized upon a comparatively minor issue to demonstrate his political independence from the significant Babkhi minority community which has hitherto defined the character of the Emirate. After touring the second hand book stores of Ribat-e Kapav (southern district of the city of Ardashirshahr) he chanced upon an antique book known as the Foibles of the Unbelievers and immediately realised its incendiary potential. After an amicable discussion with the bookseller, a Esau Aalai Kasanrajon, he discovered that the book had a cult following in the Babkhi and Elw community for its xenophobic and darkly humoured depictions of Boreals, Elfinshi and the Froyalanish as foolish, effeminate and depraved creatures deserving only of a lingering death.

With this knowledge in hand, the Arandur ventured to Eliria with a petition to the King's Court that the book should be banned for incitement to hatred and harm to race relations in the Elwynnese Union. Rather awkwardly, he was opposed in this petition by Deimos Jasonides, the Secretary for the Board of Directors of the ESB Group. A Royal Rescript in response to the petition was received in early 1635 instructing the civil authorities to prosecute vendors who sell the Foibles of the Unbelievers under Article 2 of Chapter 3 of Elwynns Straflov. Gleefully, upon his return to Ardashirshahr, the Arandur summoned the Stallari and the Gentlemen-at-Cudgels, and made to confront Esau Aalai Kasanrajon for selling him his copy of the Foibles. Aqa Kasanrajon was subsequently dispatched to Dragonsfold Gaol, wherein he was held awaiting the pleasure of the revived Court of Star Chamber.

Conduct of Elections to the Royal Parliament
Complex three tier election for political parties and affiliated guilds. 141 delegates elected to 140 man delegation. Resolved after unfortunate accident befell the head of the EWP caucus.

Reform of the People's Academy of Elwynn
Sponsored restoration of the manuscript of the History of Elwynn. Proposed the appointment of new Board of Governance. Commissioned the Modern History of Elwynn.

Reorganisation of the Military of Shireroth
1635 - appointed Chief Secretary of Military Affairs.
ESB starts winning defence contracts put out to competitive tender.
1636 - appointed Minister of Military Affairs after the bloody culmination of the River War.

Medical Scandal in Allswell

Appointment as Count of Ran

Contract for the Royal Government of Goldshire

Appointment as Royal Instructing Justice for Elwynn
Campaigned for the revival of the Court of Star Chamber

Controversy with Minarboria
In spite of being a consistent advocate of good relations with Minarboria and fostering trade relations both through the ESB Group and the placing of a notable defence contract, the conduct of a military exercise on the island of Zy-Rodun featuring a thin expy of Minarboria as the antagonist touched a raw nerve with the government of that realm, coinciding as it did with changing media perceptions of the the undead in the media output of the Elwynnese Commons which resulted in the lodging of a harshly worded formal query by the Government of Minarboria with the Ministry of the Exterior in 1638. The exercise known as 'Mulcher', a part of the far larger preparedness test known as Operation Long Haul coincided with a long holiday enjoyed by the Minister of Military Affairs which put him in a difficult spot for seeking to allay the concerns expressed. Fortunately however, the explanation he provided, together with a more thorough and detailed response by Kaiser Hjalmar appeared to go some way towards clearing up misunderstandings and calming a potentially tense situation.

The Vale of Angularis
Transferred from Amokolia to Alalehzamin and Utasia by an Act of the Royal Parliament in 1638
Subject to a tour of inspection by the Arandur of Alalehzamin and Utasia in 1639.

Operation Tymarian Sun

Main Article: Operation Tymarian Sun

Objective attained: the Kaisership

Main Article: Kaiser Dominus

In 1642, having loyally served Kaiser Hjalmar Redquill for four Elw years (1639-1642), Thorgils unexpectedly received the departing Kaiser's nomination and blessing to ascend to the Mango Throne. As the nomination was uncontested, the process of subjecting the nomination to a vote in the Landsraad was foregone and Thorgils ascended to the Kaisership as Kaiser Dominus Tarjeisson.

After establishing his government and trimming back the power of the Imperial Household, Thorgils celebrated his good fortune by contracting a dual marriage alliance with the Lordship of Blackstone and the Emirate of Sathrati.

Relationships

Ancestry