Taron Carver
Captain Taron Temeles Carver (a.k.a. TC)
Captain in the Varangian Guard, assigned to domestic incidents and reports. Often employs highly effective adventurers in activities that might create conflicts for actual Varangian guards, or that might otherwise be unsavory and in need of some bureaucratic separation from the Guards themselves.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Aging very gracefully. Still more or less in his prime though the years are finally beginning to add up.
Apparel & Accessories
Stylish, favors silver rings inset with turquoise and gold patterns on multiple fingers on both hands.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Born in late 12031 in East Gulcrest, Khazigur to a middle class merchant household - his mother sold kitchen implements and cooking equipment, his father was an army doctor at Fort Kalish. He has a sister, Palemma, and an older brother Leon. Came from a strict Basilidean household where religion and family was - and is - very important.
Education
Taron attended the public educational campus in his neighborhood and pursued law enforcement with a wizards' interest in the tiny legalities of things, not from any innate love of the law but because it was so deep and complex and richly satisfying in its history, and the idea of saving civilization from this tide of lawlessness appealed to him from a very young age. He worked in his mother's shop as a teen and studied law through the local library extension in the early morning hours before the shop would open, and was recruited into the city guard two days before his seventeenth birthday.
Employment
He excelled in his work with the city guard from the beginning, reaching the level of city detective at age 22, and was recruited into the Varangian Guard's investigative staff three years later after racking up some impressive numbers for the city. He has flourished in the guard, and has been instrumental in his division's work to keep gang violence at an all-time low - publicly from several of the major busts his department has orchestrated, and covertly from his partnership with the Steel Reciters who are more than happy to raid their vassal gangs for troublemakers on his behalf in return for essentially a free rein in the city and in the empire at large where he has any influence over things.
Accomplishments & Achievements
His major accolades come from the takedown of the Steel Reciter crime families on charges ranging from murder to petty theft and fraudulent banking information, but the more important work was probably in decapitating the smuggling ring at the core of the White Chests, whose work with gun runners and contraband had in turn been destabilizing much of the city. His imprisonment of several Glass Street Shanker underbosses effectively eliminated that gang's influence in the capitol. At the same time he has been instrumental in protecting the rights of a small but ancient community of Orcs living in an old drainage cave sytem in the Quags, whose claims are protected by the Carpocratian Accord.
Failures & Embarrassments
Despite his work in capturing and securing the execution of all five of the major heads of the families which comprised the Steel Reciters, their influence has only seemed to grow, although admittedly acts of violence against normal citizens are extremely rare. He nods and accepts blame for this, publicly, and any investigation merely shows that he is plainly involved in deep level investigations that will hopefully uncover deeper layers of that organization's command structure. In actual fact, Mysphodel Artonos brought him the bust of a lifetime, in return for turning the cartel over to her exclusive control, and by extension his influence; the two of them are in a debt pact together on this one, as each owes most of their success to the other, and Mysphodel owes her life, to him.
Less well known is the bust gone horribly wrong that led to the death of his fiancee Elin, a detective seeking to expose and prosecute a slaving ring in the West Quags. While still undercover she was slain by poorly -restrained city guard members in an overzealous bust in a moving slave market that had set up on the edge of the transit, the walled-off tunnel through the Quags connecting the Revels directly to the sea. Though not in charge of the operation, Carver was aware of it, because Elin had broken her vow of secrecy and shared the truth with him, and thus he was in the terrible position of either saving his fiancee when he shouldn't even have known about her involvement, or closing down a dangerous slave market where hundreds of innocent women and men had been traded like cattle, and would continue to be bought and sold. In the end, he decided she knew the risks, that this was her operation and her legacy, and that she would rather go down against clueless city guards while having a fighting chance, with dignity, rather than surviving because Carver pulled the plug on the bust, but being subject to disciplinary action for breaking her cover with him, not to mention being the reason that the slave market continued to operate.
As fate would have it, she did not survive the raid, going down in a hail of musket fire in the back room of the slaver hideout - but neither did the criminals she had infiltrated, and that slave market went down for good. While others have risen in the vacuum, the Past Lives suffered a severe financial blow and the organization as a whole seems to be dissolving for lack of funds and leadership due to this raid and others that followed, Carver having a serious dislike for that gang for obvious reasons.
Mental Trauma
The death of both of his parents still bothers him, as he was close to them both and family is very important to him; luckily they both died old and happy of natural causes. His brother and sister are both close, and he is a good uncle to their respective kids, but he hasn't been able to connect romantically with any other woman since the death of his fiancee, which was a good ten years ago. Not that he hasn't met great women, but he's just not interested in replacing her memory or motivated to put someone else in the danger she would have been, raid or no raid, as the wife of a very prominent city detective.
Intellectual Characteristics
Carver is smart, and oddly circumspect about things, operating usually in a state of idealistic semi-doubt - he really thinks things might go very well, but also knows that sometimes they go very poorly, and maybe this is one of those times.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
A true believer in the Khazigiri Empire, he has followed a path that has led into what a court of law might consider treason; he has become a connecting point to and member of the Steel Reciters, funneling money off-books to support the powerbase of Mysphodel Artanos, in her seizure of power from the old families. In return, the Empire now has significant influence over the Reciters, to perform activities the Varangian Guard or other official parties could never be seen as having any involvement with: The assassination of diplomats and foreign leaders, the suppression of the power of the church, the smuggling of weapons and materials to the war zone in the west, and the elimination of political opposition in the empire where free speech is nominally permitted, if not actually encouraged. Carver feels strongly that this personal compromise is worth the risk, and has seen the results.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
He can be too trusting of people's ability to do what they say or think they can do, which worked to his favor with the Reciters, who have proven themselves to be so much more than mere informants, but can lead to failures when people unworthy of the trust are given responsibility, or secrets.
Likes & Dislikes
Likes: Cookies, certain dinosaurs, interesting rings.
Dislikes: Goopy mascara, certain other dinosaurs, excessive use of mind-altering drugs, cheesecakes
Virtues & Personality perks
He is a highly creative thinker, but much better at making plans than at following them. The ability to think on the fly has served him well in his career, however, and despite being a true empath that genuinely cares about people - even bad people - he's also an opportunist who is attracted to, rather than afraid of, risk. It makes him a good spy and double agent; he can lie convincingly when it's for the right reasons. His quirks and dorkiness lead most people to grossly underestimate him, and he's very skilled at taking advantage of that.
Vices & Personality flaws
His personal code of conduct is often evolving based on new information, but that can make him seem flighty or wishwashy. His personal experiences color his opinions of others, such that he can seem to look down on people or their achivements if his personal experience leads him to draw different conclusions. For instance, many people claim to write great poetry or music or reach otherwise creative heights under the effects of psychoactive mushrooms, but having had a few bad experiences himself, he feels that those kinds of creative acts are fraudulent, and only diminish the true creative action. Having made a friendship with a significant criminal, he chooses to selectively ignore her brutality and record of doing tons of murders because she bought him a lovely ring and they've had laughs over coffee before.
Personality Quirks
He's always doing things with his long fingers when he speaks, and the rings on many of them only accentuate the action; he loves to grin and ponder in the middle of an answer, sometimes in the middle of a word.
Hygiene
Fastidious, and intolerant of any sort of disorder when it comes to his desk, furniture, his wardrobe, cleaning products, facial hair; a true minimalist, his first instinct is to throw away any extraneous paper or bit of fluff. Carver is very much a gentleman and very conscious of the need to be the better person, to be complementary and helpful when possible - and it's always possible. Nevertheless if it helps the Empire in a measurable way, he'd also set your grandmother on fire.
Social
Mannerisms
Basically, he's Jeff Goldblum.
Wealth & Financial state
His position and lack of apparent wife, family or expenses keeps him at a comfortable tier of living, and his stylish upper-middle-class garb and on-trend rings and accessories add to his somewhat goofy charm.
Alignment
Neutral Good
Current Location
Ethnicity
Honorary & Occupational Titles
Captain of the Guard
Year of Birth
12031 ADE
55 Years old
Children
Current Residence
The House Absolute
Gender
Male
Eyes
Dark brown
Hair
Wavy, black and streated with grey
Quotes & Catchphrases
The Varangian Guard, uh...finds a way
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations
Character Prototype
Jeff Goldblum
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