Kaul Torfi (Ka-wol Tor-fee)

Alchemist, Capitalist, & Pugilist

There is scarcely anyone in commerce, government, or finance that does not know the name and theories of Kaul Torfi. A keen financial mind without peer during his time, Torfi's ideas on finance and money have influenced the world for countless generations. He is a controversial figure - a visionary theorist, for sure, and a strict enemy of banditry, crime and wanton chaos. However, his idealistic governmental theories - the Utopia of Finance - broke down within years of his death, as his allies and partners chose to discard the principles of his ideology in favour of enriching themselves at the expense of the masses, and in his own life, his ideals were already quite authoritarian.
Love him, hate him, see the nuance in-between, or whatever else there is to think of a man and his work - but at the end of the day, it's impossible to say that he wasn't important.

History

Early Life

Kaul Torfi was born to an Ancient Stormaki mother living in the Casa-Nelaxi Fertile Crescent - now the cursed wasteland of Aarvatyle - in 67 CE. His mother, at the time, was a hostage of a bandit band across the border in the Kezel Lowlands, a haven for criminals exiled from the dwarf hold of Belaz Nelax. Separated from his mother at a young age, Torfi was raised to be a gladiator for the entertainment of his captors, a fist-fighter who would engage in brutal fistfights against other captives in a simple pit. he began fighting at the age of 10, in 77 CE, where he met and became friends and rivals with a boy his age named Ayyur, a captive from Zhuristan.
This continued for years still - in the midst of their teenage years, in 82 CE, Kaul and Ayyur realized deeper affection for one another, and pursued a romantic relationship in secret, for fear that their captors would separate them to prevent the integrity of their matches from being compromised. This meant that the two lovers had to continue bare-knuckle brawling with one another, but would tend to one another after the match. Ayyur retained the edge as a fist-fighter throughout their entire time knowing one another, albeit a narrow one.
In 85 CE, the two lovers would make an escape attempt. Torfi, not sure if he wanted to sell or read them, stole a collection of books and scrolls belonging once to an alchemist killed during a raid by the bandit captors. However, during the escape, Torfi was wounded. Unable to continue on his own, Ayyur managed to bring his lover to a group of escaping captives with a wagon and loaded him onboard. Knowing that the pursuing bandits would attack the caravan if given the chance, Ayyur stayed behind. He managed to overcome at least a dozen enemy fighters before succumbing to his accumulating wounds. Torfi swore that day to make sure that there will come a time when no one has to suffer as he did.

Rise to Power

Over the next six years, Torfi refined his knowledge and skills - he learned to read Common and Dwarven, mathematics, alchemy, and various other useful crafts, while at the same time refining his skill as an unarmed fighter. He proceeded to eliminate the leaders of various bandit groups, exploiting the natural kratocracy of bandit organizations to assemble some early manpower. An excellent judge of character, Torfi managed to find and exile or eliminate the majority of bandits in his budding organization who were not simply victims of circumstance and developed loyalty in them through stable income.
In control of a not-insignificant level of manpower, Torfi managed to convince various farmers to settle in his new territory. Compared to most communities, he had a core of skilled and experienced fighters who would give bandits pause. On this foundation, he would build up a prosperous community and the foundation of his future business - Torfi Alchemicals. This business would go on to establish a Fortress-Factory where hundreds of workers produced tindertwigs, an alchemical good akin to a match, based on a formula of Torfi's own invention that slashed their price down to what could be a consumer good even in these early days of civilization, in addition to plenty of other alchemical goods. This fortress would be finished in 96 CE, as Torfi's numbers of both civilians and warriors swelled thanks to the elevated standards of living and security by the standards of the region, and the easier work compared to banditry.

Torfi Alchemicals and Tarak Torfi

Torfi was among the first people to establish cross-continental trade relations and the first to do so besides Emperor Cezak of Hanxi to do so without a direct land border between the continents. His first major trade route was with the tribes of Meisaleh established in 98 CE - a culture sitting atop the single largest quantity of gold in the world. Due to low interconnectedness between cultures, the Leh people did not realize the value of gold to other cultures and sold it quite cheaply, until 103 CE when the information reached them. This interaction is believed to be one of the reasons why the Kindgom of Meisaleh would later establish the Radiant Council to regulate the sale, use, and distribution of gold and other precious metals.
103 CE is also when Torfi began to write his manifesto and biography, outlining his ideology of the Utopia of Finance - this system holds that matters of finance are to be left to the market, but that a powerful central government with dictatorial power must exist to maintain control over the essentials of life and regulate the market from unfair and illegitimate influences. As a result, he believes, all goods will naturally end up where they belong, as per the rules of supply and demand. While there are no modern examples of perfect executions of Torif's ideas, the core of this ideology is now at the center of most modern financial systems and strategies.
In 105 CE, with the largest army in the region and stable finances, Torfi changed the name of Torfi Alchemicals to Tarak Torfi - establishing him as a nation rather than just a business - and moved it into a war footing - leading from the front, he moved to attack and subjugate or exterminate bandit groups across the Kezel Lowlands. While most of the bandits themselves were wiped out unless they surrendered, hostages and various money men and informal accountants were instead recruited. Survivors among the warriors were either made to give up crime forever and become good citizens of the corporate state or leave their borders and never return. A major target is Luttburg - Torfist agents began laying the groundwork for that conquest as early as 100 CE. After a series of major conquests, in 110 CE, Torfi slowed down to consolidate his gains, expand his network of Fortress-Factories, and connect with new trade networks. They defended against a series of major bandit attacks hoping to find an overstretched opponent. While these attacks met with some early success, the response was swift and decisive, and the threat of bandits in the region was neutered beyond repair.

Later Life and Death

In 111 CE, Torfi committed to finishing this bandit threat once and for all, and to avenge Ayyur. He waged a series of offensive pushing out the many bandit groups of the region. Growing old, he also pays a visit to the monks of Belaz Nelax and spends some time refining his hand-to-hand fighting skill. Drawing upon his own experience, the memory of their teachings of the Jubilant Fist martial art, and a not insignificant amount of plagiarism from Nelaxi works, Torfi would begin to write a volume on hand-to-hand fighting, Practical Unarmed Combat. He finished this book the next year and would print and sell this book in small volumes. He sold the rights to print, distribute, and modify the book in Hanxi to Emperor Yuanpei himself, which was foundational to the study of ki in martial arts, and the seminal book The Mechanics of Spirit written by Yuanpei.
By 123 CE, Torfi had gained control of the majority of the land Tarak Kezel would comprise - expanding his fortress-factories, Torfi would spend the rest of his life fighting to expand his state and consolidate his power. Most minor bandit organizations had broken down or disbanded, and the major ones were shrinking by the day. Dependant on mutagens to continue fighting at his full power, his health declining, Torfi managed to hold on for 18 more years. Ultimately, he died in his sleep after an extended battle with liver cancer, caused by the increasingly high-potency mutagens he needed to continue leading from the front. His notes on creating and improving his mutagen led to the refinement and improvement of the use and manufacture of similar alchemical products in the future.

Legacy

Torfi remains a key theorist on the nature and practice of finance and commerce. His theories, while controversial, have many aspects that no merchant, exchequer, or political leader can afford not to know. His understanding of supply and demand, while common knowledge to us, was important in establishing modern financial thought and a cornerstone idea of Iocrade's financial systems. Furthermore, Tarak Kezel - the former Tarak Torfi - remains a prominent political and financial power to this day.
However, Torfi's theories - or the corruption thereof, some would say - have made this nation a cesspool for financial inequality. While typically nominally wealthier, the average Kezel citizen also works longer hours in oftentimes more gruelling and difficult conditions while a select cadre of higher-ups enjoys the luxuries of their state. Furthermore, the underground nation of Tarak Miorga has taken this to further extremes, where workers are openly and gleefully exploited by an unfettered upper class and kept in line by a violent and privileged police force.
For all his faults, however, Torfi and Ayyur are now seen as a byword for love, romance, passion, and maintaining it all in the face of adversity. Their story is remembered akin to Romeo & Juliet in our world, as the archetypical romance. For this reason, Tarak Kezel is among the most tolerant nations in the world towards sexual minorities, particularly homosexuals, exceeded only by elven cultures who have always made little distinction between sexes in terms of gender identity.

Type: Political Leader, Military Leader, Political Theorist, Economic Theorist
Race: Human
Ethnicity: Ancient Stormaki
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Gender: Male (Cisgender)
Time: 67 CE - 141 CE