Here's some campaign notes. Some of this is personal (I'll note which) but my campaign background has been used to define Harvar and the Far Place to date, frr instance in DP: LOT.
>Where is he originally from? Alda-chur?
He is of the Vantaros tribe of the Far Place, whose tribal territory includes Alda Chur.
See: http://mythologic.info/questlines/tribes.html
[Stu - last email I said Princeros - Doh!]
>Approximate year of birth?
From my campaign notes:
1578 Birth of Harvar Hadrosson, later called Ironfist, to the Ambergrain clan of the Vantaros.
Harvar is the second son of Hadros Goldtooth, tribal champion of the Vantaros and a leader of the Heartland Yelmaltae faction. His mother is Kerlissa the Sable, a Tarshite noblewoman who claims kinship with the descendants of king Orios of Tarsh.
('Yelmaltae' is a Far Place cognate of 'Yelmalio'.]
1597 Initiation of Harvar Hadrosson.
>When does he die? How?
The liberation of the Far Place will be an event covered later in the Sartar Rising arc. Basically, in my campaign arc, the Righteous Wind rises again to battle Harvar's increasingly bloody regime, which is dependent on Lunar (esp. Dara Happan) support, Gargarthi mercenaries and the cultus of the Bigger Wind. The online novella 'Helden' covers this episode and the resulting Battle of Sword Hill.
See http://mythologic.info/questlines/helden.html to download Helden as a PDF.
>Cult? Yelmalio?
Yes, noted in a variety of sources. In my campaign, the ultra-conservative,
Dappy-Happy, heartland emulating faction that has taken control of Alda
Chur and most of the western Far Place.
>What does he look like?
He looks just like Phil Anderson. (HOTB, Melbourne 1996) :)
Basically, in my interpretation, since the suppression of the first (really second) Righteous Wind in 1611 (which paved the way for Harvar's rise to power) he affects the appearance of a Dara Happan Lord, full-on Yelmic, gold-dusted beard, coiled hair.
But he's also a former Warlord of the Far Place, so he's no Yelmic fop. And for all its pretensions and nascent riches, Alda Chur is still in some ways a hick barbarian town on the very edge of civilisation, dominated by a hillbilly highland. So true Heartlanders may find Harvar's finery and affectation laughable and even insulting. Far Walkers, either allies or enemies, find very little about Harvar that is laughable.
>What is his personality?
Driven. Conniving. Machiavellian. He's probably *the* arch political operator in all Dragon Pass. He was born into an intensely political environment: his bloodline being key players for control of Alda Chur through the city council, the Golden Octad.
As a younger brother, he watched his older sibling Harnos become Prince of the Far Place (my campaign) and then stepped in to take his place following Harnos' death in the opening days of the Righteous Wind rebellion. He has cultivated Dara Happan support and is also single-handedly remolding the western Far Place into the emulation (on the surface at least) of a Yelmic kingdom.
He has independence from the Empire, for after the massacre of the Ghost Gors in 1608 the Lunars have subcontracted the occupation of the Far Place. (This doesn't mean there are no Lunar forces in the Far Place, it means they are 'advisors', 'mercenaries', passing through on the way to Sartar, stationed at the Lunar Quartermaster-General's supply base outside Alda Chur (the Field of the Tents of Silver) or on R&R in the glass-walled city).
He plays a skillful diplomatic game, balancing the Tarshites, who have always seen the Far Place as theirs by common ancestry and language, and to whom he has agreed to pledge allegiance, against the Empire, especially the Darra Happan forces who have transformed the Yelmalio cult in the region. (Fazzur Wideread btw, represents a third party, a sort of liberal, non-DH Lunar interest. He is represented by Helarnu Truespear, Harvar's niece and a Yanafal Tarnils hero in her own right. Helarnu is one of the few who can and do speak against Harvar in Alda Chur.)
He's also bitter and twisted. After the burning of Alone, a vingan vengeance party (the Burning Wind Women) killed most of his bloodline. His only surviving close kin are the children of his dead brother: Engrid the Enlightened, a soft-centred dolt, and Helarnu Truespear, an uppity Lunarised progressive woman who happens to command a Yanafal Tarnils temple. And the Orlanthi and Elmali continue their defiance from the shelter of the deep gors.
He is prepared to use Lunar mercenaries, Gargarthi bandits and the mysterious and terrible Bigger Wind cult to further his grip on power.
>What are his goals
An independent, pro-Empire, yelmic-hereditary kingdom of the Far Place, based on the sun cultus of Yelmalio. The suppression of the Orlanthi rebellion in the east of the Far Place. The elimination of the Elmali cult and its Orlanthi supporters. The confirmation of Yelmalio as the dominant god in all the tribes. The replacement of the remaining Orlanthi and Elmali clan and tribal rings with Yelmalian equivalents.
>What are the highlights of his life?
The basics are covered above. Harvar is a collective work in progress. Drop me a line privately - nysalor**at**mythologic**dot**info if you'd like to see the long version of my Far Place campaign timeline.
Cheers
John
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