Tanal Yathvanar was the assistant to Karos Invictad, Invigilator of the Letherii Patriotists.[1] He strongly believed in the mission of the Patriotists and he thought Karos was the Letherii Empire's last true hope for a new age of glory for the Letherii heirs of the First Empire. One without the conquering Tiste Edur or the failed peoples the empire had later acquired.[2]
Ever since he was a child, he knew he was destined for greatness as that was what everyone had told him over and over.[3] In his youth he held to romantic notions of heroism and unconstrained freedom and dreamed of becoming a soldier. But at some point he came to see his ideals as misguided. As an adult he grew to admire the noble killer, Gerun Eberict, who had cleansed the streets of Letheras by murdering thousands of thieves, thugs, beggars, pickpockets, homeless, and other decrepit failures of the modern age. Tanal hoped to attain justice for own Gerun's murder some day.[4]
He used his position in the Patriotists to indulge in his own sexual perversions by raping women from among the prisoners worked over by the organisation's brutal questioners. He enjoyed seeing their injuries and rationalised his actions by noting that the women would not long remember their trauma as they would soon be executed in The Drownings. Tanal suspected Karos was aware of his behaviour and secretly held the knowledge for future leverage against him.[4]
As required as an officer in the Patriotists, Tanal wore a dagger and shortsword on his weapon belt over a light tunic. He enjoyed their weight and the implicit authority in the privilege of wearing them while all other Letherii--barring soldiers--were forbidden.[4]
In Reaper's Gale[]
Tanal selected Janath Anar from among the many political prisoners arrested by the Patriotists for his personal attention, and by this he meant rape and torture. Rautos Hivanar, Master of the powerful Liberty Consign of Merchants, appeared before Karos requesting the Patriotists' aid in secretly identifying a thief hoarding great quantities of Letherii coin. The shortage was starting to put a strain on the empire's financial structure. Hivanar also pressured Karos to be more careful in the Patriotists' campaign against academics and scholars from the city's influential families. Karos warned the Master he tread on thin ground, but once Hivanar departed the Invigilator noted that one of those scholars currently and unwillingly inhabited Tanal's bed. Despite his aide's protests, Karos ordered Janath Anar cleaned up and released. Tanal quietly promised himself that he would not be the only one to pay if judgement fell upon him for the crime.[5]
Tanal delayed releasing Janath, chaining her naked body to a table in a deserted area beneath the Patriotist headquarters until it was no longer politically expedient to release her. Karos ordered Tanal to instead kill her and disappear her body. But in his own twisted way Tanal loved Janath. He moved her to another subterranean location and made delusional plans to spend their lives together. Bugg discovered her broken body and tearfully toyed with destroying the Patriotists before spiriting her away to Tehol Beddict's residence to recuperate.[6] When Tanal discovered her missing, he returned to Patriotist headquarters blind with terror moments after Bruthen Trana's failed raid to free Nisall. He tended to Karos' bloodied face and did not disabuse him of the notion that Janath had been taken care of.[7]
His relationship with Karos soured as the Invigilator became obsessed with Tehol's puzzle box and political infighting with Chancellor Triban Gnol raised Karos' paranoia. Tanal secretly delighted in Karos' failed attempts to solve the puzzle, mocking his superior's madness.[8][9] When Karos suspected of Tanal of spying for the chancellor, he beat his assistant bloody with his sceptre.[10] Tanal could only gloat in the knowledge that when he had arranged all of the illicit transactions creating the Invigilator's vast wealth, he had kept copies and secretly made himself the man's beneficiary.[11]
Tanal accompanied the squad of Patriotist thugs who broke into Tehol Beddict's home to arrest him for his economic plot against the empire. He was astonished to discover a semi-amnesiac Janath in Tehol's home, but quickly renewed their previous arrangement.[12][13] Once again, he regularly raped her and amused himself by refreshing her memories of her previous incarceration. Janath eventually worked enough of her chains free to strangle him as he lay atop her.[14]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 1
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 5, US HC p.125
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 24, US HC p.763
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Reaper's Gale, Chapter 1, US HC p.47
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 1, US HC p.46-48
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 7, US HC p.180-187
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 9, US HC p.240-244
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 7, US HC p.180-181
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 20, US HC p.618
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 18, US HC p.538
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 21, US HC p.618
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 18, US HC p.550-551
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 21, US HC p.617-618
- ↑ Reaper's Gale, Chapter 24, US HC p.763/769-770