Corvus Norre

Count Corvus is the ruler of Port Valor and the uncle of Emperor Eurystheos XIV.

Appearance
Corvus is an older human man with black, slicked-back hair. He has been accused of being "greasy" but this may have been a baseless insult. When Port Valor was a thriving port town, he wore fancy clothes and a circlet.

Personality
Corvus seems to be a serious man, invested in the wellbeing of the town he rules and the people living in it. However, at least in the Pog Champions' experience, he generally ends up taking a more passive role when faced with threats to Port Valor. To his credit, Corvus is a reasonable man and displays a degree of open-mindedness, as he was at least willing to hear out a group of somewhat rowdy adventurers accusing one of his trusted advisors of secretly poisoning him over the course of a few months before being convinced by the actual evidence.

Background
Count Corvus is the uncle of Emperor Eurystheos XIV, although it is not currently known if he is the brother of her predecessor or if he is from her mother's side of the family. He has ruled over Port Valor for some time. Around 588, the royal family entrusted him with a blue cloth robe with purple trim. While he assumed the robe had some kind of magical properties, Corvus did not question exactly what those properties were and took his charge seriously regardless of the truth. He locked the robe within his personal treasury. Unbeknownst to Corvus, the robe was one of the Abyssal Crests, and he had become its guardian. In early 598, Corvus appointed Tyrian Vordt as one of his advisors.

Broken Crown Arc
During the early days of Tyrian's advisorship, Corvus often met with him in Tyrian's office, where they drank tea together. Although Corvus later admitted he had some suspicions that not all was right with Tyrian, he was unaware that Tyrian was secretly the leader of a criminal organization called the Broken Crown and, intent on removing Corvus from his position and taking it for himself, was dosing Corvus's tea with darkbite venom. The poison was chosen for its ability to slowly kill its victim over the course of about a month while causing few detectable symptoms. Soon, Corvus found himself with a slight cough that he couldn't quite shake. A week later, he was approached by a group of adventurers, later called the Pog Champions, claiming that Tyrian was poisoning him and planning to replace him as count. Corvus was not quite convinced until he was presented by a letter in Tyrian's hand detailing the plot against him. Kilwin cured Corvus of the poison, and Corvus asked the Pog Champions to bring Tyrian to justice. While advised them to try to take Tyrian alive, he accepted it when this wound up not being possible. He thanked the Pog Champions for saving his life and Port Valor, paying them an appropriate sum for their trouble, and asked if they would be willing to undertake additional tasks for him. Corvus had grown concerned over the activities of Thorak Fireaxe and the rest of his clan, and hoped to find someone willing to investigate him. He also had a missive for the emperor about the Broken Crown and Tyrian's coup attempt, as well as the Fireaxe Clan's activities, which he did not want to entrust to an ordinary courier. Having little to go on regarding Thorak, the adventurers chose to deliver the letter.

The Fall of Port Valor
As a result of his letter to the emperor, members of the royal guard from Falas arrived in Port Valor and accompanied Corvus to the Fireaxe Clan's mountain abbey, where they seemed to decisively defeat the orc clan. However, Thorak survived the attack and unleashed a gigantic anti-life field, magic stolen from ambushed Atemcester mages, in the center of Port Valor. Corvus happened to be standing in a corner of his office at the time of the attack, just outside of the anti-life field's radius. As a result, he survived to see that his entire staff had perished from the attack. Orcs stormed the count's palace right after the attack and seemed to know the exact location of Corvus's vault and the blue robe still within it. With his prize obtained, Thorak left Port Valor and Corvus was taken to the square in the middle of Port Valor, where he was tortured by a group of orcs and ogres for their amusement. He was once again saved by the Pog Champions, who had returned to the town. He informed them of what had happened in their absence and asked them to retrieve the robe if possible when they confronted Thorak. He then made his way to the town's Temple of Alethus, which was unharmed by the attack and had become a gathering place for its few survivors. When there, he collapsed and was tended to by the priestess Lathendria. Corvus awoke again after the defeat of Thorak and the arrival of Emperor Eurysthesos, Kain, and several members of the Drake Guard. He informed the emperor and her arcane advisor of the details of the situation. Corvus also soon received the twin revelations that the robe was an Abyssal Crest (and had already been handed over to a demon) and that Tyrian (whose body had disappeared the day after his death) had risen as a revenant and escaped the sealed bag the Pog Champions had imprisoned him in with help from Thorak's demonic patron. He lamented his inability to notice any of the plots unfolding around him and blamed his own shortcomings as a ruler for what had befallen Port Valor. With the Fireaxe Clan truly defeated and the Abyssal Crests being secured by the Pog Champions and the Emperor, Corvus dedicated himself to the efforts to rebuild Port Valor.

Goals
Corvus is concerned about the well-being of Port Valor and the Falassian Empire as a whole. Currently, his main goal is rebuilding Port Valor after most of its population was killed and many of its buildings burned down.

Abilities
Corvus presumably has some kind of martial ability, considering that he seems to have accompanied the forces from Falas to the Fireaxe Clan's abbey. Otherwise, he probably wishes he had a chance to not seem ineffectual in front of the Pog Champions.

Corvus and Eurystheos
Corvus is the uncle of Emperor Eurystheos XIV, and the two seem close despite the physical distance between their domains. He requested her assistance with the Fireaxe clan's activities, which she gave despite the already existing strain on the royal forces. Apparently, he frequently writes extra things in his letters to her, rather than sticking strictly to business.

Quotes

 * "I hope so too. I don't want to require saving a third time."

Trivia

 * Trivia 1
 * Trivia 2