Pence Lískfaru

Pence Lískfaru is the primary antagonist of the third book.

History
Pence, originally Tesceroi, was the illegitimate son of Nerca Morriza and Filré Tutzékan on the very small island of Casdel, a territory of the Archipelago of Melstei. Filre was already married and had two children, while Nerca was hardly more than a childling. He was abandoned as a baby and was picked up by an abusive but ignorant mother, Cel-Ge Serdue. She named him Tesceroi, a remarkably similar word to the Casdel dialect word for ‘forgotten’, ‘tezcernoi’. He ran away from Celge as soon as he realized how sadistic and cruel she really was. He fled to another small island territory, Retzan, where he grew up on the streets. There were a small number of other orphans living on Retzan but he was ostracized from them the same way his family had to him. Because of how family tends to rub off on you, Celge’s sadistic actions had rubbed off on him, frightening the other children of the group. Having abandoned most social skills, he would sneak into the nobles’ houses at night where he learned to read, write, all about the history of Tari, arithmetic, but most importantly, politics. He learned that Melstei was not a proper Loxanian colony, thus all actions on it were not monitored by the mainland matriarchy leading to some interesting political loopholes. He also learned that the system was poorly set up, the only way of someone of his class and history to get ahead in life would be to take the back door in and gradually corrupt the system.

When he was older he decided to stow away on a boat and head to the main island of Melstei. He wanted to enter the prestigious and study law, but he didn’t have a legal citizenship. There was, however, a fellow Sulai of similar age and build whose name was Pence, Tesceroi murdered him and took his identity. Pence didn’t have any close relatives, he had moved from a distant Sulai archipelago to attend the institute, and his family never knew that he died. Tesceroi, now reborn as Pence, attended the institute and graduated with honors in law and philosophy. All the while, to pay for his tuition, he had started an underground black market across the island for things he had stolen from the institute. This started from things like textbooks and rare scrolls but soon spread to parts of corpses from the biology department and untested elixirs and poisons from the alchemy department. To keep up with his studies and still manage his illicit trade he hired bodyguards, cronies, and other like-minded people from all parts of the island. By the time he graduated his business had spread all across the archipelago and he had grown rather wealthy. He used his funds and influence to help win over the authorities of the island and he became the Chief Judge of trials all across the archipelago. From this his influence merely spread.

The highlight of his career as a judge was of the trial and execution of the old Chancellor of the Melsteian Archipelago, a smart woman by the name of Sen-Dar Moroki. She had a scandal with one of her advisers and Pence attempted to blackmail her into giving him the position of Chancellor, but she wouldn’t oblige so Pence both exposed her affair and framed her for the murder of the adviser she’d had an affair with. As the punishment for murder on Melstei is the death penalty, Pence took hold of this opportunity and came onto power. Thus began a new era on Melstei, the era of the peaceful and benevolent Elder Pence.

Behind the scenes, Pence’s actions were nothing like how he presented himself. He had done a good job of concealing his identity, only those close to him knew his true business. The few who tried to speak up and reveal his actions and true motives were quickly silenced or executed.

For someone of his status and well, ambitions, he leads a relatively humble life. He lives with his Head Adviser, a Desert Loxtaro by the name of Lur-Ena Khalker who he’s known since his institute days. They’ve never released a public statement of affection but there is certainly something going on behind the scenes. They live in the large mansion exclusive to the current Chancellor and servants, but he doesn’t enjoy having servants around. He learned to care for himself growing up, why should he have other people do jobs that he can do better?

His whole archipelago ruling has gone out well in his favor, but the lack of trade into other regions due to their mistrust of people not on the census isn’t letting Pence’s underworld spread. He traveled to the mainland (where he is found by Crimson Androdena during the events of the story) genuinely to allow trade for his island, not for the good of the people he’s ruling, but rather to help expand his dark underworld to the islands around and, eventually, to the mainland. He firmly believes that through his influence he can take the mainland from the monarchy's hands and into his.