Pirothea Nelvarryl

Pirothea Nelvarryl (Dark Elven: [ piʁɔtxɛa nɛlβaʁːɨᵝl ] ; Etrandish:  [ pʰɪɾɔθɛɐ nɛlvɑrːʏl ] ) is a Dark Elven prominent citizen of Etrand, businesswoman and magician, a retired politician and semi-retired crime boss.

Early Life
Pirothea Nelvarryl was born in 705.84122416801, into the Nelvarryl clan, a vassal of the Dhaeraow Loomin clan. As a citizen of the Dhaeraow Loomin, she had the fortune of being exposed to extensive amount of knowledge about the outside world, as well as goods brought in from the outside. When Pirothea was just 6-year-old, her family moved to Etrand, setting up a shop in Grandfolk. Her parents also had a darker secret: the secret behind being able to acquire Dark Elven goods for so cheap and sell them at an expensive but still swallowable price - their connections to the Dark Elven mafia.

The young Pirothea was enrolled into a local school where she learned the Etrandish language and acquired the knowledge to read and write, count numbers, history and law. Thanks to her early education in Etrand, she became a fluent speaker of the Etrandish language, speaking it like a native speakers, without the stereotypical Dark Elven accent associated with her kinsmen and kinswomen. This would later on help a lot in her political career.

At the age of 13, Pirothea was enrolled into the Mages Guild, where she learned Elemental Magic and Utility Magic. She would attain the rank of Journeyman, but never progress further. It is not known if she left the guild to pursue politics, or if she has already left it before she started her political career. Others say that she was kicked out of the guild because of her criminal activities and connections to the Dark Elven mafia.

The young elf was already involved in the Dark Elven mafia in her late teens, although early on, she was a minor league player: she gave regular citizens and Dark Elven mobsters alike sexual favors in exchange for money and various favors, such as acquiring goods she wanted for a cheaper price. She was also engaged in gambling. It was only in her early twenties that she started becoming a major figure in the Dark Elven crime scene in Etrand - the criminal underworld soon started seeing the potential in her, and after realizing that her merit was much more than just the ability to give men the head, she was given more serious assignments, no longer had to give sexual favours to get what she wanted, but instead had to conduct actual business. Before 718, she often only narrowly escaped getting caught and imprisoned, due to her crimes of racketeering, smuggling of illegal goods, tax evasion, collection and extortion of protection money, operation of a brothel and several illicit breweries. On the rare occasions she was actually arrested and brought to court, she managed to get the charged dropped via a combination of bribery and seduction.

It is not really known when did Pirothea exactly meet the future King Bryant, but some speculate they may have already met during the future King's studies at the academy. During the succession war in 718, her parents shop was destroyed and they relocated their business to Yrvhaven, Etrancoast. Pirothea would remain in Grandfolk during the whole duration of the war. Records say that she actually spied for Princess Mythela, which is why she received rewards after the war ended. She also used her connections to the Dark Elven mafia to smuggle food into the besieged Yrvhaven, which made it impossible for the besieging army to starve the city into submission.

Political career during King Bryant's reign
After the succession war ended and Bryant was crowned King, Pirothea was awarded with honorary citizenship of the city of Grandfolk for her brave actions. She was made a member of the city's council. Her de jure position as a member of the city council would be augmented by her de facto position as King Bryant's advisor.

Bryant's motivation was partially the same as why past kings have tolerated the existence of the Thieves Guild - he believed that Pirothea representing the underworld officially in the council will make it easier to regulate lesser and nonviolent crime and combat harsher, more violent crime. With this new state of affairs, the Dark Elven mafia in Etrand - or rather, in Grandfolk at least - split into two wings. The larger wing followed Pirothea's direction and turned away from assassinations, bounty hunting and extortion rackets, favouring nonviolent activities, such as smuggling, loan-sharking and prostitution - some even went as far as largerly abandoning criminal activities and started investing in legit businesses. The smaller wing staunchly swore by the old ways, and found itself constantly harassed by both the law enforcement and those criminals who wanted to regulate crime in order to convince the law to be more lenient.

Even though Pirothea had a rather strong influence in the politics of Etrand during the reign of King Bryant, her presence in the royal court was not without controversy or scandals: while historians report that the king had a harmonic relationship with his wife and was loyal to her, several claim that this is falsified history and that the king had an affair with Pirothea. Furthermore, even more evidence suggests that the dark elf had a secret affair with the king's son, Cairbré too, with the knowledge and consent of his father. Some claim that this was the source of the King's son's appreciation of elves.

Retirement during King Cairbré's reign
After King Bryant died in 744, his son Cairbré took power, who did not seem to be in the need of Pirothea's advice much. Cairbré has considered pensioning Pirothea and giving her a permanent residence within the palace. However, the idea was dropped, as it was considered risky - both Cairbré and Pirothea were well aware of the rumours about them having an affair, and whether it was true or false, they wanted to hide it.

Pirothea's influence diminished quickly, and by 745, she was little more than just a "honorary advisor", someone who was paid to stay by the King's side and give him advice, but was no longer actually listened to. When the King got married to Muyian in 746, Pirothea was among the high-ranking guests who attended the wedding, and she was said to have a friendly relationship with the King's wife.

Nevertheless, Pirothea's political influence was still being reduced to zero. To make matters worse, her policy of containing crime by lobbying for the law enforcement to look the other way for lesser crimes and crusade only against harsher crimes was failing at that point, with many of the crime leaders who followed her direction being assassinated or convinced to return to the old ways. Pirothea herself also found herself the target of several failed assassination attempts. In 753, she retired from politics, and was given a rather good deal of pension by the King in recognition of her past services to the Kingdom of Etrand.

After retirement
After Pirothea stepped down as a member of the city council and was relieved from her position as one of the king's advisors, she hesitated to return to a life of crime - even though she deemed living on the pension boring, King Cairbré ordered the law enforcement to indiscriminately arrest criminals and punish them accordingly. Pirothea knew that if she returned to being a criminal, she would become a suspect very soon, and her connections to the royal family would not help at all.

As such, after four years of living in a luxurious villa in Grandfolk, she finally made up her mind to leave Etrand and look for warmer pastures. In 757, she sold her villa, renounced her claim on pension and left for Froturn. Her new residence would be a small country estate near the capital city Yanus. In order to cover the expenses of living in such a luxurious state, she turned to a life of crime again, helping the expansion of the Dark Elven mafia in Froturn. This time however, she was much more careful, and made sure that the majority of her income would come from legitimate business - or rather, mafia business camouflaged as legitimate business (racketeering). The Dark Elven crime lady cultivated apple orchards at her estate and operated two bathhouses in the capital, trying to maximize her profits gained via legitimate means, and turning to shadier ways only when necessary.

This strategy worked. Pirothea not only avoided scrutiny from the law, but also a good reputation as a hard-working, charitable and respectable lady, a for the Dark Elves. Still, without the thrill of a genuine criminal's life, she always felt that something was missing. To compensate, she would engage in binge drinking, gamble, hold orgies at her estate, consume drugs, and do deeds that some deemed crazy, such as having dinner while bathing. Still, she became a frequent guest at the cosier parties where prominent citizens would be invited. In the late 760's, she started visiting back to Etrand to see how the city of Grandfolk has changed since she was gone. She may have even had ambitions to rekindle her forbidden relationship she had with King Cairbré before his marriage, however, she would not be given any opportunities to meet with the king, or any of his close associates.

King Cairbré died in 789. Much to her surprise, Pirothea too was invited to his funeral - she accepted the invitation and attended the funeral, which led her to consider moving back to Grandfolk. After months of contemplation and hesitation, she ended up dropping the idea and remained in Froturn. Even so, she started visiting Etrand much more frequently, and would invite noblemen and businessmen alike from Etrand to visit her estate. By that time, she was considered living history, and even her former detractors - the ones that haven't died of old age yet - considered her a businesswoman rather than a criminal. As seasons and years passed, so would Pirothea invest in new forms of business to increase her profits - by 800, she was the proud owner of a hemp field, which not only allowed her to produce the illegal drugs she sold and consumed, but also refined hemp products such as hemp seed foods, hemp oil, wax, resin, rope, pulp, paper and cloth. The latter would be used to make fashionable clothing, which she ended up selling to Etrandish and Froturnish nobles alike.

In 815, Pirothea moved back to Grandfolk, and started expanding her business "empire" there as well. She also bought several breweries in Etrancoast to produce usquebaugh and sell them in both Etrand and Froturn.