> [!infobox|wikipedia] > # Governor Tarlis Evandron > [![[Codex/Assets/Characters/Governor_Tarlis_Evandron_small.webp|cover hsmall]]](Codex/Assets/Characters/Governor_Tarlis_Evandron.webp) > ###### Basic Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Type | Character | > ###### Character Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Creature Type | Humanoid | > Species | Human | > Gender | Male | > Pronouns | He/Him | > Place | [[Val Miriel]] | > Connections | [[Vallania Miriel]]<br>[[Valtorran Empire\|Valtorran Empire]] | > Profession | Governor of Val Miriel | > ###### Status > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Status | Alive | **Governor Tarlis Evandron** is a human statesman and the appointed Governor of [[Val Miriel]], a city caught between Imperial occupation and the embers of old resistance. Though he came to power through marriage rather than military distinction, his years of careful governance have earned him a reputation as a man who genuinely cares for his people — even if that care is purchased with constant, exhausting compromise. ## Description #### Appearance Tarlis is slender but carries himself with a quiet solidity, as though shaped more by burden than by ambition. His brown hair is cropped close at the sides and styled neatly on top, and his moustache and goatee are kept with an almost deliberate precision — the only part of his world he controls without negotiation. He favours comfortable evening clothes of fine cut that would not embarrass him in an Imperial court: muted colours, clean lines, nothing ostentatious. Around his neck he wears a gold chain bearing a large red ruby amulet, a piece that draws the eye and carries an air of old authority. #### Personality Tarlis is a man perpetually walking a knife's edge, and it shows in the careful way he chooses his words. He is earnest rather than charismatic — people do not naturally rally to him, but those who have watched him work long enough come to see the genuine conviction beneath the cautious exterior. He loves [[Val Miriel]] and its people deeply, and that love is the engine behind every political calculation he makes. With his daughter [[Vallania Miriel]] he is fiercely protective to the point of controlling, a habit born from the grief of losing her mother and the terror of losing anyone else. ## Biography #### Background Tarlis Evandron rose to the governorship not through military rank or noble blood of his own, but through his marriage to Vallarra Miriel — the sole remaining heir of the Miriel line, the family whose name the city itself bears. The union gave him the legitimacy he needed to hold [[Val Miriel]] on behalf of the [[Valtorran Empire|Empire]], but it could not give him the respect of men who had served longer or bled harder. Vallarra died in childbirth delivering their daughter [[Vallania Miriel]], leaving Tarlis alone with an infant, a city of divided loyalties, and a court of advisors who watched him with polite contempt, waiting for the Miriel bloodline to mature and replace him. He did not collapse under it. Slowly, without fanfare, Tarlis proved his worth through practical governance — fair arbitration, protections for common traders, careful management of Imperial levies that stopped short of ruin. He won no great admirers among the Imperial nobility, but he earned something rarer: the grudging acknowledgement of the people that he was trying. Some believe he does not push back against the Empire hard enough. Tarlis would argue, quietly, that a governor executed for sedition helps no one. He raises Vallania alone and watches her with the particular anxiety of a man who has already lost everything once. Her growing independence and rebellion against his caution is a source of ongoing tension between them — and, if he is honest with himself, a source of admiration he cannot quite bring himself to express. ### [[The Bloody Nails|Campaign: The Bloody Nails]] #### [[Session 19 - Blood and Sorrow]] Tarlis was observed leading a grand Imperial procession through [[Val Miriel]], the red ruby amulet gleaming at his chest. The crowd's reaction was sharply divided — cheers from some, jeers from others — a living portrait of the city's fractured loyalties. #### [[Session 21 - The Governor's Daughter]] The party was led through [[Miriel's Rest]] by [[Vallania Miriel]] to a hidden war room beneath the family crypt, where they found Tarlis waiting. Initially paranoid and threatening, he warned the party that exposure of his plans would force him to have them silenced. Vallania's testimony and the party's proven role in the destruction of [[Skyreach]] convinced him to trust them. He revealed that he cannot move openly against the Empire without being deposed or executed, and enlisted the party as independent agents to travel the continent and forge alliances among the old kingdoms and factions. He provided them with six pairs of encrypted Sending Stones, a map of targets, and a warning about the [[Eye of the Empire|Eyes of the Empire]]. It was the moment the campaign's scope cracked open. #### [[Session 26 - A Midnight Romp]] [[Vaeleran]] attempted to reach Tarlis via a Sending Stone following a chaotic night in the city, sending a terse update. Tarlis did not reply. #### [[Session 27 - The Wanted Dwarf]] Tarlis contacted the party magically via the Sending Stones to question them about a failed assassination attempt on [[General Varan Brado]] at the Bastion. The party denied responsibility for the assassination itself while acknowledging their involvement in the broader chaos. The exchange underscored the tension of operating under his oversight without his full knowledge of their actions. #### [[Session 43 - The Shield of the North]] With [[King Marius Noren]] restored to power in his city, Marius discussed plans to coordinate with Tarlis and aid [[Val Miriel]] in the wider effort against the Empire — a sign that the coalition Tarlis seeded is beginning to take shape. #### [[Session 49 - The Silver Sage]] A recovered memory surfaced of [[Vallania Miriel]] presenting the party to her father. In the memory, Tarlis Miriel arrived alone, with no flanking guards — a small but telling detail about the private face of a man who governs by calculation. ## Trivia - Tarlis's authority rests entirely on the Miriel name through marriage, a fact his political rivals have never let him forget. In a city named for his dead wife's family, he has spent decades proving he deserves to be there.