The age makes men and men make the age, thus ages and generations build men like Torvin Earl of Throi. Descended father to son from the first of the Sea Lords to settle the western shores of Olaran, Torvin was born with the burden of leadership on his shoulders. From the cradle he was shaped and molded to one day take his place as the First Sea Lord. 

Torvin’s childhood had little of the adventure that would mark his later life. When he was not reading books he was swimming in the bay or playing at war with wooden swords. But even more than that he was imbued with the ideas of leadership and the duties of an earl. From the rough deck hands that helped maintain his father’s country estate to the weapons masters who taught him to fight with body and mind, each servant, lord and sailor impressed upon him the weight of the title he would one day hold.   

But the freedom of childhood cannot last. At age 12 Torvin was added to the ship’s books of the Dart, a fast, two masted Sea Lord cutter. There he learned the sailor’s art and got his first taste of both command and battle. Capturing the pirate vessel off of a small river mouth was not the glorious event he had hoped for. The fight seemed to last just a moment, but  before it was over he had a sword blade through the hand and had just barely escaped worse. His head spun a bit as he helped throw the wounded pirates in to the sea. No need to waste medicine to heal them enough just to walk to the gallows. From then on war was a much more serious business. 

After five years at sea Torvin joined a friend serving two years in the Rangers. There he  quickly adapted his skills from the towering masts of a ship to the great trees and dense thickets of the forests of Throi. It was here he learned warfare on land. Torvin was part of two large Ranger raids across the Coldfell River and led a third into the Grimmock Mountains.   

But the sea called and Torvin returned to the great port of Thriese to take up his first command at sea. He did however bring almost a whole company of Rangers who he quickly integrated into Sea Lord crews. Torvin understood the value of good archers in any battle and throughout the fleet the long Ranger bows soon began to replace the shorter bows usually used by Sea Lords. 

Within a few years Torvin’s father Alandros II retired to his books and maps, handing Torvin command of the mighty Leviathan and the titles of First Sea Lord and Earl of Throi. Now was the day of trial, would a lifetime of dedication to his calling prepare the young Earl for the weight of the Commodore’s helm? Torvin’s first act was to reorganize the Sea Lords in to two groups, traders and warships. For years most Sea Lord vessels had served as naval vessels in time of war, traders in peacetime and always as a maritime police force. But Torvin realized that if he dedicated some ships simply as merchants, they could build Sea Lord wealth to the point that other ships could be built, crewed and trained solely for war. 

Of course this did not sit well with the other powers in the kingdom. Within three years, the number of Sea Lord ships had doubled and their sleek warships looked as deadly as they in fact were while sitting alongside the old tubs that were now traders in Olaranan ports. The Earl of Throi went from being an enforcer of laws at sea to one of the kingdom’s great lords and within a few more years became the wealthiest.

What further disconcerted the noble houses was Torvin’s insistence on the Sea Lord tradition of serving the throne, not the kingdom. The Sea Lords had long held themselves aloof from the politics of Olaran, but Torvin’s wealth gave him even more autonomy. He acted in his interests and those of the king without regard to other nobles or causes. No one can predict such a man. What can a man with a private military, a massive trade network and command of the sea do? What if there was no king? What if he was to take a side in the bitter struggle between factions? Torvin, Lord of the Sea, had become the Lord of Chaos as well, and his sardonic smile and the gleam in his eye said he knew it all too well. 

After years of struggling against the power structures within the realm of Olaran, seeking to protect his region, Torvin lead Throi in in a war first of rights then of secession - claiming the ancient rule of the land that was once its own realm. Considered a traitor and a rebel by the Throne’s Council, he is a beloved leader amongst his own people, who chant “No king but the King in Throi!”

Upon being crowned king, Torvin forged an alliance with Tove Queen of the Hearthlands to aid each other’s war against the forces of Olaran that would reclaim their kingdoms if they can.

Zan Campbell is a U.S. Navy Veteran, Founder of Fell & Fair and Executive Director of Weekend Warrior. Years of playing Age of Empires and that Naval Science degree are finally paying off as he leads Sea Lords into battle at Weekend Warrior.