Kar'liir Vloz'ress
From The Orthorbbae Library
Kar'liir is a senior figure in the Vloz'ress; his association with the clan dates back to its time as a nether cult and before its investiture as a Great Clan.
The most prominent achievement of Kar'liir is his design and construction of the Vel'Vloz'ress clan fortress, set into the cliff-side of the tectonic ravine of the Rift, suspended over the seething magma-bleeding vein. This tower has not only been built in a decidedly unappealing location, but presents a fearsome and grotesque aspect of giant, twisted snakes and leering gargoyles set upon a heat-blasted stone that is decidedly devoid of any sense of stateliness. The whole edifice cements Kar'liir's popular reputation as a "mad scientist", and there are few willing to admire it as a feat of architectural splendour, both within and without the clan. Kelnoz Val'Sarghress reviles the abode of the Vel'Vloz'ress as a "wretched... homage to their own insanity" and despite it being her own bastion as a clan noble Kiel'ndia Vel'Vloz'ress also despises the place to no small extent.
Whether there are truly some scraps of esoteric and hidden meaning ensconsced within the contours of the Vel'Vloz'ress fortress, or whether its draughts were just the fevered scrawl of a demented loon, remain to be seen.
In addition to being tainted, Kar'liir's notable physical features include a pair of mismatched eyes, with the iris of his right eye being substantially larger than his left; this feature is presumably the result of an unusually aggressive tainting process. He also wears a prosthetic golem in the form of a pair of articulated arms reaching over him from his shoulderblades. In addition to the established example of the clan fortress, this possibly indicates that Kar'liir's expertise lies in more practical and manual 'engineering' avenues than the sphere of a theoretician poring over books and treatises, because such golemcraft is geared towards assisting complex physical manipulations. It also shows that Kar'liir is quite an adept sorceror, for such devices exert a heavily demanding drain on the user's aura and require considerable mental focus and concentration to manage effectively.
Kar'liir survived the events surrounding Kharla'ggen's rise to Ilharess. This is evidenced by the architectural style of the Vel'Vloz'ress fortress - prior to Kharla'ggen's investiture the Vloz'ress keep was more a nondescript tower, and was only modified and renovated to its present form later. It remains the case that the only former leader of the Vloz'ress nether cult to have been specifically confirmed as dead is Ven'nedia.
First appearance: Chapter 11, Page 11
Appears in chapter(s): 11