I don't want him to be completely evil, but I don't think it will be because of a feud against the King. Before he is revealed as evil, I think he should be a likable character, which makes his betrayal all the more painful.
Intrepid Explorer Squire of the Green Room Harbinger of the Cosmic Squid Brief Castaway Founder of Hermits United TIME Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year Dark Matter Overlord Kind of a Big Deal
Tiernan Carrows is most certainly an alias; he has done everything possible to conceal his true origins in order to protect what's left of his family.
Tiernan has two secrets.
1. He is a rogue seer. His unique burn patterns came from an aether explosion, which he used to fake his own death and escape.
2. Adelaide is his daughter.
His motives aren't merely to get rich, but to obtain enough power in order to rescue his daughter. Originally, he had hoped to escape with his wife and child; but his wife was caught in the blast. The child, shielded from the blast by her mother, survived.
He fell in with the pirates and thanks to his predictive abilities, was able to quickly rise through the ranks. He proved an able commander, not a surprise since he knew the abilities that his subordinates had and deployed their strengths against his foe's weakness. Efforts to infiltrate his organization were also unsuccessful for obvious reasons. Using aether to track the gold was also discovered and countered.
Now that he has developed a formidable force; he is now in a position to raid the Needlespur itself. Without the seers hunting him; he would quickly be able to become more aggressive against the King, taking over his Kingdom with relative ease.
I see Tiernan being played by Liam Neeson. His daughter has been taken from him and he will do whatever it takes to get her back, even if it means taking on a powerful King.
He looks much more like Blackbeard in PotC On Stranger Tides.
Intrepid Explorer Squire of the Green Room Harbinger of the Cosmic Squid Brief Castaway Founder of Hermits United TIME Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year Dark Matter Overlord Kind of a Big Deal
I like the idea, @Griffinkeeper. The only problem I see with that is that Tiernan's been the pirate lord for the past few decades. And he physically looks like Blackbeard.
Intrepid Explorer Squire of the Green Room Harbinger of the Cosmic Squid Brief Castaway Founder of Hermits United TIME Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year Dark Matter Overlord Kind of a Big Deal
Actually, I like the idea that the Pirate Lord was the one who corrupted the æther, causing the explosions, so I think that he'll still have been the Pirate Lord for a long time, but will still be attempting to help his daughter escape from the King. That also adds the interesting dynamic where Tiernan has finally taken the throne and freed Adelaide, and then Adelaide is unhappy with everything Tiernan has done and asks him to relinquish the throne so they can be a family again, but Tiernan keeps the throne, saying that they can be happy in the castle.
Intrepid Explorer Squire of the Green Room Harbinger of the Cosmic Squid Brief Castaway Founder of Hermits United TIME Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year Dark Matter Overlord Kind of a Big Deal
1. What if his attack is successful, but Adelaide escapes on her own? She doesn't fall into any factions hands. Then perhaps she'll become the focus of a massive treasure hunt.
2. The aether explosion makes for great visual effects, but it doesn't make any sense for anyone to trigger it. The various factions want to rule the kingdom; not destroy it. An aether explosion that large would kill too many people that are vital to actually run a kingdom. Civilization would just collapse.
Do we really need to nuke everything? Or do we just want to start a revolution? If the latter, there are many other ways to incite a revolt.
If Adelaide manages to escape she could always hide in Gobban's smithy. That might start an uneasy friendship with the rather naïve and bumbling smithy.
@Griffinkeeper We don't have to nuke everything, but I kind of want to. True, it doesn't make sense for the factions to blow stuff up, but it does make sense for Tiernan to do it, so the factions go to war. This may have been unclear, but the story of blowing things up is as follows: Nano attempts to steal all the æther, and Tiernan learns of the plot through a spy. He manages to corrupt the æther, which then explodes.
Anyway, the explosions mark an important transition in the storybook. That's when the Pirate Lord becomes the big bad of this story instead of the factions. It's also when the factions' struggle moves from secret and subtle to all-out war. Thirdly, it also triggers a revolution, as you say. Last, it looks really cool in my head for blue explosions to appear across the city.
Intrepid Explorer Squire of the Green Room Harbinger of the Cosmic Squid Brief Castaway Founder of Hermits United TIME Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year Dark Matter Overlord Kind of a Big Deal
@Chaser, remember to make Bickers incredibly stupid.
Intrepid Explorer Squire of the Green Room Harbinger of the Cosmic Squid Brief Castaway Founder of Hermits United TIME Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year Dark Matter Overlord Kind of a Big Deal
A person is more than their experiences, stacked up like stones... Our best moments are the foundations we use to reach for the sky. — Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson
