Jules Tallow

"'Welcome to my party, and my household. I'm afraid we have not yet met, but let us fix that.'"Jules Tallow is a native of Nesseri, and is the current Ailar of Napori.

Appearance
Jules stands just under six feet in height, and would be taller were it not for his slightly stooped posture. His skin is paler than the olive tone of most of his countrymen, although it bears the weathered look of one who has encountered plenty of sun and wind. His graying hair is usually covered partially by a round cloth hat with a number of brightly colored feathers poking from its brim, which he seems to favor wearing whenever possible. His clothes vary between numerous sets of rich robes, and his wide mouth and blue eyes are ringed with wrinkles, whether from smiles or frowns it is hard to tell.

Personality
Jules seems stern to strangers but steadily warms to those he spends time around so long as they do not make themselves an inconvenience. A relationship with Jules tends always to be more of a business arrangement than anything- most of the party's engagements with him have involved more back-scratching and favors than banter or socialization.

History
Jules began as an art merchant in Nesseri, and through good fortune and a close camaraderie with an already well-established spice merchant named Martin Jacobo, he swiftly climbed the rungs of Nesseri's social ladder. Jules even spent a brief time living with the Jacobo family, but left to get on his ow two feet when Martin's wife bore him a daughter.

Jacobo was eventually inducted into the merchant council of Ailar Havendell in 1252, and Tallow followed close on his heels, with Jacobo's own recommendation. When Havendell announced his desire to retire, the duo were pitched into a friendly competition for the position, being the two wealthiest members of the council, and thus the most fit to take up the task and privilege of funding and ruling the realm. Among many of his gestures to win over the people of Nesseri, Tallow funded the Grand Library of Nesseri, a massive archive meant to rival and surpass the restricted collection in the Library of Novara. However, Tallow's many investments in infrastructure still could not rival Jacobo's more established reputation.

The campaign took a dark turn when Tallow, in a clandestine yet desperate turn of events, hired a band of pirates to act as privateers and sabotage Jacobo's spice exports at a pivotal moment- and Jacobo was bankrupted just before the decision for the new Ailar would be made. Between a bankrupt spice seller and a rising star with his fingers dipped in every industry from art to architecture to slaving, the merchant council's choice was unanimous, and Ailar Tallow took up office in 1265.

Recent Activity
In the recent past, Tallow consented to the wishes of Argio Frenelli in placing an embargo on textile imports from other settlements in order to promote the local textile industry (which, but no coincidence, is dominated by Frenelli himself). A direct result of this embargo was an influx of smugglers to Nesseri's docks bringing in illegally shipped textiles.

Early in the month of the Rotting when he first met the party at his own- well, party... Tallow swiftly dispatched a fleet to Andron and the surrounding isles when he learned that Melnark's Men were blockading them. He also granted Azon the informant a lofty position as his own inquisitor, confident of his talents when Azon informed him discreetly that he knew of his affiliation with pirates to undermine Jacobo.

On the 25th of the Rotting in 1253, Tallow resolved even to renew the embargo again, although with the intention of drawing more smugglers, having the party infiltrate them, and thus end up getting up close to Melnark's Men. He never got the chance to set the pan in motion.

Benjamin Critchett caught wind of Tallow's actions against Jacobo, and, when he next met Tallow, he attempted to use this information to blackmail the Ailar into abolishing slavery from the realm of Napori. Rather than consent to Critchett's wishes even when his own reputation was wildly at stake, Tallow called for Critchett's arrest. In the ensuing confusion, he took a spear from one of his own guards and died briefly before Critchett utilized his knowledge of necromancy to restore the Ailar to stable condition, and then fled into the night. Ever since, he and possibly his compatriots have been wanted by the Ailar.