Ciarraí Teagwyn Kavanah
- There are October 2016 and May 2017 versions of this article from the original BHH Wiki available at (2016) Ciarraí Teagwyn Kavanah and (2017) Ciarraí Teagwyn Kavanah
Ciarraí Teagwyn Kavanah was an Evonian derata and former politician who created the Fourth Army in the era of BHH, and Kerry's key character in BHH. Initially a scientist who studied either time travel or uses for antimatter, he and Sabriel Lunadelle Redena became anti-establishment politicians and jointly won control of the government. Ciarraí was drawn into the Dark Network as a fixer, where he partnered with assassin Elaine Redena Starling, and the two also started a relationship. He later accidentally killed Elaine, and quit derareti. However, he later returned to the Dark Network and stepped down from frontline politics to avoid weakening Sabriel's position.
About eight years before the events of BHH, as a derata, he started working with Gru Rasu. By now, he also had a working relationship with Mala Dzumach Kavanah; their personal relationship was intense but complex. He and Gru rescued Ro Elluna from Helltuna after she assassinated the emperor and the three started working together. Three years later, to defuse a conflict between the trio and Mala, Raven Olympia of the Ravensgate wiped Ro's memories and faked Gru's death. Ciarraí discovered that Ro was alive, and took her to Mala, who had separately captured Raven. In exchange for being freed, he restored Ro's memories. Ciarraí, Raven and Ro then started working together and earned the nickname of the Fourth Army, in later sources going on to recruit Ajax Inuta Krassen and any relevant fleeting keys.
Backstory[edit | edit source]
Early life[edit | edit source]
Ciarraí was born on Evonia, in a provincial region away from the capital, in the decades preceding the era of BHH.[note 1] Depending on the source, he was born either twenty-five or forty years before the start of the main cycle. In the Acteriendian BHH roleplays of 2016, the characters had been in their twenties, and pressure from Robert and Cat meant this remained the accepted consensus from 2017 to 2019. Kerry had pictured Ciarraí as young but not in his youth (e.g. in his early forties) and had written his backstory accordingly, so trying to crush this backstory down into twenty-five years made it rather cramped and implausible—for instance, in the official shared lore of 2017, there was only one year between him entering politics and becoming president. Kerry managed to persuade the others to accept older BHH characters in 2019 and the inconsistency disappeared.
At least compared with Ajax Inuta Krassen and Sabriel Lunadelle Redena, Ciarraí had a modest upbringing, and in later life he was sometimes be rather caustic about their privileged backgrounds. His parents gave him the name Ciarraí Teagwyn, both words of Tawnylea origin. In sources which had the distinction between A-type and B-type Evon, his family were typical A-types. He performed well in school, passing his adulthood examination at 15 and moving from the provinces to the capital to train as a scientist.
Ciarraí finished his training and became a research physicist—quite a typical vocation for an Evon—in his mid-twenties. Depending on the source, he was either part of a team which hypothesised that there might be a physical time field, research with implications for time travel, or he worked in antimatter confinement exploring its practical uses. The character's interest in the latter may have been inspired by Kerry's real-world idea as a child that matter–antimatter annihilation could be used as a form of nuclear energy, but it was usually explained as a parallel to his relationship with Mala, suggesting he had always had an interest in the potential uses of carefully-contained dangers.
Evon Party[edit | edit source]
Evonian politics in Ciarraí's era was defined by unofficial factions which MPs and electoral candidates could freely chose to align themselves with, called parties in the same sense that historians use phrases like "the king struggled to establish a party in the parliament of 1625". Species-wide campaigns were led by individuals who represented themselves as potential members of the High Council and local MP candidates made it clear which council candidates they would support if elected. This was a two-party system dominated by the Radical Egalitarian Party, who were currently in government, and the Anti-political Functionalist Party.
Ciarraí entered politics as an MP (or a debater in the Legislative Court) and was not initially aligned with either party. Ideologically, he was an unorthodox radical egalitarian, but he was sharply critical of the Radical Egalitarian Party government for its incompetence and its cautious astropolitical policy. His views also had shared notes with the small Classical Party, who were social conservatives, which in the Evonian context meant upholding the values of co-operation, curiosity, and reason which had predominated before the Evon had become one of the Three Great Powers—but Ciarraí was diametrically opposed to their vision of a more isolated, small-scale society with less technology and astropolitical influence.
He found an ally in another non-aligned MP, a few years his senior, Sabriel Lunadelle Redena, who had been elected as an anti-political functionalist but had become disillusioned with their opposition to socialism. Sabriel and Ciarraí shared an ambition to become Chair of the High Council and made a pact to win the position together and share it. They decided on a moonshot attempt to win power without backroom machinations by founding a new movement, the Evon Party, and riding the momentum to a fast landslide victory.
They characterised the Evon Party as a new political orientation which drew inspiration from the utopian vision of the Evon founders, promising to reverse the decline in emphasis on the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake and the importance of fighting for fairness. The stances which proved most relevant in shaping public perception of their joint campaign were their unprecedented desire to serve jointly as head of government and their calls for a more assertive, moralistic foreign policy—widely taken as an indication they would challenge the dominance of the Helltunan Empire—and a socially anarchist economy.
The Evon Party made a remarkable breakthrough, winning around 25 per cent of the vote, making them the third-largest party, and there had been moments in the campaign when opinion polls had put them in first place at over 30 per cent. For Ciarraí and Sabriel, however, the plan had failed, and they were now in a difficult position. Either a second three-party election or a spell in opposition would mean losing the momentum that had carried them to a seat at the negotiating table; going into coalition with the current government would ruin their anti-establishment credentials; and given their ideological distance from the Anti-political Functionalists, a workable coalition deal was unlikely.
The two approached influential Radical Egalitarian Party figures with an offer: if the Radical Egalitarians would agree to abandon the current government and hold a fresh election to the High Council (which would effectively be an internal leadership election), Ciarraí and Sabriel would instruct the Evon Party to support them in that election, effectively merging the two factions. The Radical Egalitarians agreed. The two then announced they would campaign to be nominated jointly as the Radical Egalitarian candidate for the Chair of the High Council (so they were effectively campaigning for the leadership of the faction). Almost all of the MPs elected under the Evon Party banner were willing to follow Ciarraí and Sabriel into the Radical Egalitarians and support them for the High Council. Consequently, only needed the support of a few MPs from the original Radical Egalitarian Party to win a majority, and their position was made even easier by the failure of the radical egalitarians who opposed them to unite around a single candidate.
They had made it to the High Council, but their position was tenuous. Not only was their parliamentary support fragile, and their electoral mandate dubious, but several other senior councillors were from the 'rump' Radical Egalitarian faction which had opposed them. Ciarraí and Sabriel thus announced a second general election.
The Silver Knife[edit | edit source]
Death of Elaine and political zenith[edit | edit source]
Ro and Gru[edit | edit source]
Ro Wipe and meeting Raven[edit | edit source]
Personality and traits[edit | edit source]
Abilities and skills[edit | edit source]
Relationships[edit | edit source]
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Two 2017 sources gave his birthday as 8 November, though it was later confirmed that Evon (and other BHH species) do not use the Gregorian calendar.