Baron Camora

Sent to recover Knight Henned and the Silver Knights from House Norton; was refused, came home empty-handed and the duke locked him in a flooded cell for over a month. Lorist's strike force pulled him out at Tverdynya, half-conscious and septic; he was rolled into Norton service after recovery.

**The water-dungeon arc.** Duke Lukins sent Camora to demand the captured Silver Knights back from Lorist. Lorist refused. The duke threw Camora into a flooded cell for more than a month; only the warders' clandestine help kept his legs from rotting.

**Rescue.** Lorist's Tverdynya strike force pulled Camora out half-conscious; recovered over several days under Lorist's potions, and rolled into Norton service afterwards.

From the outside, a monkeyish jester at the duke's elbow, a vain flatterer in a ludicrous light-gold wig. In truth, a man of enormous will and rare gifts for administration, supply and taxation. Even after Lorist broke him with sheer presence and questioned his nobility, Camora recovered his composure and carried the negotiation through to the end.

He is not without conscience: he secretly spirited the family of the executed Knight Chevany out of the Northern Lands, saving them from the duke's mad order — and it was precisely for this that he lost his freedom.

Born in the slums of Gildusk, the ducal capital. From childhood a petty thief, swindler and cutthroat, ready for anything to survive. At sixteen he was caught stealing and was to lose his hands, but a local noble, overjoyed at the birth of a son, pardoned him and gave him a little money, advising him to mend his ways.

Camora went to the temple of Sigwa, where he worked for free for two loaves a day and studied under the priests. In three years he won their trust; an old priest recommended him as a prison warden. From there he rose in ten years to captain of the city watch, and in ten more to head of Gildusk's tax office, where Duke Lukins noticed him.

The duke handed him the whole domain's taxation and the Northern Corps' supply. In three years Camora restored revenues ruined by civil strife to sixty percent of their former level and helped grow the ducal guard from three thousand to over twenty thousand. In reward the duke gave him a court barony — without land. That night Camora, balding and not yet forty-five, locked himself in his bedroom and wept half the night.

Sent by the duke to House Norton to demand a hundred thousand fordes on the pretext of the family's defiance (ch 114-116). With him came the gold knight Tabek and twenty silver knights. At Rockcastle's walls a Norton marksman downed Tabek's horse with a single shot, and Camora first doubted the outcome. In the hall Lorist broke him with a stare, making him reflexively produce his patent of nobility; Camora knew he would become a laughingstock.

The talks failed: Lorist refused to acknowledge the duke as overlord and rejected every demand, and the insolent Tabek attacked him and was killed. Coming home empty-handed, Camora was dressed down. Then, learning of the duke's mad order to sell the Chevany family into slavery, Camora secretly carried them off; the enraged duke stripped his title and threw him into the water dungeon for over a month. The warders secretly moved him to a dry corner at night — otherwise the baron's legs would have rotted.

During the Battle of Rockcastle (ch 165) Lorist's strike force found Camora in the ducal palace's water dungeon — half-conscious and septic. Lorist nursed him back with nourishing potions. Henned wanted Camora as his own steward, but Lorist took him instead: 'That would be a waste of talent.' Camora entered Norton service and in time became the family's director of weapons manufacturing (ch 259-260).