Tikrit the Bloody

Tikrit is the varhani pirate king of the Kemesh Strait, that shallow expanse of sea studded with a thousand islands separating southern Kalmasa and northeastern Kemesh. He is a tributary lord. He commands a navy, spy network, merchant fleets as a silent secret proprietor, insures vessels, both legitimate and illegitimate. Tikrit owns shipyards and is constructing a school on the strait's largest island, Ureshkar.

Personally modest and unassuming, he speaks perfect Eshti, Kalmasi and Chol'ak, as well as some Talani'i and ejdehan dialects, though he pretends otherwise, using interpreters during meetings with foreigners. It is rumored that he has designs on taking over more territory in northeast Kemesh and that he would allow the varhani tribes to self govern in exchange for access to jungle resources. The tribes have a similar arrangement with the province of Guryar, but Tikrit's relationship with the tribes is much stronger than that of the Kalmasan Samraj.

Currently, the pirate kingdom has an understanding with the Samraj and leaves their vessels unmolested as long as tributes are paid on demand. Some Kalmasan merchants have even begun to utilize his shipyards as they are surprisingly very honest and fair, something that Tikrit brutally and publicly enforces.

These islands have no written laws, only the will of Tikrit. Currently believed to be in his forties, he has at least 100 years of rule ahead of him and with the varhani immunity to most poisons and the loyalty of his fellow varhani, he enjoys relative security from assassination or coup attempts.

Like many other opportunists, he took advantage of the disastrous war with Volenar to expand and strengthen and now that the Kalmasan navy has the forces to once again police its own shores effectively, their efforts to destroy his power base have been ineffectual. The merchants of Kalmasa want stability and predictability and have no interest in destroying Tikrit and creating a power vaccuum in the region, prefering the pirate they know to the one they do not.