Silent Thunder

Silence speaks louder than words

Who he is, we do not know. What he does, we do not know. Why he fights, we do not know. Where he lives, we do not know. Most importantly, he penetrates our defenses like water and hides better than a shadow.

— Aban family bodyguard

Silent Thunder is the nom de guerre of an unnamed person. Said person is a master of disguise, a denizen of the shadows, and one of the top assassins that ever lived. Based on eyewitness accounts, she is of average height, and can wield nearly any weapon with prodigial skill.

Agenda

Collected below are a list of requests the Silent Thunder has made in the past ten years. Through handwriting analyses we have concluded that the Silent Thunder is not one person.

• Remove martial law
• Relinquish control of the parliament
• Remove "recommendation" method*
• Lower food taxes (requested multiple times)
• Lower tariffs and guarantee free trade
• Lower bonuses for civil servants
• Remove tax exemption for nobles
• Guarantee the rights of citizens to free expression

Accomplishments

I suspect that she has many officials in the parliament under her thumb. After all, she is no ordinary assassin, and cannot be countered by ordinary means. At least she is using it for good, and not evil.

— Sophia Carlson, Counterintelligence Command

The Silent Thunder has accomplished many tasks in her life. She first came to prominence in the Era of the Three Kings, where there was no true monarch. She was able to infiltrate Aldrich Aban's capital in Sabdao and rescue nearly two dozen brilliant commanders who would have otherwise been executed. This move is said to have singlehandedly saved the Federation.

She told me that she was doing this for the good of the nation, and not for me. She said she'd murder me in an instant if I attempted to determine her identity. And who was I to doubt her?

— Charles Carlson

The assassin seemed determinedly on Alice Aban's side, felling official after corrupt official in support of the future queen. Alice never acknowledged in public how much the Thunder did for her, but in private, she admitted to close family members that it was immense. She noted that it was like having a goddess on her side.
However, the goddess would not forever be on her side. After Alice's ascension to the throne, the Silent Thunder turned to protecting the people, working on new, pro-serf and pro-peasant laws. Alice, however, wanted to keep her hold on power, and was thereafter pursued to within an inch of her life, handed a note of the Thunder's demands, and knocked out with a poison dart.
Sophia Carlson was then assigned to investigate this menace. She figured out that a full two-thirds of the parliament had been affected by the Thunder and that the Thunder had directly or indirectly caused five parliamentarians to die in an unknown manner. She similarly struck a dead end in the determination of the Thunder's identity.
However, the Thunder had other plans. Brazenly, in an overestimation of her abilities, she attacked Sophia herself, the greatest duelist of all time. Sophia expertly defended herself, and through the duel was able to gain more information on the Thunder's fighting style. The Thunder was able to escape capture, but lay dormant. For a while.

Combat Skill

At least she didn't seem to be after my life. She wanted to deliver a message, but I immediately noticed that she was armed with an assortment of killing-devices and drew my sword. After a short duel, she fled.

— Sophia Carlson, official report

The one person with combat experience against the Silent Thunder is Sophia Kai Carlson, the undisputed best swordswoman in the country. Through her reports, the Silent Thunder is truly a master of the duel, parrying several dozen blows even after being hemmed in by Sophia's immense skill. The Thunder several times tried to use poison darts, explosives, and fire to attack, and Sophia counted herself lucky to have escaped with her life.