Willem Korvan

Willem Korvan was a Cormyrean engineer who was active in Innarlith in the mid–14 century DR. He eventually rose up within Innarlith society to become a senator in the city-state.

Personality
Willem was a mediocre engineer who was prone to making errors and he was unable to complete the tasks that he was entrusted with. However, he had great drive and ambition to move upwards in society. He saw his life in Innarlith as a chance to become something more than what he was in Cormyr, and he dreaded returning to Cormyr because it would mean that he would just be a normal commoner.

Relationships
Ivor Devorast was a classmate of Willem during their younger days when they studied engineering in Cormyr. However, Willem resented him and thought him to be arrogant and aloof. They both ended up taking work in projects in Innarlith. Willem's mistakes and incompetence as an engineer led him to require Ivor's help on different occasions in order to finish projects and maintain the illusion that Willem had accomplished it by his own merits.

Senator Inthelph was the master builder of Innarlith and the principal patron of Willem's career. The city assigned projects to Inthelph, which Inthelph didn't have the competence to complete on his own, and so he gave the same projects to Willem, while taking credit for Willem's work.

A Thayan woman named Halina was Willem's lover, whom he liked very much. Unknown to him was that her uncle Marek Rymüt, a Thayan Red Wizard in disguise, was using the relationship to gain information about the city's building projects. Although Willem loved Halina, he did not want to marry her because they were both foreigners, and he believed he needed to marry a local woman to stand a chance at becoming a senator and moving up in Innarlith society.

Phyrea, the daughter of Inthelph, became Willem's wife after he married her for career reasons.

History
Willem attended school to learn engineering in Cormyr along with his fellow student Ivor Devorast. Devorast stayed as a boarder with him and his mother in their home in Marsember during their studies.

Upon their graduation, people from different countries in Faerun arrived to recruit graduates to join different projects that were needed. Willem and Ivor were both recruited by two different men from Innarlith, a city on the Lake of Steam. Ivor was recruited to help build a massive ship and Willem was recruited to help in a project to rebuild the city walls.

Willem set to work on this project, but continually made errors in its calculations, which were noticed and Willem feared that his chance of a career was in jeopardy. A lieutenant of the city guard spoke openly about these mistakes, and Willem secretly had him poisoned to stop him. The lieutenant was left insane by the poison and sent to a sanitarium.

Eventually, Willem went to find Ivor Devorast to help him with the project. Ivor agreed to help him and made all the calculations correctly, while drawing up new plans for the reconstruction. Willem then copied Ivor's plans and submitted them as his own.

Willem was entrusted with more projects by the city, including the construction of a keep, which he also got Ivor to secretly help him with, while taking credit for Ivor's engineering talents.

He got into a relationship with a Thayan woman named Halina, which he eventually had to end because he feared he could not advance his career if he married a foreigner as he was a foreigner himself.

However, he ardently desired to become a senator in the city-state and his patrons were well aware of this. Eventually they made a deal whereby Willem would marry the master-builder's daughter and they would pay for his senate seat for him, but in return he had to sell his votes to them for everything they desired within the city's legislative body for a five-year period after he became a senator. He agreed to all of this and became a senator in Innarlith.

Appearances

 * Whisper of Waves