Ivar Devorast

Ivor Devorast was a Cormyrean engineer who was active in the city of Innarlith, on the Lake of Steam in the mid–14 century DR. He was the principal planner behind the city's attempt to build a canal that connected the Sea of Fallen Stars to the Lake of Steam.

Personality
Ivor Devorast was single-mindedly focused on his work and made every effort to ensure that every detail was correctly done, but he had great difficulty in social interactions with other people. He often only talked about issues relating to work and ignored questions or barely answered them when other people asked him about personal issues.

Abilities
He was a very skilled and brilliant engineer who was known to never make mistakes in his calculations. His specialty was in naval engineering and his drawings for naval weapons attracted attention even before he had left Cormyr. However, his lack of social skills made it difficult for him to turn this into profit for himself, as other people would take credit for the projects he successfully completed.

Relationships
Phyrea, the daughter of the city's master-builder, developed a strong attraction to Ivor after she first met him running a project near her father's country estate to the north of Innarlith. The two of them had an affair with each other during this project.

Willem Korvan was a former classmate of Ivor, but not as talented as an engineer as him. Willem required Ivor's help on different occasions, but Willem resented him and thought Ivor was very arrogant. Willem typically took credit for Ivor's successes, allowing Willem to move up in Innarlith society, while Ivor remained impoverished.

Early Life
Ivor was born in Cormyr and attended a school to learn engineering there, along with his fellow student Willem Korvan. Ivor stayed as a boarder with Willem and his mother in their home in Marsember during his studies.

Coming to Innarlith
Upon their graduation, when people from different nations came to the school to recruit graduates for joining particular projects, Willem and Ivor were both recruited to go to Innarlith on two separate projects. Ivor was recruited to help build a massive ship for the king of Cormyr and Willem was recruited to help with a project for the city wall.

Both of them went to Innarlith, but Willem was unable to do the work he was hired for and he eventually got Ivor to do his work for him. Ivor made the correct calculations and Willem then presented them to the city's master-builder, while taking credit for Ivor's work.

Ivor worked on the project to build the ship, named the Everwind, for a wealthy man named Fharaud. The plan was to build the ship in Innarlith and then use a magical portal to transport it to the Sea of Fallen Stars. Ivor was deeply distrustful of the portal, however, and didn't like the idea of trusting his work to magic. After the ship was completed, Fharaud and a crew sailed it into the magical portal. However, the portal had been secretly sabotaged by the Red Wizard Marek Rymüt and the ship broke into pieces and fell from a height onto the place it was supposed to go near Arrabar in the Shou Lung

Ivor was left in poverty and continued to live in Innarlith.

Ran Ai Yu
Despite his failure with the 'Everwind', Ivor was contacted by a Shou merchant named Ran Ai Yu who wanted him to build her a new ship after her previous ship had sunk in the Lake of Steam. Ivor took up the project and constructed a ship that used ceramic tiles on its hull; the only one that had ever been built. Before it was launched, the ship was attacked by a pair of giant demonic fish that had been transported to Innarlith harbour from the Land of One Hundred and Thirteen by the Red Wizard Marek Rymüt after Ran Ai Yu had refused his offer to use a magical portal to transport the ship back to Shou Lung. Ivor, Ran Ai Yu and a dwarf named Hrothgar successfully fought and killed the fish. Ran Ai Yu then took the boat with her crew back to Shou Lung. Ivor destroyed his copy of the plans he made for building the ship and announced he would never build a second one no matter how much gold he was offered.

Years later when another Shou merchant asked for Ivor to build him one, Ivor refused the offer.

Keep and Spire
Later, Willem again required Ivor's help with another project to build a keep for the city next to the Nagaflow to the north of the city and Ivor again agreed to give his help. Ivor made the correct calculations and assisted the project as a foreman, while Willem again took credit for the project's success in order to advance his career.

After this was completed, Willem again was tasked with building an additional spire to the Palace of Many Spires in Innarlith, and Willem again went to Ivor to help him with designing this. Ivor again drew up the plans and gave them to Willem. Willem didn't pay him anything or give him any credit for it and Ivor said he was satisfied to simply see the work completed.

Canal
The experience of the Everwind and his time working in the countryside north of the city convinced him of the idea of building a canal between Innarlith and the Nagaflow, which would thus connect the Lake of Steam to the Sea of Fallen Stars, and effectively change the map of Faerun. He drew up plans for how this could be done and presented them to the city's Ransar. The Ransar admired the idea, gave his approval for the project and put Ivor in charge of it.

After the project for canal construction had begun, the project became a hot political question in Innarlith, with different factions voicing their opinions about it. Marek Rymut, who was covertly acting on behalf of Thay, which was set to suffer the most if the canal was completed (since the building of the canal would effectively any need for people to pay for Thayan services to use magic portals to transport boats from the Sea of Fallen Stars to the Oceans of Toril), was vehemently opposed to the project and attempted to manipulate the city's elite to turn against the project. Ran Ai Yu and representatives of the Shou merchant fleet in Innarlith gave their strong support for the project.

Appearances

 * Whisper of Waves