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. He was eventually killed and turned into an undead assassin by the clandestine Red Wizard Marek Rymüt. .

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
Ivar 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 Ivar's help on different occasions in order to finish projects and maintain the illusion that Willem had accomplished it by his own merits. . Willem was eventually tasked with taking over the canal project after Devorast was dismissed from his post. .

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. . Willem eventually married Inthelph's daughter Phyrea, which Inthelph himself greatly encouraged. Phyrea divorced Willem after a short time, however. Later after Willem was turned undead and enthralled by Marek Rymut, Marek used Willem to assassinate Inthelph in his bedroom in 1369 DR.

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. He got engaged to marry Halina, but began trying to start a relationship with Phyrea, the daughter of Inthelph, at the same time. . The relationship eventually ended as Willem pursued Phyrea and Halina went to join the temple of Chauntea to do service there. . Willem wondered if Halina would still love him if she knew about the crimes he had done. . When Willem became an undead creature, he had some memory of Halina and went to try to find her unsuccessfully.

His mother Thurene eventually joined him in Innarlith and lived together with him. She has owned the house that Ivar Devorast had rented a room in when he was studying engineering in Marsember with Willem. She greatly supported her son's ambitions to rise higher in Innarlith and she encouraged him to go after Phyrea rather than Halina in order to support his career advancement. . After Willem married Phyrea, Phyrea moved in with the two of them, but she came to horrify Thurene, who left Innarlith and went back to Cormyr. .

Phyrea was his wife for a short time period before she left him to marry Senator Pristoleph. Phyrea despised him and thought he was pathetic. .

Marek Rymut, a clandestine Red Wizard in Innarlith, was allied with Willem's patrons on the senate, including senator Meykhati, and thereby also with Willem himself. Marek eventually murdered Willem and turned him into an undead assassin to do his bidding. .

History
Willem attended school to learn engineering in Cormyr along with his fellow student Ivar 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 Ivar were both recruited by two different men from Innarlith, a city on the Lake of Steam. Ivar 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 Ivar Devorast to help him with the project. Ivar agreed to help him and made all the calculations correctly, while drawing up new plans for the reconstruction. Willem then copied Ivar'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 Ivar to secretly help him with, while taking credit for Ivar's engineering talents.

He got into a relationship with a Thayan woman named Halina , and planned to marry her but feared that he needed to marry the master-builder's daughter Phyrea in order to advance his career and began seeking her hand while he was still engaged to Halina. He purchased a 45,000 gold value sculpture for her in order to impress her. .

He ardently desired to become a senator in the city-state and his patrons were well aware of this.

In 1363 DR Willem assassinated Senator Khonsu, the oldest member of the Senate of Innarlith. Willem had desires to move up further in Innarlith society through the help of his patron Senator Inthelph, but he feared that Khonsu was going to turn on Inthelph, because of Inthelph's incompetence as master-builder. He visited Khonsu at his home and poisoned his tea, which was intended to kill him, however, his life was saved by priests of Waukeen. However, Khonsu was badly hurt because of the attack. Khonsu, however, did not reveal the fact that Willem had attempted to assassinate him. In 1364 DR Willem returned to visit Khonsu at his home privately to attempt to kill him a second time. Khonsu pleaded with Willem to let him die quickly and gave Willem advice on how he could advance to the senate, but Willem nevertheless gutted him with a knife and killed him slowly.

After Khonsu was removed, the other senators made plans that paved the way for Willem to advance to the senate. Eventually they made a deal whereby 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.

Ivar Devorast was dismissed from his post as the master builder of the canal to connect the Lake of Steam to the Nagaflow and Willem was installed by the Ransar as the new master builder of the project. A hearing was held on Alturiak 81367 DR in the Chamber of Law and Civility to discuss Ivar Devorast's role before his dismissal, which Devorast and Willem both attended. Willem, who loathed to be in the same room with Devorast, arrived at the hearing completely drunk and embarrassed himself in front of the senate and foreign dignitaries that were discussing the canal. Later the same day, a woman tried to pick Willem's coin purse on the street in the first quarter of Innarlith and Willem murdered her with a knife.

Willem followed Devorast's plans, although he lacked Devorast's skill as an engineer. A number of workers got killed under his leadership, such as from accidents in mudslides due to rain. Willem gave the corpses of the workers to Marek Rymut, who raised them as undead zombies that would obey Willem's orders. Other workers fled the project and went back to the city. Marek used the corpses of impoverished people from Innarlith's fourth quarter to raise as zombies and send to help Willem build the canal. .

Willem eventually came to marry Phyrea in a ceremony conducted in Cyric's name in 1367 DR. Phyrea moved in with him and his mother, but his mother became terrified of her and went back to Cormyr. Phyrea eventually divorced him and went to marry Senator Pristoleph, the richest man in Innarlith. .

Marek invited Willem to the Thayan enclave in Innarlith for a meeting after hearing this news. Marek then poisoned Willem and used an enchanted flamberge to kill Willem and turn him into an undead minion. Willem was then raised from the dead as an intelligent undead creature that was bound to obey Marek's orders. Willem was aware of his condition as undead after being raised and was horrified by it, but nevertheless bound to obey. Marek kept Willem's condition a secret after this and his disappearance was left unexplained. .

Marek then used Willem as his own personal assassin. He sent Willem to the home of Senator Inthelph, Willem's former mentor, and killed the senator in 1369 DR. Willem couldn't disobey the commands he was given and apologized to Inthelph as he was murdering him.

Marek later sent Willem to murder Ivar Devorast after the latter was reappointed by Pristoleph to take over the canal project. Willem came to Devorast's tent and fought him. In the fight, he ended up killing the alchemist Surero and severely injuring Devorast while leaving his body with a rotting disease, which was later cured. However, he managed to resist the command to carry out the killing of Devorast and fled before he could finish the task.

Quotations
"Verhenden, I’ve heard of you. Fael, right? Fael Verhenden, the ambassador from Arrabar. You’re right, your excellency. You’re entirely and completely and completely right about the fact that I’m completely drunk" -Willem Korvan speaking in the Senate on the day of the hearing to remove Ivar Devorast from the canal project.

"Have you ever said the word ‘forgiveness’ and actually meant it, Ambassador? I drank when I knew I had to come here because he forgives me. I think he forgives me. Or maybe he just doesn’t care. I think you have to care about someone to forgive him, don’t you? Care just a little?"-Willem Korvan speaking in the Senate on the day of the hearing to remove Ivar Devorast from the canal project.

Appearances

 * Whisper of Waves
 * Lies of Light
 * Scream of Stone