Danton Clore

Danton Clore was the leader of the tallow-hats[1]. He intervened in the Battle for New Sanctaphrax upon request from the High Academe Elect's wife, Eudoxia Quarter[2], but then took over New Sanctaphrax. He founded the New Sanctaphrax Companions to control the floating city.[3] Clore was defeated in an uprising of skymarshals led by Brocktinius Rolnix[4].

Biography

Early life

As a young, hot-blooded man, Danton Clore worked in the stilt-factories of Great Glade. He dreamed of other professions, of being a sky pirate in the First Age of Flight, or a Freeglade Lancer in the Second Age of Flight until he joined the Tallow-hats and found his place. He was the captain of the Skylancer[1].

The tallow-hats

In 620 ᴇ.ʏ., together with the crew of the Rainhawk and the Cloudbreaker, Danton Clore was hunting a merchant ship loaded with phrax-crystals. The captain and surviving senior officers of the Great Glade Academy of Flight abandoned ship in small phraxlighters when the tallow-hats attacked. The ship was brought to a phrax mine in the Eastern Woods. But instead of the the mine sergeant who was supposed to pay them their "tallow-tax", there was a squadron of Freeglade Lancers waiting because Splinters, the youngest member of the Rainhawk had betrayed them. Clore suspected that this betrayal meant that Lennius Grex was no longer Phrax Commander and their scheme would no longer work. The Tallow-hats would need to turn their attention to New Sanctaphrax.[1]

The Battle for New Sanctaphrax

Expecting an attack by Great Glade on Sanctaphrax, Eudoxia Quarter had bought the services of the Tallow-hats with the pooled resources of the Friends of New Sanctaphrax from Hive, Gorgetown, Riverrise and Great Glade. Danton Clore, fascinated by Eudoxia, felt compelled to help her. He was however unable to convince the other tallow-hats, until Eudoxia offered to share the new inventions that would lead to, as she promised, a Fourth Age of Flight. [3] The battle had just turned against the floating city as the Skymarshals of New Sanctaphrax had run out of ammunition, when the Tallow-hats arrived. The beak-like prows of the Tallow-hats' sleek cloudcruisers[1] sliced through Great Glade's phraxfrigates until those retreated[2].

The Knights of the Tallow and the Company of the Willing

After the battle, about a hundred cloudcruisers docked at the landings. Many Tallow-hats had wanted to return to the Edgelands and continue their life as outlaws, but Clore had plans for New Sanctaphrax. The Tallow-hats were welcomed by many academics for saving Sanctaphrax, but their longer presence had ensued some debates about their stay. Particularly the scholars of the Viaduct Schools had resented Danton Clore's progressive effort to take control of New Sanctaphrax.[3] Some of his fellow Tallow-hats, among them Thane Two-Blades, also did not agree with his actions, and so Clore executed them, giving the choice of being shot or falling off the Edge cliff, both options meaning certain death.[5]

Slowly, Clore restructured the upper echelons of Sanctaphrax, inviting the willing and forcing the unwilling to take an Oath of Loyalty to him. He founded the Knights of the Tallow and the Company of the Willing and renamed the Knights Academy to 'Tallow Hall'. The Knights of the Tallow were mostly former academics who had pledged allegiance to Clore, but some were also tallow-hats. The unwilling were forced into the Company of the Willing and performed lowly tasks, polishing his skyships or employed as Clore's personal servant. Danton Clore had given himself the title of Knight-General of New Sanctaphrax. Simultaneously, he used New Sanctaphrax's knowledge of new phrax technologies and the armoury's resources to build a new skyship, the Herald of the Fourth Age. He planned to build a fleet of Fourth Age of Flight ships to take over the whole of the Edge.[3]

But to Clore's great chagrin, he had not managed to build on his relationship with Eudoxia, whom he desired. She was the only reason he had convinced the Tallow-hats to help New Sanctaphrax. She had trusted him, and was deeply thankful when he had first convinced the Tallow-hats to help New Sanctaphrax, and even more so when they successfully had fought of Quove Lentis' army.[3] The Tallow hats attributed Clore's ambitious plans for Sanctaphrax to her influence over him[6]. But Eudoxia was furious about him betraying her trust and taking over the floating city, and so Clore imprisoned her in the Hall of High Cloud, frequently visiting her. He wanted to get rid of her husband, Nate Quarter, so that she could, even if she could never love him, be only his.[3]

Revolt

When the descenders finally appeared back in New Sanctaphrax, Clore surprised them and managed to imprison them , to be released only if they pledged the Oath of Loyalty. All the while, he had been making the High Professor of Flight an offer to send the High Academe Elect, Nate Quarter, and his nephew Cade to Great Glade. Clore would be able to get rid of what he perceived to be both a danger to his hold over Sanctaphrax and the only things standing between him and Eudoxia, and at the same time give Quove Lentis the people he most hated.[6] Just as Clore was about to announce that Nate Quarter would 'retire to the Deepwoods', Brocktinius Rolnix, who had been plotting against Clore and intercepting his ratbird messages, told the assembled crowd the truth and called for a revolt against Clore. Many of the assembled cast aside their black robes and revealed the blue of Sanctaphrax beneath. Clore attempted to flee on the Herald of the Fourth Age, firing with a phraxcannon on the floating city. He hit the Loftus Observatory and the Mistsifting Towers and fired bullets on the West Landing. Only Brock jumping in front of Eudoxia saved her life from the phraxfire. Clore was killed when a storm-stone hit his ship, shattering the ship in a thousand parts.[4]

Personality

Clore was hot-blooded and took the red scar on his cheek that stemmed from a dispute with a shryke trader as a reminder to "temper courage with caution". He was arrogant and self-centered and enjoyed looking at his own reflection [1] and later, painting[3]. Trying to find his place, he believed that there was a special place in the world reserved for him and he pursued those plans unscrupulously and with great ambition[1][3]. He desired Eudoxia, but was very possessive towards her; it didn't matter as much that she did not requite his love for her as long as she was his[3]. He did not spare her when he attacked Sanctaphrax[4].

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 The Descenders, Chapter 15
  2. 1 2 The Descenders, Chapter 15
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 The Descenders, Chapter 27
  4. 1 2 3 The Descenders, Chapter 29
  5. ↑ In The Descenders, Chapter 27, Clore described getting rid of the trouble making Tallow-hat captains as the first step of his plan. However, in Chapter 28, a group of black-uniformed figures had helped him threaten and kill said Tallow-hats. It is unclear if the black-uniformed figures were already Knights or Companions, and if so, then how his power-grab unfolded.
  6. 1 2 The Descenders, Chapter 28
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