Zahmsyn Trynair

Zahmsyn Trynair was a Vicar of the Church of God Awaiting as well as the Chancellor of the Council of Vicars. Concurrently, he was also a Knight of the Temple Lands. As the leader of the so-called Group of Four, Trynair was in fact the true ruler of the Church, despite his official subordination to the Grand Vicar.

Physical Appearance
He was tall, lean, with an angular face, deep, intelligent eyes, and a closely trimmed beard. Like all Vicars, he wore the priest's cassock and cap colored solid orange, and his sleeve bared the blue quil sigil patch of the Order of Chihiro. He also wore an assortment of personal ornamentation, including his ruby ring of office that lower ranking persons would kiss at the start of an audience with him. 

Biography
Trynair ascended to the Vicarate some time before the Year of God 890. A member of the Order of Chihiro, he rose through the ranks until he became arguably the most powerful singular man in the Church's hierarchy, more than capable of taking the Throne of Langhorne for himself. However, he opted instead to hold the direct, mostly political, authority of the Chancellor, and used Erek XVII as a willing puppet while he and his colleagues in the Group of Four acted as the temporal and spiritual governors of the Church.

In the Year of God 890, Trynair became concerned over the independence and culture of innovation in the Kingdom of Charis, especially after Merlin Athrawes delayed the Archbhisop of Charis Erayk Dynnys from making his annual pastoral visit. He visited Dynnys while the Archbishop recovered from the devastating injury he had suffered. Trynair urged Dynnys upon his recovery and journey to Charis, to institute a full review of all innovations approved by his Intendant Father Paityr Wylsynn during his visit.

However, before Dynnys even returned from Charis, Grand Inquisitor Vicar Zhaspahr Clyntahn proposed a plan to destroy Charis as a "final solution to the Charisian problem." Trynair was wary of the political consequences of this action, but after Clyntahn noted that the Council of Vicars (as directed by the Group of Four) had the power to act as purely secular leaders in their personas as Knights of the Temple Lands, Trynair backed the plan and dispatched diplomats to Dohlar, Tarot, Emerald, Chisholm, and Corisande to coerce those realms' cooperation.

When Dynnys returned from Charis, Trynair and the Group of Four interviewed him personally before having him arrested for heresy and dereliction of his responsibilities as Archbishop of Charis. (OAR) Dynnys was later sentenced to suffer the full Punishment of Schueler and public execution in the Plaza of Martyrs.

When the combined fleets assembled in the service of the Knights of the Temple Lands were annihilated at the battles of Rock Point, Crag Reach, and Darcos Sound, and the Church based in Charis under the leadership of Maikel Staynair declared a schism between itself and the Temple, Trynair ordered Staynair and King Cayleb of Charis excommunicated through his proxy the Grand Vicar. 

He backed Clyntahn's plan to close all mainland ports to Charisian shipping, though Clyntahn did not properly inform his colleagues of the full consequences of this decision, including the extent of the Ferayd Massacre. The excommunication and interdict, which suspended all Temple ceremonies, were later extended to Emerald and Chisholm after those realms joined the new Empire of Charis.

When Admiral Rock Point burned Ferayd Harbor in retaliation for the massacre, he also uncovered incontrovertible evidence that the Inquisition had triggered and supported the catastrophe, which directly led to the murder of children. Recognizing how Clyntahn had lied to his colleagues, and how the political consequences of the decision could be severe if it were not handled properly, Trynair angrily demanded that Clyntahn take responsibility for the crimes. Trynair later reached a compromise with Clyntahn, wary of pushing the zealous and ruthless Grand Inquisitor too far.

During Charis' war with Corisande, the Group of Four's main connection to the Temple-loyalist population of Corisande was through the Inquisition and Clyntahn, who ordered that Prince Hektor was to be assassinated if he sued for peace. After this order was carried out, Trynair and the other members of the Group of Four were not informed, though it was hinted that Trynair knew Clynthan was responsible for the act, and not Charis as Clynthan asserted in chorus with the general consensus of the people of Corisande. 

Trynair reacted with alarm when Clyntahn used his authority to unilaterally purge the Vicarate of every potential political enemy the Group of Four had in the Council in Year of God 894, but found himself forced to choose between making an enemy of the dangerously zealous and power mad Grand Inquisitor or dealing with the consequences, which he declared to Clyntahn included the arrest and execution of his own relatives. Trynair decided to support Clyntahn when the Grand Inquisitor produced the Archbishop who had betrayed the Circle to Clyntahn as a witness.

Trynair later confided to Rhobair Duchairn that it was his personal belief that Clyntahn's charges were outrageously baseless, but that he saw no option but to back them at least in the short term. He brokered a deal between Duchairn and Clyntahn that allowed Vicar Rhobair to publicly isolate himself from the decisions Clyntahn had made while Duchairn pursued his own initiatives, though he explicitly told Duchairn that he would not stand in Clyntahn's way if Duchairn drew the Grand Inquisitor's wrath himself.

By this time, Trynair's position as the most powerful member of the Group of Four was slipping, as he found himself increasingly unable to restrain or even contain the Grand Inquisitor. Trynair retained his control of the Grand Vicar and his political authority, but events produced a situation where Clyntahn's religious authority became more significant and more direct than the traditional power plays Trynair engaged in. 

After the Battle of the Gulf of Tarot, in Year of God 895, Trynair was greatly distressed by the new Charisian weapons introduced there, openly declaring that he believed the Charisians were engaging in "deviltry" and that he was losing faith in the Church's ability to prosecute the Holy War on Charis to a successful conclusion. He also was surprised and dismayed to learn that Duchairn would be hiking the tithe rate and imposing taxation on the Temple Lands, including his holdings there, for the first time in the Church's history. 

Over time he became increasingly cowed by Clyntahn. He was later put to the Question and Punishment of Schueler for daring to suggest a negotiated peace with Charis. (AST)

Trivia
Trynair coincidentally had a similar surname as the traditional Safeholdian character of the Master of Ceremonies, who was known as "Master Traynyr." As Trynair was largely the Church's puppet master, this proved to be somewhat ironic in such a way that was not unrecognized by him.