- "We have only done what we know to be right. We wish only for you to walk in the light of our Goddess, to hear Her Word, and to know Her Love. Tell me, mistress, how have we wronged you? How have we imposed on you with our charity and good will?"
- ―Kian Alvane[src]
One of the playable characters of Dreamfall and Dreamfall Chapters, Kian Alvane is a 35 year old[2] Azadi Apostle: a soldier and assassin. He is sent to Marcuria by the Six to find and kill the Rebel leader known as the Scorpion. In his travels, he sees another side of his people and begins to question his beliefs, thinking that what he once believed to be pure faith now more closely resembles blindness.
Background[]
Kian grew up an orphan, a 'motherless boy' who lived in the streets of Sadir when he was found by Utana, then a young Sister running a small temple in the city. Taking him in, Utana taught him the word of the Goddess, sponsored his education, and for decades served as the closest thing he had to a parent.
As he grew up, Kian’s potential came to the attention of other high-ranking Azadi, including then-commander Hami and Garmon Koumas, who took him under their wings. However, Kian also made enemies: during his teen years, he rescued a girl called Alayna from a gang led by a man called Vamon, whose paths would cross with Kian’s multiple times in their lives as they both joined the Azadi army and rose through the ranks.
With time, Kian’s skills, devotion to the Goddess led to his appointment as an Apostle: one who converts with the sword rather than the word. While his connections to people within the Azadi hierarchy, and particularly the Sixth Circle, undoubtedly helped facilitate his ascension, it is unclear how transparent or official this sponsorship was; when Vamon, now a commander, is asked about the matter, he cannot answer with certainty.
Kian is a quiet but intense man, with a very strong devotion to the Goddess - his faith is so strong that even his pious instructor warns him to be more discerning. As an Azadi man, he was raised to see women as the dominant gender and is extremely polite to them, addressing every woman he meets as 'Mistress'.
Dreamfall[]
When Kian arrived in Marcuria during his hunt for the Scorpion, he met the Azadi Emissary and received further briefing on his mission. Commander Vamon arrived soon afterwards and was asked by the Azadi Emissary to follow Kian, and ensure the Apostle's edge was not blunted by the eastern pagans.
- "I am always told of these filthy and dangerous magicals, and yet... No, I must not doubt what I have been taught. I am not a scholar."
- ―Kian Alvane[src]
Kian began tracking the Scorpion down, but increasingly found his head turned by the Marcurians. Faced with the reality of the Magic Ghetto, the attitude of his fellow soldiers and the dissatisfaction of the citizenry, he began to ponder the true reason the Goddess might have had in sending him to Marcuria. During his investigation, a young woman appeared out of nowhere in the Marcuria marketplace. She was promptly arrested by the Azadi as a witch and hauled off to Friar's Keep. Kian went to the prison to interrogate her, but decided she was harmless and argued for her release, although Warden Murron insisted he must observe protocol and send her to Sadir for trial.
Kian headed back to the city, but met a woman on her way to the Keep to whom he felt inexplicably drawn. Believing they had met before, he spoke to her but soon realised his mistake. Nevertheless, he decided to ask her why the Marcurians seemed so dissatisfied with the Azadi after everything the Empire had done, including ridding Marcuria of the Tyren. Unfortunately, the woman happened to be April Ryan, and she gave him a piece of her mind. They went their separate ways without Kian realising he had just spoken to a senior member of the Rebels.
After killing two rebels and interrogating a Zhid at swordpoint, Kian finally got a lead on the Scorpion that took him to the Journeyman Inn. With a gang of soldiers, he raided the Journeyman and arrested Benrime Salmin as a rebel sympathiser. He also found Na'ane in one of the upstairs rooms. He threatened her and demanded that she take him to the Scorpion, telling her the ship smuggling supplies to the Swamp City would be boarded, its crew weighted and thrown into the ocean. Na'ane pleaded for the life of the crew, and agreed to give him the Scorpion in return.
Kian stowed away on a ship and arrived in the Rebel City, where Na'ane told him to meet the Scorpion on one of the piers. However, when he arrived, he found April Ryan waiting for him. Surprised to encounter the woman who had made such an impassioned speech, Kian insisted that his time in Marcuria had changed many of his ideas. He believed that the Goddess had led him to April to show him the truth. April wasn't convinced during the most of their conversation and saw him as an Azadi infiltrator, however, by the end she started to believe he was honest and was willing to let him leave the city without alerting other rebels.
Unfortunately, Kian had been followed to the swamplands and a squadron of Azadi soldiers, led by Commander Vamon, began a raid on the Rebel City with Cloudships. Thinking his fears had been confirmed and that Kian - dressed as a rebel to blend in - had defected, Vamon ordered Kian to kill the Scorpion... the name the Azadi had given to April after she first began fighting them. Unable to bring himself to kill her, Kian hesitated. One of Vamon's soldiers stabbed April in the stomach with a halberd. As she fell from the pier, Vamon arrested Kian and hauled him away.
|
“Where have you gone to, Dreamer. Whose dreams are you dreaming?” — Spoilers for Dreamfall Chapters follow. |
|
Dreamfall Chapters[]
Kian returns as one of the three playable characters in DFC. His story opens a year after his arrest in Dreamfall, which he has spent inside Friar's Keep awaiting transport to Sadir to stand trial, after which he is to be executed. While he has accepted his eventual fate, one question continues to bother him: What are his people trying to accomplish in Marcuria? Whatever it is, he is convinced that it cannot be the will of the Goddess.
The night before his execution, arranged without authorization by Vamon, Kian gets a surprise visit from Captain Balsay Bachim, who tells Kian about the made-to-order prison riot taking place in order to help break him out. Kian is confused as to why the resistance wants to help him; Bachim tells Kian he needs to repay his debt from his actions in Dreamfall.[3]
The rescue is successful, but results in the loss of Balsay, whose death allows the activation of a teleportation spell, and with Kian shot by Vamon.
As he swims in and out of consciousness, Kian remembers a song:
"Sleep, child, sleep. Sleep in your mother's heart.
Let the wind blow and the rain fall. Hear the executioner's call.
Watch the traitor's head roll, as the Shadow takes his soul.
Sleep, child, sleep. We shall never part.
For we will soon be free,
together, forever, in the cold, cold sea."
Kian wakes up and finds himself healed in the Enclave, the former library of the Sentinel, and current rebel headquarters, where Shepherd, the rebel leader, explains that they need him, because of his skill and because of his potential as a symbol. He is introduced to several of the rebellion’s most important people, including Enu and Likho, two of their field operatives; Bob-Who-Can-See, the base’s logistics officer; and Jakai Salmin, nephew of rebel ally Benrime Salmin. He is then tasked to join Enu and Likho on their trip to Marcuria, and to assist them. Protected by an Irhadian veil which camouflages him from most eyes, he sets out on his assigned tasks.
After completing his missions—including meeting with the Marcurian underground figure known as The Mole to secure supplies and infiltrating a meeting of the National Front for Faith and Family with the help of a Dolmari street urchin called Bip—Kian heads to The Rooster and Kitten for his rendezvous with Likho and Enu. There, the publican, Ulvic, inform him that someone is waiting for him. It is a woman, calling herself Anna, who, being able to see through Kian’s Irhadian veil, must know him intimately—knowledge which Kian does not reciprocate. After her introductions, she tells him that she’ll be asking him for a favor in the future, and leaves.
Days later, during another of Kian’s visits to Marcuria, Anna reveals the favor she wishes Kian to perform: to find and rescue a magical child who is regularly raped by an Azadi soldier. The interaction turns awkward when Kian rejects Anna’s amorous advances. Afterward, Kian, with Bip’s help, finds the Azadi soldier, stops him, and extracts information about the planned Azadi raid on Old Town.
After several weeks working for the rebellion (and another encounter with Anna) Kian obtains his biggest success yet when he obtains entry into the building serving as a hub for the Azadi’s now-completed network of pipes. There he finds an Azadi engineer called Ferdows, who under duress tells Kian that the pipes are an integral part of a giant Calculating Engine, designed to calculate ever more complex equations until finally solving the equation that will allow the Azadi Empire to harness the power of dreams. Kian, in turn, tells Ferdows the truth about the Azadi’s cruelty towards magicals, which horrifies Ferdows. The two Azadi are then found by General Hami, who confronts Kian about his betrayal and resolves to arrest them. Before he can do so, however, Ferdows attacks Hami, allowing Kian to escape.
Returning to The Rooster and Kitten, Kian tells his compatriots what he’s just learned, and obtains a disturbing piece of intelligence: Bip has been captured by the Azadi, and is slated to be sent to their “re-education camp” in Ge'en. Kian resolves to go to Ge’en to free him. Along the way, he hopes to obtain evidence of the Azadi’s evil-doing, which he hoped to use to rally supporters for the cause. Before he leaves Marcuria, he is once again approached by Anna, who pleads for him not to go. She tells him the truth about who she is and how she knows him: she is Alayna, whom he’d once rescued from Vamon. As she reveals her feelings for him, she realizes that Kian must go to Ge’en, regardless of her wishes.
After infiltrating the prison camp, Kian finds Sister Alessandra, a scientist for the Azadi Empire’s Office of Scientific Research, and learns that the Azadi cruelty towards magicals didn’t stop with their deportation and imprisonment. Rather, they were actively researching ways to produce biological weapons to eliminate them completely. Their confrontation is then cut short by the arrival of Hami, who is horrified at what he learns and resolves to turn against his Azadi masters.
Leaving behind the rescued Bip with his parents, Kian returns to Marcuria with Hami. With defecting Azadi soldiers now bolstering their ranks, the rebels mount a final assault against the Azadi occupiers. Kian’s role is to enter the Azadi tower and, from there, allow Ferdows access to the Engine. Not long after he sets out on his mission, he encounters Crow, who is about to be burned alive by Onor Hilleris for a past humiliation and for being a magical.
After rescuing Crow, who agrees to help Kian into the tower, the two travel across the Underground Caverns, into the Dream Chamber, and the Engine’s core. There, they find Roper Klacks operating the engine; Kian confronts him and punches him unconscious. Before he can succeed in allowing Ferdows access to the system, he is interrupted by the arrival of Mother Utana.
After Crow carelessly reveals Utana’s position as head of the Office of Scientific Research, Kian controls his once caretaker. Unable to explain herself, Utana instead stabs Kian and makes her exit. Only Saga’s intervention and use of an Elixir of Delayed Death saves the former Apostle’s life.
With Kian once again on his feet, Saga opens a Shift to Stark, which allows Zoë Castillo to cross the Divide and impart to Kian the key to saving the day: using The Silver Spear of Gorimon held by the Prophet to stab Klacks, shattering the soul-stone inside him and freeing the Undreaming. Kian, choosing to trust Zoë, travels to the Engine’s upper levels and confronts Klacks and the Prophet. After wresting the Spear from the Prophet’s hand, Kian fights through the burning pain and impales Klacks with the weapon before falling unconscious. There, he is once again faced with Mother Utana, who reveals her future plans for Azadir before leaving Kian behind.
A week later, Kian is at the Enclave, saying his good-byes before his return journey to Azadir, when he is found by Saga, who tells him that she will join him in his attempts to confront his people, and that he should adopt her. While he is confounded by the stranger and her apparent knowledge of the future, he agrees to her demands, contingent on her explaining everything.
The Future[]
Very little is known about Kian’s return to Azadir, or the events that transpired there. However, it is known that his struggle concludes successfully after five years, after which he becomes known as the Bloodless King. Saga also suggests that Kian will play a role in the War of the Balance, but the specifics of that role are unknown.
Trivia[]
- 'Kian' is related to the words 'generations' or 'king'; or to the Gaelic 'cian', meaning 'ancient'.
- Kian’s facial markings signify him being an apostle. It's the mark of the apostle. [4]
- Kian is gay, a detail which he discloses to those he deems worthy of knowing. Initial player questions regarding whether the character’s sexuality was determined by player choices were answered on the Steam forum discussion "My Kian is gay? OK!"[1]
- During his time as a street Urchin, Kian had a pet rat, Ratigan, who later went on to abandon him for a better-fed child.