Gilliam Vas

Gilliam Vas was a chanter of the Holy Terran Chantry and the illegitimate son of Grand Prior Ligeia Vas, stationed at Castle Borosevo on Emesh. He was an intus bearing hereditary deformities from unsanctioned palatine genetics.

Gilliam wielded Chantry authority and his mother's institutional leverage as weapons at court, procuring the Cielcin prisoner Makisomn and directing sustained hostility at Hadrian, whom he accused of heresy and espionage. He is killed by Hadrian in a formal duel -- the first person Hadrian ever kills. Years later, Hadrian reflects that he killed Gilliam for Valka's sake, though Valka herself acknowledges the killing was still wrong. Gilliam's death remains a formative act of violence that continues to weigh on Hadrian.