Tormano Liao

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Tormano Liao
Personal
Also known as	Ironheart
Born	2996
Died	3062
Affiliation	House Liao Free Capella
Family
Parents	Maximilian Liao (father)
Siblings	Candace Liao Romano Liao
Spouse	Hanya No Cha
Children	Treyhang Liao Unnamed daughter

Tormano Liao (born 2996 – died 3062), also known as Tormana Liao, was the youngest of Maxmilian Liao's three children, and is best known for his role as a political advisor. In the thirty years from the Fourth Succession War to the FedCom Civil War, Tormano Liao could be found as one of the lead advisors to many political leaders. Another of his legacies was the creation of the Free Capella movement, which united many disparate anti-Confederation groups into one cohesive organization. Free Capella would later fund the Blackwind Lancers and Jie Fang Legion.

Biography

Early life

Tormano Liao was born on Sian in 2996. The only real time he went against his father, Maximilian Liao, was when he married a commoner from Brazen Heart, and refused to divorce her at the Chancellor's order. Enraged, Maximilian named his oldest daughter Candace the heir to the Celestial Throne, removing Tormano and his offspring from the Capellan ruling line. He then placed himself in exile to Hsien as part of the 1st Ariana Fusiliers.

Marriage and Children

Sometime prior to 3025, Tormano married Hanya No Cha, a botanist. They had two children, Treyhang and a daughter.

Fourth Succession War

The events of the Fourth Succession War profoundly affected Tormano's life. In 3028, Tormano was finishing the fourth year of his self-imposed exile as a major in the 1st Ariana Fusiliers. In the first wave, the Fusiliers homeworld was attacked by the Eridani Light Horse and 3rd Davion Guards RCT. The AFFS forces found Major Liao's headless Centurion after the fighting, and assumed that Tormano had been killed in action.

Over the next three months, guerrilla operations on the world showed someone with official training was running the resistance movement. Rumors that a member of the Liao family was leading these operations fueled a planet wide manhunt. After two more months of ambushes and guerrilla strikes, the leader of the resistance, Tormano Liao, surrendered to Davion forces. In exchange for his surrender, the MIIO agreed to smuggle Tormano's wife out of the Capellan Confederation.

Hanse Davion extended an invitation to Tormano Liao and his wife; They arrived on New Avalon on April 19, 3028. While there Tormano (using "The Black Ram" as his alias) used access to military simulators to challenge cadets at the NAIS and Albion military academies. At the same time, Hanya No Cha used her access to the NAIS Information Network to learn about the new trends in botany.

In addition to these duties, Hanse Davion used Tormano's presence to gain a greater insight into the upper levels of the Capellan Confederation's political structure. These insights would serve him well when Pavel Ridzik formed the Tikonov Free Republic and Candace Liao contacted the First Prince about the secession of her St. Ives Commonality from the Confederation.

Clan Invasion Era

Murder and Kidnapping on Solaris

By late 3055, Tormano had been running his Free Capella organization in the Sarna March to restore and preserve the Capellan people who lived there. In truth, his organization was meant to topple the regime of his sister, Romano, and later her son, Sun Tzu Liao, in the Capellan Confederation and restore him to power. However, his nephew Kai was becoming more popular with the people, sensing opportunity he tried but failed to pass on control of the organization to him. Tormano saw him as a person who could lead to "freeing" the Confederation from Romano's heir however Kai showed a complete lack of political ambition and politely deflected Tormano's attempts to subvert him to his cause.

During 3056, his operation HQ for Free Capellan was based on Solaris VII at his residence in the Cathay District of Solaris City. During the period of Kai's championship for 3056, Tormano's operatives discovered a secret that he then tried to black mail his nephew with. They discovered that he unknowingly fathered a son, David Lear, with Dr. Deirdre Lear during his time on Alyina. Once again sensing opportunity he has his men bring Dierdre and her son to Solaris to use as hostages to manipulate Kai into furthering the Free Capellan agenda.

During this time, Peter Steiner-Davion is assigned to him as a liaison officer, in order to supervise his activities by his brother Victor Steiner-Davion. Tormano always looking for a new angle to exploit attempts to use Peter to trigger a war against the Capellan Confederation so that he may assume power there. He manipulates the young man into conducting a military raid after the hotel bombing that "kills" Galen Cox. Kai learns of Peter's disappearance from Solaris and goes to confront Tormano about what he has done. when Kai confronts him Tormano reveals that he has son and that he is holding the boy and his mother hostage. Tormano tells his nephew that he is to do absolutely nothing for the next 10 days or he will never see them again.

However, Tormano's plan fails, as Kai was able to secretly intercept Peter and the Khorsakhov’s Cossacks and prevents them from assaulting the Free Worlds League world of Shiloh to destroy the Harloc Raiders an event that would have triggered a war with them. Also, a Maskirovka agent, Nancy Bao Lee, prevented him from learning of leaked info on Kai's plans. Tormano is forced in to exile once the Archon-Prince hears of what he attempted to do. When Nancy comes to him, she attempts to assassinate him, but Tormano disarms her breaking her arm in the process. Tormano reveals to her that he knows that that she is Mask spy, and tells her to send a message to Sun-Tzu Liao. He tells her he is no longer threat to him (sun-Tzu), because Kai Allard-Liao is an even bigger threat than he.

Capellan-St. Ives Civil War

Tormano was killed in the Black May attacks ordered by his niece, Kali Liao, in 3062.

Death and afterward

Legacy Tormano's legacy could best be described as Machiavellian. He is known to have acted as an advisor to Katherine Steiner-Davion prior to the events of the FedCom Civil War. His self-interested behavior and habit of gathering as much power as he could can also be seen reflected in Katherine's policies.

On the other hand, Tormano was fiercely loyal to those who supported him. The Free Capella Movement, an independence organization focused on the Capellan Confederation, would never have been able to field two 'Mech regiments without his support. After Tormano's death, his son would take control of the Free Capella Movement. He would change it into a loyal opposition movement verses an attempt to usurp control from Chancellor.

Philosophical and/or political views

Though often cloaked in grandiose language, Tormano's politics basically existed to make his life easier. Tormano frequently held grudges against those that he felt wronged him; This habit was one reason he gave information to Hanse Davion in the Fourth Succession War (though it should be noted that Hanse's willingness to flatter Tormano made the process much easier).

Portrait Gallery

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  Tormano Liao

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  Tormano at the age of 54

Bibliography

• Field Manual: Updates
• House Liao (The Capellan Confederation)
• NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 2
• Assumption of Risk (novel)