Tor

Tor was an ancient gyrfalcon king who attempted to unite the six kingdoms beneath his sole leadership one hundred years before the events of the first novel. Tor was incredibly powerful and was well-respected amongst his followers; he was the creator of the Guard, a force of highly-trained gyrfalcons that banded together to protect the young, old, and sickly from enemies. Tor and his Guards taught gyrkin hatchlings that the Goddess had given him a divine right to rule the six kingdoms, and as a result much of the kingdom supported him in his quest to take the Land for his own. In addition to his own followers, Tor gathered supporters from beyond the desolate, desert land of the Other, calling many different species of raptor to him. Tor began to use his massive army to take small portions of other kingdoms before infiltrating their leadership and placing puppet leaders on the thrones of Liue, Aisith and Corvid, allowing Tor to maintain complete control over those kingdoms. When the Four rose to power, Tor and his forces were soundly defeated, and were forced to vacate the kingdoms they had occupied for nearly ten years. The Four forced Tor to agree to never allow his gyrkin to leave the island of Gyr again, believing the gyrfalcons to be too greedy and headstrong to live amongst the peaceful raptors of the Land. Devestated by the defeat, Tor agreed, then secluded himself in the tower, dying of old age and malnutrition. His son, Mulgran, took his place as king.

It was said that Tor was working under the Cult of Ieilae during his reign as king. Much of Tor's outside supporters came from beyond the Other, adding to the rumor that he was working to oust the Goddess and allow Ieilae to enter the Land as its true ruler. It can be inferred that Ieilae had tried more than once to break the curse his mother placed on him a thousand years ago; when Ieilae failed to take the six kingdoms beneath Tor, he waited until a raptor with an unsteady, cold and dark heart came along that could help him regain his powers in the Land. The Mountain of Tor, located in the Other, was known as the nesting place of Ieilae, and this can also be an indication of Tor's affiliation with Ieilae; he may have been named after this mountain as a way to tie him to the gyrkin god, making him a vessel for which the banished gyrfalcon could channel his will into.