Devorlen Koss

What the sources establishEstablished

• A thirty-something man with a clockwork prosthetic arm cleans the blood-spattered Automatic Assassin in the attic lab of the Terrassian Consulate on High Street, then puts on a crisp military jacket and steps outside among the rousted residents. pilot p. 16
• He watches a radar-like device with a painted blueprint of the city as the assassin's blip fades near the construction site, and keeps a rack of spare mechanical limbs and heads to make more. pilot p. 25
• At the Bastion Inn card table he wears the flag of Terrassia on his lapel and is introduced as Devorlen Koss; he calls being Terrassian 'the least remarkable element of my identity'. pilot pp. 29-30
• He is revolted by the arranged marriage of 'leisure class infants', says the couple have never met, and puts the Terrassian princess at ten years old and the Albion prince at about twelve. pilot p. 30
• He loses the pot to Olivia, shreds his cards with his clockwork fingers, says she might have taken his arm, and asks for a rematch. pilot pp. 31-32
• He rides with Barron to the castle in a self-propelled steam carriage, says he too carries 'a gift from the trenches', asks if Barron fought at Schaffen Platz, and apologises soldier to soldier for Terrassia's asphyxiating gas. pilot p. 33
• He carries an invitation to the masquerade, greets Szeret, who calls him 'tick-tock' and asks for new toys, and drives Barron home: 'I'm his ride.' pilot pp. 34-35, 37
• He offers 'uniquely Terrassian machinery' to speed the theater's rebuilding and promises Nero's crews Terrassian protection; one of his machines can do the work of three men in half the time. pilot pp. 39, 46
• He tells Barron that one of his automatons broke down the consulate door on the night of the fire in pursuit of the arsonist Feeney, who had set 'our theater' ablaze. pilot p. 46
• He asks what necromancers, who only care about the dead, could want with the theater; neither he nor Barron notices that the new plans have no roof. pilot p. 47
• Book Two profiles him as a pragmatist who does not believe in peace but believes in the cessation of violence, and as Terrassian military intelligence observing Barron. Book Two, 'Character Profiles' and 'NPC Knowledge Cheat Sheet', Devorlen Koss

Said, believed, or contradicted between sourcesRumored or disputed

• Book Two separates 'The Man with the Clockwork Arm', an unnamed Terrassian who builds the Automatic Assassins, from Koss, whose prosthetic it calls 'similar to but distinct'; in the pilot the man in the attic lab is recognised at the card table by his clockwork arm and Koss himself claims the automaton. Book Two, 'Supporting Cast'; pilot pp. 16, 29, 46
• The grounding sheet and later fiction give Koss a shop, Koss's Curiosities, above a condemned textile warehouse in the Marrow District, and make him an information broker who 'was a Terrassian officer once'. EC_GROUNDING_SHEET.md, section 3; bloodletter_desk/stories/The_Dead_Pledge.md; quest_board_desk/quests/The_Names_He_Kept.md
• Koss frames the automaton's attack on the Albion Consulate as pursuit of an arsonist, not an attack on Albion territory; Barron does not accept the distinction outright. pilot p. 46

What no source settlesUnestablished

• Whether Koss ordered or knew of Feeney's murder, or only the pursuit, is not established in the pilot; the assassin's bolts hit Feeney, but the runes and the emptied vault are never attributed.
• Which arm is the prosthetic, and how he lost it, is not established in any source beyond 'the war'.
• Whether Koss holds formal diplomatic rank at the Terrassian Consulate is not established in any source.

Reign of Blood, ICM first draft, 2022In the pilot

1. Attic lab: cleans the assassin; steps out onto High Street (p. 16).
2. Attic lab: watches the blip fade on the radar (p. 25).
3. Bastion Inn card table: the arranged marriage; loses to Olivia (pp. 29-32).
4. Castle entry path with Barron: Barrow, the gas, the apology (pp. 33-34).
5. Ballroom: 'Hello there, tick-tock'; 'I'm his ride' (pp. 35, 37).
6. Consulate with Nero and Zaffir: Terrassian machinery (pp. 39-40).
7. Consulate with Barron: the confession about the automaton and Feeney (pp. 46-47).

Who and what this record touchesConnections

Every story, issue and quest where the name appearsAppearances

• BloodletterTHE DEAD PLEDGEBLACK MARKET ALLEY
• BloodletterTHE SWEEPINGSTHE PITS
• CourantTHE MARROW IS CLEAREDThe 15th of May, 1793
• CourantTHE ETERNAL REIGNThe 8th of May, 1793
• Quest BoardSILENCE THE TOWER'S VOICETHE EASTERN TOWER
• Quest BoardWHAT THE CLOCKWORK HEARSGILLIKOI WOODS
• Quest BoardTHE SECOND TALLYKERESKEDO MARKET
• Quest BoardTHE NAMES HE KEPTMARROW DISTRICT

Canon, in priority orderSources

1. The pilot script: Reign of Blood, ICM first draft 2022, pp. 16, 25, 29-35, 37, 39-40, 46-47
2. Book Two: The People of the Eternal Court, 'Character Profiles' (Devorlen Koss), 'Supporting Cast' (The Man with the Clockwork Arm), 'NPC Relationship Map', 'NPC Knowledge Cheat Sheet'
3. Campaign World Guide, 'Part Five: Technology and Industry'
4. _publications/EC_GROUNDING_SHEET.md, section 3
5. bloodletter_desk/stories/The_Dead_Pledge.md; The_Sweepings.md; quest_board_desk/quests/The_Names_He_Kept.md

Notes. In the pilot the unnamed 'man with the clockwork arm' of pp. 16 and 25 and Devorlen Koss are one person: the card-table scene identifies him by the arm and his confession on p. 46 confirms it. Book Two treats them as two characters; the pilot's reading is used here.