Tiff

Biography

The soul seed

Tiff first encounters Leylin as a boy in the World of Gods when one of Leylin's soul seeds enters an iron sword. The seed has crossed the crystal sphere at enormous cost and cannot maintain itself indefinitely without a native vessel. Through the sword and then Tiff, Leylin observes the new world's rules and acts against the church of Eldath. The contact leaves foreign power within the boy instead of ending when the immediate mission does. (Chapters 778–782)

Eldath's church later destroys the life Tiff knew. The power Leylin left behind carries him through the resulting persecution, while the invented identity of Kukulkan becomes the only divine explanation he trusts. His faith therefore begins in direct experience rather than inherited doctrine: he has felt a being from beyond the world act through him when established religious power failed or harmed him. That origin also creates an unequal bond. The remnant suppresses him strongly enough that Leylin can compel truth when they meet again. (Chapters 782 and 868–870)

Tiff nevertheless develops the power instead of remaining a passive container. Leylin later judges the successful adaptation a rare accident: forcibly pouring foreign Magus power into a native should normally fail, but Tiff turns it into something resembling a bloodline or half-Chosen foundation. The result shapes both his combat path and his conviction that Kukulkan is real long before that god can answer prayer or grant priestly spells. (Chapters 870–871)

The hidden congregation

Years later, Tiff is a wanted rebel with gray at his temples and power close to the legendary realm. He survives by concealment, shadow movement, probing magic, and the vigilance of someone pursued by a major church. More unusually, he has maintained a hidden congregation of fewer than three hundred worshippers, including a baron, around a god who provides no regular miracles. That achievement requires persuasion, secrecy, and organization rather than proof supplied by divine spells. (Chapters 868–870)

When Leylin Faulen approaches under the authority of his original body, Tiff does not submit merely to appearance. He probes the stranger, compares the aura to the power he remembers, and acknowledges him only as Kukulkan's favored mortal representative. Leylin sees that Tiff is powerful, suspicious, and already capable of directing believers; he also knows the soul remnant provides leverage if loyalty fails. This combination makes Tiff useful as a commander rather than just another worshipper. (Chapters 870–871)

Leylin orders him to absorb remnants of Beelzebub's mortal organization and suppress conspicuous blood sacrifices. Tiff accepts a church-building mission in which survival depends on replacing a collapsing devil cult without attracting every established faith at once. His capacity to disappear, investigate, and command allows Leylin's plans to advance while the young Faulen heir continues presenting an unrelated public identity. (Chapters 870–882)

Pope of the Giant Serpent

Tiff's personal advancement continues beside the church's growth. He uses dimensional movement, curved blades, corrosive sorcery, imprisonment, and absorption while helping Leylin kill a legendary red dragon. By this stage he is a Legend in sorcery, able to seal escape routes and damage a dragon's wings and body while directing weaker Professionals. The battle also shows his discipline: he executes a deserter when fear aura begins breaking the formation, preserving the force needed to exhaust the target. (Chapters 910–911)

Once Kukulkan can respond to worship, Tiff's private faith becomes a functioning priesthood. Leylin recognizes prayers, bestows divine spells, and uses the Weave and his divinity to connect worshippers to a real source. Tiff is elevated from clandestine organizer to pope, codifying doctrine and translating Leylin's sparse commands into ranks, rituals, and missions. His earlier congregation supplies continuity, but the church can now offer demonstrable grace rather than demanding belief in silence. (Chapters 988–1001)

On Debanks Island, Tiff and Isabel divide spiritual and military leadership. Tiff manages the theocratic state: planting schedules, plague relief through holy water, trade disruption, rival churches, and the authority of clergy over newly converted populations. Leylin can withdraw from daily government because Tiff provides accurate reports and makes ordinary administrative decisions. The success is not reducible to divine magic; it combines long experience of persecution with knowledge, planning, and institutional discipline. (Chapters 1001–1010 and 1043–1044)

Servant of a true god

When Kukulkan becomes a true god, Leylin upgrades Tiff's papal symbol from a demigod weapon into a true divine weapon and charges him to spread the faith throughout the world. Tiff enters the divine kingdom, learns its organization directly from his god, and receives responsibility for allocating duties among its servants. His visit gives him authoritative knowledge of the afterlife he promises to believers, strengthening doctrine with witnessed experience. (Chapters 1126 and 1131–1132)

Tiff then returns to the prime material plane with elite priests. As a legendary priest he can operate in dangerous territory, while the church's ability to grant spells through Rank 9 advertises the backing of a true god. He evaluates petitions, investigates organizations before committing church resources, and sends detailed information through prayer. Leylin's divine systems prioritize the pope's unusually thick thread of faith, allowing direct reports and occasional conscient descent. (Chapters 1134–1136)

During the final wars, Tiff's role is connective rather than sovereign. He leads worship and prayer that supplies faith to Leylin, coordinates mortal operations, and administers believers whose spells ultimately depend on divine grace. His power and office rise with Kukulkan, but he never becomes independent of that source; the same spiritual bond that sustained him when young remains the channel through which his highest priestly authority functions. (Chapters 1136–1176)

Appearance and personality

Tiff is still vigorous when Leylin finds him again, but gray hair at his temples records years of persecution and clandestine struggle. Later he wears the white robes of his office and glasses that give him the composed appearance of a scholar-administrator. He can move from that reserve to the severity of a battlefield commander when discipline fails. (Chapters 868–871, 911, and 1136)

He is vigilant, disciplined, and unwaveringly devout, but not credulous about every claimant to divine favor. Tiff tests Leylin Faulen before accepting him and investigates petitioners before committing the church. Unlike a zealot sustained only by miracles, he keeps faith alive during years when Kukulkan cannot answer him, then builds doctrine, logistics, and government once that silence ends. (Chapters 870–871, 1043, and 1136)

Magic, bloodline, and abilities

Tiff combines a foreign soul-derived foundation, legendary native sorcery, and later priestly power granted by Kukulkan. These sources overlap but are not interchangeable.

Soul-seed adaptation and spiritual bond

Leylin's soul seed begins as an externally sustained fragment sent through the crystal sphere. It uses the iron sword and Tiff as native footholds while the World of Gods suppresses foreign power. The lasting remnant becomes a foundation resembling a bloodline or partial Chosen blessing, allowing Tiff to adapt energy that should normally destroy or reject a mortal host. Leylin calls the success a fluke rather than a reproducible procedure. (Chapters 778–782 and 870–871)

The bond lets Tiff recognize the aura of Leylin's original body within Leylin Faulen and contributes to probing and shadow-related abilities. It also imposes soul suppression: Leylin can force truthful disclosure and expects to turn Tiff back if he rebels. Tiff's devotion becomes genuine, but his earliest supernatural link is not freely acquired priesthood and never becomes fully independent of the Magus who planted it. (Chapters 870–871)

Shadow movement, dimensional magic, and sorcery

Before receiving regular divine spells, Tiff can vanish into shadow, disappear from sight, and use probing magic. By the red-dragon hunt he is a legendary sorcerer capable of Dimension Hop, Dimensional Imprisonment, Absorption, and corrosive attacks. Dimension Hop places him behind the dragon so curved knives can cripple its wings; imprisonment contributes to sealing the battlefield; corrosive energy withers a large section of its chest. (Chapters 868–871 and 910–911)

These spells provide mobility and control, not automatic victory. Tiff works with Leylin's arcane attacks, prepared archers, close-combat Professionals, and terrain that denies the dragon easy flight. The dragon's scales still resist his first blade strikes, and maintaining the formation requires command as much as spell output. His legendary sorcery is the adapted native expression of his earlier foundation, while later priest spells come through a different divine channel. (Chapter 911)

Legendary priesthood and divine spells

Once Kukulkan acquires divinity, Tiff can pray for and receive divine spells. As the god rises from demigod to true deity, the church's maximum spell access reaches Rank 9 and Tiff becomes a legendary priest. Prayer carries requests and structured reports through a thick thread of faith; Leylin can respond with spells, information, or a descending conscient. The exact prepared spell list is not cataloged, so his priesthood should be described through demonstrated access and office rather than invented miracles. (Chapters 988–1001 and 1134–1136)

The system's limitation is dependence on the patron. Before Leylin can respond, Tiff must sustain the cult without granted spells. After ascension, divine magic travels through Kukulkan's authority and the Weave; it is powerful evidence of a true god but remains subject to the deity's attention, available domains, and willingness to answer. Mass prayer likewise strengthens Leylin through faith rather than creating independent divine power in Tiff. (Chapters 870, 988–989, and 1134–1176)

Papal symbol and church authority

Tiff's papal symbol begins as a demigod weapon and is raised by Leylin's direct divine power into a true divine weapon. It represents his office and supplies item-derived sacred power; the upgrade is performed by the god, not achieved as an innate evolution of Tiff's body. The corpus does not enumerate every weapon function, so its confirmed properties are divine grade, papal association, and its role as a channel and emblem of authority. (Chapter 1126)

His wider papal authority is administrative. Tiff appoints and directs clergy, allocates duties in the divine kingdom, manages a theocracy, evaluates prayers for intervention, and communicates policy across planes. Believers obey because of office, doctrine, and divine recognition, not an uncontrolled mental compulsion. This institutional competence lets a god focused on advancement delegate the daily conversion of faith into a durable church. (Chapters 1001–1010, 1043, and 1126–1136)

Power progression

Relationships

• Leylin Farlier: God, patron, and the source of the soul seed that transforms Tiff's life.
• Isabel: Military counterpart in the church's expansion, particularly in the Debanks campaigns.
• Rafiniya: A later legendary servant of Leylin within the broader church and infernal command.

Items

• Soul-seed Iron Sword: The vessel through which Leylin first acts upon and through Tiff.
• Papal Symbol: Tiff's emblem of office, elevated from a demigod weapon to a divine artifact.