Torrissio

Torrissio (sometimes called Torrissio the Sly) is a Moonshadian mage living on the Serpent Isle during Ultima VII Part Two.

Description
Torrissio was a ruthlessly ambitious young adept specializing in life magic and the re-animation of Ophidian automata. An eager participant in Moonshadian politicking, he was once a covert associate of Vasculio, assisting him in his subversion of the Council's edicts before he was ultimately caught and executed. At the time of the Avatar's adventures in Serpent Isle, he had allied himself with Rotoluncia, a move that put her out of favor with her lover, the MageLord Filbercio, after he suspected the two of them of having an affair.

In reality, Torrissio sought to sate his passions elsewhere. At one point, he constructed the feminine automaton Petra, and he was rumored to have had perverse and sadistic designs for her before she fled from him. She eventually found sanctuary with Blue Boar's Rocco, and Torrissio, despite his anger at her loss, allowed it to be believed that he had willingly lent her out to showcase his artistry, not wanting to suffer the humiliation of her escape becoming widely known. Sometime prior to the Avatar's arrival on the Isle of the Beyond, he began an affair with Columna, the Green Enchantress, who had sought his attentions after restoring herself to youth using the stolen Fawnish Comb of Beauty. Filbercio, desirous of bedding Columna himself, sought to blackmail the pair by contracting Stefano to steal Columna's moonsilk stockings, presumably hoping to present them Columna's husband, Melino, as proof of her infidelity. This plot failed, however, when a teleport storm exchanged the stockings with the Avatar's blackrock serpent, resulting in a Stefano being thrown into the Mountains of Freedom for his failure to deliver the article to the MageLord.

When the Avatar first made their way to Moonshade, Torrissio proved to be a relatively neutral party in the various political entanglements in which the hero found themselves. While he was open about his alliance with Rotoluncia, he bore the hero no ill will following her death, and his general manner towards the Avatar seemed one of irritated indifference so long as it was not revealed to him that they possessed his lover's stockings. In addition to offering spells for sale, he could provide the hero some information regarding Batlin and his entourage's recent passage through the city, mentioning Rotoluncia's interest in Palos and the time Columna had spent in Gwenno's company. He did not, however, mention the details of his personal transactions with the sage, to whom he had sold a spell that would create vessels into which souls might be bound.

Against Torrissio's warnings, Batlin would use this enchantment to attempt to contain the three Banes of Chaos, and they broke from their prisons when he attempted to open the Wall of Lights within Spinebreaker. In the resulting catastrophe, most of Moonshade's populace was slaughtered, meeting their ends at the hands of Shamino while he was under the possession of the Bane of Anarchy. Torrissio was one of the few survivors of this calamity, and he would prove to be crucial to the Avatar's quest. After the hero retrieved for him the Philanderer's Friend, a wand that had been stolen by Vasculio in revenge for Torrissio having abandoned him to the Council, Torrissio would teach them the art of crafting soul prisms as he had to Batlin, allowing them to bind the three Banes once more.

Trivia

 * The model for Torrissio's character portrait is Origin employee Richard Johnson, a programmer for Wing Commander: Privateer and Strike Commander.