We here at Blue Skies Falling understand that to most of the world, the issue of Norris the Gray’s influence over Kuto’s Well is an open-and-shut case; at the best he’s a squatter, and at the worst he’s a thief, guilty of robbery and aggrivated battery. But circumstances also compel us to observe that Norris has undeniably been operating under some amount of pressure, and this might plausibly have influenced his leadership.
We don’t know how his career originated, but with recent reappropriations committees setting up in the Slums from New Phlan, the population pressure in the Kuto’s Well region is considerable. It would be disengenuous to a rational policy to assume that Norris is not in pursuit of some legitimate political power; he very likely considers himself to be an alderman of sorts over Kuto’s Well. It is known that he has cultivated support among the Orcs living there, and perhaps he plans to use this to consolidate his base in both the Slums and Podol Plaza. It remains, however, that firing arrows at others from hiding and then running away is going to strain the most even-keeled of diplomats, nor do his proclamations of “surrender or die” endear him to many outside of his immediate following. But for us, the most telling of Norris’ controversial statements is his refusal to assist Sokal Keep against the gentrifying hordes of New Phlan, unless he gets to lead. Do the undead repel him? Somehow I doubt it. Rather, it would seem that Norris has written Sokal Keep off since it is likely to remain outside of his direct political influence. He sees collaboration as a waste of his time, money, as well as that of his Ogre retainer. Norris the Gray has appealed to a fickle and fanatical base in the hopes of creating an unlikely groundswell of support; in so marginalizing himself, he has hastened his own political obsolesence.
