Karl Dryden

Karl Dryden
Biographical Information
Full name	Karl Dryden
Status	Alive
Relatives	Unnamed father †
Physical Information
Gender	Male
Affiliation
Nation	Kerch
Occupation	Councilman
Organizations	Merchant Council
Appearances
Appears in	Crooked Kingdom

Karl Dryden is a member of the Merchant Council, the governing body of Kerch.

Biography

Dryden inherited his fortune from his father. He is represented by lawyer Cornelis Smeet.

Crooked Kingdom

Dryden attended the merchant dinner at Jan Van Eck's house the night Kaz Brekker and Wylan Van Eck burned through the office floor with acid and crashed into the dining room below.

As the most junior member of the Merchant Council, Dryden is tasked with distributing the flyers announcing the auction of Kuwei Yul-Bo. Crowds of people swarm him at the eastern arch of the Exchange to grab the flyers.

Kaz Brekker's crew plant remnants of fake documents in Dryden's files indicating that a jurda farmer named Johannes Rietveld is seeking investors for his consortium. Accompanied by Jan Van Eck, Dryden seeks out Rietveld at the Geldrenner Hotel. They meet with Rietveld—actually Colm Fahey—and Nina Zenik, Rietveld's multilingual Heartrender assistant. When Colm brings up a mysterious Kerch man buying up jurda farms, Dryden wants to investigate, but Van Eck warns him not to mention Council business. To pressure the timid Dryden into agreeing to invest quickly, the Crows invited other wealthy merchants, including Jellen Radmakker, to the hotel. Van Eck leads most of the negotiation, and the two merchers agree to tell Rietveld their final decision within twenty-four hours. They ultimately convince the Merchant Council to invest a total of seventy million kruge in the fund.

Dryden attends Kuwei Yul-Bo's auction. When the Council of Tides arrives, declares the auction a sham, and reveals the false nature of the Rietveld fund, Dryden is shocked and protests that it was an honest business venture. However, he eventually realizes Van Eck was the person secretly buying up jurda farms. After the international ambassadors leave the auction, Dryden stays behind with the rest of the Council to deal with Van Eck. Dryden provides the Transfer of Authority document to Wylan, which Wylan uses to convince the Council that he can read.

Personality and traits

Dryden is timid and often anxious, but he wants to prove himself to the rest of the Merchant Council. He places a high value on economic honesty and is offended when broken contracts are mentioned.

Physical description

Dryden dresses in staid mercher black, like most of Ketterdam's wealthy merchants. He often wears a hat. He wears a tie pin with the symbol of the Dryden family—a golden wheat sheaf bound with a blue enamel ribbon.

Appearances

• Crooked Kingdom