"Allark Liarno, with his oily skin, heavy jowls, yellowing teeth, lank and thinning hair and sumptuous tunic and cape, tended to look like the most corrupt and obnoxious lawyer in town. In fact he had been one of the best loved. In the 1310's and 20's Liarno had held the informal title of People's Champion, rising to fame and adoration in the Triple Cities on the back of a series of successful law suits. Almost all involved championing small farmers or tradesmen wronged or unjustly accused by wealthier dignitaries. Such hand-picking of cases, which had forfeited Liarno a fortune in bribes and fat fees as well as leading to several attempts on his life, made many believe him to be some sort of saint. With hindsight, though, it was easy to see Allark Liarno's long-term plans. Christoté is a democracy, of sorts, and the most common government officials, the Emissaries, are popularly elected. In 1328 Liarno ran for the Emissarial post in a rural area close to the Triple Cities and naturally won it at a canter. He spent the next two years as one of those 'conscience of the government' figures who cause so much grief to the authorities. Then Chela Tatel got elected as Chancellor and took the fast road to instant acclaim by putting Liarno straight onto her Privy Council, the inner quorum of Huwdone House. That had, everyone assumed, been on the basis of keeping the inveterate troublemaker where she could see him. Ever since, however, the rise of Liarno's star had assumed unearthly proportions. A job in Huwdone's Records Office, a roving commission to clean up Christotan politics, a possible successor in both position and influence to Lord Brightson... The People had by this time found other Champions, of course, as Liarno's left-wing principles became pragmatically trimmed in search of power, but he still enjoyed the esteem of being one of the better members of a bad lot."
(from City Hobgoblins)
"His career really took off... when Chela Tatel took the Chancellor's seat two years later. Tatel presumably realised that a Liarno acting as a champion of the people from inside Parliament could make life difficult for her. To ward off the danger she proceeded to make life easy for him. Liarno was placed straight on the Privy Council, the Chancellor's inner quorum. He was also given stewardship of a new sub-department in Huwdone's Record Office. With it came the key role in a long-overdue task - cleaning corruption out of political life. Five years and a few high profile scalps later he was more in the Chancellor's favour than ever. If anything happened to Lord Brightson Liarno would probably step into his role as Tatel's chief aide; which made his exposure of Kenner understandable.
"His unrelenting campaign of audits and exposures left half the Emissaries in Christoté scared of him. The Barons govern the seven provinces of Christoté and they alone elect a Chancellor. They amongst the most powerful people in the country and they too were rumoured to be nervous about the jumped-up lawyer from nowhere. In the process, politics had assumed a slightly more wholesome taste. All to the good, of course; 'A frightened official is an honest official'. But people noticed that Liarno had stopped crusading to reform the whole system. Instead he targeted a few isolated crooks or fraudulent companies, most of whom happened to be Chancellor Tatel's enemies. He had changed from the people's champion into Tatel's. And a growing number of observers - Kenner subscribed to this school - wondered if Liarno's old radical clothes had ever been anything other than a handy prop in a lifelong campaign for power.
(from A Shining Light)