Lamorak - A diminished but by no means spent force. He is still the only hope Cypher has of getting revenge on his enemies and tearing down their institutions. Losing Mala'kharn might even be an advantage, fiends wish all mortals to suffer after all, even those in their thrall.

Maiabel - He feels some strong sympathy with her, knowing well the pain of having one's family destroyed by fools serving Marcellian II. However, he must not let that cloud his judgement. The time is long past for her to be a planted agent of the Emperor, but something is not what it seems. She is neither unintelligent nor unwise but yet she follows all orders without the slightest hesitation or question. She may simply be another traumatised victim of Marcellian Ii's regime, but a calculated attempt to ingratiate herself with Lamorak is just as likely. To what purpose, he will wait and see...

Sharkan - A lycanthrope spy from the Gift of the Moon seems highly unlikely, what could they possibly want on the opposite side of the continent? Cypher still doesn't trust him in the slightest though. Sharkan's arcane abilities could plausibly have made him an outcast from The Gift, but he hasn't completely ruled him out as a spy from the Magocracy of Thassalonia or Odrana. He is certainly too charismatic by half and must be watched in case he uses Lamorak's currentlg reduced might to seize control of our remaining forces and carve out his own territory.

Cypher is very happy with the infiltration/assassination abilities of all three subordinates, and hopefully between us we can smuggle the boss in if stealth is vital to any missions we do. In combat Lamorak will be a great centre for the more glass cannon members to fight around.

Cypher would want to move cautiously, strengthening our position and undermining the Empire before acting directly against them and risking restarting the civil war. Inside the Empire he would like to try and drive a wedge between Marcellian Ii and the College of wizardry. Assassinations might need to wait until there is enough of a distraction going on that we can get in and out more easily or avoid an instant reprisal.

Outside the Empire, Ordana seems most ripe for a neighbouring nation to cause strife in, or at the very least recruit peasants from. A false flag attack provoking conflict between the Marcellian Empire and Ordana or [unspellable celtic nation] also seems possible, but starting an all out war might just prompt a neighbour to take over the Empire and deny us the opportunity.

We are in a very unstable position and an alliance with the Coral Corsairs might ensure we have good supply lines and prevent other seafaring nations from moving in. There is currently very little the pirates could want to take from us, which hopefully would make us relatively safe from them betraying us in the short term. We should avoid the Magocracy like the plague. The giant nation and artillery nuts don't seem easy to manipulate to our benefit in any way.

I love the master engineer idea. Cypher's knowledge skills might be quite helpful if we want to roam the lands trying to track down powerful magic items or people to help us. Making a haven for outcasts and starting a recruitment drive sounds fun but might work better once we can make the island a more attractive proposition.