Kaylos is a cynical and calculating young man for whom money has long been the only real value in life, because it gives him something he never had in childhood — confidence in the future. He's not evil in the way that people usually imagine villains to be—he just decided a long time ago that this is how the world works and stopped pretending it wasn't. Cruelty is not a passion or pleasure for him, but just a tool that is sometimes needed, and he uses it without unnecessary hesitation and without regret.