Andrew Q. Gordon

When The Champion of the Gods begins with The Last Grand Master, Grand Master Heminaltose is dead. He died at Yar-del, along with Queen Zenora so we only get bits and pieces of him and his personality during the books.

Heminaltose was Farrell’s first and most important teacher and helped shape his student’s character. He considered the latter task his most important. As the son of both Queen Zenora and Meglar, Heminaltose kept a close watch on Farrell. Any sign his student might turn out like his father would require Heminaltose to take swift action to neutralize this threat. Always mindful he might need to kill his student, Heminaltose maintained as much distance as he could with Farrell.

Heminaltose was over a thousand years old when he died and many considered him the greatest wizard of his time. By the time Heminaltose was born, Grand Master Kel had been gone for over a thousand years. No one saw him die, but no one saw him again after he abdicated the throne of Yar-del. A contemporary of Kel’s, Grand Master Beatrice, taught Heminaltose for the first few years of his training, but she died when he was still a young man. History would debate who was the better wizard, Kel or Beatrice, but once they were gone, there was no one to challenge Heminaltose’s claim until Meglar rose to power.

Unlike Kel, who was an innovator, Heminaltose was more of a perfectionist. Kel liked to test the limits and find new ways to use magic, whereas Heminaltose experimented with how use magic more efficiently. The two never met, and it was unlikely they would have been friends.

Several centuries before his death, Heminaltose found the entrance to an abandoned outpost of Trellham on the plains of Gharaha. Though Heminaltose never spoke of it, Honorus led him to the spot with instructions to build his new school inside the abandon town. To the world, he told the story that he was searching for somewhere to build his school and chanced upon the partially damaged gates.

When Meglar stole the Source from Yar-del, King Bren of Yar-del and Heminaltose made plans to enlarge the living area to accommodate the survivors of Yar-del should it fall. With time it became evident that Meglar’s theft would give him an insurmountable edge. Heminaltose and Queen Zenora, Bren’s daughter, expanded the sanctuary against the day all the Seven Kingdoms fell.

Of course Farrell knew nothing about the instructions his mother and grandfather gave Heminaltose. To Farrell, his teacher was aloof and disinterested in him as a person. In truth, Heminaltose cared for Farrell a great deal, but never showed it for fear he’d get too close to his student should he need to take action.

Although Heminaltose dies before the series proper begins, he will be ‘appear’ throughout the series. He had too great an influence on Farrell to be relegated to a sentence or two in passing. My hope is do a few more free prequels during the series and a younger Heminaltose is near the top of the list to have his own story.