Author: Andrew

Of all the great wizards throughout history, none receive the same attention as Grand Master Kel, first king of Yar-del. Kel was the second youngest of seven sons born to Bren and Geena, farmers who lived in the ancient kingdom of Kentar in what is now the kingdom of Dumbarten.

At the age of twelve, a wizard-priest recognized his potential and he was sent to the temple of Honorus in Kentar to begin his training. As with most wizards who showed the potential to be a high-level master or grand master wizard, after rudimentary training, he was sent to a temple of Falcon to further his education.

When Kel attained master status, he rejected the traditional roles of a wizard. Instead of remaining with the temple or attaching himself to a king or great lord, Kel returned home to help his family and neighbors better their lives. His choice to use his skills to aid farmers earned him the distain of his contemporaries, but taught him how magic could be used in way others hadn’t envisioned.

Kel had only been home a few years when the Great War began in Trellham. The Six called upon Their supporters and Kel answered the call as one of Honorus’s wizards. Because he left the temple, he’d never been formally granted grand master status. The other great wizards of the day denied Kel a place on the council that guided the war effort and gave him a role supporting the army.

Despite the slight by the other magi, Kel proved himself a powerful wizard during the war, even making friends with Rothdin, King of the peregrines. The fighting ground to a stalemate until Seritia devised a plan to end the war. All it required was a wizard powerful and wise enough to cast the spell.

The wizards on the council each attempted the spell with great fanfare, confident they were the one Seritia meant to do Her bidding. The council rejected Kel’s request to attempt the spell, referring to him as the peasant’s wizard. King Rothdin used his position as the first servant of Honorus to insisted Kel be allowed to try. Because he didn’t accept the conventional wisdom that what had always been done was the only way, he was able to carry out Seritia’s will. On that day the legend was born.

After the war, Honorus sent Kel to the largely unsettled continent of Ardus to found a new kingdom. Kel called his new kingdom Yar-del and put his skills using magic to help the people to good use. Yar-del flourished and its people grew rich.

Knowing that wealth and prosperity often drew enemies, Kel created a Source to help defend his kingdom. Kel’s Source had near infinite storage capacity for magical energy. Unlike other storage containers, the Source allowed multiple wizards to store and call upon arcane power when needed. Kel hoped the Source would give him and his successors an advantage over their enemies. And thought Kel would share many of his discoveries with the world, he kept the spells for creating a Source secret, even from his heirs. Only when one assumed the throne of Yar-del could they unlock the spells.

Kel spent his life trying to find ways to use his powers for the good of the common people instead of the great lords or kings. Even as a king he sought ways to use magic to make the lives of his people better. The great irony of his legacy was history remembered him more for the great magics he created and not the little every day spells he crafted that made daily tasks easier.

At the height of his power, Kel left Yar-del unseen. He left behind a note telling his successor all he needed to know and was not seen in public again. His disappearance fueled two thousand years of speculation as to his whereabouts. At first it was believed he’d grown tired of ruling, and left to return to a simpler life. But as the centuries rolled on and Kel never returned, the speculation turned to the time and manner of his death. It was unheard of even for a wizard to live three thousand years and even the great Kel couldn’t cheat death.

Even in death Kel proved better than his contemporaries as he hid all trace of his passing. Scores of wizards searched in vain for clues about what happened to Kel hoping to find an undiscovered artifact or book of magic.

As the Champion of the Six, Farrell is going to learn that Kel may hold the key to winning the war. As such, we will see many more references to Kel as the series unfolds.

Although hardly a secondary character, what would the book be without the ultimate bad guy. Neldin’s importance is mainly ‘off page.’ He will make appearances during the series, but they will be brief, as the gods are not allowed to directly interfere. Despite His lack of ‘face time’ on page, Neldin is the architect of the war and it is His hand that guides Meglar. I thought a bit of background on Him would help understand the entire series.

Neldin and the Great War: From A History of Nendor

In the beginning the seven gods of Nendor banded together to create the world. Each took some part of the world over which to hold sway. Each was permitted to guide and indirectly aid their followers, but they were not permitted to directly intervene in the affairs of the world. Any direct action by one god against the followers of another would allow the aggrieved to take steps to right the wrong.

While the others sought dominion over the skies, earth and seas or chose to guide people’s hearts, minds or arms, Neldin chose to guide people into the afterlife. He maintained the system where some were granted eternal peace, some were reborn and a small few were cast into Neblor, the place of eternal darkness that matched their souls.

During the first age of history, worship to Neldin was part of daily life. Even if He was not viewed as favorably as His siblings, prudence demanded appropriate offers be made during one’s life to avoid being sent to Neblor. For thousands of years, Neldin kept shut the Eight Gates of Neblor and seemed content with His domain.

But Neldin secretly desired more than the dark recesses of His realm could provide. He longed for dominion over the entire world, not just the power to decide what happened to the souls after death. From His dark realm, He plotted and schemed. He watched His siblings for signs of weakness that He could exploit. Finally after thousands of year, He devised a plan.

Using the dwarves of Trellham, Neldin incited a class war between the poor, of whom there were many, and the rich. Poor and rich were defined not just by coin and wealth, but also in love. Neldin sought those who felt spurned or wronged by one whose love they desired.

Manipulating His devotees, Neldin convinced His followers in the dwarf kingdom of Trellham to attack Khron’s temple. Neldin’s true intentions however became clear only after the battle began. After bottling up Khron’s forces, Neldin’s supporters launched an attack on Seritia’s temple and razed it to the ground.

Angered at Neldin’s deception and cowardly attack on Seritia’s house, Khron allowed His rage to take control just as Neldin had hoped. Lashing out, Khron destroyed His brother’s temple before His siblings could stop Him.

Free to take a like action, Neldin launched the second half of His plans. Opening the Eight Gates of Neblor, He sent His dark hordes into Trellham through the shattered remains of His temple. Neldin nearly destroyed the dwarf kingdom, but Seritia found a way to close the Gates.

When the Great War ended, worship to Neldin dropped off almost entirely. His temples were razed and His few remaining followers were hounded into hiding. But time has no meaning to a god and Neldin licked His wounds and used His few, but loyal followers to plot His next move.

Neldin’s importance to the story, and to Farrell in particular, will become clearer at the series continues. Without giving away too much, there is a connection between Farrell and Neldin that none of the people closest to Farrell knew about. How Farrell handles the God of Death will affect the ultimate outcome of the war.

There are a number of characters who have an impact on the story whom we never meet. Meglar is one of those. Although we will meet him at some point in the story—I can’t even imagine the hate mail I’d get if I tried to resolve the final conflict between Farrell and Meglar in any fashion other than a face-to-face fight—in The Last Grand Master and The Eye and the Arm, Meglar doesn’t appear personally. That lack of face time does not, however, diminish his importance.

In First Love we learn about Meglar from Queen Zenora, something we can’t do in The Last Grand Master or The Eye and the Arm because she died before the book opens. Yar-del and Zargon had been bitter enemies almost since the two kingdoms were founded three thousand years before the story takes place. In an attempt to end the centuries of on again off again warfare, King Falon of Zargon approached King Bren of Yar-del and suggested the two heirs, Prince Meglar and Princess Zenora, join (what marriage is called on Nendor) and unite the two kingdoms.

King Bren didn’t agree to the idea, but he allowed Meglar to court his daughter and if she was interested, he would agree. We learn in First Love that others warned Bren and Zenora not to be swayed by Meglar’s good looks and charm and look deeper, but we know that didn’t happen. For personal and political reasons, Zenora agreed to the proposal. When they had a son, Halloran, there was hope that both kingdoms would view the child as one of theirs. Lasting peace, though maybe a generation away, seemed at hand.

Meglar’s deception changed all of that. It is not clear if King Falon knew of his son’s true purpose, but as Meglar’s first action upon returning to Zargon was to kill his father, it appears Falon wasn’t privy to what his son had planned. Still, it’s hard to believe Meglar acted alone given how elaborate nature of his scheme. That is something that will be explored in the rest of the series.

As is suggested in the prequel, prior to stealing Yar-del’s Source, Meglar was handsome and charming. Given his status as crown prince of Zargon, he was one of the Seven Kingdom’s most eligible bachelors. This image is in stark contrast to dark, vicious wizard-king we meet throughout the series. One of the side goals of First Love was to try to put into context what appears to be a baffling decision by Queen Zenora to join with Meglar in the first place.

Meglar’s face was badly disfigured during his fight with Bren and Zenora when he tried to flee with the Yar-del Source. The scars never fully disappear despite Meglar’s access to healers whose skills bordered on magical. Though his injuries were the result of his malicious acts toward his wife and her family, they are thought to have played a small role in his future actions. He vowed revenge on Zenora for what she did to him, though it is hard to believe he didn’t have plans to conquer Yar-del when he plotted to steal the Source.

In addition, once he returned to Zargon, Meglar reinstated worship to Neldin. That more than anything sums up what happened to him. Neldin’s original attempt to subjugate the world was thwarted by Kel, who founded Yar-del. Conquering the symbol of the man who defeated his god was Meglar’s way of sending a message to the world that not even Kel’s heir could stop him.

Fortunately for Nendor, Farrell is not just Kel’s heir.

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.

Queen Zenora of Yar-del is one of the more tragic characters in the story. Like Heminaltose, she doesn’t survive the opening campaign of the war. In the Prequel—First Love— and in the flash backs through Farrell’s eyes, I tried to show the true strength of Zenora.

Zenora is the only surviving child of King Bren. In her own right, she is a very powerful wizard. Her power is often over shadowed by those around her, specifically Heminaltose, her teacher, mentor and ally. Meglar’s meteoric rise to influence upon the stolen energy of Yar-del also obscures Zenora’s true power.

But that just speaks to her strength as a wizard. What about her as a person? When King Falon of Zargon proposed that Meglar and Zenora married, King Bren and others had their doubts, but he allowed the prince of Zargon to court his daughter. A marriage between the two houses promised an end to thousands of years of conflict.

True to her calling as a princess of Yar-del, Zenora agreed to the courtship. In the end she agreed to marry Prince Meglar, unaware that he has been deceiving her all along. Within a few years, Meglar’s ultimate goal is revealed—to get close enough to Zenora to be able to steal Yar-del’s Source, the foundation of its power.

Zenora had to live with the fact that because Meglar was able to deceive her, the world at large suffered from his rise to power. Adding to her pain, the gutting of the Source affected the health of her father, King Bren. Yar-del’s Source not only supplied the kingdom with its vast power advantage, it served to bind the monarch to the land. The damage to the Source caused irreparable physical damage to her father and caused his death centuries sooner than otherwise would have happened.

As if all of that wasn’t enough to heap on Zenora, before Meglar fled with his stolen energy, he tried to take his son with him. Fearful that Meglar might capture the boy and turn him against the world, King Bren, with Heminaltose’s agreement, ordered that Halloran could not be allowed to live. In a staged and very public scene, Heminaltose ripped the screaming child from his mother’s arms and disappeared through a waiting door. King Bren sent out an edict that he’d ordered the child killed and his name stricken from the House of Kel.

In truth, Heminaltose took the child to his school at Haven, changed his name to Farrell and didn’t tell Farrell about his birthright until he was twelve. During those years, Zenora saw her son sporadically and could not acknowledge him as anything more than Heminaltose’s student.

The Zenora we see in First Love is preparing for a war she knows she will lose and trying to spend time with her estranged son. Even though logically she knows sending him to Haven was for the best, her heart still grieves for the child she lost.

One of the themes I want to show through out the series, is the love Farrell has for his mother and the ache he feels not only from her death, but from how little time they had together. First Love allowed me a brief opportunity to show how she much she cared for her son as well.