Our Serials department is on hiatus. This week, we bring you a look at one of the shadowy power brokers of the Tolmiran Empire—Galen, the most successful of the rogue adepts.

Among the adepts of Argoniss, the official line is that only the island-dwellers wield significant magical powers. The cropsingers, the herbalists with a natural flair for healing, the Clever Folk whose knives never dull... their inborn talent is not denied, but (so say the adepts), true power comes from study and learning, and only among fellows on the Island of Argoniss can true power be obtained and maintained.

Although this makes for a compelling recruiting pitch to the pre-teens recruited into the ranks of the adepts, like many official truths it lacks accuracy. Some of those born with magical talents develop them further on their own and have abilities that would make even the island's adjutants envious. Not all Argoniss-trained mages return to the island, and a few have (quietly) set up training facilities of their own on the mainland. And then there is Galen.

Perhaps the most well known adept outside of Argoniss, Galen has made a name for himself as a developer and supplier of magical artifacts—generally with a martial slant. His true background is unknown, though many believe him to be a washout or defector from the island. First appearing ten years ago in Westgate, a port city in the northwest province of Nazashad, he gained a reputation as a man who could be relied on to deliver a unique product to anyone with the money to pay for it--be they adventurers or mercenaries, politicos or criminals. As his power, influence and wealth began to grow, so did the scope of his operation. Today his organization is large, well organized, and counts the Empire itself as one of its clients. He has trained a number of new mages to take over in the time-consuming production of magical weapons, who have in turn trained others to handle the mass production and controlled sale of lesser magical items.

Galen's operation is extremely profitable and even better guarded. No one can say for certain just how many adepts he has on his payroll, but most estimates place it at over one hundred. Most would be no match for even the greenest Argonian graduate, but his collective power and obvious readiness to apply it with calculated force causes some to see him as a threat both to Argonian and Imperial security. As with many individuals of money and power, it is believed that his ambitions extend beyond the simple acquisition of wealth. One report tells of a private army, bearing powerful arms never before seen, massing somewhere beyond the borders of the Empire.

The leaders of Argoniss are also unhappy with him, seeing him as a threat to their monopoly on magical knowledge and power. Between these, the enemies he made on his rise to power, and ambitious individuals within his own organization, he has survived no less than a dozen assassination attempts and two magical deathtraps. Each time he has come out on top and relatively unscathed, and it remains to be seen when--or if--his luck will ever run out.

Being neither a massing point for adventure-seekers nor an important military or mercenary staging ground, Galen's presence in Mal Nassrin is difficult to gauge. But it is believed that, wherever money or power can be found, at least one of Galen's agents stands ready to make a deal.