Garkesku

Garkesku is Minalan's professional rival, a spellmonger established in the town of Hymas who affects a haughty demeanor and wears gaudy robes and ridiculous hats to impress the locals. While he is a competent mage who contributes to the defense with disease and pestilence spells, he is consumed by professional jealousy and attempts to turn Sire Koucey against Minalan. His machinations and failure to control his apprentice Urik lead Minalan to strip him of his witchstone and exile him from the order of stone-wielders.

Participates as a Knight Magi in the major engagements of the Goblin War campaign. Having trained Rondal and Tyndal as apprentices before passing them to Minalan, Garkesku has a personal stake in the younger mages' success. His experience as a spellmonger and mage continues to be an asset in the campaign.

Active mage and member of the Sevendor magical community as Minalan's domain takes shape. His relationship with his former apprentices Rondal and Tyndal — now Knights Magi — reflects the generational shift in the magical community that Minalan's rise has produced.

The vain former spellmonger of Boval Vale who first introduced Rondal to magic. In his prime he limed his hair white for an air of aged wisdom and was given to startling throat-clearings that unnerved his apprentices.

In The Golden Goblin he turns up broken -- huddled under wool and sheepskin in front of a fire, thin and drawn, his face a map of wrinkles and malnutrition, his cheekbones "peeking out from under the skins like bones through the dirt". The lime is gone; the white whiskers are real now. The reunion with Rondal is one of the book's most poignant surprises: "Rondal," Garkesku repeated, his tone mystified. "Why have the gods sent you to me... now?"