Prince Maralathus

Who he was. Prince of the Second House of the Imlaradi kindred, Alka Alon High Prince and heir to High King Amasarel's rule over the First City of Tyranalon, and a famed warrior-poet. Minalan's memory-scene finds him practicing blunted spears with his cousin Parasemus, whom he has just disarmed: "Once again you have bested me." He is the author of the Alka Alon epic Saga of the Moonriders and at work on its sequel The Theft of the Queen, about the Beldurrazeko-ordered theft of the last Celestial Mother's final egg from the Vundel's deep breeding lairs. He also discovered the process to create irionite from the Versaroti. Voice: gracious, diplomatic, dramatic, poetic, compelled to cast thoughts in rhyme, meter, and verse. Unique knowledge: ancient Alka Alon sorceries, Met Sakinsa lore, the stolen-egg story, the magnetic-lodestone trick for irionite manufacture, one-handed spear-fighting form, Alka Alon epic verse.

Book 13 (Footwizard): Install. Minalan describes the Magelaw to Anghysbel lords "with the best art Prince Maralathus could manage in Narasi."

Book 14.5 (Mad Mage): Major utility. Maralathus gives Minalan the method for producing irionite from scratch, using a magnetic field inside a shaped lodestone ("I produced irionite for the first time, today, from scratch"). He supplies the political angles at the Kaunis war council and contributes Alka Alon siege-and-defender stratagems for the Darkfaller attack, helps with the Merwyni negotiations, and suggests the thaumaturgic-glass disc fitted with magical stones that becomes the basis of Pentandra's torus (co-designed with Thenreyal). Crucially, he brings firsthand Alka Alon familiarity with the theft of the last egg:

the Theft of the Queen was one of Maralathus' most critically acclaimed epics. I would dearly love to write a sequel with a happy ending.

Book 15 (Marshal Arcane): Diplomacy and intimidation. At the Merwyni Count Andrevar negotiation, "I had the noble Prince Maralathus in my mind at the time, and the Alka Alon prince understood diplomacy and tact like none other of my ancient memories." In the bowl-mirror confrontation with Karakush, "with Prince Maralathus' memories firmly in hand, I quoted him a verse from an epic. In Alka Alon," a Jarnethel Cycle poem that dunks Karakush as a foolish scheming servant. In the Merwyni riverside crisis he gives Minalan the command voice for Tavard says:

'The name is Count Minalan the Spellmonger, Marshal Arcane of the realm,' I told him in Prince Maralathus' best 'go to five hells and die a horrible death for all of eternity' voice.

When the giant Paranchek emerges, Maralathus (not Folauga) rises to the fore:

Tuaa Folauga might have been a warrior, but Maralathus was a leader.

Book 16 (Preceptor): Listed alongside Saram as the ideal advisor for the Preceptor role. A devastating barbed diplomatic insult from Maralathus is used "to devastating effect" against an antagonist. He is the lens for Minalan's conversation with the Leshi:

Prince Maralathus was the memory I had who knew the most about the Met Sakinsa. There was a grove near his palace his entire life and he had spent considerable time amongst his photosynthesizing friends.

Book 17 (Practical Adept): The spear fight. When armed Farisian warmagi close on Minalan outside the pavilion during a lightning storm, "They revealed their own amateurishness as they refocused their attack on me, choosing to run me down and try to slay me in person. That was a mistake. Prince Maralathus could defeat experts using his spear one-handed. Add in the offensive spells Avalanche could hurl at my command, and there wasn't much contest. Any warmage who attempted to press an attack fell the next instant." Durgan Jole witnesses this and deduces Minalan's cover identity from the style. Maralathus also sharpens the critique of Alka Alon councils throughout.