Glanfall

Glanfall is a young student of magic in the campaign Mürekkep ve Çelik ("Ink and Steel"), raised and protected by the mage Castor, who loves him like a son. He is blond, bespectacled, slim and about 1.70 metres tall, and wears an apprentice's robe like his master's; he is seventeen when the campaign opens.¹²³

Background

Castor took Glanfall in while looking for an apprentice: the boy could not read or write and was being hunted by a witch hunter for his magic. Glanfall and his mother had been mistreated by the witch hunters and had to flee, and Castor says that left alone the boy would have been burned like his parents. Among the hunters was one called Griff, with whom Glanfall has a very bad history; Castor is said to have dealt with him by his wits.⁴⁵⁶⁷

Castor enrolled him at the Archon when he was young and has leave to travel with him; he will take him as a formal apprentice once he becomes a master himself. During the war Glanfall worked in the Archon's camp without fighting, and he nursed the badly wounded Castor for about a year, becoming a novice mage in that time. He has since learned to read and studies history books under Castor's questioning.⁸⁹¹⁰

Gifts

Glanfall can speak with animals, is extraordinarily lucky and sometimes works magic, yet those around him do not know exactly what he is. He calmed the bear Bobo by holding its neck and speaking to it in its own way, and took on its care.¹¹¹²

The Hand

Glanfall came with Castor to meet Traumir of The Hand. There he swore, holding Castor's hand, never in his life to betray the organisation and to fight for its interests, and he received a ring by which its members know one another. Afterwards he was happy and nervous about his new life and asked Castor what breaking such an oath would bring; Castor told him of a recorded case in which the oath-breaker died.^13141516

On the road

Leonard began to teach him the short sword around the campfire. Castor bought a bag from the traveller Olman that destroys whatever is dropped into it, and gave it to Glanfall; Castor later left it beside the sleeping mage Aypol, and Glanfall did not mind. During the ambush on the road he hid in the cart with Bobo.^1718192021

When creatures attacked South Razel by night, Glanfall brought the cart, the bear and their belongings out of the burning town to his companions. He later described at least three man-sized things like suits of metal or wire attacking the townsfolk while the garrison fought them. A bundle of elven letters left at an inn, already read as love poems, was given to him to study for any hidden message.²²²³²⁴

In North Razel he fell for Flavia, whom Castor's father had raised from infancy as his own daughter, and tried to impress her with his magic, but she had long loved someone else. Heartbroken, he spoke of killing his rival and casting a fireball, and Castor calmed him at the grave marker raised for Castor himself, telling him that love is sometimes not returned.^2526272829

Akşelale

In Akşelale Glanfall left the cart and horses at the Gümüşnehir Inn and won daisies at dice from the stable boy. During the dangerous inquiry that followed, Castor kept him and Bobo safe in the shop of the elf Esnarril, with books, food and water. Leonard gave him the short sword Bane.^3031323334

Walking with Castor, he told him that in his years on the run many people had refused him food and a bed while others had helped, and that he remembered no elf ever wronging him. He asked why the elves did not share their plenty with the hungry across the river, and Castor answered that among the elves he might be welcomed and studied rather than burned. The talk set him thinking.^35363738

When Castor wrote out from memory a letter the group had seen, Glanfall read the thieves' cant hidden among its ordinary words: money had been passed to the sister of Valentin, the commander's mage, and Valentin was to be encouraged to do the job. How he learned to read it is not told.³⁹⁴⁰

Castor gave him a spellbook that can change its shape, his first such gift, and Glanfall embraced him and promised to keep it. He had a removable leather cover made for it, and at Castor's command word it turned into a collar for Bobo. He also showed winnings from days of gambling, among them a small ruby that was said to be fake.⁴¹⁴²⁴³

On the road to the Archon, Glanfall copied the record of a duel between two young nobles that Castor had helped end at first blood, and the winning side's squire gave him a purse.⁴⁴⁴⁵⁴⁶

At the Archon

Glanfall feared the examination that would make him a mage, since Castor's friend had died in his own, and he now had much to lose. At the Archon the master Herrenhal kept him and Bobo for a night to study his luck. They came back pale and worn: Glanfall said they had not slept, because the master kept turning back time. Herrenhal said again and again that Glanfall looks human but is not, and would not say what he is; Glanfall laughed the idea off.^4748495051

He attends classes and pays his own way, living in a smaller dormitory, for he has plenty of money. When Castor was carried wounded to the infirmary, Glanfall sat by him and brought the news: the captain had been taken to the temple for inquiry, and lessons and examinations had been postponed.⁵²⁵³⁵⁴

When the Archon's forces marched to battle, Glanfall wanted to go, but Castor sent him back with Bobo. Later he fetched for Castor everything the library held on Horus Maxwell and on the Starseeker, and watched Castor's thesis presentations, delighted though the theory was beyond him. He spent the last night before Castor's journey with him in Herrenhal's tower. When Bobo was taken away for a week by the master called Green, Glanfall said he had already lost a woman he loved and would not lose his bear too.^5556575859

Glanfall asked to become Castor's apprentice after his own examination, and Castor welcomed it. He has not chosen a branch of magic: he is drawn more to fighting and protecting himself and those he loves than to scholarship, and speaks of learning spellsinging from the elves, while Castor and some of his teachers think his luck points to divination. Before leaving, Castor asked the master of writing and languages, Finolgar, to look after him after the examination, and Finolgar agreed; Castor also hired the triton Keros to accompany him into it.^{60616263646566}

Glanfall passed his examination, solving a riddle from the book Castor had given him, and stayed at the Archon to train further rather than make the long journey.⁶⁷⁶⁸

Spoiler: What Herrenhal sawRevealSpoils: Mürekkep ve Çelik #15 · Say what you have read

Herrenhal told Castor that he did not know exactly what Glanfall is, but that looking into his soul he heard not one whole soul but several voices: many souls, or one shattered soul, kept in a single body. He did not think Glanfall's birth was natural, warned that sleeping selves waking could be dangerous, and said he did not know whether Glanfall's own personality is one soul or the sum of them. He suggested that one day a careful attempt might be made to speak with Glanfall's soul directly, though it might be better to get no answer.⁶⁹⁷⁰