Rafe is one of the immortal advisors closest to Emperor Isandro in the Malverand Intergalactic Empire. He serves alongside Eamon. Rafe uses origin magic. They support the empire's outward progress while neglecting its internal divisions.
Rafe is the overseer of Maraveth and an advisor to Emperor Isandro in the Malverand Intergalactic Empire. He is immortal, with a body remade through the empire's technology.
Appearance
Rafe has white hair and a stern face. He usually wears leather jackets and pants. Ravira mistook him for Raphael at the Valrindor Council.
Personality and Technology
Rafe is loyal to Isandro and protective of the empire. He treats unfamiliar mages as potential threats and insists that they be supervised. He takes pride in Maraveth's ice cream machines.
Rafe reshapes his fingers for precise work on machinery. He creates liquid glass shields that conceal him and his companions, and can produce prismatic rays of light. While visiting Valrindor, he keeps these shields layered around himself and avoids close contact with powerful mages, whose essence threatens his body and technology.
History
The Maraveth core
Rafe was born while Hyperion still walked Valrindor. He and Eamon were inseparable friends when Isandro recruited them to work with Helena on the Maraveth core, intended to improve the empire's government and production. Rafe's wife, Emilia, later joined the team. As Rafe, Eamon, and Mike weakened, Helena and Isandro preserved them for the future. Rafe was remade several centuries after Helena disappeared.
When Thalena entered Isandro's palace, Rafe mistook her for an assassin and shot her. He apologized after Isandro identified her as Helena. He and Mike contained her disintegrating essence in a capsule, and Rafe prepared scanners and capsules for Amos to recover her and the other mages trapped in the void.
Thalena's interference with the breach at Zarephon destabilized the core. Rafe directed its containment and cut its main connections to Zarephon. He then worked with Mike on a nanite construct sent through the breach to protect it and investigate the other world.
Earth and the other Valrindor
Isandro assigned Rafe to escort Xarion to Earth. Near the Alpine timerift, Rafe secretly upgraded David's machinery so that its scanner could detect essence, preserving the course that would bring David to Xalmyrra.
On Earth, they met Helena, displaced from Rafe's distant past. He told her about the empire's dependence on the core and the Spiral Mandate's threat. At her request, he built a capsule to extract some of her essence and memories for Thalena. He kept their meeting secret until he and Xarion returned, then reported it to Isandro. During the subsequent confrontation with the Spiral Mandate in Proxion, he directed city defenses to protect Alecton's civilians.
Rafe represented his empire at the Valrindor Council in Melandor. He explained the connections between the two Valrindors and supported Thalena's call for cooperation. He also arranged for Ravira and other origin magic users to visit his empire.
Thalena's account
In Thalena's Shores of Eternity, Rafe crossed the void to seek help when the Spiral Mandate attacked his homeworld. After the Maraveth core was destroyed and survivors began leaving Valrindor, he was declared the empire's new emperor.
Relationships
- Isandro: Rafe trusts Isandro's judgment and guards his life. He has served him since their work on the original core.
- Helena: Rafe helped realize her research and remained attached to her across the millennia. He embraced her warmly during their reunion on Earth and offered to help her before she returned to her own time.
- Eamon: His close friend and fellow advisor, with whom he helped develop the core.
- Emilia: His wife and a member of their research team.
- Xarion: Rafe initially distrusted him, but their shared stories softened his hostility. He comforted Xarion after their farewell to Helena.
- Ravira: Rafe demonstrated his technology to her and agreed to receive her and other origin magic users in his empire.