Maelgwyn

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Maelgwyn is the son of Samot and Samothes. After disappearing during the Quiet Year, he became a cult figure within Marielda before resurfacing fifteen years later.

Appearance

Maelgwyn is muscular and "stunningly handsome" with dark tan skin, cutting blue eyes, and shoulder-length blonde hair. In his first appearance during the Quiet Year game in Marielda, he wears the clothing of a lay brother of the Church of Samothes, and carries no weapon.

When the Six find Maelgwyn in the library vault of Memoriam College, he is tired-looking, wearing a dress uniform and with his hair cut short. He wears a gauntlet on one hand through which he can channel divine power. Later in the season, he is often seen wearing an iron crown and a mask bearing the face of his father, Samot.

Personality

“

I've never felt regret in my life. I am confidence, breathing.”

– Maelgwyn, "Four Conversations"

Maelgwyn appears to be charismatic and self-assured (sometimes to the point of arrogance), said to carry the air of Samothes with him. However, he struggles with self-doubt and often puts on a confident face because it's what's expected of him.^[1]

History

Early life

Maelgwyn grew up in the Mansion, a house in the woods given to Samothes and Samot by their father Samol, where he played as a child with Hitchcock's mother.

Marielda: The Quiet Year

Maelgwyn makes his first appearance during Autumn of the Quiet Year. When a wizard duel between members of the northern mage university and members of the underground school (later known as the Yellow House) breaks out, he appears leading a group of pala-din alongside members of the original Marieldan school and ends the conflict by killing the elf-woman from the mage university. Although he sided with the underground school, he gives them a contemptuous look before leaving the scene.

This section contains spoilers for Spring in Hieron 27: A Place and a Time.
Click here to reveal.

In Spring in Hieron 27: A Place and a Time, it's revealed through Lem's dream essence trip to Quiet Year-era Marielda that Maelgwyn had gone to Marielda as part of a plan conceived by Samot and his Disciples: Maelgwyn would gain the trust of Samothes and the citizenry, rise to prominence in the city, and build up the military. When Samot's forces arrived, Maelgwyn would betray Samothes and use his military to lead a bloodless coup, ending the war in one fell swoop.

Snitch Nightly overhears a conversation Maelgwyn has through his mask with Samot, in which Maelgwyn speaks of this plan and expresses his unhappiness about betraying Samothes. Snitch sells this information to Samothes.

Maelgwyn goes on to act as prosecutor in the ill-fated trial of Christopher for the murder of Winsley Cartwright, which is cut short by a reinvestigation following Snitch Nightly's confession to the same murder. That winter, Maelgwyn begins organizing an army in the northern part of the island before disappearing mysteriously during training exercises. He had impressed upon the troops so strongly the importance of focusing on preparations for Samot's assault that they did not divert any resources for a search party.

This section contains spoilers for the Spring in Hieron post-mortem.
Click here to reveal.

During the Spring in Hieron post-mortem, Austin confirmed what was already heavily implied: Samothes imprisoned Maelgwyn in the gauntlet after learning that he was an agent of Samot. Austin described it as an "easy conversation", where Samothes said something to the effect of "You're young, and you are going to get yourself in trouble. Let your father and I work this out, and then you'll be back." Maelgwyn understood that the closest his overbearing father, in his grief, could get to an act of love was putting his son in a vault, and it had a negative effect on his psyche.

Marielda

Fifteen years after his disappearance, Maelgwyn was discovered imprisoned in the Memoriam College vault by The Six, who freed him from his bondage. During his absence, Maelgwyn had become a cult figure in Marielda, worshiped by a sect known as Maelgwyn's Faithful, who believed him to be a blessed figure, either the son of Samothes or some aspect of him.

Maelgwyn, who had little understanding of what had happened to him, formed an unlikely relationship with Castille, the living pala-din of The Six, who he had once fought when she was Charter Castille, the elven leader of the mages who appeared in Marielda during the Quiet Year. The two met regularly as they tried to sort out their lives and lost memories.

Searching to find what needed to be done about the Heat and the Dark, Maelgwyn left Marielda to consult with the mages of the University, who convinced him, in part by posing as his father Samot, that in order to save Hieron, he would need to kill Samothes, under the assumption that the remorse he would feel at seeing his father's dead body would provoke something divine into being that could stop it.

Maelgwyn did so, stabbing the Samothes with the Blade in the Dark on High Sun Day. Stricken with the feeling of loss and the desire to have his father back, Maelgwyn was transformed into an ashen-haired approximation of the King-God and trapped beneath Marielda on the lowest strata of Hieron by the magic of his father's tomb.

Seasons of Hieron

It was revealed in Spring in Hieron 00: What Came Before that the new Samothes who was once Maelgwyn walked from underneath Marielda to underneath the southwestern islands of Hieron and set up his base there, which would become the basis of operations for the Cult of the Dark Sun. Although he was unable to leave the lowest strata, his followers could come to him there to receive direction.

This Samothes believed that directly working with and understanding the Heat and the Dark could save Hieron, and created and shaped tools out of it. Seeing a kindred spirit in Ephrim, who also had a tumultuous childhood, this Samothes granted him his supernatural power over fire. In Make the Spring Last Forever, he saves Ephrim's life after Ephrim is killed by Ordennan steel arrows, in exchange for Ephrim helping steal a special sword hilt from Lem and helping convert Fero to their side.

In An Open Mind, he breaks Hadrian's sword and forges a new blade for it out of a semi-liquid form of the Heat and the Dark and his own blood. He also places Alyosha under mind control for lacking confidence.

In Slow Justice, Ephrim reassembles the Sword of Samothes and uses it to kill this Samothes. As he dies, he reverts back into Maelgwyn, and perishes in agony as he repeats "I tried" over and over. Alyosha then takes Samothes' hammer and begins to work at the forge, causing flowers to spring forth from Maelgwyn's blood and filling the void with "the breath and force of Ingenuity Alive".

Name

There have been several medieval Welsh kings and princes with the Middle Welsh name "Maelgwn", meaning "princely hound" or "princely warrior".^{^[2]} During Maelgwyn's introduction in Marielda 02: The City of Light Pt. 2, Austin spells the name out loud as "M-A-E-L-G-W-N", but the spelling was officially established as "Maelgwyn" by the title of the final Marielda arc, presumably to better reflect how it was being pronounced on the show.

Appears in

References

↑ "Maelgwyn came from Samothes' and Samot's collective desire for confidence. that doesn't mean that (especailly by the time you saw him in Marielda) that he IS confident. I think most of his arc in that campaign is pretty explicitly him being consumed by doubt, putting on a confident face because that's what is expected of him, and looking for something and someone to help stabilize him" - Austin in the Fans at the Table Discord server, 8/29/17
↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maelgwn_Gwynedd#Name

[1] "Maelgwyn came from Samothes' and Samot's collective desire for confidence. that doesn't mean that (especailly by the time you saw him in Marielda) that he IS confident. I think most of his arc in that campaign is pretty explicitly him being consumed by doubt, putting on a confident face because that's what is expected of him, and looking for something and someone to help stabilize him" - Austin in the Fans at the Table Discord server, 8/29/17

[2] ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maelgwn_Gwynedd#Name

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