The Laird of the Valley of the Mage is a mysterious figure
to the outside world. Few have spoken with him, and of
those, fewer still have lived to tell of it. The tales of alleged
eyewitnesses do not even agree about such things as the
Mage’s appearance or manner of speaking, so it is obvious
that either people are lying or the Mage uses spells to disguise
his appearance at least some of the time.

The Laird of the Valley of the Mage was born far from the
Valley he has made his own, in the capital of the Great
Kingdom. Jaran Krimeeah, as he was known then, was a
relative of the Great King, and was given the best magical
training the Kingdom could afford.

As he rapidly gained magical skill, and felt his powers
increase, he became dissatisfied with his life. He asked
himself why his cousin, who could not even cast one first
level spell, should be King of the Great Kingdom. Jaran
viewed mages as the elite of humanity, with wonderful
powers, which should predestine them to rule everywhere.

Accordingly, the young mage gathered his forces and
attempted a coup d’etat. Unfortunately for Jaran Krimeeah,
his skill with magic far exceeded his skill at palace
politics. The commanders he suborned had, it turned out,
little real authority, and when they tried ordering the
troops they supposedly commanded, the soldiers queried
the orders to higher authority, and were told not to obey
them. The whole misbegotten enterprise died almost as
soon as it began.

The royal family did not execute Jaran Krimeeah.
Instead, they exiled Jaran, forcing him to submit to an
oath never to reveal his relationship with the royal family,
and never to return or involve himself in the Great Kingdom
again.

Forced out into a hard world, Jaran Krimeeah (or the
Black One, as he then called himself) easily found employment
in the Bandit Kingdoms, casting spells for the
uncouth rulers of that region. He began to believe that
agents of the Great Kingdom pursued him, became
obsessed with magical defenses against unseen enemies,
and left his position to devote himself exclusively to magical
research.

He traveled through the Shield Lands, the lands of the
Horned Society, Furyondy, Veluna, Keoland, the Yeomanry,
and Sterich, always searching for more spells and magical
knowledge. Finally, in the Grand Duchy of Geoff, he
found the hidden valley that he now rules. “Here,’ he said
to himself, “is what I’ve been looking for. A safe, secure,
hidden base, easily defended and not claimed by anybody
who cares about it. If I take this place over, I’ll finally be
able to pursue my research in peace!”

He quickly ingratiated himself with the valley elves and
with the local gnomes. When he finally suggested, as delicately
as he could, that perhaps he would be a better overlord
than the distant, uncaring Grand Duke of Geoff, they
proclaimed him their Laird unanimously.

With the enthusiastic help of the elves and gnomes, the
Mage of the Valley fortified the entrance to the valley heavily,
both physically and magically. Secure at last, he
devoted himself almost completely to his magical research,
letting the elves and gnomes run their own affairs. He only
handled problems that they could not.

The Mage of the Valley is a tall, thin man with kinky
brown hair, pale olive skin, and slate-colored eyes. He is
only interested in his magical research and in new spells,
and tends to treat non-spellcasters as mentally deficient.
He is so convinced of the superiority of spellcasters (particularly
mages, of course) that he will not even use a weapon.
He scorns daggers, darts, and non-magical staves as
unworthy of mages.

His obsession with magic has led him into some very dangerous
situations. Whenever he hears of a spellbook with a
spell he does not yet know, he will go to almost any length
for it, even if it means teleporting into a ruined city to fight
a lich.

He is so completely consumed with desire to use magic
that he is even preparing to foil death, though not as a lich.
He considers any sort of undead status as unworthy of a
mage. Instead, he plans to work until he feels his physical
body begin to seriously deteriorate, and then become a
shade by infusing his body with shadowstuff from the
Plane of Shadow. As a shade, he knows that he would never
rise in level, but the ability to stay alive for centuries and
do more magical research makes that a small price to pay,
particularly since he intends to be 24th level by that time.

The Mage owns dozens of spellbooks, and a great load of
magical items. Among others, he has rings of feather falling,
spell turning, spell storing, and wizardry. He has a staff
of the magi, a wand offire, a wand offrost, a book of infinite
spells, a cloak of displacement, a special deck of many
things with no good cards at all (“Pick a card-any card!”),
a gem of seeing, a mirror of life trapping, and a hat of disguise.
These are only the items he is known to have, and
there are probably many more he hasn’t revealed.

The Mage of the Valley is obsessed with agents of the
Great Kingdom. In fact, he considers any outsiders in his
Valley to be potential agents of the Great Kingdom, on a
mission to harm him. Hence, his fixation on defenses and
his desire to be a shade. He maintains a large network of
assassins, mostly valley elves passing as humans, in the
countries outside his valley. They carry out various tasks,
such as searching for old enemies, but their main task is
the endless search for agents of the Great Kingdom. If the
Mage were convinced that no such agents existed, he would
be devastated.