Trudi Canavan is an Australian author and talented artist. She has worked as a designer, illustrator and cartographer for Lonely Planet Publications, later as a promotional designer at Oxford University Press(1993). Still a few years later ,in 1995, she started her own business The Telltale Art, and also began working at Aurealis an Australian Sci Fi magazine. In 2001 HarperCollins bought The Black Magician Trilogy, releasing the first book, The Magicians' Guild, in November of that year. The second book of the trilogy, The Novice, was published in June 2002 and was nominated for the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel. The third book The High Lord was released in January 2003. All three books have entered Australian top ten scifi bestseller lists.
In Trudi's own words:
"What's next? I'm starting on another, bigger, fantasy trilogy set in a different world - Age of Five Gods: Priestess of the White, Last of the Wilds, Voice of the Gods. After that, I have several stories to write: a sequel to the Black Magician Trilogy, a prequel set during the Sachakan War, and a multiple-world series set in another universe beginning with the novel I wrote while The Magicians' Guild was in 'the grey zone': Angel of Storms. "
(All information was retreived from Trudi Canavan's very own website and is copyighted to her. This is not the official Black Magician's Trilogy website. For more information visit Trudi Canavan.)
Who is the Black Magician? Ah Hah! Good question. Well, the Black Magician is Akkarin, High Lord of the Guild of Kyralia and possibly the strongest Magican in Imardin.
I would ask for any who haven't read the third and final book of The Black Magician Trilogy, or those who don't wish to have important information revealed to them, to be cautioned that I'll be discussing facts from that book. If you don't want to hear about it until you finish.... Then I reccommend ignoring the rest of this page. But I will say this: You will DEFINITLY love the entire trilogy!
Having just finished the third and most recent book by Trudi Canavan: The High Lord, I have found that Akkarin is a complex and intriguing man/magician. He was very strong as a youth and as a novice(during his training in the Guild). Then, he decided he needed a little trip. So he left to travel the Allied Lands and gather information for a "book" on Ancient Magic. He found some interesting material that ended up leading him to Sachaka. Big Mistake. It all went downhill from there. He was captured by an evil magician and became a slave. It turns out that the Sachakans hate Kyralia because of the Sachakan War and the Wasteland that was created to keep the Sachakan country poor and undeveloped. Although the magician who captured Akkarin was an outcast in the Sachakan society, he was still very powerful because of the black magic he practiced. Black Magic is done by cutting another's skin and taking the energy(magical powers) from them. This action gives all the victim's energy to the Black Magician and makes him VERY powerful. Akkarin was used as an energy source for his capturer as were all the capturer's slaves. But this evil magician wasn't the only one to be outcast by the Sachakan King. There were others, and they warred against each other constantly. Akkarin was taken on day by another black magician and that man said he'd let him live and teach him black magic if he, Akkarin, killed the other magician. Akkarin agreed, and that is how he learned Black Magic and became a Black Magician.
Cool, no? No, it wasn't very nice for him. He hated having to kill all the slaves and the magician, but he knew the magician would just use the slaves to gain more power if he didn't get rid of them first. He did what he had to.
Five years he was gone and when he returned to the Guild he was surprised to find the High Lord of that time had died. He was to be considered for the position. He accepted the position and saw it as a way to keep his mind off his crime. Seeking, let alone learning black magic was considered a terrible crime in Kyralia. It was once called Higher Magic, but one power hungry magician used it to reck havok on Kyralia and tried to take over the country by killing all in his path and becoming extremely strong.
Soon after his demise, which I won't discuss you'll just have to read the third book, the Guild purged their history and eliminated all traces of black magic. They banned the practice of it and made the punishment execution.
Akkarin was in a dangerous position. The color of the High Lord's robes are black, ironic no? He was in the highest spot of the guild and could pretty much do whatever he wished without question. Soon after his return and appointment the brother of the black magician( okay enough with the black magician stuff, their real title is Ichani, so that'll be what I'll call the outcasts of Sachaka from now on) sent in a slave of his that he freed and taught black magic to. That slave was meant to tell him whether the Guild used black magic still. Akkarin couldn't let the Ichani know they didn't because then they would invade and easily take over the entire country of Kyralia. He secretly killed the slave and all the others that followed for years on using black magic to do so.
Skipping a couple of years and some important information: Akkarin took on a favorite called Sonea. She had accidently seen Akkarin perform black magic on his servant(This servant followed him from Sachaka and became his good friend. He was a slave of the Ichani and offered Akkarin his services and strength). When Akkarin found this out he took her from her former guardian Rothen and made her a semi-hostage. Lorlen the Administrator of the Guild and Rothen were the only others who knew what Akkarin practised.
Things began to get tense when Sonea saw Akkarin kill an Ichani slave in a basement room in his residence at the Guild. Soon after, Akkarin decided another should know the truth of why he does what he does. Until then Lorlen, Rothen and Sonea only knew the High Lord performed terrible Magic and hated him for it. Akkarin took Sonea with him on one of his "hunts" for the Ichani slave and Sonea was taught by him to mind read the slave. She finally saw the truth. She was shocked and the next day Akkarin revealed the rest of his experiences with her. Her attitude toward him changed and she chose to learn his ways so that if he is ever killed by one of the continuously stronger "slaves" and just recently an Ichani, she would be able to protect Kyralia.
Akkarin refused but after he encountered the female Ichani in the city he realised he had to do it even if he didn't like it, the Ichani almost exhausted him and she got away back into the city of Imardin. It was unfortunate she escaped because she slaughtered dozens of people for their powers. Akkarin caved when Takan(his servant) and Sonea convinced him it was a necessary precaution.
After some training Akkarin took Sonea with him to help him kill the Ichani woman in the city. She hid while Akkarin fought the woman but when their fighting caused the woman to walk too close to Sonea's hiding place, Sonea leapt up and slashed her neck. Placing her hand over the wound she drew all the power from the Ichani. She used black magic to kill for the first time.
That night she killed the Ichani woman, Akkarin realised he loved her, but kept it secret for fear for Sonea and that she didn't love him. On their way back from the hunt Akkarin got a mind call from Lorlen that they found evidence that he murdered a fellow magician and his entire household. Akkarin, of course didn't, that was the work of the recently deceased Ichani woman. But nevertheless, Akkarin was forced to reveal his secret. He was sentenced to be exiled and Sonea was going to be allowed to stay but refused and decided she would go with Akkarin; they were to exile him to Sachaka and he wouldn't survive there for long. But Akkarin didn't want her to go with him; he wanted her to stay for when the Guild go evidence that the Ichani were real they would need a Black Magician to help them defeat them, also because he didn't want her to be hurt for he loved her.
I won't go on because you should read the books, but if you really want to cheat and find out about them e-mail me and I'll tell. ;)
