Reader Question Day #72 – Maglarion vs. Lucan Mandragon

(Note that this has lots of spoilers for both CHILD OF THE GHOSTS and the entire DEMONSOULED series.)

MAM asks, keeping with the theme of some of our recent posts:

Who would win in a fight, Maglarion or Lucan Mandragon?

That is a good question, and it essentially comes down to where in the series you are, because both Maglarion and Lucan Mandragon evolve quite a bit. Over the course of CHILD OF THE GHOSTS, Maglarion acquires a great bloodcrystal, which grants him superhuman healing abilities and fuels his sorcery. Lucan, at the start of DEMONSOULED, is the most powerful wizard in the Grim Marches, but he is otherwise a normal human male. By SOUL OF SWORDS, he can draw on a well of stolen Demonsouled power, has the memories and powers of his ancestor Randur Maendrag (a powerful necromancer), has become an undead revenant, and also carries the Glamdaigyr and the Banurdem, two artifacts of immense magical power.

So, if Maglarion from the end of CHILD OF THE GHOSTS faced Lucan from the beginning of DEMONSOULED, Maglarion would clean Lucan’s clock. But if Lucan from SOUL OF SWORDS faced Maglarion, he would utterly crush Maglarion.

That said, Lucan has an edge that Maglarion simply does not – Lucan believes in things. Maglarion just wants to live forever. Lucan starts out wanting to defend the Grim Marches from dark magic, and by the end of the series, he’s on a crusade to rid the world of the Demonsouled forever. That makes Lucan much, much more dangerous than Maglarion, because Maglarion is simply looking out for himself, albeit in a particularly evil manner. Lucan is willing to go much farther and take greater risks in pursuit of his goals. Maglarion almost destroyed Malarae, but he never attempted anything on the scale of the Great Rising at the end of SOUL OF SORCERY.

So while Maglarion from the end of the CHILD OF GHOSTS might defeat Lucan from the beginning of DEMONSOULED, Lucan’s convictions, and willingness to risk himself, would give Lucan an edge that might let him prevail over Maglarion. But SOUL OF SWORDS Lucan would crush Maglarion, hands-down.

-JM