Galo ex Tytalus
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alo ex Tytalus is a magus living in the Loch Leglean Tribunal. Always ready with a sardonic grin and a wink, he has made himself quite popular among his Scottish sodales. Beneath his wry exterior, Galo is a patient, methodical schemer. His great ambition is to forge a kingdom of giants in Britain… with himself as the power behind the throne.

Galo is an extravagant dresser, enjoying bright colours, bold patterns and expensive, luxurious fabrics. When he can get it, he frequently scents his hair and beard with oils imported from Byzantium and Egypt. Like most magi his age, his appearance has been altered by the lingering scars of wizard's twilight. His shadow never quite matches his body (holding up both arms instead of just one, for example). When angered (which can happen easily), he appears to grow in size and his complexion darkens noticeably. Finally, nearby people without the benefit of the parma magica or similar magic resistance are more likely to have their sleep disturbed by nightmares when he is nearby.

Early Life

Galo's own accounts of his past vary with the telling, but the consistent elements are that he was christened Erc Mac Barra in anno domini 1196, the eldest son of the O'Neill clan chief. His Gift began to manifest when he was only six years old, and he learned harsh lessons about politics as he watched his father and uncles maneuver his younger brother into the position of tanist.

By 1204, at the age of 8, he had been pushed to the outskirts of the clan, and was saved from a bitter and ignominious life only by a chance meeting with Athdara ex Miscellanea, a Scottish magus of no fixed residence. Athdara was one of the nemthemgacha, and an enthusiastic sower of distrust and hatred. This necessitated a constantly wandering life through the Isles and Highlands that left little time for magical instruction.

Galo chafed under his bitter parens, but valued the little magic she did teach him. He waited and planned, and when it became clear that she would share no more with him he fled, leading her on a long and difficult chase to the slopes of Cairn Gorm. A great struggle ensued when Athdara finally caught up to him, but Galo finally prevailed, casting her off a cliff to shatter on the rocks below (by his own account).

Unbeknownst to Galo, the entire struggle had been witnessed by Uranos ex Tytalus. Rather than see such a gifted and resourceful individual lost to the Order of Hermes, Uranos took Galo as his apprentice on the spot, retroactively stated that the slaying of Athdara had been his gauntlet and welcomed him to House Tytalus. Relieved to be free of his parens but unwilling to submit to another magus, Galo struck out on his own and establishing himself as an aonaranan in the Firth of Clyde in anno domini 1219.

Founding of Alerock

Galo, along with Annaeus Aurelian, founded Alerock in anno domini 1235. Having abandoned his former covenant at the tribunal meeting, the giant magus was discreetly casting about for a new one, and Galo had decided that a life shared only with Geb, his familiar, was less grand than he had hoped. They shared the watchtower for less than a year before the cramped quarters forced their neonatal covenant to expand into what would become its current form.

Magic

From the first moment of Athdara's instruction, Galo's magic has revolved around trickery and deception. He has a strong grasp of muto, and he prefers corpus, mentem and particularly imaginem as his forms. He delights in using his spells to confuse and trick the giants with whom he has dealings.

While the use of magic for its own sake is not uncommon among members of the Order of Hermes, it goes a step further in Galo's case. Galo finds the casting of spells physically addictive, and he frequently has difficulty bringing himself to cease working magic once he has started. His laboratory work is characterised by long binges of activity, punctuated by pauses when exhaustion finally claims him.

Sigil

Galo's magic consistently displays trapezoids, whether in the cracks of destroyed objects, the pattern of an illusory cloak or shining in the eyes of someone whose mind he has affected.

Creations

Galo's energies have been directed much more toward his political goals than to magical innovation and creation. Nonetheless, he has produced several new spells (imaginem effects to disguise people, objects and whole rooms, corpus spells to torture those who displease him and a spell to make lying easier) and his talisman.

Sanctum

Galo's sanctum is an expression of his temporal influence as much as a functional working area. His laboratory contains a permanently inscribed summoning circle three paces across. He has also installed some very specialised equipment for inventing and controlling muto effects, at the expense of the glassware that would ordinarily be used for extracting vis and formulating longevity rituals. Rich furnishings and lavish decoration are everywhere, though it is likely that much of this is illusory.

Also illusory is the richly dressed, but completely silent laboratory assistant. This is, in fact, the Tireless Servant, an animated skeleton that Galo uses for performing simple, repetitive physical tasks.

Notable Activities

Shortly after coming to Ailsa Craig, Galo found himself feeling increasingly lonely. He had head tales of the ugly, but clever and mischievious apes found in Aethiopia and the muslim lands, and resolved to find one and bind it as his familiar. He spent 1223 searching the great fairs of Scotland, England and France, even making a side trip to the Hermetic Fair in the Alps, but could not find a suitable creature. Unwilling to give up, he took ship for north Africa, where he met and befriended Geb, an ape who had learned much from the books he stole from local scholars. Galo returned to Ailsa Craig and bound Geb as his familiar in the autumn of 1224.

Galo encountered Rok, the Giant of the Storms, during a sea voyage in the summer of 1237. While the two did not part on especially good terms, neither do they appear to be hostile to one another. Galo has privately expressed his hope that Rok could become the giant-king that he seeks to elevate.

In the summer of 1240, Galo travelled to Glasgow to complete a book-trading deal with the covenant of Eilean Beg. While there, several valuable tomes were stolen by a villein's son named Padget, with the remarkable ability to change his shape into that of another person. Intrigued, Galo broke the boy out of the Bishop's Castle and took him as his apprentice.

Since anno domini 1240, Galo and Padget have settled into a loose routine. Formal instruction occurs in the spring. Galo then spends the summer travelling Britain (particularly the Hebrides) to build ties between the giants he hopes to rule by proxy. The rest of the year is taken up with lab work and study.

In early 1245, he fought a skirmish alongside men of Clan Mac Domhnall against a force of faeries who appeared to be dead viking warriors. Galo believes these faeries to be the Einherjar of Norse myth.

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