Markaedus Callahan

Appearance
Markaedus Callahan is a large older man. He stands very tall with a stern look on his face. Callahan rarely shows his discomfort on his face and often stands with composure. He often wears formal black robes to all of his meetings and functions.

Personality
Callahan is believed to be one of the most vocal members of the senior council. He is witty man who believes he is very trust worthy. Callahan has a reputation for exactly the opposite, but no one can prove his faults or are they able make him sound guilty. Callahan is either focused or often kind. He rarely ever displays anger.

Family & Relationships
Many people believe that he had strong friendly relations with the countess Mirabeta. Callahan's family remains a secret as well as the locations of his relatives. Callahan is part of a voting block and a committee for non-governmental organizations in Sembia. He often acts with Jameson Moonshine, Rinald Boxworth, Tiroir Sosec and several others to help get his votes across in the merchant council. Callahan also helped Duke Derekson and turned him into an apprentice. Now they act together, but Duke Derekson is not part of the voting block. Callahan is also mentoring the young Kendrick Selkirk the II.

Due to his relationship with countess Mirabeta, people often suspect that he has a client based relationship with the Church of Shar and the Monks of the Dark Moon. Callahan's actions make a good argument against him, but there has been no concrete proof of these actions. As one of the heads of foreign policy in Sembia, Callahan makes it necessary to know ambassadors of all foreign nations that deal with Sembia, and all organizations that wish to buy and operate within Sembia.

Character History
Not much is known about his childhood history.

He believed to be an apprentice to countess Mirebeta in her earlier years when she contended for the position of Overmaster against Kendrick Selkirk. Because of Mirabeta, Callahan was able to make it to the Sembian Merchant Council.

Callahan was greatly outraged by the plots and actions of Emperor Selkirk. He believed that Miklos was responsible for the assassination of Mirabeta and often criticized the allies that were responsible for her death and his allies after the result. Callahan voted for the agreement that occurred in Swordpoints of the Sea Hook, but quickly became very critical of the Red Wizards of Thay after the result in Impultor.

The Plan
His plan in Vindication of the Merchant Nation involved using the Sembian Merchant Council to allow the Cult of Eltab into the country to cause a battle in the city to kill the Red Wizards and to cause a revolutionary movement against the present system that had already been planned by Mirabeta.

Callahan had used Mirabeta's influence in the Church of Shar to have the faith follow him in pursuit of his plan. His his friend, someone not in the committee, but someone he taught, Duke Derekson, was very renown for his services, and had the type of reputation to help gain authority in the Silver Ravens. If Callahan could be in the middle of a string of people involving the Kendrick and Duke Derekson, it would be easy to get a few Silver Ravens to work with him.

The cult arrived with direction of a man called Karma Lectcitus. The orcs drafted a plan and a diversion for Sembia's wellbeing in the plan so that he can gain support and supplies for the orcs for free. The orcs used Karma's connection to get close to Cormyr.

Olmrick agreed to the idea believing that Callahan was doing this to merely help his own pockets. He had his suspicions of another plan, but he still believed that this only makes things easier for Cormyr. After noting this, he was able to get the support of the Sthavar, leader of the Purple Dragons.

The agreement was that the orcs could stop trade trade between Silverdale and the Dalelands to the Sembian mainland. Cormyr agreed to station some Purple Dragons close to the camps to set the stage for Sembia. Sembia would get money from the Cult of Eltab, to let the cult into Ordulin and Saerloon. the orcs would house the cult and take the items that went through the trade route.

This would allow Sembia to keep a large loan that it borrowed from Thay with no problems. Callahan worked with the Church of Shar that had its own plans to help keep Sembia uninvolved for the use of Mirabeta's private army.

Callahan used the war effort to plan on having Silverdale as a calculated loss to end the war without any of the war expenses, but all the war loans to help start off the new government. The problem was that Callahan needed control over the Silver Ravens and a majority in the Sembian Merchant Council. He had his on his side, but he knew he had major dissent in Bartholomew.

He had worked with a newly arrived Red Wizard by the name of Tillenbirg Keilrecht. Callahan had planned on taking Kendrick Selkirk under his wing from the death of Miklos, but now he planned on having Kendrick be a large supporter of this plan.

Tillenbirg has gained the support of Zalnulphir, the second in the Devil's Laugh in Ordulin, Tillenbirg was able to get close to the leader of the Devil's Laugh in Ordulin. Drelenore was also a member of the Sembian merchant Council, but despite the Devil's Laugh, he did not want to give the group legitimacy of reveal on a public scale that one of the members of the Foxmantle noble family was in the Devil's Laugh. Since he had obtained some power for the organization legally, agreeing with Callahan's new allied bill would weaken the Devil's Laugh in Ordulin. Tillenbirg used Mind Rape to turn Drelenore into a supporter. Tillenbirg used his authority to attempt to make Boxworth into a supporter to give Callahan the majority.

It's failure
A devious man by the name of Calvin Ford arrived at this door with guests. Callahan was able to recognize Eustace Califomme, but he didn't know anyone else.

Callahan does not remember Calvin's face, but Calvin Ford knows everything about his plan. In time, Calvin backed Callahan into a corner. Callahan already knew that he might have compromised his guilt.

Callahan moved to Duke Derekson's house to set up an investigation of Calvin Ford. Duke Derekson made it clear that Calvin was working with his assistant, Albert Tillman. Duke Derekson made a note of Albert's trips, and Callahan began to connect the lines.

Duke Derekson's mind became ill with his moral problems with the plan. Callahan needed to get rid of Calvin Ford. After a meeting with Calvin Ford and company, Duke Derekson had many questions. Callahan did his best to keep his involvement with Tillenbirg a secret, even from Duke Derekson. Callahan knew that Duke Derekson was not fully aware of the Cult of Eltab, so he did not inform him of Tillenbirg's part of the plan. At the latest Merchant Council meeting, Duke Derekson spoke out of turn against Callahan and the rest of the council.

Mirabeta has advised Callahan to kill Duke Derekson. Callahan was very reluctant to agree to this plan, but he agreed. Callahan also learned that Herald Daleheart had used resources in the Sembian Merchant Council to go into the Silver Ravens. It was fairly easy for Herald to gain control after Duke Derekson's display.

Not long after Herald became a large obstacle, Duke Derekson was killed by Talaeos in the Duke Derekson estate. Soon after his death, Callahan prepared fortification at his residence.

At the next council meeting, Callahan fears came to reality. Herald, Bartholomew and Calvin Ford are all working together. They unraveled his plans in the middle of the council meeting. In an unexpected twist, Kendrick had turned against Callahan. Callahan thought that Tillenbirg made it more likely for Kendrick to be submissive to Callahan.

Callahan's plan ends in failure as Bartholomew leads Kendrick to his true base of operations in Saerloon and Calvin Ford takes Kendrick to Saerloon instantly so that he cannot have time to relocate the evidence. Kendrick used the guard in Saerloon to find all the papers for his plans.

Current Whereabouts / Activities
After Callahan's plans were foiled by the combined efforts of Calvin Ford and company, with the help of both Herald Daleheart and Bartholomew Talendar, Callahan was sentenced to life in prison for helping Kendrick find Mirabeta.

Callahan spent over a year in prison before he saw Ballaric in his cell. When he saw him, Callahan knew it was his time to die. It was at that time that Callahan knew why Char Fek and many of the other Shades were there. It was a plot to undermine Mirabeta from the start. The Shades actually worked against Mirabeta's advent to aid their control of Shar if the Champions were to succeed. Callahan had learned that he was a puppet lead to slaughter far too late and was assassinated by Ballaric for good will from the Shades.