Pholadros

Pholadros is a pseudohistorical wizard who appears in historical accounts of the Eleven Cities, specifically Tyros. He is chiefly noted as the son of the great reputed thaumaturge Morogyad.    

History

  In his book Worthies of Tyros, the historian Hephryan of Tyros observes that during his mid-career sojourn in Tyros Morogyad took a wife named Abeyan, with whom he had three children. Pholadros was the second of these, and also the second son, after Torolod. Hephryan makes some passing references to Pholadros assisting his father in his magical experiments, explicitly pointing out that he did so because Torolod did not seem interested.  

Thaumatological interest

  If Hephryan is correct, it is likely that Pholadros had some input into the composition of the "Tyros canon" of the Esoterica of Morogyad. This may have been minor - he may, for example, simply have served as his father's secretary - though he may equally have played a significant role in the actual content of these important books of magic. Exactly how to determine role, and what advances might be gained in the study of the Esoterica as a result, are interesting questions.   Of further thaumatological interest is the account of Pholadros given by Orrdelph in his book Lives of the Wizards. Orrdelph states that after Morogyad left Tyros - evidently abandoning his family there - Pholadros continued experimenting with magic and eventually developed a method of transmogrification, for which he required the aid of his two siblings. His younger sister Qesarayas was keen, but Torolod supposedly continued to demur. Pholadros therefore turned for aid to a half-sister, Jezarayn, who Morogyad allegedly fathered with a courtesan. Orrdelph alleges that Pholadros and his two sisters were able to perform a ritual that transformed them into petrels, which allowed them to spend time at sea among the colonies of these birds that nest around Tyros, hunting fish and flying. They could transform back to humans at will and lived a double life for a number of years before disappearing from human society altogether in their bird forms. Pholadros and Qesarayas were never seen again, though a fisherman from Dyqamay untangled a half-dead petrel as by-catch from his net to have it turn into the naked Jezarayn and become his wife.   Orrdelph is a broadly credible historian and the only major point against this story being true is that it is not mentioned by any other biographers of Morogyad or his family. The notion that the Morogyad bloodline may have spread to Dyqamay is therefore an intriguing one, though how to go about searching for the descendants of the line some centuries later is not clear.