Sovakadris

Mindbank Sovakadris is the primary antagonist of "Twice-Shadowed Saint" and the current ruler of the Scain Empire. At the age of 881, he was the third oldest Mindbank to ever take office (the eldest being Tyrundul at 901 and the runner up being Namagium at 890).

Sovakadris was a politican for most of his life before the assassination of Mindbank Escundal. Having been named one of the candidates, he proceeded to campaign and was winning the position when Escandul was killed. While the assassination was being investigated, he undertook a risky mission and formed a diplomatic envoy to visit the underdeveloped world of Earth. Unfortunately, a lightning storm brough him down in the New Mexico desert on July 8, 1947. An event which humans immortalized as "The Roswell Incident".

According to "Fifty Five at Fifty One", Sovakadris was the sole survivor of his crash, and even then it was a narrow margin. He was recovered by the United States Army, as was his ship, Radiant Light. When he awoke, it was inside the Area 51 complex in the care of a woman by the name of Selene Swanson; a young translator who had been called in from the Dulce Base to work with him. Sovakadris' left arm was lost in the crash, and he was later given a replacement made from parts of his own ship - a strange, mechanical monstrosity that looks utterly alien, even by a Scain's definition.

Sovakadris eventually grew somewhat attached to Selene and came to trust her as the "only good Vahran". He often referred to her as "Seria", which is the Scain word for "Light", as her aural signature was almost always white or gold, denoting innocence and purity.

Eventually, Selene tried to help Sovakadris escape from the base. The two were apprehended by 5, a half-robot hybrid created from leftovers recovered from the Tunguska Incident of 1908. During the scuffle, one of the head researchers - Dr. Cinda Adler - shot and killed Selene. Sovakadris went mad with grief, killing everyone in the base except for 5 and a security guard, Robert Davenport, before escaping in his ship (which had been undergoing self-repair cycles in the lowest part of the hangar).

In "Twice-Shadowed Saint", he attempts to seek vengeance for Selene's death by burning the entire human race out of existence. He sent Turukaishal, his most trusted soldier, to act as a forward scout, which is where the book begins. Turukaishal, like Sovakadris before him, falls in love with a human (Victoria) who shows him that there is, in fact, good on Earth. Turukaishal turns on Sovakadris, which both angers and saddens the Mindbank.



Ultimately, Turukaishal and Sovakadris clash at the end of ''"Twice-Shadowed Saint". ''Sovakadris, as a Scion, possessed ten times the power of Turukaishal while the younger Scain had been implanted following his resurrection. They match fairly well, but ultimately Turukaishal reminds Sovakadris that Selene would not want him to destroy Earth for her sake. Sovakadris then commits suicide so that Turukaishal can live through a particularly powerful Psionic attack, relinquishing control of the throne to the sole surviving candidate: Turukaishal himself.

During his reign as Mindbank, Sovakadris was considered to be one of the greatest Mindbanks to have ever ruled the Scain. Following the upheaval of Mindbank Escundal's war of superiority, Sovakadris reopened trade routes with the Erythians and the Zyzyts while offering compensation to damaged races like the Iharsh-Daraz. Sovakadris barely concealed his dislike for the Heil, offering them no compensation but a treaty. He had every intent of using them as a scapegoat for the attacks on Earth if he was caught. Hidden agendas aside, however, he managed to revive the Scain's economic and political states in a mere sixty years, taking the Scain out of a militaristic dark age and giving them the foundation upon which his successors could build peace.