Mordecai Solvain is a name whispered in the back rooms of Alchester's underworld—a wizard of uncertain age and questionable intentions who operates a wandering curiosity shop that appears in different locations throughout the city each night. You don't find Solvain's Curios & Antiquities. It finds you, but only if you have something Mordecai wants or if fate decrees it. The thieves' guild has done work for him in the past, and his reputation among those who deal in shadows is one of mysterious power and deep pockets. But those who know him best—or as well as anyone can claim to know him—understand that Mordecai Solvain is not a man to be trusted.
Physical Description
Mordecai is in his seventies, though decades of arcane study have left him looking older than his years. His face is a map of deep lines, weathered and worn like ancient parchment. Long gray hair, unkempt and wispy, frames a gaunt face dominated by a long gray beard that reaches to his chest. His eyes are his most striking feature—an unusually bright green that seems to see far more than they should, sharp and calculating despite his age.
Years spent hunched over books and artifacts have left him stooped and shuffling. When visitors enter his shop, he peers up at them from beneath bushy gray brows, assessing their worth with those unsettling green eyes. His hands are notable: long-fingered and elegant despite his age, adorned with multiple rings of various metals and stones—each likely holding some magical significance. An amulet of unknown purpose hangs around his neck, resting against his chest.
He wears robes that might once have been fine—a deep burgundy that has faded over the years to something duller and more worn, patched in places but still carrying a hint of their former grandeur.
The Collector
Little is known of Mordecai's origins, and the wizard prefers it that way. What is known is that he has operated his wandering shop in Alchester for as long as anyone can remember—certainly longer than most of the city's current residents have been alive. Some say he arrived during the reign of the previous king; others claim he was here long before that, dealing in forbidden relics when the city was little more than a trading post on the river.
What drives Mordecai is singular and consuming: acquisition. He is a collector in the truest sense, obsessed with obtaining rare and powerful artifacts regardless of their origin or purpose. His shop is filled with curiosities from across the known world and beyond—items that whisper, items that glow, items that seem to watch visitors as they pass. Each piece represents a transaction, a favor called in, or a contract fulfilled. Mordecai does not steal; he hires others to steal on his behalf. He does not kill; he hires others to kill. His hands remain clean while his collection grows ever larger.
The wizard's motivations remain his own closely guarded secret. He claims to be merely a collector, a connoisseur of the rare and dangerous. But those who have dealt with him sense something deeper—a purpose behind the accumulation that Mordecai has never revealed. Madam Nadira, the fortune-teller who sees more than most, has warned that whatever Mordecai intends with the artifacts he gathers, it is nothing good.
The Wandering Shop
Solvain's Curios & Antiquities is as much a mystery as its proprietor. The shop appears each night in a different location throughout Alchester—a narrow storefront wedged between buildings that somehow makes room for its presence. The street around it seems to bend to accommodate the shop, as if the city itself recognizes Mordecai's claim to that space. A weathered sign bearing the shop's name hangs above the door, creaking in breezes that don't seem to touch anything else.
The interior defies the laws that govern ordinary spaces. From the outside, the shop appears cramped and narrow. Inside, it stretches impossibly, with shelves reaching toward shadows that shouldn't exist, aisles that twist in directions that make no sense, and corners that seem to lead to other corners. The air smells of old paper, incense, and something metallic—the scent of magic long settled into wood and stone.
Those who receive an invitation to the shop—delivered by page or appearing mysteriously in their possession—find their way without difficulty. The shop is simply there, waiting for them at the appointed crossroads. Those who seek it uninvited rarely find anything but empty streets and the sense that something is watching them from just beyond the edge of sight.
A Transactional View
Mordecai has no friends, only associates of varying usefulness. He views every relationship through the lens of transaction—what can this person provide, and what must he offer in return? Loyalty, sentiment, and gratitude mean nothing to him compared to the acquisition of that which he desires. He pays fairly for services rendered, but he expects them to be provided exactly as specified. Failure is not tolerated, though Mordecai's punishments tend toward the subtle rather than the violent. A failed contractor might simply find that Solvain's Curios & Antiquities never appears for them again—and in Alchester's underworld, losing access to Mordecai's resources and information can be a death sentence of its own kind.
In conversation, Mordecai is grumpy, impatient, and dismissive. He has little tolerance for small talk or wasted time, and he treats most visitors as nuisances until they prove otherwise. He speaks with authority and expects to be obeyed, waving people away when he's finished with them as though they were servants rather than hired professionals. Those who mistake his aged appearance for weakness or senility quickly discover that the wizard's mind is as sharp as ever—sharper, perhaps, than most minds have any right to be after so many decades of existence.
FIRST APPEARANCE
Mordecai first appears in The Assassin's Ruse.