Myrlyn Terens is a character in Isaac Asimov's Empire series.
About Terens[]
Myrlyn Terens is a Florinian civil servant who serves as the Townman of a town on the planet Florina. A complex and ultimately tragic figure, Terens was a product of the Florinian Civil Service, a system designed to create efficient native administrators loyal to their Sarkite overlords. Educated on Sark itself, he initially held a conventional, if resentful, attitude towards the ruling class.
However, his experiences, particularly witnessing the vast gulf between Sarkite luxury and Florinian poverty, fostered a deep-seated hatred for the Sarkite Squires and a desperate, clandestine desire to free his world. This internal conflict defined his life. His pivotal role began when he intercepted the Spatio-analyst Rik, who arrived on Florina babbling about the planet's impending doom. Seeing an opportunity, Terens kidnapped Rik, intending to use his knowledge of the "currents of space" and the danger to Florina's sun as a political weapon to blackmail Sark and gain Florinian independence. His attempt to psycho-probe Rik to control his anxiety went catastrophically wrong, erasing most of the analyst's memory instead.
Forced to cover his tracks, Terens had Rik placed in the care of a local woman, Valona March, and used his position as Townman to watch over the amnesiac. A year later, when Rik's memories began to return, Terens's actions spiraled: to protect his secret, he murdered a City doctor and later killed a Sarkite patroller, becoming a fugitive. In a desperate attempt to escape and bring Rik's warning to a wider audience, he impersonated a Sarkite, assaulted and killed the Squire Alstare Deamone, and stole his identity to board a ship to Sark. Upon arrival, he was captured by Trantorian agents. Under interrogation, Terens confessed to being the psycho-prober, revealing his misguided patriotic motives. His actions, while born of a desire to save his planet, ultimately highlighted the brutal oppression of Florina and contributed to the galactic political crisis that unfolded, though he himself was left a broken man, facing trial and the loss of his world.
Appearances[]