John Marren is the Master of Coin to the King of Sea and a friend to Hardin "Sphinx" Lancaster.
History[]
Early History[]
John Marren of San Francisco was born to a wealthy family that loyally served the Four Legendary Kingdoms, particularly the Kingdom of Sea, thus allowing him to learn the true history of humanity and of the trials the Super-Ancient Beings had set. During his formative years, Marren attended a boarding school, where he met and befriended Hardin "Sphinx" Lancaster.
Once he had grown up and started serving the Four Kingdoms, Marren quickly proved himself capable as a businessman, able to easily crash a stock market or bankrupt a country if the Four Kingdoms asked him to. This eventually earned him the role of Master of Coin to Garrett Caldwell, serving as the Sea King's banker.
Marren maintained his friendship with Sphinx over the years, even after his friend was assigned the isolated role of a Trismagi, occasionally inviting him to royal events such as weddings. It is possible that Sphinx confided in Marren his plan to assume control of the world of the Four Kingdoms should an opportunity arise, with the promise that Marren could become a major player in the new world regime he planned to create after the Omega Event.
The Four Legendary Kingdoms[]
In 2016, Marren accompanied Caldwell to the Underworld to bear witness to the fourth Great Games of the Hydra, as part of the third trial of the Super-Ancients.
After the Fifth Challenge was over, Marren went with the rest of the procession to the Summit Temple to watch as the first five Golden Spheres were set into place within the mountain's obelisk. Before proceeding to the observatory to observe the remaining Challenges, Hades announced on Caldwell's behalf the decision to promote Marren to the rank of Duke, with the title of Duke of the Western Shore. The pleased Marren shook Caldwell's hand in thanks.
When the minotaurs began turning against the Four Kingdoms following the completion of the Great Games, however, Marren and the royals quickly fled down to the helipad in order to try and escape. When the Kings' guards opened fire on them, the minotaurs began attacking all the royals indiscriminately, though Marren able to escape the ensuing carnage.
The One Impossible Labyrinth[]
Following the chaos in the Underworld, Marren was promoted further to the role of Master of Coin for the entirety of the Four Kingdoms, since the preceding royal banker had been killed in the minotaur uprising.
Once Sphinx had made his move and took control of the Four Kingdoms following the Trial of the Cities, Marren supported and assisted his friend as Sphinx began his preparations to reform the world order, such as planning to use the Oval Office of the White House for the transition as a show of strength to the world.
As Sphinx set out to make his way through the Supreme Labyrinth in order to avert the Omega Event, he left Marren in charge of organising the families of the Four Kingdoms to take shelter under the Storm Cellar Protocol to wait out the period following the Omega Event. Marren and his assistant Jennifer Fraser began working on alerting the royal families of Sphinx's choosing to move to one of the three bunkers at Xian, Hohensalzburg Fortress and Raven Rock, with Marren soon flying to Salzburg for some additional preparations while also planning to head to Washington, D.C. for the finalisation of the transition.
As the royal banker landed at Salzburg Airport, musing that he would no longer be a mere banker and a major player in Sphinx's regime, Marren headed towards a limousine waiting for him, but once inside he found himself being held at gunpoint. Pooh Bear introduced Stretch and himself as friends of Jack West Jr and informed him that he was coming with them, swiftly taking Marren back to their plane and taking off before anyone realised what was going on.
Pooh Bear's team landed in Lyon and began heading to Marseille by road in a police van to throw off any pursuers and obtain a less conspicuous airport to reach the United States, keeping Marren lock inside the van's cell. While en-route, they made contact with Iolanthe Compton-Jones's team to check on each other's progress; Iolanthe commended them team on their bold move, but warned that Marren was ruthless and to watch him closely.
Indeed, during the drive to Marseille, Marren refused to be intimidated and raged at his captors, assuring them that he would have them tortured and begging for death once he was rescued. Despite his circumstances, Marren patronisingly answered Stretch's question about what the transition was and explained why Sphinx had used the Siren bells to send the people in several major cities to sleep, such as moving entire populations to serve as slave labour. When Lynda Fadel called them monsters, Marren retorted that the world was becoming overpopulated and that culling them was necessary, and confirmed Tracy Smith's question as to whether he believed his rhetoric, claiming that humans were easily led and liked to know their place, which they would ensure after the Omega Event occurred. After explaining why they were performing the transition in Washington, Marren refused to talk any more or give Stretch the master list containing the royal families and their loyalists over, instead calling them idealistic misfits doomed to fail.
Once they had acquired a new plane and set course to Washington, the team cuffed Marren to a seat, ignoring his initial threats and glowering until he fell asleep. Although Stretch suspected that Marren still had a means of contacting his allies, he decided to allow the royal banker the opportunity so that they could learn where their enemies were based out of. Indeed, Marren somehow made contact with his allies before they neared the eastern coast of the U.S., who had the plane remotely hacked and redirected to land at Raven Rock.
Upon landing, the forces waiting for them ordered that they release Marren to them first. Once his cuffs were removed and he approached the doorway, Marren gloatingly reminded the quartet to remember that he had told them he would have them begging and screaming. After Marren joined the Golden Knight and Delta commandos, however, Pooh Bear detonated some explosives that destroyed the plane and caught them off-guard, which allowed the team to open fire on Marren's rescuers. As the commandos around him went down, Marren grabbed a gun off the ground and turned to shoot a Pooh Bear, only to be shot and killed by Tracy instead.
After the fire-fight was over, the briefcase containing the master list was taken from Marren's body, which the world's governments would use to investigate and arrest the royal families and their servants following the Omega Event and Sphinx's defeat.
Personality[]
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Skills[]
- Expert Businessman: To Be Added.
Equipment[]
- Bombardier: A private jet which Marren used to transport himself around Europe while organising the Storm Cellar Protocol, though he felt self-conscious of its smaller prestige compared to the planes owned by several royal families.
- Underwood High Security Case: A luxurious leather briefcase that is both fireproof and bulletproof, which Marren used to carry several important files such as the master list of the Four Legendary Kingdoms members and their aides.
- Gun: A firearm that Marren picked up during the brief fire-fight at Raven Rock, but was cut down before he could open fire with it.
Trivia[]
- As confirmed in the interview following The One Impossible Labyrinth, John Marren is named after a friend of Matthew Reilly's, whom Reilly assures is a great friend and nothing like the dastardly character.