Jardek DeCartes was born in Paris in 2570. His father, Maurice DeCartes, was a wealthy weapons merchant who contracted with Alyssa Delacroix as part of a financial deal with her father. He had never intended to be a parent, but took it in stride when Jardek--and later his sister, Marianne--came on the scene.

Jardek proved an able pupil in his father’s trade; by the time he was seven, he understood the mechanics of all the weapons that Maurice sold, and would no doubt have entered the business had not one of the elder DeCartes’ disrupter cannons misfired, killing the man instantly.

Because of heavy investments, the family found themselves insolvent, and Alyssa enrolled Jardek in the Lords of Discipline to insure him a guaranteed future. She and Marianne went to live with her father, and Jardek gradually lost all contact with them.

The boy had a keen sense of what was necessary to get by, and was soon leading the others of the novitiate. He showed them the easiest way to get along with the least amount of effort, quickly establishing himself as their leader. In the classroom, however, his teachers found him an apt pupil, willing to work hard at his actual lessons for the chance to gain the power he sensed behind them. One of his greatest assets was-and is-patience.

When Jardek was nine, Kevin Kilcarney Chesterton was introduced into the picture. Without conscious effort, the younger boy supplanted much of Jardek's prestige with the other novices. Seeing Kevin as a stumbling block in his quest for power, Jardek instinctively sought to discredit the other. This all-encompassing desire has continued to the present day.

Jardek rose through the ranks of the Lords with steady persistence, always managing to be in the right place at the right time. By the time he was thirty, he was second-in-line for Supreme Lord. Not long afterward, his superior was assassinated under vaguely suspicious circumstances. The weapon used was one that had been manufactured by Maurice DeCartes’ firm, but nothing could be proven. Jardek DeCartes became Supreme Lord in 2603.

Bottomline profile: Jardek DeCartes epitomizes the corruption that mars the Lords organization. He has a severe personality defect known in ancient cultures as megalomania. His insatiable quest for power is the root of all his actions. However, his personal charisma must not be underestimated. Hunger for power alone is not enough to raise a man to his position. When he desires to be so, the man can be charming, and many of his personal followers are willing vassals.