Mule (Foundation)

Latest revision as of 04:17, 20 May 2023

The Mule is a male literary character who features in Foundation.

Biography

Mule was a male human mentalic who was from the planet Gaia. His real name was unknown with many details of his early life being mere conjecture. In 12,067 GE, his rise was predicted by Hari Seldon following the rise a similar figure, twisted Mentalic Vara Liso. Born on the mentalic planet Gaia within Sayshell Sector in 268 FE, where he was regarded as a criminal for his willingness to use his mental powers to manipulate people. By some means he managed to escape the planet at a young age and use the innate powers of its inhabitants against the Galaxy. Motivated by awareness of his abnormal appearance and hatred against the galaxy, the Mule used his extensive powers to rise to power: first conquering a pirate's asteroid base in , an industrialist later gave him control of a planet. From there he managed to take over the planet Kalgan by converting the then warlord of Kalgan in 295 FE. This gave him the possibility of conquering the First Foundation, but he needed allies for this, so he decided to disguise himself as a clown, claiming to be his own jester, in order to seek the agents the Foundation would sent to investigate him. This allowed him to meet Han Pritcher, but the first to encounter him were Toran and Bayta Darell, whom he encountered and joined in their travels in 296 FE. This, at the same time, allowed him to have Kalgan declare war on the First Foundation, conquering both it and the Independent Traders' planets. His attempts to find the Second Foundation through manipulation of Ebling Mis, though, ended up being stymied in the last second thanks to Bayta, who had realized who he was and killed Mis before he could speak up. The Mule ended up leaving, allowing the Darells to go untouched on the basis of their friendship.

It was after the fall of the First Foundation that the constructive aspects of the Mule's regime took shape. After the definitive break-up of the first Galactic Empire, it was he who first presented history with a unified volume of space truly imperial in scope. The earlier commercial empire of the fallen Foundation had been diverse and loosely knit, despite the impalpable backing of the predictions of Psychohistory. It was not to be compared with the tightly controlled Union of Worlds under the Mule, particularly during the era of the so-called Search. The Mule established his empire incrementally, using past conquests to aid new ones: first by mentally converting a pirate band to his allegiance, then a whole planet, then the militarily powerful kingdom of Kalgan, which he obtains by mentally converting the warlord of the planet Kalgan, and then the Foundation. The Mule sets up his own short-lived Galactic Empire, the "Union of Worlds", styling himself "First Citizen of the Union" and making Kalgan its capital planet. Leading up to, during, and for a good time after the Mule's conquest of the Foundation and its trade confederacy, almost no one ever actually sees the Mule or knows what he looks like.

The Foundation, after the death of the Empire, is the sole supplier of nuclear weaponry in the galaxy, and using this asset the Mule begins rapidly conquering surrounding territories, all of which lack nuclear power, sweeping aside the remnants of the Galactic Empire centered on Neotrantor.

The Mule's conquest is amazingly fast: he defeats the Foundation and establishes the Union of Worlds after only five years. Then, just as suddenly, and seemingly randomly, he stops his advance and settles into a five-year period of consolidation. This is actually because the Mule fears the mysterious Second Foundation, which is rumoured to be capable of defeating a mentalic individual like himself. According to a hint given by Hari Seldon, the Second Foundation was founded at "the opposite end of the galaxy" from the First Foundation, which was itself founded on the distant galactic rim planet Terminus. However, the true location of the Second Foundation is a total mystery and popular sentiment is that it does not exist. Nevertheless, the Mule launches repeated expeditions in search of the Second Foundation during this period of consolidation.

During the following years, the Mule continued to use his power to sweep aside the last remnants of the Galactic Empire centered around Neotrantor and forging the Union of Worlds, styling himself First Citizen of the Union. However, his plans to create a new Empire were kept in check by his fear of the Second Foundation, which led him to organizing multiple expeditions to seek it. The sixth expedition of 301 FE, led by Bail Channis (who turns out to be a Second Foundation agent) appears to be successful, but in fact it is all a trap created by the First Speaker of the Second Foundation, who defeats the Mule and alters his mind, making end his quest and spend the last years of his life as a benevolent dictator, eventually dying a premature death resulting from his mutation.

Overview

Personality and attributes

In appearance, the Mule was considered a freak by most people who gazed upon him. His nose was incredibly long, sticking out over three inches from his face. The flesh of the rest of the Mule's face seems stretched across his skull. The Mule's body was spindly and gangly: he weighed only 100 to 120 pounds (45 to 54 kg), stretched out across a 5'8" frame. Thus his joints, such as elbows, seemed to jut out from his diminutive musculature. The Mule's meagerness was glandular and could not be compensated for. Further, the Mule's limbs met at awkward angles, giving the general impression of a scarecrow assembled poorly. It was said that one could not look at the Mule without derision. The only aspect of the Mule which was not blatantly farcical were his eyes, which were described as deep brown and perpetually sad.

The Mule disguised himself as the Clown when he met Bayta and Toran Darell. This was his way of taking over the First Foundation. He manipulates the constables and guards into believing he is indeed the escaped 'clown', but at this early stage, neither Toran or Bayta are aware of his psychomanipulative powers. In the process of negotiations, the Clown/Mule is given a Visi-Sonor, by Ebling Mis with which to amuse himself. He exclaims to Bayta that in his rush to 'flee' the Mule, that he had left his behind. He then offers to play the instrument for Bayta whom he calls "My Lady". In his hands the Visi Sonor not only creates exquisite sounds, but colors, shapes and with the Mule's mental ability, emotion. The Mule disguised as the clown uses his concerts and fame to brain wash everyone.

He came to be regarded as one of the greatest conquerors the galaxy.

Powers and abilities

The Mule was born a powerful mentalic mutant who had the ability to reach into the minds of others and 'adjust' their emotions, individually or en masse, using this capability to conscript individuals to his cause. Not direct mind-control per se, it is a subtle influence of the subconscious; individuals under the Mule's influence behave otherwise normally - logic, memories, and personality intact. This gives the Mule the capacity to disrupt Seldon's plan by invalidating Seldon's assumption that no single individual could have a measurable effect on galactic socio-historical trends on their own, due to the plan relying on the predictability of the actions of very large numbers of people.

Notes

• The Mule was created by Isaac Asimov where he featured in the setting of the Foundation universe.

In other media

Television

Appearances

• Foundation and Empire:
• Foundation and Empire:
• Second Foundation:
• Foundation and Earth

External Links

• Asimov Wiki Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.