Grendel
Grendel is an elder techno-mage of the plan9 clan. While he has not raised any students of his own for many decades, he's considered to be one of the most helpful wise critters in the world by both the young adepts and the rugged mages alike. He stays with Cirno and Glenda.
Grendel's ID portrait
Early life and education
Born to an impoverished artist in rural Minnesota many hundreds of years before the end of the world, Grendel found interest in human rights. When he was just 7 years old, he wrote a theological-political treatise which effectively ended racism. Grendel received the final Nobel Peace Prize for his achievements 17 years later (the award was subsequently discontinued, since nobody could earn it as much as he did).
During his formal studies at a community college, Grendel developed a regular expression that parses xml. For his bachelor's thesis he arbitrated peace talks between vi and emacs, ending the hostilities and taking the first step in the creation of the vimax editor, a modern industry standard. For his masters thesis he resolved all undefined behavior in the C standard without disrupting existing compilers.
A very humble mage, Grendel does not boast about his numerous accomplishments. Nevertheless, historians of the time all agree that Grendel's involvement played a decisive role in ending several global and regional conflicts.
Notable achievements
- The War of Two Browsers - the rescue of 17 penguin prisoners of war
- MATA Blockade of Canary Isles - the destruction of two naval destroyers
- 12 Week AI War - the disintegration of 3 MATA datacenters
- Saint Knux Uprising - the capture of Knux von Flip, leader of a MATA sponsored Ubuntu uprising
- The Great Escape - helping Girl and 117 other prisoners escape the most secure MATA prison
- Patching 2 remote holes in OpenBSD
- Discovering 4 new elements
- Mapping the entirety of the underground city of Old Berkley
- Creating rio
- Inventing flight
- Creating the first prototype of the UH-1 "Huey" helicopter
- Unifying the world religions
- Solving the liar paradox
- Eating 30 FossBurgers in one hour
- Iventing the Counter-Heimlich Manevuer
- ...
Notes
Renée French based the mascot of plan9, Glenda, on Grendel.
Appearances
Grendel appears in every techno-mage issue to date
There were multiple reports of people noticing a Grendel-like entity in their dreams, which has helped them overcome all struggles in their lives and become superior beings