Praxton

Lord Mastrell Praxton is the leader of the sand masters of Lossand on the Dayside of Taldain. 
== Appearance and Personality ==
Praxton is an elderly man with grey hair. He has blue eyes and gray eyebrows.
Praxton is noted as a strong leader, not just for the incredible strength of his sand mastery, but also because of his sheer willpower.
== Attributes and Abilities ==
Praxton is an extremely powerful sand master. He can control dozens of ribbons of sand and is able to create an explosion of sand powerful enough to take down hundreds of opponents.
== History ==
Centuries before Praxton, the Lord Mastrell of the time started an account with then Lord Merchant Hennin. The Lord Mastrell had Hennin put the Diem's tribute money in the account, and over the years the tributes, combined with the interest, grew to become an insurmountable debt. The Lord Mastrells of the past, and presumably Praxton as well, used this debt as a hold over the Lord Merchant to blackmail him into doing his bidding.
Praxton married a Darksider woman, with whom he had a number of children, including Kenton, his youngest son. None of his children, except for Kenton, were able to use sand mastery.
During Kenton's entrance exam for the Diem, he was barely able to command a tiny amount of sand. Praxton publicly disparaged his own son and attempted to block Kenton's entrance into the Diem, saying that he, as Lord Mastrell, was the one who must give his approval before any sand master can be advanced. However, Kenton entered the Diem anyway by citing the law, which stated that the first rank of Acolent is the only rank over which Praxton has no authority over, and that anyone with any ability, no matter how little, has a right to join the Diem.
Throughout Kenton's time as an acolent he and his father had many fights. On four separate occasions Praxton tried getting Kenton to accept the rank of underfen, the lowest rank, but every time he refused, not wanting to be stuck at that rank for all of his career.
Eight years later Kenton, in an attempt at showing his father that he deserved advancement to the rank of mastrell, the highest rank, insisted on attempting the Mastrell's Path. His father tried to block him saying that he was not powerful enough. The two of them have another argument about Kenton's abilities. Kenton turned to undermastrell Elorin who allowed him to attempt the Path. Praxton tried to block Kenton from taking his sword with him, but Kenton took it anyway as it was not explicitly forbidden. Kenton succeeds in his run through the Path, finding six spheres rather than the usual five. In the process he used his sword to kill the terken deep sandling, specifically a Marken, that was a central part of the Path, destroying it forever. Rather than being proud of his son's accomplishment, Praxton seemed to be disappointed with what he had done.
Shortly afterwards Praxton presided over the Diem's advancement ceremony. He, along with the rest of the sand masters present, drank from the ceremonial water bowl that Elorin had poisoned with KaDo. He distributed the sashes to all of the masters who were advanced. For the first time in the history of the Diem he unadvanced Drile from the rank of mastrell to the rank of diemfen. Afterwards, for one last time he tried to offer Kenton the rank of underfen, which once again, he refused. In response, Praxton gave Kenton the golden mastrell's sash that had been Drile's. As he was explaining to Kenton that he is giving it to him out of spite, an arrow struck him in the chest, and hundreds of Kerztian warrior-priests attack the weakened Diem.
Due to the KaDo the Kerztians gained the upper hand in the fight, and were massacring the sand masters. Praxton was disabled for most of the fight as many of his fellow sand masters were being slaughtered. Praxton was able to recover enough for one final attack, and unleashed a massive wave of sand across the entire battlefield, indiscriminately targeting hundreds of combatants, friend and foe alike. Praxton was killed during this final attack, being struck by dozens of arrows, however his attack protected Kenton by burying him in sand and ended the battle.
During Kenton's duel with Drile, he remembered his fights with Praxton, and it inspired him, giving him the courage to rise again and fight back.
== Quotes ==
== Trivia ==
*In the original version of White Sand Volume 1, Praxton implies that he can slatrify, but this concept was removed from the Omnibus edition.
== Notes ==
Category: Taldaini
Category: Residents of Kezare