Foundation and Empire

1952

Part I: Search for Magicians.

After the events chronicled in Foundation where the Foundation has established itself as the major economic power on the periphery, the Empire, still strong in the central regions of the Galaxy, takes note of this growing power after the Korrellians fall to it's economic might.

Fearing the apparently overwhelming strength of the Empire, those on the Foundation who really ran things send out a free trader to see what he can do to disrupt the oncoming flood. With the assistance of another prisoner of the Imperial forces, Latham Deevers runs to the centre of the Empire itself!

Who would win? The overwhelming physical might of the Empire or the technical expertise of the Foundation? Can our plucky agents force the Emperor to act against the most popular of his generals, or are there forces in action behind the scenes?

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Part II: The Mule. With the power of the Empire successfully deflected, the Foundation enters a period of stagnation with power slipping into the hands of a rich oligarchy. An underground based on the free traders and sympathetic forces within the Foundation itself considers civil war, but when they hear of a uncannily successful new warlord, the Galaxy is plunged into a new type of war, for this warlord is called the Mule and those who meet him don't come away unchanged.

Having fled the Foundation ahead of arrest as subversives, Bayta and her new husband Toran retreat to his home world of Haven from where they are induced to find out the truth about the Mule. After helping his clown escape, they are forced into a galaxywide odyssey after first Terminus, then the free traders fall to his forces.

After hearing of a Second Foundation, the fleeing rebels find their way to Trantor, or it's twisted remnants after sack and rebirth. Here they hoped to find a clue to the location of this mysterious new Foundation, but the psychologist undertaking the research is killed before he can give the location away to the Foundation's Enemy.

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