Cansrel is the father of Fire. He served as the advisor to King Nax. His insanity influenced the king, which was detrimental to the Dells. Cansrel's cruelty and insanity is said to have been caused by drug abuse. He is killed in Fire when his daughter, Fire, uses mind control to convince him that he has a child locked in a cage which actually contains a pet monster predator that he has been tormenting for years. The pet attacks him and he dies.
He gave Fire her fiddle.
History
Cansrel's father was the monster advisor to Nax's father, so he and Nax grew up together. Cansrel took advantage of their early time together to get himself firmly into Nax's head, and by the time Nax became king, he was fully in Cansrel's thrall. Cansrel and Nax engaged in various vices for their own pleasure, including philandering, drinking, and drug abuse, and while Nax was sedated, it was never enough for Cansrel, who even under the influence could hold himself well.
Lords began to withdraw support from Nax's reign and civil wars broke out within the Dells. Cansrel was pleased, seeing the destruction and chaos as entertaining; he had always enjoyed using his powers to break things. In all the fun, he forgot to kill Jessa, one of the palace servants he'd impregnated. When she gave birth, Cansrel went to see the baby, and was enchanted with Fire. He brought her to his personal northern estate, giving her to the steward, Donal, with instructions to raise her.
He visited her often, encouraging her to use her mental powers against the servants, neighbors, and animals. He was fiercely overprotective of her, to the point of killing her dog when it nipped her. As the political situation worsened, however, the gap between his visits lengthened, but so did the time he spent at the estate with Fire.
Character
Personality
Cansrel was twisted and insane. He kept a menagerie of monsters, whom he purposely underfed. He would then walk among their cages with his hair uncovered and scraping his skin so that he was beaded with blood and the monsters were screaming for his flesh. He reveled in the sway he held over others. All Cansrel was ever interested in was his own pleasure.
He was ruthless. He raped women he couldn't seduce, and those who became pregnant he killed, not wanting a monster child to undermine his power.
But when Jessa gave birth to Fire, he was enchanted by the baby and she became the one truly happy thing in his life. He was very protective of her and spending time with her gave him temporary happiness and contentment, but she could never change him permanently- his mind was slippery and hard to grab hold of, and was too dark to be changed permentally.