Markus Ralian

Markus Ralian is an intelligent crime boss and Fagin's right-hand man. He grew up in the Gutter with a drug-addicted musician of a father. His father killed his mother when he was very young, and Ralian always wanted to kill his father as a result. His father remarried; Ralian's step-siblings are a brother named Gary and a sister named Geena. Gary and Geena both became drug addicts; Geena paid for her drug habit with prostitution.

Ralian started his criminal career after several colleges refused his applications, despite his high marks. He became a drug runner for Orphy Jones. Unfortunately, Jones would not follow Ralian's advice, and was murdered by "Grin", a rival drug dealer. Grin's chief lieutenant was Fagin. Ralian found himself working for Grin and later Fagin himself.

Ralian learned to be loyal to criminals in positions of power above him; that was how he survived. He became Fagin's right-hand man and gained a considerable amount of power. He liked ordering people like Tyrus Fallit around. With his new-found power and wealth, he was able to break Geena's drug habit. She became his chief lieutenant.

Unfortunately, Ralian could not enjoy being Fagin's lieutenant; Fagin had a habit of threatening him, not explaining the reasoning behind seemingly crazy orders and generally made his life miserable. When Nova first met him, the thoughts of him wanting to kill Fagin were clear in his mind (even though he once thought Fagin was a "good" boss).

Ralian was slender and much smaller than Tyrus. He often sings at the Firefly Club (which apparently he can't stop himself from doing and couldn't keep secret; it's a source of embarrassment for him).

After Fagin started going crazy, Ralian tracked down information on the psi-screen that Fagin constantly wore. He discovered that wearing it for more than twelve hours caused memory loss, and Fagin had been wearing it for six months straight. He resolved to separate Fagin from his device, a difficult proposition at best. He discovered that Fagin really was suffering from memory loss, but could not convince Fagin of this.

When Malcolm Kelerchian and the Annihilators visited Fagin's headquarters, Nova used her powers to force Ralian to shoot Fagin several times in the back, killing him. Nova knew that he could never kill Fagin on his own. Unfortunately, the Annihilators stormed the compound, causing it to collapse on Ralian and kill him.