The Evil the Mage Faces

The life arc cycle indicates that this happily ever after is only true until a new antagonistic force interrupts the character's life in the form of a new lie. Within this model, the mage represents the fulfilment of the cycle and therefore an ultimate showdown with the single great antagonist. But if your character is to appear in realistic fiction or semi realistic fiction, then the evil he faces can be as realistically small as simply the potential corruption infecting the heart of one single being. This weakness is most poignantly obvious, not in the hearts of the mages enemies, but in the Hearts of those very youngsters he loves - whom he is about to leave behind.