It has come to light that the Palm is experimenting with implanting circuitry into human bodies so he can pass himself as human. On April 1, 2007, one of these human AIs was captured. The Palm is one of Merry's major opponents. As Abel Palm, he killed the person formerly known as CORE, a former teacher at Whateley Academy, and "dumped what was left... in the school’s network". He also made Palm Jackers, or Palmjackers, the ultimate hardware hacking tool. The Palms might have been written with the aid of magic rites.