Figulus Gnaeus

2699 – Born

2708 – Crossroads Warlock kills F.G.’s younger brother and father. Mother and son flee for their lives, and would surely have perished if not for the intervention of the Gray Walker.

2709 – Finally convinces the Gray Walker to take him on as an apprentice, after many trials and a near-death risk to force his attention.

2711 – Works Will for the first time successfully.

2714 – Strikes off on his own, now in his 15th winter.

2715 – Meets Drusa, in her 14th winter at the time. After initially mistrusting her abilities as being too similar to the Crossroads Warlock’s, the two become inseparable.

2716 – The first Child of the Crimson to enter F.G’s life appears; his name is B’anya (“Quiet”). His mission, ordained from his creator Ateel, is to defile the sacred texts of the Northern Order of Quaylithon. After much sacrifice and bloodshed, the mission is stymied, with F. G. and Drusa ultimately forced to destroy B’anya after being unable to free in from his creator’s control.

2715-2717 – The pair roam far and wide, having many adventures together. This includes early trouble with the School of Mysteries, which is where all Will-workers are trained. The head of the School, and particularly paranoid man named Janus, undertakes to kill the young Will-working and his companion via a small army of agents, spies, and would-be assassins.

2718 – A vengeful F.G. confronts the Crossroads Warlock, resulting in both himself and Drusa avoiding death by mere inches. Drusa is furious at his actions and leaves.

2720 – Meets and already hellraising Publia, who is all of 11-years-old! Despite his best effort, F.G. can’t seem to get rid of her, and resigns himself to a new traveling companion.

2721 – Travels back to his ailing master, the Gray Walker. An older apprentice named Claudius resurfaces, at first feigning care for their elderly mentor. He quickly reveals himself, smothering the Walker with a pillow and then immediately attempting to murder F.G. Publia is badly injured in the ensuring battle. Enraged, F.G. uses his Grimoire as a bomb to incinerate Claudius. He then claimes the walker’s gear as his own, although he abandon’s the tower that was the Walker’s home, and where he first learned to work Will.

2722 – Word reaches F.G. that Drusa is on trial for “witchcraft”. Hastening to the town of Visium on the Kogi River, he hatches a plot to free her, using Publia’s unique talents as a Sin-Eater. In a devestating pre-dawn raid on the town’s dungeon, he and Publia successfully free Drusa.

2722-2724 – Just like “old times”, except with Publia. Their youngest member nearly stays in the fishing village of Vita, in order to wed a young man there. However, Publia leaves at the last minute, technically now married(!), to rejoin the others. She has no intention of going back.

2725 – After yet another saga filled with harrowing events, F.G. asks Drusa to wed. She joyously agrees, and in a small ceremony inside the Gray Walker’s still-standing tower they are joined. Publia begs F.G. to come with her instead before the event, which he declines as gently as his rough-around-the-edges self allows. Broken-hearted, Publia leaves in the night, already a skilled and dangerous Sin-Eater at 16 winters of age.

2726 – Drusilla, the daughter of F.G. and Drusa, is born! F.G. helps found the town of Spes (“Hope” in Old Speak) west of the Kogi River, which he and Drusa intend to make their permanent home.

2728-2730 – Aak’ri (“Sorrow”) the second Child of the Crimson of F.G.’s career, surfaces. Her mission, to retrieve the Vespertine Codex, sparks a continent-wide war between various factions of Will-workers. Perhaps the most noteable of these are the formidable Death Tamers, who originate in the Emirates and view the Vespertine Codex not only as a necromantic artifact but also a sacred text.

2730 – The Shadow War, largely conducted out of the sight and under the noses of non-Chosen, comes to an end when F.G. defeats Sargon Deathtamer in personal combat. Barely breathing after the titanic clash, F.G. is unable to prevent Sargon’s surviving faction from procuring the Codex – except that the artifact has mysteriously vanished! Many years later, F.G. learns that Publia kept track of the Shadow War closely enough to steal the Codex amidst all the fighting, secreting it away in parts unknown.

2732 – Drusa and F.G.’s 2nd child is born, a healthy baby boy named (naturally) Figillus. His nickname is “Gill”.

2733 – Serious assassination attempt by an aging Rector Janus.

2736 – The 3rd Child of the Crimson surfaces, D’alyo (“Slave”). By the end of a horrific series of events both Drusa and little Figillus are dead, slain by Ateel’s reconstituted “lieutenant”, Lord Qiarsee. Spes, the town that F.G. and Drusa helped found, is also laid waste during Qiarsee’s rampage. Publia saves Drusilla’s life in the face of the utter destruction Qiarsee embodies. F.G. is once more forced to flee with his surviving daughter, only Lord Qiarsee’s still-limited geographical scope allowing them to avoid extermination.

2737-2754 – This begins F.G.’s obsessive period of attempting to forge into being an Act of Will capable of destroying, or at least contenting with, Lord Qiarsee or even Ateel Himself. His relationship with Drusilla suffers as he neglects all else in his life. He quarrels often with Publia, who adopts a big-sister role with Drusilla, over this neglect and many other matters.

2756 – The 4th Child of the Crimson to encounter F.G. appears: Leile (“Love”). This quickly becomes a complicated affair even by his standards, involving 3 different cities, a further Will-worker going by the alias of Ali and his older brother, the venerable Ganjavi Theater, and a prince of the Emirates named Kioumars. It ends with Leile choosing freedom over survival, throwing herself from one of the domes of the Theater despite being deeply in love with the young Will-worker Ali, and he deliriously so with her. Blind with grief, Ali attempts to kill Prince Kioumars, being slain in the process. This act of defiance against the hated prince nearly brings the cities of Arbela and Pasargadea into open war with one another; civil war in the Emirates is narrowly avoided.

2757 – A grim F.G. travels with a reluctant Publia to the critical location of Crystal Rememberance. The archmagus is hellbent on ending the cycles of preordained tragedy that the god Ateel has wrought. Arriving there, he begins to weave the newly-created Act of ZED. Ateel himself appears, unable to directly interfere within Crystal Remembrance but nonetheless attempting to cajole Figulus Gnaeus into abandoning his course of action. Toward this end, he offers all manner of inducements, including restoring Drusa and Figillus to life! Ateel attempting to cajole Figulus Gnaeus into abandoning his course of action. Toward this end, he summons their spirits to beg and plead with their husband/father to bring them back. Sobbing wildly, Figulus Gnaeus then must focus beyond anything he’s ever achieved in his entire long, remarkable career. He enacts ZED in the heart of Crystal Remembrance, thus leveraging the power of the already-formidable Act orders of magnitude over. The archmagus successfullly reweaves part of Creation, and forever breaks Ateel’s grip over the Children of the Crimson. From this point on, no matter Ateel’s machinations, the Children will have the freedom to choose their own fates. The God of Twisted Love vows to not only destroy this uppity mortal, but to *break* him.

2763 – Takes up residence just outside Juramentum’s walls. He does not entertain visitors.

2767 – Figulus Gnaeus’ behavior changes somewhat for unknown reasons. Titus Cornelius goes out to see him from time to time.

2773 – Takes on a young girl named Catryn as an apprentice.