Fraa Arsibalt

Fraa Arsibalt is a Tenner‑level avout within a Decenarian math at the Concent of Saunt Edhar. A peer of Fraa Erasmas, he serves on the small team that winds the great clock during Provener.

First Appearance and Context

Arsibalt is first noted among the Tenners preparing for the aut of Provener in the Mynster. Near the southwest Tenner corner, he is already robed while a peer sorts garments; when the rite begins, Arsibalt takes one of the four poles at the capstan‑like hub in the chancel, helping to set the meteorite weight in motion alongside teammates such as Fraa Lio.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

• Tenner in the Decenarian math at the concent; participates in daily timekeeping by winding the clock during Provener.
• Takes part in instruction sessions reviewing the iconographies under senior teachers before gate openings.
• During an Apert day, walks outside the walls en route to his pater’s basilica and is set upon by a group traveling by vehicle; returns to the Mynster with injuries and still pushes hard at Provener. Afterward he answers questions from Fraa Delrakhones, who holds a warden’s office concerned with the outward watch.
• States that he is trying to build a bridge between his father’s faith and the mathic world rather than abjuring it.

Relationships

• Peers: works closely with Fraa Erasmas and Fraa Lio on the winding team and in communal duties.
• Family: identifies himself as the bastard of the local Bazian arch‑prelate; he went to the basilica to learn whether his father would speak to him. On a later visit he reached the basilica unmolested, but his father refused to talk to him unless his purpose was to repent and be consecrated into the orthodox Bazian faith.
• Suur Tulia: she checked on him during the opening and asked a peer to go see him when he was brooding.
• Cord: he spoke admiringly of Cord and wondered whether she might be open to an Atlanian liaison.

Descriptions/Characteristics

Arsibalt is described as big and portly, deliberately cultivating a beard to look the part of an old fraa. He is methodical rather than vain; he wants things done right and prefers secure, correct wraps. He uses elevated, formal diction (e.g., “set upon,” “rapscallions”) and makes wry remarks about his “enormous” blood supply owing to his size. Around this time he is about nineteen years old and, when agitated, delivers long, structured paragraphs in Middle Orth with footnote‑like asides in Old and Proto‑Orth; he can be conspicuously brooding.

Current Status/Location

Active among the Tenners at the concent. During the current opening he ventured extramuros, suffered a nosebleed and bruising after an attack, then returned and contributed strongly at Provener; he has been interviewed by a warden and remains engaged in regular duties. He has also been seen brooding on a meadow boulder during the opening and was visited by a peer at Tulia’s prompting. On another day he reached the basilica without incident but did not meet with his father.