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 works on the small team that winds the great clock during Provener and is noted for precise, formal habits.

First Appearance and Context

Arsibalt is first seen among the Tenners preparing for the aut of Provener in the Mynster, taking a position at the capstan to help set the meteorite weight in motion.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

• Tenner duties: supports daily timekeeping by winding the clock during Provener; helps with communal logistics such as setting up the Apert supper; in services, he has identified visiting hierarchs by their attire and remains attentive to outward watch concerns.
• During Eliger, he chooses the Reformed Old Faanians and serves in their communal tasks.
• Spends long stretches at Shuf’s Dowment, an ivy‑covered retreat used by his order. There he explores the reclaimed cellars using old floor‑plans, pickaxe, and shovel, seeking a rumored vaulted sub‑basement once tied to Shuf’s Lineage; part of the aim is to dispel rumors that the ROF maintain hidden treasure by documenting what actually remains.
• Establishes a discreet viewing space in a cramped sub‑cellar: opens a rusted floor plate, rigs a cut‑down step‑ladder, and lays a tarp to mitigate damp. He accepts a photomnemonic tablet concealed in a hollowed book, briefly examines it, and reports routine maintenance at Clesthyra’s Eye by an Ita cleaner (who retrieved a stray dust cover), then leaves nighttime observations to Erasmas.
• Uses unobtrusive signals to coordinate access to the hide: the orientation of books in an upstairs window and whether the cellar door is left ajar.
• In discussions after a peer’s removal from the concent, he urges fidelity to the Discipline while assisting in careful, private review of evidence.
• Ongoing studies: works through the metatheorical writings of Fraa Paphlagon, framing discussions of the Hylaean Theoric World and polycosmic ideas for peers; he suggests that their mentor Fraa Orolo nudged them toward these topics, while urging caution about conjectures and deferring speculation until Suur Tulia has evidence.
• Dowment access: after inviting broad use of the Dowment, he notes that it has become busy enough at times to interfere with quiet work there.

Relationships

• Peers: works closely with Erasmas and Lio on the winding team and at the Dowment; debates analytic points with Jesry and others; invites Erasmas to visit him at the retreat.
• Family: identifies himself as the bastard of the local Bazian arch‑prelate; later reports that the prelate refused to meet him except for repentance and consecration into the orthodox faith.
• Perceptions: becomes the subject of rumors that his order choice was linked to politicking during the Eliger; presented in‑text as speculation by others rather than established fact.

Descriptions/Characteristics

Big and portly, with the strong frame of an ox beneath his fat; cultivates a beard to look older. Methodical and propriety‑minded, he favors secure, proper wraps, clears his throat to signal formality, and uses elevated diction (e.g., “set upon,” “rapscallions”). He can redden when provoked but strives for correctness and hostly duty. He enjoys rigorous, formal reasoning in everyday talk, readily invoking classical theorics; outside duties, he experiments with beekeeping (seasonal and mostly indoor at this time). He is not a woodworker and shows limited aptitude with repairs, seen fussing with beehive frames and the wrong tool while thinking about other matters.

Current Status/Location

Active among the Tenners at the concent; affiliated with the ROF. He frequently works at Shuf’s Dowment, explores its cellars, and maintains the sub‑cellar hide used for controlled, discreet study, while continuing routine communal duties.