Arsibalt

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 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.
• Measuring the sky object: amid late‑night and garden‑side discussions, he presses for orderly analysis of a Praxic‑Age nuclear‑pulse ship design and helps peers quantify an observed object’s orbital change. He locates architectural drawings of the Mynster, refines the camera‑obscura geometry with the group, and contributes to a conclusion that the new inclination spans essentially all populated latitudes; he remarks that the most poleward major concent lies near that latitude, notably Saunt Edhar.
• Visible illumination of the Millenarian math by a red laser from aloft prompts him to reflect that he has been afraid of the wrong things, and he resumes work with renewed focus.
• Recent actions: after a tablet was buried as a precaution by peers, he quietly retrieved it and re‑hid it “safe and sound,” opting to disclose details later. He is subsequently Evoked during a nighttime Voco alongside many Tenners and Hundreders; issued plain clothing, a watch, and travel funds, he is instructed to depart under cover and proceed by ordinary means.

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; during a tense period he sits apart from the group at meals; later collaborates closely with Tulia and Barb during measuring and modeling sessions.
• 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). Under stress he can become visibly nervous and perspire heavily, keeping a wary eye on doors and windows when discretion is required. In this period he proposes that shared theoric forms in the Hylaean Theoric World might underwrite communication with unknown intelligences. After witnessing the red light on the Millenarian math, he remarks that he has often feared the wrong things.

Current Status/Location

Evoked overnight among a larger group; issued plain clothes and a knapsack. He is directed to travel discreetly in small groups toward the Concent of Saunt Tredegarh, avoiding display of bolt and chord while extramuros.