Arsibalt

Overview

Fraa (male monastic title) Arsibalt is a Tenner (ten-year vow) from Saunt Edhar and a close peer of Fraa Erasmas. During a Peregrin (sanctioned travel), he joins a small contingent detouring toward Bly's Butte to look for Orolo before continuing on. On the road he travels alongside a senior elder, Fraa Jad, and engages in extended exchanges about Sconic thought with the driver Ferman Beller while accepting hospitality at a monastery associated with Bazian Orthodox.

Appearance and Traits

• Formal diction and careful distinctions; prefers to separate observation from conjecture.
• Methodical and courteous; when uneasy he becomes extra polite. He is described as prone to motion sickness and sometimes shifts seats to steady himself.
• Comfortable in Orth (mathic language) and Fluccish (vernacular) when needed, and eager to sketch arguments or calcas (didactic parables) to make abstract points clear.
• In Erasmas's recollection during a hazardous moment, he imagines Arsibalt remarking "Just enough to read by!" about dim light—presented as Erasmas's remembered voice rather than a direct quote from the scene.

Roles and Actions

• Navigation and route finding: provides a profile sketch of distant peaks used with a cartabla (folding map) and historical clues to identify candidate mountains forming a triangle around the area of interest; helps set expectations about road conditions and timing; concurs with a plan to lodge nearby and start early.
• Sconic explanations: outlines the "Sconic Discipline" as a third way between naive realism and radical skepticism, arguing that some topics (for example, a non spatiotemporal deity) are outside what pure thought can settle. He is expressly cited as explaining the "Fly, the Bat, and the Worm" parable to an extra (outsider) who asked about God; the framing emphasizes limits of method rather than a doctrinal claim.
• Teaching by parable (calca): presents "The Fly, the Bat, and the Worm," in which differently sensing creatures converge on a shared language of geometry and time; extends the idea to how human minds integrate senses into a coherent model of the world.
• Analytical caution: in a calca run with Hundreders (century vowed scholars), notes that a large icosahedral craft seems too small to carry the propulsion needed for interstellar speeds given its apparent mass, proposing as a hypothesis that the visitors or the craft might be from another cosmos. He ties this to interest in metatheoricians who address cross cosmos questions (the suggestion is framed as his speculation, not established fact).
• Community tact: accepts books from the monastery on behalf of the group and gives a gracious acknowledgment.
• Samble and Bly's Butte approach: present at Estemard's summit dwelling; on the patio outside Orolo's cell he signals to Erasmas that Estemard has become a Deolater (devotee of deity); joins the group for the town's picnic before departure.
• Parting from the detour party: after the Samble picnic, Erasmas departs north and notes parting from Arsibalt and Lio; Arsibalt does not accompany that detour.
• Lore source (recalled): Erasmas remembers hearing—probably from Arsibalt—that an order established a small math on Ecba to excavate the buried Temple of Orithena; at the time he had assumed it was only a few eccentrics with hand tools.
• Message route to Ala (implied): Erasmas later regrets not entrusting Arsibalt (or Lio) with a note at the Samble picnic that could have been smuggled directly to Ala, suggesting Arsibalt had a means to reach her that bypassed ordinary post.
• Position in debate (recalled): in a peer discussion about how minds evaluate possible futures (illustrated with a "pink dragon" hypothetical), Arsibalt is the one said to have objected to dismissing a richly modeled approach; this stance is attributed to his having been reading Fraa Paphlagon around the time that Paphlagon was Evoked (summoned out of the cloister).

Relationships

• Fraa Erasmas: peer, travel companion, and frequent collaborator during planning and on the road discussions.
• Fraa Jad: present elder whose remarks and presence shape the level of caution and inference Arsibalt adopts; he is specifically named as accompanying Erasmas, Arsibalt, and Lio to Bly's Butte.
• Ferman Beller: primary interlocutor for Sconic discussions during the drive; Arsibalt uses parable and careful framing to bridge outlooks.
• Sammann (Ita—technical order): Arsibalt is described as unfailingly polite around him, signaling some discomfort even as the group cooperates.
• Lio and other peers: participates in walking debates and calcas; shares concerns about practical risks while keeping an abstract lens handy.
• Fraa Paphlagon: cited as a key reading influence for Arsibalt following Paphlagon's Evocation; that reading is mentioned as informing Arsibalt's side of later debate.
• Ala (indirect): referenced when Erasmas considers that Arsibalt could have conveyed a private note to her via informal channels.

Current Status

Not currently traveling with Erasmas's small detour north; last referenced at Samble around the village picnic when Erasmas notes parting from Arsibalt and Lio. He is subsequently mentioned indirectly as the likely source of the Ecba excavation story and as a potential courier for a private note to Ala. His precise whereabouts after the parting are not specified. Erasmas believes that Lio, Arsibalt, and others likely reached the Concent of Saunt Tredegarh in less than a week; this is presented as his assumption rather than confirmed fact.