Balthazier
It's not arrogance if you really are that awesome.
Historical Relevance
Balthazier was the author of The Treatises Arcana, the definitive text on how magic works. See the Treatises Arcana article for more on his works.
Personality
Accounts of Balthazier do not agree on much, but they do agree on two things: he was brilliant, and he was exceedingly arrogant.
Personal History
Balthazier was born in 372 BEC as the son of a member of the Celestial Court, which at the time was the ruling body of The Vale of Cosmos. He proved prodigal: highly intelligent and talented at just about every pursuit.
In the fashion of Voldr nobility, his father saw him as a threat. Legend has it that, fearing his son's skill and ambition, his father hired assassins to kill him at age 15. However, Balthazier outsmarted and thwarted the assassins, then convinced them to turn on his father. The truth of actual events remains a mystery; however, it is known that his father died of suspicious circumstances, allowing Balthazier to ascend to the Celestial Court at the tender age of 15.
By age 18, he had proposed his project to write a treatise on magic as a single, unified force. However, he was not content with the resources available at the University of Obsidian, and thus set forth a plan to travel abroad in search of other cultures' takes on their own magic. His journey began in 353 BEC.
His first stop out of the Vale was Lumina, where the theocratic ruling body, the Kaelic Temple, were known to keep a vast library of their own. He approached the Order of the Knowledge Keepers. After a short stint where he was nearly tossed in the dungeon as a suspected Valean spy, the Knowledge Keepers agreed to grant him limited access to their library. As Balthazier was not fluent in either the local language (Plains) nor the language of the majority of their texts (Middle Kaelic), he was provided a translator by the Temple: Andow Tahat Sheyla, a 33-year-old linguist who, in Balthazier's own amused words, "took exception to babysitting some 19-year-old who thought he was a scholar."
The pair began developing a general theory on magic. However, after they were caught prying into the sacred archives without permission, the Temple de-robed Andow and exiled them both from Lumina.
The pair found solace in the Mukala West Territories, finishing their research in Ipse. Balthazier sent the finished book, titled Balthazier’s Treatise on Magic, to Obisidian for publishing in 350 BEC.
However, Balthazier was not content with just the one book and resolved to continue with his studies. He traveled through the Mekulet Kingdom, where he studied Mukala elemental channeling and Sheyla healing abilities. Treatise on Lifeforce was published in 348 BEC.
Balthazier returned to the Vale in 347 BEC, where he received feedback on his current treatises and proposed an entire series under the name The Treatises Arcana. He also nailed down Mukala magic and published the Treatise on Elemental Magic. The Voldrs were eager to see his work on Voldr magic, but scandel erupted when Balthazier told them flat-out that he did not trust them to be impartial. Balthazier left Obsidian soon after, in 345 BEC.
Balthazier headed north and encountered the Wights. He studied with them for four years that were his most prolific period: writing Treatise on the Sentient Mind, Treatise on Magical Theory, and Treatise on the Laws of Magic in this time. He credited the Wights for much of his progress, given their own comprehensive understanding of magic.
In 340 BEC, after a short check-in at the Vale, he headed east, across the Nebezni Wasteland. During this period, he discovered the ruins of the ancient Court of Esla, capital of the long-fallen Nebezni Empire, and penned the Treatise on Time and Prophecy.
After traveling through the Crimson Sands and Sol'cha, he arrived in Et'cha in 338 BEC. There, he studied local customs and penned the Treatise on Ritual Magic.
In 336, he crossed the Great Ocean for eastern Pele. He spent a few years there, penning the Treatise on Godstone. Letters received in the Vale indicated that he intended to rally a personal expedition to locate Ayala Tat for his next intended Treatise, Treatise on the Divines, but he disappeared in 332 BEC, presumed lost at sea.
Regarding his Relationship with Andow Tahat Sheyla
Balthazier's relationship with Andow is known to have been rocky at the beginning, considering they were both infamous in their own circles for being difficult to deal with--Balthazier for his arrogance, and Andow exhibiting a marked surliness and utter disinterest in other people, despite his specialty as a linguist. So, it was somewhat surprising to all who knew them when they didn't strangle one another... even moreso when Andow gave up his position at the Library of Tahayne to follow Balthazier across Estana.
Later accounts show that the pair did become quite close as colleagues, their working relationship improving both of them. In the baffled words of one of Balthazier's Celestial Court contemporaries: "I am not entirely certain what hidden magics this Sheyla must wield, but they truly must be as miraculous as the Lumanites claim if they have made Balthazier tolerable."
However, accounts not steeped in Valean culture give a different interpretation. The Et'en queen who hosted them in 338 BEC wrote in correspondence: "You would be hard-pressed to convince me they are anything but an old married couple. The bickering, the inside jokes, the way they circle one another like the two moons... and you try to tell me that they are mere coworkers? I'd sooner believe that monkeys can sprout wings and fly."
If they were, in fact, lovers, neither of them left any indication of it in their writings, but such a secret could easily have been deliberate. Given the taboo against homosexuality in Valean society and the political fickleness of their leadership, such a scandal would have stifled Valean support of future Treatises, endangering the project.
Whatever the case, the pair remain one of the few historical accounts of a Voldr and a Sheyla willingly and successfully working together for common cause. In later years, the divide between the two factions would become much more pronounced, to the point where such a good working relationship between a Knowledge Keeper and a member of the Celestial Court would be unlikely today.
Image: Balthazier applying a psychic block to Andow for Reasons. Hypothetically.
Ethnicity
Life
372 BEC
332 BEC
40 years old
Children
Hair
Black and sleek
- All That's Known from Spring Awakening
- Non-Stop from Hamilton (as performed by Andow as Burr)
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