Aniseph: Guardian of the Arcane Tower Library
By Lorekeeper Vaeryll Aistra in Flamerule, 22 177AR
In the year of 23 Before Reckoning, a young arcanist would wash up onto the shores of Cordor. This inexperienced wizard sought to find a place where he could practice and experiment with his wild magic without the prejudice of the mainland arcane community. This young wizard would come to be known infamously as Archmage Allestrius Thoramind the progenitor and creator of the Arcane Tower School of Magic.
Illustrious and talented as he was, however, Allestrius Thoramind did not build what he has today on his own. During the twilight of Thoramind’s years experimenting with wild magic, he met a gnome whose name has been lost to history. Despite that, this particular Gnome would come to be known as one of the most important people in Thoramind’s life. [1]
At first, the Gnome agreed to be Thoramind’s partner. An equal exchange was struck between them. Thoramind would share his secrets of portal travel and arcana with the Gnome. In exchange, the gnome would agree to participate in many of Thoramind’s experiments revolving around wild magic. This Gnome would help Thoramind actually participate in helping with the slow construction of Thoramind’s Arcane Tower within the Forest of Despair utilizing physical materials and wild magic.
While this construction included the use of wild magic experimentation in the process, Thoramind was not satisfied and conducted many separate experiments utilizing the chaos magic he obsessed over. This prolonged use of wild magic seeped into the soil of the Forest of Despair. After years within the soil of the forest, the wild magic’s effects began to evolve and irrevocably changed the forest. Because of the excess amount of wild magic in the soil, the trees and ground became semi-awakened. This awakened state would give the forest a semi-sentient intelligence. However, its evolution evolved in unpredictable, and negative, ways. [2]
During this time of extreme experimentation, the Gnome began to actively advertise and make promises to arcanists across the island in order to get support and attention for the Tower. Their Tower attracted many prospective students while it was being constructed. Arcanists began to flocked to the tower seeking to satiate their curiosity or seek opportunity to hone their craft. Thoramind would continue his experimentations which resulted in both rampant failures and successes. His experiments would quickly become the center of criticism and praise across the island, and the Arcane Tower became something more than it was meant to be. Eventually, one such group of arcanists led by Innatist Halen Van would take leadership control of the Tower. Thoramind would accept stepping back to administration duties in order to focus full time on his experimentation.
The Tower would now rise above the Forest of Despair’s treeline and the once single hall structure would become a nexus of multi-layered floors made up of the Arcane Art. The First Conclave would be formed under Halen Van’s direction and would consist of Halen Van, Shane Gramble, and Zoral Baenre. This first Conclave would import books from the mainland and create the Arcane Tower Library. [3][6]
Focusing his attention on his experiments fully, Thoramind would then conduct one final wild magic experiment with his dear friend, the Gnome. The point of the experiment was to create a new spell that would allow an arcanist to quickly absorb knowledge from books. The experiment was a terrible failure and it transformed the Gnome’s form permanently. [3] The Gnome’s body and soul would be transformed into an Ethereal Gyrosphinx. [2] Gyrosphinx are known as very knowledgeable and wise creatures that love to collect ancient lore and knowledge. They delight in solving riddles, puzzles, and mental challenges.
The Gnome, now an Ethereal Gyrosphinx, would become an entirely new being and would take on the name name: Aniseph. Because of the spell, Aniseph’s soul would be bound to all the books within the Tower’s library. He lived in a symbiotic state with the library, and was able to jump from book to book at will. Aniseph also simultaneously gained the knowledge contained in the library at the time of his transformation. Unable to revert to his previous form, Aniseph would become the guardian of the Arcane Tower Library. This would be Aniseph’s final experiment with Thoramind, though he remains close friends with Thoramind to this day. [3]
Thoramind would diminish his duties at the tower even further after this event and the Tower would be magically moved from the Forest to Cordor. He would simply only oversee micro-administration and simple trade, preferring to allow the active Conclave to lead the Tower instead. It is suggested that this was in direct result of what was colloquially referred to as the ‘Aniseph Experiment’, which was seen as a failure. Perhaps looking to turn the tide of gossip, Thoramind turned his attention to his newest young apprentice, Wesley. Wesley was a young Cordorian boy and Thoramind’s patient devotion to the boy earned many Cordorian’s cherished favor. He would go on to mentor many Cordorians to nobles and commoners alike. [4]
Because of Thoramind’s newfound popularity, the tale of Aniseph started to fade year after year until it had faded into history. The Library would be renamed to the Library of Aniseph to honor the Gnome. Although he is known to speak only in riddles, Aniseph would be called upon by the Conclaves of the Arcane Tower as a source of invaluable guidance, wisdom, and information.
The traditional name of the Library would persist past 40 AR. [5] While the true history of the name was lost over time, the name of the library was passed down from conclave to conclave until the final Conclave of Archmages was disbanded by one of Thoramind’s apprentices, Mila Brown.
While not much documentation exists today on Aniseph, he certainly still haunts the same halls of the Library of Aniseph within the Arcane Tower and is rumored to offer secret knowledge in exchange for solving his riddles and puzzles… Should you be able to get his attention.
- Reference Material:
[1] The Wild Spark of Thoramind
[2] On Nature: The Forest of Despair
[3] Arcane Tower History #2 - The Time of Seven Seals
[4] Arcane Tower History #3 - Quiet Embrace of the Pearl
[5] Conclave Announcement, 32 AR
[6] Life Essence Research - Oghma’s Copy by the Earthkin Arcanum