Hieroglyph-of-Oasis

The Sage of the Oasis was born Apshut to a Terrestrial family in [not Bexaue]. A clear genius, she was expected to exalt and carry on the honour of the line, and was educated by the Immaculates in expectation of this. However, the expected exaltation never came, and Apshut became dissatisfied with the contrast between theory and practice of the Realm satraps. Around the time of the exaltation of her younger brother, a many sided falling-out between her, her family and the Immaculate monks saw her leave the city for the Solarium.

Five years later, she restored the springs of that ancient manse to full strength and published Movements of the Mind of Creation under the name Hieroglyph-of-Oasis, a work in five books that began with broadly-agreed Immaculate philosophical precepts and went on to prove both the existence of a superior reason encompassing the elements, and the vulnerability of Dynastic government to scrutiny in this light. Its arguments were raw and not yet whole, but struck a chord, and the work was proscribed by the Immaculate Order and Apshut was disowned by her family, eliminating that name entirely.

In the twenty-five years since then the once moribund Solarium has slowly recovered as a centre of thought in opposition to the Realm and the Immaculates, buttressed by occasional publications or developments from Hieroglyph and her students and collaborators. The Immaculate Order has frowned on it for a long time, but their power is not hegemonic so far from the Blessed Isle, and there are rumours that once-Apshut's family still extend her some protection in Dynastic politics.

Five years ago, as the Realm was thrown into chaos, Hieroglyph was working on her new magnum opus, Cosmos in the Vision of the Absolute Eye. A work both more ambitious and more perfect than its predecessor, answering two decades of refutations and repudiating the Immaculate Hierarchy in favour of rule by Reason. The arguments of her detractors, sometimes seeming to have come from more-than-Terrestrial hands, were more than her mind could bear. Then as she stood before a fire with her manuscript in hand, in the twilight of a day of fruitless contemplation, her mind was struck by a golden flash of inspiration.

She finished the book that night. In the morning, a beatific figure alighted on her balcony in a flutter of white feathers, bearing tidings and warnings, and heralding the beginning of an intellectual explosion.

Name: Hieroglyph-of-Oasis

Exaltation: Solar

Caste: Twilight

Anima: Elaborate geometric diagrams

Supernality: Lore

Essence: 1

Limit Trigger: Being mistaken

Experience: 0/0 0/0

Attributes

Strength 2

Dexterity 3

Stamina 2

Charisma 2

Manipulation 3

Appearance 4

Perception 4

Intelligence 5

Wits 2

Abilities

Archery

Athletics 1

Awareness 1

Brawl 1

Bureaucracy 2

Craft (geomancy) 4

Dodge

Integrity 5

Investigation

Larceny

Linguistics 4

Lore (Solarium scholar) 5

Martial Arts (Crane) 3

Medicine 3

Melee

Occult 4

Performance 3

Presence 2

Resistance

Ride

Sail

Socialise 2

Stealth

Survival

Thrown

War

Specialities

Linguistics (scholarly)

Lore (philosophy)

Lore (magic)

Lore (natural science)

Vital Statistics

Essence: 13/13 (33/33)

Willpower: 7/7

Health

[ ] 0

[ ][ ] -1

[ ][ ] -2

[ ] -4

[ ] Incap

A bunch of random static values for physical and social combat

Charms

Integrity

Stubborn Boar Defence

Linguistics

Flowing Elegant Hand

Subtle Speech Method

Lore

Harmonious Academic Methodology

Bottomless Wellspring Approach

Lore-Inducing Concentration

Truth-Rendering Gaze

Prophet of Seventeen Cycles

God-King's Shrike

First Knowledge's Grace (eww)

Flowing Mind Prana

Legendary Scholar's Curriculum

Occult

Terrestrial Circle Sorcery

Crane Style

Empowering Justice Redirection

Fluttering Cry of Warning

Terrestrial Circle

Shaping ritual: Ifrit Pact?

Summon Elemental?

Merits and Intimacies

Merits

Contacts 3 (Intelligentsia)

As the mistress of the premier non-Immaculate centre of learning in the region, Hieroglyph has the ear of a wide range of correspondents and a roll of many former students.

Influence 3 (Mistress of the Verdant Solarium)

She also has access to the resources and connections of the Solarium itself, an oasis of dozens of scholars, hundreds of students, and thousands of merchants, soldiers, peasants and slaves sustained by its water and wealth.

Language 3 (Flametongue, Old Realm, High Realm, Dragontongue)

Manse 3 (Verdant Solarium)

Clear and sweet fountains feeding pools and hanging gardens, behind walls of glass and sandstone. A poolside resort school. The manse yields the Fountain-Summoning Stone.

Martial Artist 4

Mentor 2 (Maiden of White Feathers and Gold Touchstones, Crane divinity and martial arts tutor)

The divine crane who alighted in the Solarium when Hieroglyph exalted, already aware of her nature. She convinced Hieroglyph of the inevitability of violence and chaos in the coming age of sorrows, and has begun training her and her students in martial arts fit to blunt this.

Resources 3

The Solarium takes subscriptions from local notables eager to be seen sponsoring religion and learning, not to mention grateful former students and those who wish to prop up institutions independent of the Realm and its Immaculates. They also sell salt, manufactures and services produced in or near the Solarium, and tax trade that goes via the watering point.

Intimacies

The world is and must be ruled by reason

Verdant Solarium (dedication)

Uphold the truth

Knowledge is dangerous in the hands of the foolish

Immaculate Order (contempt)

Vinty (pedagogic affection)

Vinty (scholarly respect)

Vinty (scholarly opposition)

Order is beauty and beauty order

Violence is unseemly

Vashti (pedagogic affection)

Vashti (alarm)

Family (concealed affection)

Family (concealed resentment)

Former Solarium students (pedagogic affection)

Inventory

Fountain-Summoning Stone

This hearthstone is a dark oval emerald, cold and moist to the touch. If the Fountain-Summoning Stone is buried in the soil and left undisturbed for a short period (ranging from a minute in fertile riverlands to half an hour in the desert), it will presently spring back to the surface atop a gushing fountain of water, which persists until the sun rises and sets. The Fountain-Summoning Stone won’t operate anywhere that a spring couldn’t possibly appear, such as a balcony garden or in a barrel of soil aboard a ship.