Arthur Renwick

## Provost of St. Franz's College

*“We come from the water. The great… seas are the… Mother Earth. From them, all life has emerged… In them are… found the… protozoa which have engendered all… species. There is also a… sea of Spirit, from which… consciousness has emerged and evolved – although many might say that… this process has been the opposite of evolution… [W]e could say that, as the biological vehicle became more complex, the more the spiritual passenger lost awareness of its… source.”*

-Arthur Renwick

## History

*“We know one thing only. Absolute existence, absolute motion, absolute direction, absolute simultaneity, absolute truth, all such ideas: they have not, and never can have, any real meaning. If a man in delirium tremens fell a river he might remember the proverb and clutch at an imaginary straw. Words such as "truth" are like that straw. Confusion of thought is concealed, and its impotence denied, by the invention. This paragraph opened with "We know": yet, questioned, "we" make haste to deny the possibility of possessing, or even of defining, knowledge. What could be more certain to a parabola-philosopher that he could be approached in two ways, and two only? It would be indeed little less that the whole body of his knowledge, implied in the theory of his definition of himself, and confirmed by every single experience. He could receive impressions only be meeting A, or being caught up by B. Yet he would be wrong in an infinite number of ways. There are therefore Aleph-Zero possibilities that at any moment a man may find himself totally transformed. And it may be that our present dazzled bewilderment is due to our recognition of the existence of a new dimension of thought, which seems so "inscrutably infinite" and "absurd" and "immoral," etc. — because we have not studied it long enough to appreciate that its laws are identical with our own, though extended to new conceptions.”*

-Arthur Renwick

The founder, Provost Arthur Renwick of the college was a young man, around thirty, currently eighty. Also a high-ranking church member. From the Final Empire. He is a Reich appointee. Originally a man of the Reich, but has gone slightly mad, and is now lost in contemplation of eldritch truth. Once a marine biologist.

## Personality

*“The music of the spheres degenerates into a cacophony. At the end of the day all is madness. When it comes to the point, and regardless of all that has previously been defined, there is neither order nor reason. Whilst the Gods play games of madness, there is – in fact – no order at all.”*

-Arthur Renwick

Alone amongst the church fathers, Arthur Renwick believes in diversity of opinion. He was even willing to accept the Department of Munitions, who sought to kill the gods, so that no scholastic faction would be denied a place in St. Franz's College.

## War of the Philosopher-Kings

*“This ignorance of the Hyperboreans brought about terror and fear. And terror became dense like a fog, that no one was able to see. Because of this, error became strong. But it worked on its hylic substance vainly, because it did not know the truth. It was in a fashioned form while it was preparing, in power and in beauty, the equivalent of truth. This then, was not a humiliation for them, those illimitable, inconceivable ones. For they were as nothing, this terror and this forgetfulness and this figure of falsehood, whereas this established truth is unchanging, unperturbed and completely beautiful.”*

-Arthur Renwick

Renwick, a former marine biologist, knows much about Atlantis. He is canny enough to have put to the link between the fall of the monarchy and the end of the dream together, and to theorize the destruction of the Throne of Atlantis. He believes that mankind is destined for an age of the deep sea, where all are welcomed and all will be forever still. Mankind came from the water, and mankind must return to the water.

## After the War

*"When the King in Yellow speaks, all are compelled to listen. He never lies–everything he says is precise, exact, intolerable truth. He can speak in glorious poetry, and often uses pithy statements. Sometimes his voice reveals paradoxical mysteries or truths about the inner self. While the revelations he brings are horrifying, they cannot be denied. If the King asks a question of someone, his victim is compelled to answer truthfully to the King’s satisfaction. This is often done to expose an individual’s weakness or failings in front of his companions but is also useful to the King in determining what to do next."*

-Arthur Renwick

Renwick is the only man alive to have encountered the King in Yellow. He does not speak about the fact, and is content to let people assume Scaevola has actually met the deity, which is not the case. If actually pressed on the subject, he is inclined to state that the King is a "thespian god," and to talk with some irony about about how "majestic yet personable" the King is. To those he trusts, he will add that the King is aesthetically beautiful yet ethically invalid, and that before him all truth is laid bare. The encounter was a frightening experience.