Christopher Wolfe

**Christopher Wolfe** is a disgraced Scholar and the teacher of Jess Brightwell's class of postulates.

## Biography

### Early Life

Christopher was born in the Iron Tower, and his mother, Keria Morning, broke the Library's rules by keeping him with her despite him not being an Obscurist past the age of six, until he was ten. At that point, he was raised in the Great Library's orphanage, educated at the Alexandria University, and then trained in the Archives. He became a full on Scholar of the Great Library at the age of fifteen. Three years later, Wolfe has published no less than ten highly valued technical works, gathered awards, and been granted a fine position inside the Alexandria Lighthouse as a researcher.

Living in the Iron Tower with his mother, he hardly knew his father, Eskander Pallis. He learned rhetoric at his mother's side. She set him on an ambitious course of study that revolved around engineering, chemistry, physics, and classical theory and literature. While growing up in the Library's orphanage, Christopher was forced to become his new name, Wolfe. He frequently got into fights while still managing to learn all that he could. He was ruthlessly drilled in every class he took. He never wrote his mother after being forced from the Iron Tower as he felt like she had essentially orphaned him. She has sent him notes throughout his life, such as when he was accepted to Ptolemy House and upon his commission as a Scholar, but he has never replied, wanting nothing to do with her. After completing his year as a postulant, Wolfe became a Research Scholar as part of the Great Library of Alexandria.

Wolfe is on probation after a lengthy stint in the Library's prison for inventing the printing press, which the Library's leaders see as a threat to their power and control. Only his mother's position in the upper ranks of the Library saved him from being executed. According to Niccolo Santi, before Wolfe's imprisonment, everyone believed he was going to become the next Artifex Magnus or even the next Archivist Magister. After he was taken by the Library, it was more than a year before Wolfe returned. It was the middle of the night and "He looked like he'd crawled out of hell." The Library destroyed his research and personal journals. There are no citations for him on the Codex despite the fact he wrote hundreds of works before he presented his printing press to the Archivist. Santi describes him as a walking ghost.

### *Stormcrow*

Wolfe has just recently been made a Research Scholar. He is eighteen years old. He is sent to the Moscow Serapeum. A company of High Garda soldiers is sent with him, under the command of Captain Nghiem. A member of this company is Lieutenant Niccolo Santi. Captain Nghiem dies protecting Wolfe from Burners. Her death wakes up Wolfe to the reality about the dangers of being a Research Scholar. Her replacement is Sergeant Vickers, who assists Wolfe in the mission.

### *Ink and Bone*

Scholar Wolfe has been assigned to teach the 2031 class of postulates as punishment. He lives with his long time partner Niccolo Santi in the captain's lodgings in the High Garda compound. He is harsh, demanding, and ruthless teacher. Of the thirty-two postulants who arrive with Jess, twelve are dismissed within the first seven days.

He and Santi know perfectly well that Morgan Hault is an Obscurist, and Jess comes from a family of smugglers, but they keep quiet about it anyway.

Wolfe reveals to Santi and Jess that after he was arrested, as part of the new interdictions, there are ranks of automata in the Iron Tower reading every word as it's written in every personal journal. The Library uses this as a way to spy on essentially every person in the world because the public doesn't know and still believes that personal diaries are kept secret until a person's death.

### *Paper and Fire*

Jess and Glain Wathen come across Wolfe during an unexpected training exercise. The trio realizes that the point of the exercise is to kill Wolfe in an "accident."

## Physical Description

Wolfe has dark, shoulder-length hair that he wears swept back in a mane. He begins to have gray in his hair. His face is fiercely intelligent. He has narrow dark eyes and nut-brown skin. He frequently looks dark, dangerous, and impatient. He wears the black Scholar's robes and has a gleaming gold band on his wrist. It's chased with elegant hieroglyphs and the Library seal. His Scholar's robes are made of a liquidly flowing silk.

## Personality

Wolfe is bitter, cynical, and enigmatic. He is still dealing with the trauma he suffered while being imprisoned for inventing the printing press. He cares deeply for those he loves, and the Library keeps him under their control by continually threatening them. He is often angry, but never loud. He's a "barbed puzzle." Wolfe is a natural and voracious reader. He is curious and always wants to know more. He's not a kind man or a natural teacher; he was assigned the position as punishment. He is a merciless taskmaster. He is prone to sarcastic asides, and his humor verges on cruel. Wolfe is an intense person. He displays a strong paternal instinct when his students are threatened. Over time, his paternalistic relationships with his students leads to his cynicism fading bit by bit. He shows undying loyalty to his students and to Santi. Wolfe presents nothing but bitter strength to the world. He goes out of his way to seem as hard and uncaring as possible.

As a child, Wolfe became a smart, canny, savage creature. He didn't seek out a pack, content on his own. He dedicated himself to the task set by his mother, to learn. As a young man, Wolfe is arrogant and utterly secure in his own importance. He believes he understands the world in all its complexity. His first assignment outside Alexandria quickly dispels him of this notion. Wolfe hates not understanding, ignorance is the one thing he dreads. Before his imprisonment, Wolfe was everything the Library wants, someone brave, brilliant, intuitive, and dedicated. But he also had an imagination, something the Library doesn't want.

## Relationships

### Niccolo Santi

Upon first meeting Santi, Wolfe finds himself experiencing what he describes as a "tidal pull, a compass pointing north. As if he was seeing a familiar shore after a long, long journey." Nic makes Chris stop arguing and simply listen.

## Trivia

* Wolfe wrote a text called *On Press-Printing: A New Beginning*. It was submitted to the Artifex Magnus for peer review, who sent it to the Black Archives and imprisoned Wolfe.
* As a Scholar, Wolfe speaks multiple languages, including English, Greek, and Russian. His Greek is excellent as he'd grown up speaking it in Alexandria.
* He was never given a last name because inside the Iron Tower he didn't need one. Once in the orphanage, he was assigned a last name, which was Wolfe.
* Oxford is his tenth war zone.