Auteur

**Auteur** is a renegade Time Lord who originates from the *Faction Paradox* stories of Jacob Black and appears in *10,000 Dawns* as the antagonist of *White Canvas*.

In the original context of *Faction Paradox*, "Auteur" is a name taken by the 1980s *Doctor Who Magazine* comic character Astrolabus upon their initiation into the Faction following their apparent death in the comics; with Auteur's *10,000 Dawns* appearance set a significant time before he joined the Faction, the character has come to envelope Astrolabus' future *and* past.

## History

When Auteur was banished from the Homeworld for his beliefs, he left with his House cousin Gideon. They stayed close friends through several incarnations. She ruled planets, created wonders, and got away with defying everyone. She also developed a taste in brushes made from the hair of a Vo'lach Prime animal. Gideon eventually left Auteur to join Faction Paradox.

In her second-to-last incarnation, Auteur once prepared a ritual to bring the end of the War in Heaven by turning all of the 10,000 Dawns into fiction and harnessing its narrative weight. Knowing she would later join them, Auteur turned to Faction Paradox for help. After antagonising the Original Mammoths against the Dawns by planting on Gendar a Firmament crystal prophecy concerning the Mammoths' fall, Auteur stole a gauntlet from the Homeworld and used it to cut holes in reality big enough for the Mammoths' painted warriors to travel to the Dawns and freeze them in time. To fulfill the prophecy, Auteur arranged for the gauntlet to become stuck to Graelyn Scythes. Disguised as an emissary of the Great Houses, Auteur met Graelyn and Archimedes Von Ahnerabe and took them from the Dawns to the home of the Mammoths; joined by Aesculapius and Coloth along the way. Auteur's ritual became basically complete when Graelyn confronted Taranis, and everyone present began fictionalising. However, Graelyn prevented the ritual's completion by ensuring that her own story wasn't complete, leaving her the last survivor of the 10,000 Dawns.

Refusing to give up on the ritual, Auteur decided to create a suburban Town in the White Canvas to raise Graelyn (who had reverted in age to a baby) and get Graelyn to write down the end of her story and complete the ritual. Along with being mayor of this Town, Auteur acted as a surrogate parent to Graelyn, growing attached to her. She created F.I.D.O to act as a friend to Graelyn. Once Graelyn was older, Auteur attempted to make Graelyn finish writing her story by becoming her art therapist. As the years passed on, members of Faction Paradox such as Gideon and Mullion began arguing with Auteur that her Town was a waste of Faction resources. Decades after her work on the ritual began, Auteur gave up on tricking Graelyn and decided to make a deal. Agreeing to fictionalise her own universe before fictionalising Graelyn, Auteur accidentally made her past and future selves fiction and thus also herself. The only real person left, Graelyn used the gauntlet to undo everything Auteur had done.

The Christmas Needle Agreement was negotiated in the wake of Auteur's scheme. Back where she was before the ritual started, F.I.D.O suspected Auteur would destroy herself trying to find another place like the White Canvas. (*White Canvas*)

Auteur's next and final incarnation, Astrolabus, attempted to cheat death by stealing star charts from Voyager, (*Voyager*) With the charts tattooed to his skin, Auteur tried to hide in a small slice of reality but was found by Voyager and flayed. (*Once Upon a Time-Lord*) Graelyn Scythes and F.I.D.O came to Auteur as he was dying and saved him by contacting Faction Paradox. (*White Canvas*)