Leo Calixte Desjardins

### Aliases

His Holiness Leo Calixtus I, Bishop of New Arendur, Vicar of the King in Yellow, Successor of the Apostles, Pontifex Maximus of the Church of Transcendental Theosophy, Primate of the North, Archbishop and Metropolitan of Terra Nova, Regent of New Arendur, and Servant of the Servants of the King, Prefect of the Council of Dogma, Cardinal

### Relatives

Casimir Desjardins (uncle), Calixte Desjardins (father)

### Affiliation

Council of Dogma, Church of Transcendental Theosophy, New Arendur, the Reich

## Pontiff Leo Calixtus I

*"Ah, so much is said about human want and misery - I seek to understand it, I have also had some acquaintance with it at close range; so much is said about wasted lives... If only the abstract idea of despair is considered, without any thought of someone in despair, it must be regarded as a surpassing excellence."*

-Leo Calixte Desjardins

## History

The Prefect of the Council of Dogma, Cardinal Leo Calixte Desjardins, is the second most powerful man in the Church, and wants to become Pontiff after Scaevola dies. A relatively young wood elf, he is feared because he could be Pontiff for centuries. In him are combined the worst traits of power-lust and blind, unquestioning zealotry.

He wishes that Encyclical No. 2 was never written, and is angry that the name Hastur was written down, that Scaevola called it “just a guideline,” and that other gods were even mentioned at all.

Like Scaevola, he has three names. He was born Calixte Desjardins, but won the cognomen Leo, which he puts at the front of his name instead of the end. Most of his family is deceased.

## Personality

*"We would be proud if no secret sorrow escapes our attention, no private sorrow were too coy and too proud for us to succeed in probing triumphantly into its innermost hiding-places! It needs a special eye to see it, a special glance to pursue this infallible index of a secret sorrow. Our passion is not indeed curiosity, but a sympathetic dread which searches hearts and hidden thoughts, evokes through magic and incantation what is secret, even what death has withheld from our gaze."*

-Leo Calixte Desjardins

It has been said that while priests of the King all go mad in the end, there was nothing in Leo Calixte Desjardins that was worth changing.

His enemies cannot trust animals, nor seek refuge on the other side of the grave, for he can speak to beasts and the dead. Conversely, he wears a blade on his finger coated in purple worm venom. It is not for others - for he has other ways to slaughter - but to take his own life should he need to preserve his own secrets. He does not immediately resort to killing, and prefers to keep his enemies in a state of fear. This is not to say that he will hesitate, but he prefers to begin with blackmail, bribery, and targeted violence to display his power. He will also hurt those that his foes love, often by turning them against their beloved and wielding their secrets against them.

## War of the Philosopher-Kings

Leo Calixte Desjardins was paranoid, controlling, and a little off his rocker even as a young man before becoming a priest. He left his home on the border of the Land of the Fey on a pilgrimage of discovery to New Arendur. He immediately fell in with a cult to the King in Yellow, where he lived a live of debauchery and aesthetic fulfillment.

## After the War

Desjardins underwent a crisis at some point, forswearing earthly pleasures and taking priestly vows. His blind hatred of blasphemers and zeal in prosecuting them catapulted him up the ranks of the Council of Dogma, until he became its head. Though he denies himself any worldly comforts, he uses his Gaze of Two Minds to vicariously experience the lives of others. In particular, he enjoys seeing through the eyes of those who have lost everything. He thinks of it as seeing a crack in someone's mask, a crack into their facade, allowing him to see their secret sorrows. Examples; a man returning home to find his family dead in a fire, a young girl being sold into prostitution, a captured spy about to be questioned by the enemy, etc. These are his favored spies, whose experiences he savors, they who have lost everything. He promises them that by virtue of the absurd, they will get everything back. And thus they are loyal to him. Gwendolyn Emerson was one such individual.

## The Great Awakening

*“Don't you know that a midnight hour comes when everyone has to take off his mask? Do you think life always lets itself be trifled with? Do you think you can sneak off a little before midnight to escape this?”*

-Leo Calixte Desjardins

In response to the dissolution of the Reich, the Arendurian Army would stage a coup, installing Cardinal Leo Calixte Desjardins as Pontiff. Under the Army's direction, the newly christened Pontiff Leo Calixtus would formally declare New Arendur to be an independent nation, and appoint Helga Answith as Warmaster.

Killed when the train pitches itself into the sea.

## Leo Calixtus' Curia

* Cardinal Secretary of State: Christopher Harrell
* Prefect of the Council of Dogma: Isaac Outterridge
* Prefect of the Magisterium: Gloria Landry