Jacob Willsworth

An unfinished sketch of Jacob

Jacob Willsworth was a scientist, researcher, and explorer approximately 400 years ago. He is not well-known, though not unknown in his field all these centuries later for his published writings on the cyclical nature of Zamana and of the Prime Material Plane. He was a traveling companion of Zephi Velhiri's, after she recruited him to search for the Orb of Universal Casting.

## Published Works

Excerpt from *On The Study Of Worlds: The Collective Journals Of Academic Jacob Willsworth Vol I*

> "I have begun to study our Prime Material Plane, and the ways in which it operates. How it flows between the other planes and how it functions as itself. From my laboratory on Nafrin, I have begun the study of our galaxy, plotting and charting it. I have been lucky to have been granted a place to stay with a local of this world, a man by the name of Gregor Tiberak. He has a large space for a man of such simple comforts and I suspect he may have waved my rent for the sheer enjoyment of some company in the evenings. While I work he enjoys staying by my side asking questions about what I think of the universe. It is somewhat distracting and I suspect he doesn’t understand much, but it is a gentle kindness nonetheless.
>
>
> But I digress, the study at hand. I have begun delving into the apparent size of our galaxy. At first I thought this a relatively simple question. Wildspace and the stars and planets which inhabit it take up a specific amount of space and anything beyond that is simply more and more stars with perhaps other small pockets of life but nothing of much consequence. Thus I began my research. Is space infinite or finite. So I began. I took a small slow little spelljammer and flew it from Valen out towards the black. After a number of days I began to see worlds. What shocked me was which worlds. I had landed on Tandor! This was incredibly peculiar. How had I gone on an undeviated course straight from one end of the galaxy and wound up on the other? Is our space so recursive? I repeated this test again and again and discovered over a few years this was just a fact of life. I began to speak with spelljammer captains and found that while many had tried this their luck had been the same. These stars one sees beyond the edges of our galaxy is but the light wrapping around from the other end. We are but looking into a mirror on every side and a mirror which can be treated like a portal to behind ourselves.
>
>
>
> The magics and science which govern this was my first concern. However something else has been uncovered in Magnica by some dwarves at the Department of Research. I will head there and discover what I can."
>
>

Published: 11,022ZY

The book goes on about the theory that the planes are recursive, that the Prime Material plane that we are on seems to be recursive, to the point where, should one head off from one end of Zamana, after enough time traveling, one would appear on the other side; Jacob does not believe this is it. He believes there must be something beyond that within the Prime Material plane, that there must be a way to leave Zamana and see what exists elsewhere. Jacob also wrote more about his time with Gregor TIberak, and his time on Nafrin.

## Billy's Gift/Jacob's Sacrifice

Before their journey, Billy Velhiri secretly gave Jacob a soul vice, with explicit instructions to use it to save Zephi if she got into a predicament she couldn't get out of. BIlly also told him that he expected if that happened, Jacob would do everything in his power to get back to her, and make sure she lived. Jacob wore the soul vice on a chain around his neck, and rarely took it off.

After finding a box containing the Orb on an abandoned spelljammer near Tandor, Zephi and Jacob accidentally set off a trap that triggered Power Word Kill. With only a split second to think, Jacob used the soul vice to lock Zephi away for 400 years.