Lucien Bach

**Lucien Bach** is a Breton scholar and polymath, and a member of both the Breton Society of Historians and the Esoteric Order of Erudition. He belongs to the middling House of Bach, which holds minor offices and territories across High Rock.

Though he was born in Wayrest, Lucien could be said to be entirely of Daggerfallian and Silverman stock. His father, Martin Bach, was the second son of Count Alain Bach; a feudal lord in the Kingdom of Silverspire. His mother, Anne Canet, came from a Daggerfallian line of knights and ennobled merchants.

By fortune of birth into a well-to-do family, his father’s wealth largely in inherited business, Bach received an exceptional education. He studied under a number of famed scholars as both a student and an aide, learning all manner of things. He would also serve a short-lived apprenticeship in his uncle’s spice company, finding less interest in the mercantile.

Though his mother made plans for him to join the Mages Guild, Lucien showed little magical talent. He would instead matriculate to the University of Gildencrest, spending a number of years there. Though chiefly funded by his father and uncle, Bach found work as a clerk in the university. He would later graduate, having primarily read law. During his time as a student of the university, he would also study history: a subject for which he would develop a great passion.

Following his graduation, Lucien returned to the city of Wayrest, and there joined the Wayrestian Society of Chroniclers (which would later become the Breton Society of Historians). Though he found little paid work, the society introduced Bach to a number of historians and chroniclers, under whose mentorship he would learn much. His meagre lifestyle, most abnormal for a man of his familial background, would mean few expenses and fewer distractions. It was in these years that he was considered most eccentric, fascinated by, and seeking to emulate, scholars of old.

It would be only a short time after joining the *WSoC* that Lucien was approached by a member of the Esoteric Order of Erudition: a highly secretive clique of knowledge-seekers. Though not all was explained, the motives of the order were described as the pursuit and preservation of knowledge where others refused to look. Lucien would accept the order’s invitation, formally joining in a ritual ceremony some days later.

Lucien would begin his first work in 2E 541: a short guide to the chronicles of Wayrest, including detailed accounts, reviews, and analyses. The guide was only half-successful, in that it did not half far-reaching appeal, and few copies would be produced. Two years later, he would write a narrative report on Durcorach’s Invasion of High Rock, though this would not be published for another six years. He would also write part of a proposed legal code, alongside a number of experienced Wayrestian lawyers.

With the death of his father, Bach searched for work as a lawyer, becoming both an advisor and an advocate. In the year following his entrance into legal practise, he would join the Starfall Chronicle as a semi-regular writer. A year later, he would become one of its most frequent contributors, writing a commentary on legal affairs.

In 2E 550, Lucien would co-write his first truly successful work: a commissioned tome covering the history of the Gardner dynasty. The chronicle, which would be split into four volumes, received royal and scholarly praise, launching his career as a writer. He would successfully publish *A Brief Look at Wayrestian Nobility* a year later, and *A Study of the Wayrestian Kings of the Third and Fourth Centuries* a year after that.

*Unfinished*