Caduceus

**Caduceus** was a newspaper editor, honorary academic and an international crime lord embroiled in the history of Ravaryn.

## Biography

### Early life

Caduceus' childhood is shrouded in mist. He himself claims to not remember any of it on the account of amnesia (of suspiciously unknown cause). His family and real name are similarly unknown and he doesn't like to disclose that information, also supposedly believing he doesn't remember his parents.

But it is known that he was already travelling around the continent in his early teenager years, trying to "find his place". He eventually settled for higher education in [big city name], studying epistemology - the philosophical study of gaining knowledge. He didn't stay there for long though, dropping out of university and instead puruing the solitary goal of making a newspaper that would deliver actually useful information, unlike many other alternatives at the time (and partially now, as well). "The Psychopomp" - "soul guide" - started as an obscure distribution with quazi-academic statements woven in between the few articles. But over time Caduceus learned how to write interestingly and used it for The Psychopomp.

### The Psychopomp

Caduces' newspaper got proper traction when he started publishing a weekly segment named "Dead Telegraph". It was reporting various murders that took place around the continent and which turned out to be harder to solve than initially thought. At first it lives off locked room mysteries, until one day it talked about the murder of an ex-professor mountain hermit thought to have gone mad. The article detailing his death was published the day *before* the murder actually took place. Ever since then the occassional article talked about the deaths of obscure persons, that were to die after the segment was published, giving the paper an almost oracular reputation.

The knowldege of those murders Caduceus gained from a vast criminal network he was building already in the university. In order to realise his dream of truth-giving news he mustered an organisation of criminal informants to discover plots before they are enacted to spin them into interesting tales. Despite the dedication, Caduceus quickly burnt out working on the shortlived idea. He moved on to other endeavours, but The Psychopomp still existed and was dear to its founder's heart, never to be completely abandoned. It became one of his means to achieve his goals.

### The Intemporelles

Caduceus was vocal about his problems with the Deists' rule even before the party system was officially established, but has only taken up the initiative to form his own political party after that. His party, "The Intemporelles" ("intemporelle" - French for "timeless"), was proclaiming a rule in accordance with, as it was called by others, the "Caducean Doctrine". While, at first, "The Intemporelles" were just a mean to stage a fake democratic competition for Psyche's Deists, it quickly turned into a proper political struggle for power. In that shift, however, Caduceus gave up his universally amiable approach he used to gather favour wherever possible, alienating many politicians against his ideas from him. In the meantime, Caduceus' bureacrautic machinery slowly built up prices for End-related resourced, pushing the opportunistic people to venture into the newest frontier. Caduceus hoped one such fortune-seeker would eventually find the shrine of Insanity, allowing him to free the deity and get them to help "snuff out" Wisdom, in preparation for the V-Day.

### Insanity

The opportunity to free Insanity came quicker than expected, when prospectors excavating End for end stone found the shrine. Caduceus travelled to the depths of desolate ruins of the End with a willing sacrifice coaxed with V.O. He proceeded to ask the "Lord of Chaos" for a "weapon" against Wisdom, in turn receiving the "gift" of nightmares and remorse, that would later cause Caduceus to go insane himself. Both returned to Ravaryn Kingdom, Caduceus plagued with visions that would drive to him to lock himself away from the world for a long time. During his recluse, he tried exorcising his visions and regrets by writing more poems. Eventually, fearing that staying in Ravaryn would cause his ruin, anone way or another, he fled the country and travelled around Matermund for some time. Once he returned, despite still frantically trying to keep up appearances by constant grooming and acting like the one in control, the facade he created tended to slip a lot more often. He became completely paranoid, erratic, introverted and neurotic. Despite the experience, he still pursued finishing V.O.I.D., seeing it as the ultimate lifetime goal of his, without which everything he's done would be for nothing.

## Personality

Caduceus, despite looking very pompous and snobbish, can come across as a genuinely caring, though businesslike. He's a skilled orator and debator, able to convince many people around him of his good intentions. However, that kindness is a facade, under which he is a manipulative and cold person, contemplating how to advance his many ploys. Unless one insults something he cares about - that is, his scientific or literary work, including his newspaper. An unfavourable review of those can make the man very, *very* furious. And once his logical arguments or patience run out, angered insults and lively cane and sword swinging/slashing may be the lesat of one's worries.

He had an unmistakable penchant for "flair". Always, whether angry, sad, happy or other, he sticked to his complicated, almost pathos manner of speaking, and including foreign expressions in his sentences.

### Personality shift

By the time he arrived in Ravaryn for the first time Caduceus was a callous, manipulative criminal, caring only for the little creative work he's done in his life. Over time, however, his work on V.O.I.D. and constant alienation from more and more people due to his political ambitions started to take their toll on him. [put something more here later] On V-Day, hiding in the V.O.I.D. compound, he suffered another mental breakdown, realising he's truly on his own and that he lost everything, even what he cared about the most, in the name of an idea so foolish it must be impossible.

### Paranoia

After meeting Wisdom, despite slowly losing respect towards their kin, Caduceus started fearing their arbitrary values, never trusting Wisdom, despite their supposed "cooperation". Trying to keep his intents secret from them, Caduceus started descending into paranoia. He didn't even write down some of the knowledge about V.O.I.D., afraid Wisdom, or someone else, would steal the notes. To keep even the fact he's away from Ravaryn working on one of his projects (Horole, V.O.I.D. etc.) he'd even commission lifesized wax figures of himself and tens of duplicates of every single article of clothing he wears or wields or keeps by himself to place in his office at night so that they'd be visible through the Psychopomp's windows and, later, use V.O. to turn one of his puppet-criminals to act as him when he's gone by day. This especially strengthened after experiencing Insanity-incurred nightmares, leaving Ravaryn Kingdom entirely for recovery.

## random shit i came up with because i procrastinate too much and think about all my very random ideas like caduceus

### Colour scheme

Caduceus' very distinct attire is hard to miss: purple suit with a purple waitscoat worn on a purely white shirt, a purple tophat, incandescently white cravat, all topped off with a golden-rimmed monocle, golden cufflinks and a similarly golden pocketwatch with a golden link. His entire outfit is made of clothing in only 3 colours, each, according to mythological symbolism, corresponding to a specific greek god:

* Purple - the dominant colour of caduceuc' clothes, symbolises Zeus
* White - a symbol of Apollo
* Gold - the least used of colours, left only for the smallest of accessories, symbolises Hermes

Caduceus can be identified mostly with Hermes, especially considering the theme of "soul guide" surrounding him and his newspaper, nota bene named "The Psychopomp", despite gold being the least important of colours in Caduceus' everyday wear, majorly outnumbered by the colours of god of thunder and power as well as Hermes' brother, the god of healing, truth and knowledge. This represents how Caduceus srupulously hides his involvement in crime and aggressive trade under a cloak of academic respect and a renowned seeker of truth as a journalist (colour white), and then, even more notably, relying on his reputation as a person of wealth, power and connections (colour purple) to aid his cause.

### Caduceus' caduceus

Caduceus' cane doesn't follow the above colour scheme. It is made of dark ebonywood, topped off with moissanite (a rare mineral found, among others, in meteorites, a much more prestigious alternative to diamond) and a silver ferrule, not to mention it actually being a sword-cane with its blade made of silver as well. Here, those 3 materials are of importance:

* Ebonywood - in pagan cultures symbolised power
* Moissanite - ancient greeks believe diamonds were the tears of gods, moissanite is very similar to diamond but comes from space
* Silver - symbolises inner wisdom, clarity, focus and subtle strength

Thus Caduceus' cane symbolises mostly his perspectives on deities as well as his connection to greek gods, while the blade at its core is a symbol of its wielder's forward planning and, possibly, why there is a sword in that cane in the first place.

In addition to those vital part above, the cane also features other embelishments. Its top, in which the moissanite gem is embedded, features silver "petals", forming around the gem a silvery shape reminiscent of a marigold flower. Below that is a length of silver decorating the ebonywood shaft, so that when the cane is wielded as a sword the silver acts as a hilt.

### Thoughts on deities

While he thought of the deities with some respect after meeting one in person, over time that respect disappeared, seeing how they struggle for arbitrary goals similar to humans - especially after successfully eliminating one god with Wisdom's help, at this point his view on gods to "that's just humanity with extra steps". That lead him to personally dismiss the deities as actual "gods". This doesn't mean he regarded them as weak as other humans - he did understand their superiority in certain areas. Seeing the struggle between the deities he also formulated the opening sentence to his collection of poems on the deities "Titanomachy, today" - "As above as below".

Despite that nonchalant approach to the deities he always sticked to his unique form of addressing them directly - calling them only by the latin translation of their "names" (like calling Wisdom "Sophia" or Truth - "Verum").

### Caduceus' criminal empire

As a criminal underground boss, Caduceus avoids permanent assocciation with anyone ever since he started his "work". Back when he relied on criminal connections for newsworthy stories, he tended to approach known criminals and the obviously deprived rich in person and coax valuable information out of them with his slowly growing wit and charisma. Over time, as he accrued greater power and money, he crafted false identities for himself, under which he contacted prominent individuals that would be able to acquire intelligence for him. But every time he lost interest in someone, he made sure nobody could trace said criminal back to Caduceus himself.

He became an elusive backstabber known not by his name, but his reputation. Everytime someone in the world of crime got caught or otherwise fell from grace with all ties to their potential employers suddenly disappearing, most assumed it was the notorious, invisible prince, interested not in money or jewels, but information and favours. By the time he moved to Ravaryn however, he expanded his interests to secret auctions dealing in curiosities like watches or rare books, as well as slowly creeping into Matermund's politics - most parliament and monarchs were, to some extent, suspect to a tiny influence of his.

Caduceus criminal endeavours included, among others:

* Illegal auctions - mostly of rare books, unpatended (sometimes stolen) inventions and jewelry, most of which he handled under the alias "Hieronymous Mandler-Rosa" (a reference to Hermaeus Mora, deadric prince of hidden knowledge from The Elder Scrolls series);
* Blackmail - victims of which were mostly Caduceus' past assocciates;
* Espionage - fruits of which were mostly used to fuel "The Psychopomp";
* Embezzlement - mostly during his initial term as Earl of Horole;
* And several crimes committed to obfuscate Caduceus' crimes, indluding tampering with evidence in cases that reached the court, bribery and (incredibly rarely, never done by Caduceus in person) even murder and assault.