Brother Caelum

“The Archivist Monk”

“Every book saved is a voice preserved. Every voice preserved is a future possibility. This is sacred work.”

Quick Reference

Brother Caelum - The Archivist Monk

Overview

Brother Caelum dedicates his life to preserving Glimmering Spire’s library—one of the Aetherium’s largest collections of pre-Shattering texts. As member of the Archivists faction, he views knowledge preservation as sacred duty, cataloging, copying, and protecting books even as the Spire crumbles around him.

The work is overwhelming: thousands of texts, many degrading; constant threat of Spire collapse; insufficient resources; isolation from mainstream society. Yet Caelum persists, believing that every book saved might contain crucial knowledge—cure for Rot, technology for rebuilding, history that explains present.

Gentle, anxious, and utterly devoted, Caelum represents humanity’s long-term thinking: sacrificing present comfort to preserve future possibilities, maintaining faith that knowledge matters even when immediate survival dominates everyone else’s concerns.

Appearance

Height: Average
Build: Slight (sedentary scholar)
Hair: Brown, unkempt (forgets grooming)
Eyes: Strained (reading by dim light)
Hands: Ink-stained, careful
Posture: Bent (decades over books)

Clothing: Simple Archivist robes, reading glasses (precious), always covered in dust

Background

Origin: Skyport Eos (merchant family)

Childhood: Bookish (naturally scholarly)

Calling (age 16): - Discovered Archivist philosophy - Joined order immediately - Family disappointed (wanted merchant)

Training: Glimmering Spire (age 16-21) - Preservation techniques - Ancient languages - Cataloging systems - Copying methods

Assignment (age 21): Library custodian

Career: 17 years preserving knowledge

The Library

Location: Glimmering Spire, mid-levels

Size: Vast (5,000+ texts, thousands more fragments)

Condition: Deteriorating - Environmental damage (moisture, decay) - Spire crumbling (structural threats) - Insufficient preservation materials

Contents: - Pre-Shattering histories - Technical manuals - Scientific treatises - Literature, philosophy - Luminar Council records (partial)

Staff: - Brother Caelum (primary custodian) - 3 assistant copyists - Occasional visiting scholars

Daily Work

Morning: - Damage assessment (new decay?) - Priority triage (what needs immediate attention)

Afternoon: - Copying fragile texts (preservation) - Cataloging (organizing knowledge) - Repairs (when possible)

Evening: - Research (personal interest) - Reading (never stops learning)

Night: - Worries about library - Dreams about texts burning

Philosophy

Core Belief: Knowledge is humanity’s legacy and future

Practice: - Every text matters (potentially) - Preservation over access (controversial—some want sharing) - Long-term thinking (centuries ahead)

Sacrifice: - Comfortable life rejected - Isolated existence accepted - Health declining (doesn’t care)

Question: Is he right? - Maybe texts contain salvation - Maybe just preserving past - Maybe both matter

Challenges

Spire Decay: Accelerating - Structural collapse threatens - Would destroy library - Evacuation needed (where? How?)

Resources: Insufficient - Preservation materials expensive - Funding limited (Archivists poor) - Time always short

Access vs. Preservation: Debate - Caelum restricts access (protect texts) - Others want open access (use knowledge) - Both have merit, fundamentally incompatible

Relationships

Alchemist Kael: - Frequent researcher (Rot information) - Careful with texts (respected) - Strange but brilliant

Other Archivists: - Superior (Archivist leadership, distant) - Peers (scattered across Aetherium) - Shared mission but isolated work

Visiting Scholars: - Requests access (evaluates carefully) - Some granted (trustworthy) - Some refused (risk to texts)

Glimmering Spire Residents: - Background presence (minimal interaction) - Some help (moving texts) - Most ignore (not their concern)

Discoveries

Important Finds (his tenure): - Complete Luminar Council meeting records (partial set) - Pre-Shattering Rot references (gave to Kael) - Technical manuals (shared with engineers) - Historical accounts (clarified timeline)

Current Project: - Fragmentary text about “Sky Anchors” - Pre-Shattering technology - Stabilizing islands somehow - Incomplete (searching for more fragments)

Secrets

The Hidden Cache: - Most important texts copied and hidden (off-Spire) - Insurance against Spire collapse - Location known only to him (trust issues) - Against Archivist policy (knowledge centralized) - But pragmatic (survival matters)

The Forbidden Text: - Found text about “Controlled Corruption” - Luminar Council experiments - Potentially heretical/dangerous - Hidden (hasn’t reported) - Wrestling with responsibility

The Health: - Deteriorating (environmental exposure, stress, poor diet) - Coughing worsens (lung damage from dust/mold) - Ignores it (work too important) - Probably won’t live to old age

Quest Hooks

1. The Research: Need obscure information (Caelum grants access)
2. The Evacuation: Spire collapsing, save library (how?)
3. The Text: Forbidden document discovered (what do with it?)
4. The Thieves: Someone stealing texts (stop them)
5. The Cache: Find his hidden backup (use? Protect?)
6. The Debate: Access vs. preservation (help decide)
7. The Health: Intervention before he works himself to death
8. The Sky Anchors: Complete his research (game-changing?)

Related Topics

• Glimmering Spire
• The Archivists
• Alchemist Kael Greythorn
• The Shattering

“This book is 300 years old. It survived the Shattering, the Rot, centuries of chaos. My job is ensuring it survives another 300. That matters.”

“People say ‘why preserve the past when the present is dying?’ I say: The present will die. The future might live. And it will need to know what came before.”