("The Pitiless Argument")
filius Gnarus Mugitu, of House Manere (formerly of House Lem)
apprenticed 320; mage 335; renounced House Lem and was accepted into House Manere 340; died 364
Quintus Opacus: 320-335
Hermit: 335-337
Prima Lux: 337-355
Hermit: 355-357
Virginis in Litus: 357-364
[See: Illacrimabilis Dictus and Quae Cernet Sine Spectans]
An acolyte within one of the larger Dawnish mystery cults, he was abducted from his Temple by the Opacan Lemmites and taken on as an apprentice by the Opacan founder Gnarus Mugitu in 320. Shortly after his ascension to magehood in 335, he was accused of experimenting with forbidden Dawn magics and fled the covenant.
Pursued by the Opacans, in 337 he sought sanctuary at Covenant Prima Lux, where the Dawn Primus Manere Tyndareus took him under his wing. In 339, when House Lem demanded his extradition to stand trial for diabolism, he renounced House Lem altogether, claiming status as a Manerean and very nearly causing full-scale mage war between West and Dawn. His parens, Gnarus Mugitu, was killed in an attempt to retrieve him from Prima Lux by force in 340. At the Pan-Manerean Conference later that year, he was formally recognized as a member of the newly-reunited House Manere by the Prima Vespera.
His behavior convinced Quintus Opacus of the irredeemability of the Dawn cultists. Thereafter, they would abandon attempts to convert and indoctrinate temple acolytes.
During his time at Prima Lux, he and his first student [M64] became interested in the Nephythusism of the post- unification newcomers to the covenant and joined with them in their forays into dream- and vision-based mystical work. In 354, they moved with them to the far side of Prima Lux's island, and left the covenant with them in 355. In 357, they were among the founders of Covenant Virginis In Litus. [See: The Dawn Nephythusians and the Maiden On the Shore]
Due to the important role he had played in the Manerean reunification in 340, Illacrimabilis Dictus' word held quite a bit of weight within House Manere. His vocal objections to Prima Lux's harassment of his new covenant, and subsequent support of the anti-Dawn candidate Mediastinus, helped to ensure Mediastinus' acclamation at the 25th Manere Conjugation of 358, which led to the Second Manerean Schism.
He helped to construct Nissa's Dream Ship in 362.
In 363, utterly exhausted from the strain of defending his covenant against constant assaults from Prima Lux and also rendered uncharacteristically trusting by the over-exposure to the hallucinogenic berries of the Litan island which such defense had entailed, he took the Opacans at their word when they claimed to be willing to set aside past differences in lieu of the newly-forged Opacan/Litan alliance. When early in 364 the Opacans abandoned their pretense and attacked their hosts, he was both unprepared and unsuspecting, and was rather perfunctorily murdered: the first fatality of the Battle of Virginis In Litus.
His orphaned apprentice survived the conflict, and was later taken to Plenilunium Album, where he completed his training under Vulpecula Versuta, filia Vespera.
- [M64], from 344 to 359
- Vix Vivatus, from 361 to 364 (thereafter adopted by Vulpecula Versuta of Plenilunium Album)
