filia Derleth, of House Derleth (formerly of House Aegidius)
apprenticed 383; declared mage 398
The head of Bethelion's third graduating class, the brilliant Mavis Loriata was sponsored by Derleth himself, annoying traditionalist Aegidians, who disapproved of Derleth's training of a female student. After her graduation in 398 she badgered her way into Covenant Antrum, thereby paving the way for the general acceptance of University graduates within the Order as a whole.
Always a strong campaigner for the formation of Derleth as an independent House, Mavis renounced House Aegidius once she had achieved her goal in 423. She is an adherent to the belief that Derlethians ought take Elizabeth of Po as their model, exhibiting competence in the particular specialties of all six Houses before they are entitled to be considered Derlethian, a belief now known as “Mavan Derlethianism" after her, although she herself far prefers the term "Elizabethan." Putting this theory to practice, she kept her own student [D13] an apprentice for twenty years, refusing to acknowledge her as a mage until she was able to fulfill the requirements of all six Houses of the Order. When the First Melian Speaker refused to recognize [D13] as an Aegidian, however, Mavis renounced the House in protest and now considers herself solely a Derlethian.
Mavis is secretly "Ursula," the anonymous author of numerous provocative tracts extolling the superior intellectual flexibility of the female sex, protesting the naming of the seventh house after Derleth rather than Elizabeth, and advocating the withdrawal and empowerment of all women within the Order. Publicly, Mavis affects an adherence to "Ursula's" radical notions in a highly ironic and superior manner which tends to leave her listeners with no doubt in their minds that she is joking. This may be the reason that in spite of the fact that many of "Ursula's" ideas are clearly lifted from Mavis' own well-known approach to Derlethianism, and in spite of the fact that Mavis herself founded a Society of Ursulans in 421, her secret identity is nonetheless suspected by virtually no one.
She still resides at Covenant Antrum.
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