("The Heat of the Air")
filius Aculeus, of House Savacion
apprenticed 340; mage 355; died 404
Felchester: 340-355
Plenilunium Album: 355-362
Whitestone: 362-385
Hermit: 385-390
Whitestone: 390-404
Raised at the Covenant at Felchester, he was intrigued by the new line of research being explored at Covenant Plenilunium Album by Maris of Aegidius and Veprescula of Manere and joined them upon his graduation to magehood in 355. He was one of four newly-graduated magi to join the covenant that year, all of them drawn by what would later come to be known as Plenilunial Elementalism. There, he soon discovered that he had an unusual affinity for working with the Air Primary. Nearly all of the Elementalist Movement's early discoveries about this Primary derive from his work.
Aestus Animae was one of the founders of Covenant Whitestone in 362. He was very close friends with Vertagus and Meles of Mare Aeneum and Hart's Desire, and after Vertagus' murder in 385, he joined with Meles to travel the Order demanding justice for Vertagus' killer and interrogating suspect members of their House.
The bullying reputation the Elementalists developed over the next five years is largely the responsiblity of Aestus Animae, whose extensive work with Air elementals had left him impetuous, reckless and prone both to jumping to conclusions and to acting before thinking. He was quick to accuse those he suspected of wrong-doing, and quick to assume proof of the same even when none had yet been established. He was largely responsible for the escalation to violence at Covenant Alae Fractae in 385, which may help account for the fact that his home covenant, Whitestone, was the first targetted by Siccoculus in 386. The destruction of Whitestone did little to improve his attitude: from 386 on, it was generally acknowledged that even the vengeance-sworn Meles was easier to deal with than Aestus Animae. At one time or another, he accused nearly every last conservative Savacion in the Order of working with Siccoculus; he attacked his own foster-brother Julian and the magi of his home covenant of Felchester for their refusal to join the rogue hunt; he ransacked the hermitage of the Nephythusian Oscularis and became so convinced of their guilt that in 388 he seized Oscularis' filius Orichalcis for interrogation. By 390, even Meles was beginning to find him a bit of a liability. Although his students were both present for Siccoculus' death, Aestus Animae himself was not: a persistent rumour--never either confirmed or denied by any of the involved parties--holds that Meles had knocked him unconscious shortly before the final confrontation, out of fear that Aestus Animae might otherwise try to steal his kill.
After Siccoculus' death, Aestus Animae returned to the ruins of Whitestone, where he was an ally of Stiria's in pushing for the covenant's restoration. He was one of only three magi remaining at Whitestone at the end of the year of its refounding in 393. On his death-bed in 404, he charged his last student Aestus Fornax with the duty of remaining at Covenant Whitestone and working to ensure its continued survival.
- Canis Rufus, from 363 to 378
- Aestus Fornax, from 380 to 398
