filia Chrysolitha, of House Touccio
apprenticed 348; mage 363
Felchester: 348-365
St. Cyrynthia: 365-392
Hall of Touccio: 392-
Raised in Amicitian fellowship with C6e3 by Lynx of House Cristofer and Chrysolitha of House Touccio at the Covenant at Felchester in the mid-fourth century.
Her apprenticeship coincided with a period in which both the Castrian Amicitians and the Daughters of Daenae on the whole were coming in for an unusual amount of criticism, hostility, and outright slander from conservatives within the Order, in part due to the vituperative efforts of Falx Astartis, and in part due to the dubious specialization of T50's elder siblings of the Talchester Trio. Perhaps in reaction to her lineage's reputation for hyper-sexualism and sneakiness, T50 was exceptionally pious, and she eschewed her sisters' favored craft specialization of potions in favor of the more straightforward study of architecture and construction. From 360 on, she corresponded with a number of Melians at Covenant Verbi Meliae who were interested in pursuing a more conservative, more strictly monastic Aegidian lifestyle; in 365, she left Felchester to join with them in founding the Covenant of St. Cyrynthia.
T50 remained at St. Cyrynthia for twenty-five years, although she quickly found herself frustrated by the hierarchical nature of the covenant. This was perhaps unsurprising given her background: the Covenant at Felchester went well beyond Plenilunial in its distribution of power; under its charter, not only all magi, but also all apprentices over the age of fourteen, had been granted equal say in the running of the covenant. For a time, T50 was able to convince herself that her subordinate status within the covenant was merely a matter of seniority, but as the years went by and the Melians continued to call upon her to create things for them with no apparent thought to the possibility that she might have projects of her own to work on, it became increasingly apparent to her that she was never going to be accorded the respect due to an elder mage: it was the Touccian Obligation, not Aegidian hierarchy, that was the culprit here.
T50's experiences at St. Cyrynthia left her with a new appreciation for the work of Caldwell and his fellow champions of Touccian empowerment at the Hall of Touccio. She was deeply annoyed, however, by the rampant sexism found in far too many of the writings coming out of the Hall: it seemed to her that in their efforts to divorce themselves from their traditional role as the second-class magi of the Order, the Hall Touccians had felt the need to find someone that they could look down on in turn -- and had decided that the Daughters of Daenae would serve that role quite nicely. T50 was particularly disappointed to see sly asides and deprecating comments direced towards her lineage coming from Caldwell's pen: she had felt him a kindred spirit, and she felt betrayed.
In 390, after her first filia had been declared mage, she finally got around to committing all of her dissatisfaction about the treatment of women within House Touccio to paper. Her treatise, a deliberate riff on Caldwell's "Balbo's Grandchildren" entitled "Grandaughters of Balbo," begins by pointing out that Balbo's actual Grandchild was, in fact, Daenae. It then goes on to propose that if the Touccians have been traditionally perceived as the slaves of the Order, then the Daughters of Daenae have been--much in fact like real female slaves--viewed as the slaves to the slaves.
"Grandaughters of Balbo," published in 391, was not well- received by the Order. To say the least. It was, in fact, mocked quite roundly and condescendingly, particularly by male Touccians who considered it almost offensive for their beloved "real" crafts of smithing, masonry and construction to be considered in at all the same league with the "foolish fripperies" of the textile work in which Daenae had specialized. T50's master Chrysolitha's notable failure at construction at Covenant Stony Hill--an event now fifty years in her past--was once more raised as evidence of women's incompetence at proper Touccian skills; unwarranted attacks on the quality of T50's own work in the construction of the Covenant at St. Cyrynthia were also levelled. Furthermore, the Melians of St. Cyrynthia themselves criticized T50 for having published her treatise: such polemic, they thought, was not appropriately in keeping with the precepts of e chao omnia.
T50 was infuriated by this hostile reception. The claim that the traditional crafts of her lineage were not "real craft" particularly stung, quite likely because she herself had held similar views as a young mage: it was only after T50 had completed the construction of St. Cyrynthia that she had come to appreciate and take an active interest in the textile work of her ancestors. Early in 392, she left St. Cyrynthia to travel to Lyridice, where she demanded to be shown the Hall of Touccio's famous collection of artifacts. Her scornful reaction to the discovery that the male Hall Touccians could not even correctly identify the enchantments placed on many of the items in their collection--the Nephythusian artifact hunter Hugh of Hampsberg had apparently missed the memo regarding what constituted a "real" enchanted item and what did not; his collection was filled with spun, woven and embroidered magical items that none of the Hall Touccians had ever quite been able to suss out--rather impressed the Touccians in spite of themselves, and when T50 was able not only to identify the powers of these artifacts but also to explain to them the theory underlying their construction, the Hall Touccians were forced to admit that they had been mistaken to so quickly dismiss the work of Daenae and her descendants. T50 was invited to remain at the Hall of Touccio as a member, an invitation which she accepted along with their apologies. She has been there ever since.
T50 considers it her particular duty to work to counteract the bad reputation of her lineage within the Order, and also to raise the awareness of the utility, power and historical significance of small crafts within House Touccio. Since her arrival at the Hall of Touccio in 392, she has become a prolific author of Touccian magical theory, most of it focused on the small craft specializations favored by her lineage.
Her second student graduated to magehood in 408, and she is currently training a third, who will be mage in 426.
t50
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