#ephemera read through

[wolfespuppies]

Ephemera read through

Text of a note sent via Codex to Jess Brightwell from his mother, Charity Brightwell:

Jess’s mother is Charity in Ink and Bone. This part of the message he gets from home seems fairly innocuous, presumably in an attempt to make the note from his father seem more truthful, and not like it’s a hidden code. However, there are hints of something more. Jess’s father kind of reminds me of Tommy Shelby, from Peaky Blinders. A criminal who attempts to hide it with his position on councils and such – like his new role on the select committee on the beautification of their borough.

One more thing of note is that his uncle Thaddeus has moved to his country house in the north, and they are always welcome there. Is this the castle they go to in Ash and Quill?

A separate note from Callum Brightwell, attached to the same message, Suspected of hidden coded messaging and reviewed by Obscurists. Found to be inconclusive.

This is an excellent code. On the surface, it does just read as though it’s a message from a father to his son far from home – although some of the phrases are a little odd. I’m not sure if I trust that the Obscurists didn’t in fact find anything in the note of worth. This also shows that Codex messages, allegedly private, are in fact monitored for things like this.

Text of secured Library correspondence between the Obscurist Magnus and Scholar Tyler, stationed at the Oxford Serapeum

This is interesting. Despite the apparent decline in Obscurist numbers, some are still born outside of the Tower, and the fact that this is Morgan, with all her considerable power, suggests that the theory brought up by (I believe) Wolfe, that aggressively interbreeding Obscurists is in fact contributing to the decline instead of saving it.

Keria shows her usual lack of emotion here, choosing to stick to the facts and nothing else. She’s quite vague, suggesting they don’t know for sure if there is a budding Obscurist.

The fact that no reply to the message has been found could mean one of two things – Tyler just didn’t response, which I find…implausible, considering he was trying to protect Morgan and a non-reply would be as good as a confession to knowing something, or that there was a message, and it was removed by someone – whether Keria or Morgan, I’m unsure.

Handwritten paper message from Scholar Tyler in Oxford to Morgan Hault:

Handwritten – how was it delivered? Is there a postal service? I wouldn’t think one would be necessary, what with everyone having a Codex. Did Tyler pay someone to deliver it?

He feared that Morgan’s attempts wouldn’t be successful – it seems he has a good bearing on what she’s capable of, and what she could be capable of in the future. Tyler mentions the High Garda being sent to retrieve her. They really don’t want stray Obscurists slipping through the net, do they?

How has Tyler heard that the closer to the Iron Tower, the more likely it is Morgan will be able to effectively change the Codex? For that matter, how does he know that changing Codex formula to hide a person is even possible? Is there a whole group of Obscurists who have done this, hiding themselves from the Tower by changing formulae, making themselves invisible?

An excerpt from a work entitled On Press-Printing: A New Beginning by Research Scholar Christopher Wolfe, submitted to the Artifex Magnus for peer review and brought to him by the Curators of the Library. Marked as Seditious Content and sent to the Black Archives by order of the Archivist Magister, for his eyes only

This reads almost exactly the same as the Gutenberg one earlier in the book. The worry about the Obscurists and the sustainability of such a group, the suggestion of the mechanical press, and the hope that this will bring the Library into the new age.

Of note is that Wolfe built a prototype press, presumably by himself. He must have some engineering skill, to be able to do that with little or no outside help and could be used as evidence for the question of what the fuck was his speciality.

The way he writes suggests that, before prison, he was less bitter towards Obscurists in general, although not necessarily his parents – I can’t imagine canon era Wolfe saying that Obscurists are ‘rare, bright talents’, or that the press will ‘removes the burden from the fragile shoulders of the Obscurists’.

An annotation from the Artifex Magnus to the document:

Again with the heresy. They love that phrase for going against the Library, and I’m STILL curious about the way religion functions alongside the Library.

The Artifex seems genuinely upset that Wolfe has created the press, a hint of the friendship that used to exist between them at some point in the past. He also seems concerned about Wolfe’s close connection to the Tower in light of his invention. Why does the connection make it even more disturbing? Is it just because the press would mean they could no longer control the Obscurists under the guise of saving them and their skills for the Library?

A following annotation from the Obscurist Magnus to the document:

Oh Keria. I know you think you were doing the right thing here, but instead of ensuring your son is killed, you’ve doomed him to a year of torture and a lifetime of trauma and ruined any chance of having a relationship with him. Sure, he was probably going to be tortured anyway, but I’m quite sure he would consider being killed at the end of it a mercy.

This suggests that before Keria stepped in, it was just the documents and works pertaining to the press that would be sent to the Black Archives, not everything he ever wrote, which is interesting.

‘He must, of course, be made to understand that this extraordinary mercy will not come again, and he lives on the sufferance of the Archivist and the Curators’. This is almost certainly something Quall said to Wolfe, repeatedly and at length. I’m sure it would also have been made very clear that it was his own mother that essentially ordered this to happen to him. To then, a year later, have his mother rescue him from the hell she created for him, must have been a massive headfuck for Wolfe. The fact he’s even willing to talk to her is amazing to me.

[wolfespuppies]

Ephemera read through! Just the one in this one, it’s long.

Private paper note from Obscurist Magnus Maryanna Sfetsos to Lingua Magnus Cao Xueqin, 1750:

Cao Xuequin was an actual Chinese novelist, his one work called ‘Dream of the Red Chamber Door’, which Wikipedia informs me is one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature and is the subject of an entire field of study, redology. It’s the story of a family and their downfall and is apparently at least partly autobiographical. Cao died in 1763, after the death of his son. In our world, he lived most of his life in poverty, living by selling his paintings and was ‘recorded as an inveterate drinker’. Of note to his position as Lingua Magnus, the novel was composed in vernacular as opposed to classical Chinese, despite Cao being well-versed in the latter. His text was used in the 20th century to establish the new standardized language, and to promote the written vernacular. I can’t work out if the plot of the novel is relevant to the books, I leave that to those of you more experienced in literary analysis!

Maryanna Sfetsos is a completely fictional character.

Right. Onto the actual message. First thing – timeline error! Earlier in the book, Thomas states that the Tower was built in 1789, but this clearly says that the Tower was built and being used to confine Obscurists in 1750. This has already been the subject of discussion, so I’ll leave that there.

Maryanna, despite being the Obscurist Magnus, has no control over being locked in the Iron Tower. This is something that’s been going on for some time, and she considers it just another aspect of the Library seeking ‘not to enlighten, but to enslave’. It’s clear that something happened with the Library in general and the Obscurists specifically to make the Archivist (and I suspect the Artifex too) worried about leaving them out in the world.

This was a private paper note too – were messages being read even at this stage?

Text of a message from Lingua Magnus Cao Xueqin, 1750, to the Archivist Magister:

Cao is trying to be subtle and respectful here; he frames his interest as a selfish wanting to see his lifelong friend, and not due to serious misgivings about the nature of what’s happening in the Library. He can’t have been the only one who wrote to the Archivist about this new plan, but it’s clear that, despite his efforts to absolve Maryanna of any doubt, he fails. It’s also interesting that the Tower was (apparently) meant as a temporary thing to ‘allow their absolute concentration on the work of the Library’. I don’t believe that for a second, but also what was going on that would have made seclusion and isolation so necessary for their work? Cao doesn’t seem bothered by the seclusion in theory, it’s more the length of time of it that worries him.

Text of a reply to the Lingua Magnus from the Archivist Magister, written the next day:

The Library works fast, doesn’t it? It’s obvious to all that Maryanna Sfetsos did not collapse of her own accord. Cao’s questions certainly contributed to death, if not were the outright cause of it.

She absolutely did not urge the Archivist to continue the seclusion of the Iron Tower for the protection of those within from Burners and other heretics – and there’s that word again! Although…a previous ephemera implies that Burner ideology didn’t become widespread until 1795. Cain, get your timelines sorted out!

[wolfespuppies]

Ephemera read through 3

Text of a message in the hand of Scholar Wolfe, directly to the Artifex Magnus:

First off – Wolfe is (understandably), bitter as fuck here.

The Artifex threatened Wolfe’s friends. He has friends, presumably other Scholars and Santi’s Garda friends. Are they aware of what Wolfe went through, or is it more ‘if you don’t do as we tell you, they’ll become collateral damage’? I’m inclined towards the latter, and that as a result Wolfe has chosen to cut contact with them, simply because of the complete lack of any other friends apart from Santi and his soldiers mentioned otherwise.

Despite everything, and despite knowing that something will go wrong, Wolfe is still willing to die for the Library ‘and all it represents’. Whether this would be to keep up appearances or because he, even now, still genuinely believes in the Library isn’t clear, but again I’m inclined towards the latter. At its heart, the Library is about, or meant to be about, protecting and guarding knowledge, and Wolfe is nothing if not steadfast in his beliefs, and even now, he still believes the Archivist will help.

Sending the kids to Oxford is ‘a line [he] cannot forgive’. Even at this early point, he cares SO MUCH for these kids, and it’s both adorable and heart-breaking.

Also, they represent an entire generation of Scholars. This does not work in terms of numbers, if there’s only six or so who pass the postulant class, and only half of them make it to be Scholars, based on the kids.

Response to Scholar Wolfe from the Artifex Magnus:

Urgh, I hate the Artifex so much. Even in his messages he sounds slimy.

How much is the Archivist actually in control, and how much is he a puppet of the Artifex?

This is the most overt indication that Wolfe is in constant threat – ‘your life belongs to us.’ There is no escaping that, even if he did manage to escape prison.

This last bit fuels one of my head canons. ‘We both know there will always be another crush [of postulants] to fill those empty spaces.’ Like in the previous bit, six Scholars does not make sense. But, according to @rosalind-of-arden‘s timeline, the class graduates in the January of 2032. So, I think there’s at least two, maybe three postulant classes a year, bringing the total number up to around 9 a year. This is of course assuming six is the final number of each class, and that half become Scholars and half join the Garda.

Text of a letter under the name of Scholar Christopher Wolfe to Aristede Danton, father of Guillaume Danton. Not written by him.

Wolfe didn’t write this. Is it a generic condolences form, or did Santi write it for him? Santi must have experience of writing letters such as these after all, and I can totally see Wolfe being unable to do it, and Santi taking over with what he knows how to do.

Message sent the same day in the hand of Scholar Wolfe, addressed to the Artifex Magnus:

This is presumably what Wolfe writes the second he arrives in Oxford and sees that Danton is dead. He hedges his bets, saying ‘whether it was deliberate or accidental’, although I think we all know that Wolfe knows it wasn’t an accident…

A reply from the Artifex to Scholar Wolfe, received the same day:

…and the Artifex knows Wolfe knows it too, and knows why it was done. Here we see a direct threat against Santi, and the reveal that Danton was a Burner. I’d forgot this came in the ephemera before the rest of the group find out, I missed it entirely.