Aby Warburgo is an elven arcanist, historian and archaeologist of the uchronic Belle Époque, some 300 years old — young by elven standards — and backed by a powerful German banking family. He held an important title as the mage of Constantinople and, after the magical ascension, declared himself “temporal archmage”.
| Type | Character |
| Era | Uchronic Belle Époque (1900–1901); Constantinople 1051–1055 |
| People | Elf, about 300 years old |
| Occupation | Arcanist, historian, archaeologist |
| Spanish entry | Aby Warburgo |
Description
No record of his face, clothing or voice survives. He is described as an elf of rather modern bearing. His companions say of him only that he is “the fanatic of opening and closing windows”.
Background
He presents his family as “very powerful in Germany, bankers”; the family bank is the implied backing of his digs, travels and credentials. His 300 years allow three trainings at once — heir to a bank, scholar, dedicated arcanist — and they fit by necessity: the bank pays, history tells him where to dig, and magic lets him enter and survive there. He knows his period both as it was and as it was twisted. He plans to open a school of arcanists.
Career
Tombs and excavations were his agenda from the start, the first thing he wanted to do “when all this started”; he is found wherever there is turned earth and illustrious dead, and serves as interpreter when someone must explain what is happening.
In Constantinople he held “a super-important title … clearly the mage”. After the magical ascension, the event that reordered the hierarchies of magic, he declared himself temporal archmage — a self-awarded, provisional title, not a conferred one.
To cross territories that do not admit him he travels under a disguised identity, giving his birth date as 1601 and saying he “comes to see the Egyptologist”.
Open questions
- Whether “temporal” means provisional office or mastery over time.
- What the windows are: real windows, an arcane procedure, or a mere habit.
- Whether 1601 is his real birth date or part of the disguise, and against what calendar his 300 years are measured.
- The name he uses at the border, and which border he crosses.
- Whether the school ever opened.
- The name of the banking house and his exact place in it (heir, tolerated relative, or the odd kinsman paid to dig far away).