Gustav is the uchronic version of Gustav Mahler, director of the Vienna Opera: a madman on the third floor of the Lighthouse-Monolith on Serpent Island who paints prophetic murals in the style of the Vienna Secession.
| Type | Character |
| World | Uchronic Paris |
| Spanish entry | Gustavo (Torre de la Serpiente) |
Description
He claims the tower was built “through prophecy”. He asks about “the Soul” and offers choices between violence and peace: if they do not shoot, peace may reign; if they do, the bullets will run elsewhere. He knows of the Serbian revolutionaries and the Black Hand, and passes on a message from a king, Black George, promising to pay the assassins and reinstate them in Belgrade.
The décor shows works of Gustav Klimt, including Hygieia with her serpent (the Lighthouse’s central motif). A poster names Beethoven, recalling Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze (1902), and an unidentified composer. The gold-domed Secession building is the Lighthouse’s model.
History
The group fought his aberrant cat, tied him up and put him to sleep with a curse and a spell; he smiled madly. Later, in Sarajevo, they recalled his warnings and saw him as a possible key to undoing the mechanism of the Uchronic Guards: if their roles are a temporal symphony, a composer could rewrite it.
Open questions
- Hygieia’s serpent may tie the Secession to the Circle of the Serpent.
- Antiterra versions of these artists may exist.