Pablo is a chronomancer of Alexandria and the name of a lineage: father of the beheaded Kronamon, whose heart, book and spirit lie in three places after his death. Other figures share the name.
| Type | Character; lineage |
| Son | Kronamon |
| Alignment | ”Always true neutral, but he had evil moments” |
| Spanish entry | Pablo |
Lineage
His father was “the creator of crononcia”. Pablo is a repentant adult past the ways of the basic sorcerer. Kronamon’s beheading is the house’s greatest sacrifice; its date is a world landmark.
The line passes through book and time, not blood. The son received Pablo’s knowledge “with a book, in the year 300”; Pablo sent a book “from the future or from that other version of Antiterra” to Alexandria to prevent mistakes; “Pablo of the future sends us to speak with Pablo of the past”.
The three remains
- The heart hangs in chains “at the edge of a place”, bound by a heavy “figure of power” that makes it dictate. It holds chronomancy and secrets the gods keep from mortals: divine failings, rebellions in heaven and hell, the titan wars, the fate of dead deities.
- The book, a spellbook Pablo had also memorized, went to his son, through hell, and from the future to Alexandria. His Esagógica (378) and other writings still circulate.
- The spirit, not fully manifested, increasingly controls his son; some call it “half malevolent”.
The two debts
Tortured by devils, Pablo signed their contract, perhaps to save his son. His dual knowledge was studied in the Infernal Library from 378 to about 1378.
He converted to the Christian God to give his son and his own soul a chance; God asked in return for the son’s sacrifice, so Kronamon’s death was in a sense appointed by God. In his last years he attended church, and a university has him as its patron, San Pablo. Holding that playing God ends in damnation, he stopped traveling in time; if he hated anything, it was time.
Death
The prophecy: “te van a clavar una espada en el corazón, ni más ni menos que el negro” (“they will drive a sword into your heart — none other than the black one”). A thrown sword pierced his heart as he left Mass. He was “the first to accept a kind of suicide”.
Other Pablos
- Pablo Pikachu, crewman of La Londra, always carries brush and canvas.
- Pablo the hermit, in Atlantis: strange, lost, half wicked, very strong.
- The Pablo clock, invented by a clockmaker father for revenge.
- Paul of Tarsus, said to know the secrets of temporal regression.
- The sage of central Antioch, sole master of astronomical knowledge needed to destroy Alexandria, whose kidnapping was discussed; yet he was Alexandria’s “altered master” and had it protected.
- A Titan of Time is conjectured behind the name.
Conflicting accounts
- Death: Christmas 1889 in one account; “recently” per his son; 700 or 800 years ago per his questioners.
- Time travel: one account says he never handled time; another calls him a traveler who used it badly.
Open questions
- Why Pablo was bound to the anvil of time is not explained.
- Whether the Antioch sage, the Alexandrian master, Paul of Tarsus and the saint are one man is unknown.
- Where the heart hangs, who chains it, and who “the black one” is are unknown.
- Whether Pablo is now dead, a spirit or an avatar of time is unresolved.