Silas is a black-magic sorcerer of Vala, “especially corrupt”, who was lynched on the altar of a cathedral and remains one of the dead who still keep an address. He is called “the unnameable”, and also “the orphan of the threshold” and “the Sorcerer of the threshold”, possibly one title, possibly two.
| Type | Character |
| Spanish entry | Silas |
History
He was locked in the cell of the village church at Amonar. A mercenary “had told him to stay”, but Silas escaped at night by persuading the guards; his jailers “did not know he was going to break loose”.
He was suspected of a demonic pact, accused of having sacrificed power to save his companions. An inquisitorial tribunal treated renouncing the demon as a possible, verifiable act: “Do you think Silas is going to renounce the demon?” Witchcraft is a triable crime in this world.
He was lynched by the guardians on the cathedral altar (“the cathedral where they killed Silas on the altar”) and buried in a tomb outside the church, apart from the sacred precinct.
The wishes and the skull
“Silas had his wishes before he died.” They can be used after his death, are transferable, and are lodged in Silas’s skull, which floats in the infernal plane. The company had him revived by magic “to fulfill his wishes”, though “we did not know what reviving him was like”.
Before dying he asked for power from the Tablets. He is also credited with bringing the canopic jars.
Open questions
- The tribunal’s verdict, and any link between the trial and the lynching, are not recorded.
- How the skull reached Hell when the body was buried outside the church is unexplained.
- Whether the resurrection was completed or only attempted is both stated and doubted.
- What the wishes are, how many, and who can spend them, is not established; nor what “the threshold” means.
- Whether the Tablets, jars and wishes form one system is unknown.
- His appearance, age, voice and the origin of his orphanhood are not recorded.