Cailish Andorum

Bospero

I’ve sure you’ve heard many stories of Cailish Andorum, and his great sin.  However, I suspect that few of you know how it begins, or that it took almost a full century before Andorum was declared heretic.  For Cailish Andorum was once an unremarkable man.

And so here I will relate how Cailish became Cailish.  I will not pass on any rumors or unsubstantiated facts, except in places where no satisfactory answer can be found.  

The early life of Cailish Andorum was limited in life by a malformed foot, which left him reliant on a crutch. Coming from a proud military family, his early ambitions were frustrated.  Although he practiced archery and horsemanship, he found that few wished to fight alongside a man who struggled to walk unaided, and so he eventually became a scribe at the urging of his mother.

Still, his mind was not inadequate, and by the age of 25 he had learned to speak additional languages, and was able to earn an independent living as a translator and notary.  He was never known to produce any original work, although he was surrounded by the writings of great scholars and philosophers.  In letters to his brothers, he would often mock his own profession as “worthless” or “foolish”.  His translations are now considered collector’s items.  

While he would eventually have thousands of spouses, it was in 886 TFM when Cailish Andorum married his first wife, Jenissa Roudahl.  She was 26, a widow, and was accompanied by her 2-year-old daughter: Meliana.  

Jenissa was also an accomplished equestrian and the granddaughter of Ethward Roudahl, one of the greatest priests ever to oversee a House of Healing.  Many have speculated on whether Jenissa’s grandfather played some role in the subsequent events, or if Jenissa had attempted some ritual that she was not prepared for.  After all, the House of Healing had great powers of restoration.  Could not those same powers be used to distort and extend?  But alas, all who might answer this question are dead.

Jenissa’s dowry included enough money for the young couple to build a house on Tabber Street, in one of Bospero’s wealthier districts.  By 887 TFM, Jenissa was pregnant with their first child, which is when the problems began to start.  By the fourth month of her pregnancy, Cailish began having nightmares.  In a letter from 888 TFM, he detailed one of these nightmares, which included darkness, heat, pressure, drowning, and the sensation of being trapped.  “Every night I go to sleep, and wake up drowning in a bag. I struggle for an eternity, until I wake up in my own bed.” he complained in another letter.

Decades later, Father Gaspardy would relate how Cailish came to him after one of these dreams, asking for guidance.  Father Gaspardy advised him that this was most likely a premonition of Hell, and that he should focus harder on prayer, attendance, and tithing. 

The pregnancy also took a worrying turn, and Jenissa spoke of painful cramps and migraines.  Later in the pregnancy, she would speak of how restless the baby grew.  At first, the baby would become agitated at night, but later on, it would show so much movement during that daytime that onlookers would fear for her.  This tumult would only improve after Grand Healer Roudahl prescribed her a medicinal douche composed of opium and spider root (which encourage a restful stupor).  The baby’s thrashings ceased after that.

At this point, many complained of Cailish’s absence.  “He is not in today,” they would be told.  “He is out buying new medicines for his wife.”  Or “He is fetching a new doctor from Boolindray Island.”  

Throughout this period, Cailish’s nightmares worsened, although they seemed to improve when he traveled.  Grand Healer Roudahl suspected that his inks and oils were sickening him, and so suggested that the family move into his extra apartment in Urvong Swale.  They obliged.  Many people speculated that Cailish traveled more frequently in order to escape the city and his pregnant wife, but it was also impossible to deny that the man was very devoted to his wife’s care.  He constantly fretted over her, bringing her whatever she desired.  When she had a fever, Cailish was at her side, sweaty and worn, although his temperature was not elevated.  And when the baby was at its most tempestuous, Cailish was would be lying there beside her with his hand laid gently on her stomach, feeling each of the baby’s kicks, his brow knotted with worry.

The baby was born on a night in October.  With Grand Healer Roudahl overseeing the birth, it proceeded smoothly, and the new baby boy was placed in his mothers arms only a few hours after midnight.  

Despite his investment, Cailish had not attended the birth.  He spent the night locked in his office.  In the morning he apologized, and claimed that he was “overcome with anxiety”.  Friends commented on his obvious exhaustion.

When Cailish first had the opportunity, he immediately asked to hold his son.  Cailish inspected the infant, his face unreadable.  He picked it up, pinched its cheeks, rapped the soles of its feet.  Finally, he gazed into the baby’s blue eyes, and the baby looked back without any reaction.  Then, the baby performed a series of odd movements.  Raising one arm, and then the other, then kicking one leg, and then finally kicking the last leg.  

Cailish returned the baby to his wife’s arms and left the room wordlessly.  From this point on, he would become intensely withdrawn, visiting his wife less and hardly ever visiting his child.

Erasmus, by Hans Holbein the Younger

The Children

The baby was exceptionally well-behaved, rarely crying.  He was named Caddis, after an ancestor on Cailish’s side of the family.  He began walking at the age of 7 months, and spent much time on a chair, looking out the window.  He began speaking shortly after that.

The child’s genius was immediately recognizable.  He began reading without any instruction.  He displayed none of the emotional volatility or impulsiveness that was characteristic of children his age.  In fact, he barely played with other children, preferring instead to spend his time around adults.  He became well-known in town as the “child savant”, and quickly learned mathematics, rhetoric, and several other languages as well.  However, he was protected from public exposure by the insistence of his parents, who kept him indoors and away from others.  He was allegedly taught by tutors, but family friends say that Caddis was merely given books, which he then read by himself without any assistance.

Cailish’s spirits seemed to improve at this time as well.  His nightmares of “drowning in a bag” ended after his son’s birth.  He began spending more time with his wife (although he still shunned his son).  He pursued his wife romantically, and (based on the letters of Jenissa) developed an obsession with suckling on her breasts.  Soon, she was pregnant again.

His daughter would be born in the spring of 891 TFM.  Her name was Jolin, named after her mother’s favorite horse.  Jolin proved to be as precocious as her older brother, and soon it became known that there were two geniuses in the house of Andorum.

But there were unhappy moments as well.  When Caddis was five, it was discovered that the child had been drinking beer that had been stored in his room.  Cailish had placed it there, and insisted that it was acceptable for his son to drink beer.  “It helped with the long hours of reading,” he said.  This was the first of many arguments the two of them had about their children.

Cailish also began to take Caddis to work with him.  Many visitors remember seeing the two of them working alongside each other, bent over the same pile of papers.  They never talked to each other.  Occasionally Cailish would leave to get food, and they would eat it together in silence.  When it was time for Caddis to go home (for his mother insisted that he eat dinner with them), he would walk out without a farewell.

As soon as Jolin was old enough to hold a pen, she joined her brother and her father at his scriptorium.  And then there were three of them working there together in silence.

Another scandal occurred when Caddis was 9 years old.  Jenissa discovered that her husband had taken her son to a brothel, and that it had not been the first time.  She threatened to return to her father’s house, and take her children with her, but was prevented by the protestations of the rest of her family.

As the Grand Healer recounts the conversation with his daughter, Jenissa sat in the kitchen crying.  But her husband, her son, and her daughter all stood around her calmly.  All 3 of them reassured her that Cailish had not been inappropriate in taking Caddis to the brothel.  It was uncomfortable, but it became eerie when Caddis began massaging her neck to calm her down, exactly as Cailish used to do.

“He must have learned it from watching his father,” Jenissa would say.

After this incident, Cailish agreed to send his son away to Borigon’s Tower, where he would learn how to fight.  Young Caddis was 10, and eager to learn the art of the blade and the bow.  Cailish supported this idea.  Most assumed that he desired to see his son become a knight because he himself had been denied the opportunity.

The next year, Cailish insisted that Jolin be admitted to Borigon’s Tower as well.  The school did not allow girls to enroll.  However, Cailish spent the next six months campaigning for this rule to be overturned, and by the next spring, Jolin was allowed to enroll alongside her brother.  To this day, Borigon’s Tower still allows girls to apply.  Although it admits only a few, this precedent began with Jolin Andorum.

Initially, Caddis did well at Borigon’s Tower.  He claimed that his father had taught him the rudiments of martial arts.  Although Caddis excelled in his first couple of years, he never got along well with the other boys, who mocked him for being arrogant and boring.  By his teenage years, he was only known as a mediocre student.

Jolin performed similarly.  Like her brother, she lacked friends, and the two of them were often seen together.  Rumors of lesbianism were never dispelled.

In letters, Jenissa claimed that she never wished for another child.  In fact, her children were a great source of stress for her.  But by 890 TFM, she was pregnant again, this time with another son.

The turning point came later in the year.  Both of the children were home for the holidays.  Jenissa found herself in the kitchen preparing mashed pumpkins with Jolin.  As usual, the three of them barely spoke to each other, leaving Jolin feeling uncomfortable.  

While eating a large piece of bread, Jolin dropped a knife, which landed blade-first on her foot and pierced it deeply.  At that moment, she heard Cailish cuss from the other room.  Caddish, looking out the window, dropped the items he was holding.  And in her uterus, the baby thrashed as if it were in pain.  Jolin dropped to the floor to attend to her foot, but she had not cried out.  Her mouth was full of bread.  

A few seconds later, both of her children looked at her at the exact same time, as if to gauge her reaction.  The fetus inside her was suddenly still, as if holding her breath.  Jenissa immediately went for bandages and did her best to focus only on her daughter’s injuries.  Early the next morning, she visited the Hesayan Church and sought advice from the priests.

The Inquisition

Father Boldraven later apologized for the zeal of his witch hunters.  By all accounts, Cailish and his children had committed no great trespass, and did not deserve the treatment that they were afforded.  Certainly, the Church paid for the best possible medical care afterwards.  But two days later the investigation had revealed critical facts.

• Cailish and his children were inextricably linked.  In the words of Father Boldraven: “The three of them shared a soul and a mind.  It was not awareness that linked them, but identity.  Three persons shared one essence.  In private, they did not think of themselves as distinct.”

• Whatever one saw, the others saw.  Whatever one knew, the other’s knew.  What one felt, the others felt.  They were capable of speaking and acting with perfect synchronicity, if they wished to do so.

• Cailish had hidden this fact for fear that he would be ostracized or killed.  At times, he had even contemplated suicide.

They had committed no crime, and Cailish had been a loyal servant of the Church throughout his life.  And so the three of them were eventually released.  Or rather, the one.

The next discussion was with the magistrate, who determined that although Cailish was one man inhabiting three bodies, he would still be held responsible for the normal tax burdens that three persons would require.  The weary Cailish agreed to these terms.

When he returned home, he found Jenissa packing her bags.  She had resolved to leave him, and return to her father’s house.  Cailish and his two children pleaded, but they could not persuade her.  Despite her pregnancy, she left the same night.  She spent two weeks at her father’s house, during which Cailish sent her many letters, begging for her to return.  She did not respond, and after the first few letters, began to throw them away without reading them.

She eventually left Bospero for Lon Barago, where her sister was married to a wealthy rancher.  When she gave birth the next summer, the newborn immediately began speaking, apologizing for the past and promising a different sort of future.  I am sorry for never telling you, the newborn said, still covered with his mother’s blood.  Please come home to Bospero.  Your family needs you.

Jenissa sent the infant back to Bospero, entrusted to one of the king’s rangers.  She did not marry again.

For several years, things were peaceful for Cailish in Bospero.  He received his new son and integrated him into the family.  At the urging of his friends, he finally capitulated and named the son Imirren, which means “new beginning”.  Imirren was 3 at the time of his naming.

Cailish kept his three children from the public eye.  At this point, he became a prolific scribe.  With four sets of hands to hold a pen, he was able to finish books faster than anyone else.  Visitors reported one child working on a book, then becoming weary enough to go to bed.  No sooner had they set the pen down that another child had picked it up, and resumed writing at the exact spot.

The four persons of Cailish prospered in this period.  He began to sell his services as a genius, and promised faster and more accurate translations.  He found no small success here.  However, the most recent scholars who have assessed his work have described as “competent” or “good enough for most purposes”.  Hardly a genius.  Still, he was not without his admirers, and he eventually remarried, this time to a seventeen-year-old named Diodora, who would eventually go on to bear him twelve children over the next twenty years.

The first sign of the future troubles was when young Caddis attempted to marry a woman named Yennia, who he had been courting for two years.  The Church refused their application due.  Their reasoning was that Andorum was one person in several bodies.  To allow him a second wife at this point was polygamy.

The second wedge was making provisions for his death.  Cailish believed that he would not truly die as long as his children lived.  The Church requested him to make the usual provisions for death, but he did not.  He began to speak as if he might be immortal, which caused no small consternation among the faithful.

Cailish was called to account for himself.  It was discovered that Yennia had been living with Caddis for years, without the knowledge of her parents or the Church.  And when Cailish was asked about any unnatural congress with Jolin, he refused to answer.  While the magistrate was still debating what charges were appropriate, Cailish and his entire family disappeared.  They were not heard from again for 60 years.

Hammerlee

In Tau Solen, there is a town in the hills called Hammerlee.  It was eventually discovered that most of the population of Hammerlee was composed of the descendents of Cailish Andorum, who all shared a singular mind.

Cailish Andorum–the original body of Cailish Andorum–had died over a decade earlier after a long struggle with a consumptive rot of the lungs.  He was eventually strangled by himself in what seems like an extremely traumatic night for the surviving elements of Andorum.

The population of Hammerlee had been steadily growing.  Through birth, but also through immigration.  Cailish (now distributed across over hundred individuals) had been recruiting women to join the city, offering them favorable terms, and appealing to those with few better options.  This recruitment had been going on for decades, and was the reason for the current size of the town.

Even in his current state, Cailish is a deeply heterosexual man.  He might be interested in marriage and procreation, but he is not interested in sex with men.  And similarly, although there is some evidence of intercourse between the male and female elements of Cailish, it is never procreative and accompanied by a sense of shame.  Our primary source for these facts is Father Dorbund, who was the priest in Hammerlee for 24 years, and heard many of the confessions of Cailish.

Allegedly, the emotions of the Cailish-mind were in a very conflicted state at this point.  He described it as maddening.  He wasn’t sure what his life would be, since it seemed that he would be unlikely to die.  After the original Cailish died, the idea was only reinforced.  Caddis described the act of dying as “unpleasant, brief, and ultimately underwhelming”.

That was over a century ago.  Hammerlee still stands, and the population has only grown.  Cailish continues to do his best to attract women to the town, although he has had much less success lately, since the Church excommunicated him and marked Hammerlee as anathema.

Cailish has also seemed to have overcome some of his aversions, and multiple men report having been solicited by the women of Hammerlee.  Additionally, he has also brought several scholars to Hammerlee, lured there by the wildest promises.  If the rumors are to be believed, Cailish is investigating some forms of eugenics, as well as the best ways to offset the risks of inbreeding.

The town of Hammerlee has met with a lot of opposition.  Many other towns refuse to trade with them, and raiders often target Hammerlee as the object of their predations.  Still, the town has proven to be a hard nut to crack.  Alarm is raised instantly, and the defenders are always exquisitely coordinated.  Every citizen of Hammerlee, from the smallest child to the oldest crone, is a capable hand with a sword, spear, and bow.

There's also the case of Josas Andorum, who claimed to be a member of Cailish's family. If he is to be believed, he was only partially afflicted with the mental linkages common to Cailish's pedigree. Rather than being another extension of Cailish, he was his own individual. However, he was aware of Cailish's thoughts (and vice versa, it was theorized). Josas Andorum was able to provide very accurate descriptions of Hammerlee, along with the movements of all its inhabitants. He was also responsible for helping to uncover the true nature of the Blackshackle mercenary company. He was killed in 954 TFM, apparently slain by bandits on the road.

Cailish still appears desperate for reconciliation with the Church.  He has sent many letters and representatives, asking for the church to be re-established in Hammerlee.  The Church continues to refuse these proposals on the grounds of immoral polygamy.  (The Church is still divided on whether or not Cailish’s alleged entanglements constitute incest.)  

In the absence of any other spiritual leadership, the “Church” in Hammerlee is currently led by a man named Ambrogistus, who claims to be a priest of the Church but is not recognized by any bishop.  Most believe him to be a charlatan of the highest order.  The fact that he is the most trusted man in Hammerlee is only due to his skill in illusions and fakery.

There are many rumors that surround Hammerlee.

If they are to be believed, there is at least one mercenary company composed of Cailish.  The Blackshackles range along eastern slopes of the Elterspines.  Many people have noticed how they mercenaries seem to share an ancestry, rarely speak to each other, and have extremely similar fighting styles.

Another rumor is that Cailish is seeking magical enhancements to his bloodline.  While there is no clear evidence of any success, the idea that Cailish might progress past his current limitations is alarming to many.  However, many authorities do not seem to be alarmed by the existence of Cailish, since the population of Hammerlee is less than 1000 individuals.

Discussion

Cailish is a nascent hivemind.  Like the Zerg or the Borg, except Cailish is still very human.

He struggles with his spirituality, his sense of purpose, his isolation, and sexual flexibility required of a hivemind.  He is worried about his eternal soul, and he fears that he may be suffering a disjointed hell, similar to how his living soul enjoys a disjointed life.

At the same time, the breadth of his experience means that he is gradually expanding into a broader mind.  His multiplicity of experience is slowly eroding his prior values: his patriotism, his sexuality, and his sense of morality.  He feels rootless, and thus he is drawn to charlatans like Ambrogistus.

Another 200 years and Cailish might truly be an abomination with 100,000 members of his race.  But for now, he is a man caught in between vast possibilities, struggling to find a frame of reference that applies to him.

How to Use This in Your Game

You could focus on the early part of Cailish’s life.  The discovery of his early hivemind could be a good reveal for a villainous wizard.

If you wish to make Cailish a villain, it could be good to put the party in contact with Josas, who could be instrumental in guiding their actions while still being an asset worth protecting. The infiltration of Hammerlee is difficult to run. (Infiltration scenarios are often tricky to run, but they're nearly impossible when you're up against a hive mind, since being detected by one person results in a full alert.)

He would be a more complicated ally.  Players might not be unified on what constitutes polygamy and incest in the context of a hivemind, which is why it’s simpler to have him as a villain. It's also tough to care about his goals.

Cailish is fascinating as a neutral third party.  A patron, a mercenary company, or even a business interest.  He is a human hivemind, which makes him both dangerous and exploitable. 

Mechanics

Groups of 1d6+1.  Level 2 Fighters.  Get +1 to attack rolls for each other Cailish that is attacking the same target simultaneously (up to +4).

Psychic link is not instantaneous, and instead moves at about 20 miles/hour. Long distance messages are subject to distortion (similar to the telephone game).

Also

I'm on Blue Sky here.