Profiles in History: Celdiseth

Celdiseth, the Aluvian Master Mage, was a member of the Council of Mages, also known as the Arcanum.

It is uncertain who his teacher was, but it may have been Celcynd the Dour, first Isparian to master planar magic, who was the only student of Harlune the Misanthrope. He lived in a small hut in northern Osteth, where he sold magical components to passing adventurers, and taught his students, but he also wandered far and wide over Dereth, fighting Bael'Zharon's Shadows and other powerful enemies.

During the Fourth Sending of Darkness, when three Shadow Spires attacked Cragstone, Celdiseth and his apprentices Kei and Evaen led the attack force into the hot, pulsing interior of the first Spire. Queen Elysa and the Order of Advocates broke its defenses, and Asheron himself cracked the Spire open and permitted the gromnatross prisoned inside it to escape to the stars. The shattered remains of the Spire, and of the crater it made in falling, lay off the shores of Old Cragstone to this day.

He was a man of irascible manner, short-tempered, saving what little patience he had for the occasional benefit of his apprentices. He quarreled with Nuhmudira, with Ciandra, with Elysa, and with Asheron himself, but when the chips were down he always consented to work with them for the good of all. Celdiseth had as his students Evaen, Hoshino Kei, Aun Aulatah, Aun Tikauri, and many others, so that his influence on the practice of the magical arts on Dereth is unrivalled to this day...