I am Dorothea Greskkovičja, Historian of Boudičja’s Forge.
These are my notes on the life of Antimony, Sorcerer, which I have prepared for her Ladyship of the Forge, great maybe her vault.
The study of Antimony is a study of the paradox. His forté was to embody that which is mutually exclusive or incompatible into a single entity or energy. To think of this as stability is to miss the point of Antimony’s genius: it was stable instability and unstable stability at the same time.
For example, it is said that Antimony recorded his research using a caustic ‘patalogical ink that would burn through parchment — rock, glass, or anything else for that matter. Whether this is truth or legend is not the point. That this is a perfect example of Antimony is all that really matters. Antimony would completely go for something that was an act of creation and destruction, yielding something that was and was not.
One can only imagine the fellow preparing a supper-time meal.
Many tried to emulate Antimony’s power, and scrubbing their remains off the ceiling was a full-time occupation throughout Inbegriff (these professionals were called schrubbendereingewiedevondenceilingmännern).
The first known account of Antimony was in the battle that killed Gefrorenkönig.
Two separate tapestries, one found in Lich Hall in Vulgaria and the other in Ploshchad Krem in Py-Ut depict a sufficiently similar scene to take the overall gist of it as historical fact.
First, there is a wave of Dwarves and Humans assaulting the mountain top horde of Gefrorenkönig. Legions of Dragonborn, Wyvern, and Kobold crash into the assault as the ancient menace watches from the peak of Mount Krumpet. The Dwarves and Humans advance toward victory, only to be decimated by Gefrorenkönig.
Then a single human standing on the peak of Mt. Lola faces Gefrorenkönig in a single challenge.
The centerpiece of each tapestry are two mountain tops, each suspended in mid air, one with Antimony, the other erupting into a fiery goo that was once called Gefrorenkönig.
Finally, the tapestries depict Antimony victorious with the two surviving generals of the assault on Mount Krumpet. They are believed to be the historical figures Droolian and Gogmagog, Antimony’s generals.
Antimony’s reign was a peace that was never peaceful, as far as this historian can tell. Even philosophers struggle with it.
Beneath the mountains of Inbergriff, Rock Gnomes, Duergar, and Drow opened numerous doors to the Shadowfell — which we are still dealing with, thanks for the legacy there, assholes —and through them poured aberrations. Later, as darkness crept into Singring’s Forrests, the vampiric, the lycanthropic, and the lich moved from the woods to the mountains.
Like Clineman and Pataphor, it is said that Antimony himself was involved in the wars with the vampiric.
Being Antimony, these wars were never won nor lost. They were lostwon or wonlost. They were victories without victory in hostilities that ceased by continuing.
(And a note to fellow historians: the study of Antimony is best done after drowning down a couple of Transcendental Baklava from Thela Hun Jingeet with a great deal of Cwrw from the Queen’s Breweries in Fortinbras. It makes nothing clearer, but it makes the lack of clarity less clear, and that is something we are certain Antimony would have appreciated, even we don’t.)
There are no survivors’ accounts of the destruction of Antimony’s tower. It’s historical location, like Pataphor’s tower is unknown. Unlike Pataphor’s tower, we can more or less trace the pattern of dispersal of its remains back to somewhere in northern Gloriana — which agrees with legend that claims Pataphor and Clinamen could see each others towers looming in the distance.
Somewhere in the mountains of Schizzeplatz, from Ithulvania to Vulgaria — high on the mountain peaks or anchored in the valleys low — Adventurers continue to seek the tower and what ever might be plundered by the fortunate who might survive.