Ghyll:Irictus Ross
Irictus Ross is best known for his naming (or renaming) of the field of Theoalchemy in -96 EC. This has been, without a doubt, his most noteworthy accomplishment to date. However, there are a few smaller things for which he can be thanked or ridiculed, depending on your point-of-view. He is also known for his oddly pronounced name, which can be pronounced Eye Ricdus or E Rocdus, the latter being the pronunciation his parents always used. One supposes that Irictus Ross would be quite tired of hearing of these other mentionables, had he not passed away calmly in -23 EC. One also supposed that since he has passed away, these other things could be blamed on someone else, but where's the fun in that?
Irictus Ross was born in -126 EC and was named Irictus Summorius Hampous. In -103 EC he started calling himself Irictus Ross, since that name wouldn't be associated with the events of the previous year, he had hoped. You see, in -104 EC, Irictus found a way to read untruths with little difficulty. He enjoyed catching his peers in a lie and then extorting things from them in exchange for his silence in the matter. Ultimately, this lead to the death of a young Ghyllian named, well, Ghyllian; his parents were not very imaginative as you can imagine. Irictus was not blamed for the death but he decided it would be best if people didn't associate him with it. Why he did not change his first name is still a mystery.
He came across a wandering band of people who taught him the way of Hythmium and Irictus was intrigued immediately. He took up with this group and joined their travelling church, learning how to change light into metal and continuously improved on the techniques, until one day in -98 EC when he announced his findings of a new type of alchemy. Most of the people he talked to asked if he was related to Irictus Summorius Hampous, which he denied. His "new alchemy" was termed neo-alchemy unofficially; the name never stuck. In -96 EC, Irictus officially named his discovery theoalchemy, since he learned it from a church who worshipped their god, Hythmium. Of course, later that same year, they explained the background of their church and he regretted getting a deity involved at all. What was done, was done. Irictus decided to make up some background about Pinky and Perky having to be in just the right place in the sky.
The name theoalchemy stuck and Irictus had to come up with a deity for theoalchemists to supposedly depend on for the conversion of light into metal. Thus, Irictus branched off from the church of Hythmium and created his own church: the church of the Creator of Nothing. He claimed that Nothing was the name of some type of light which couldn't be seen by Ghyllian eyes, but which pyxies could see quite vividly. In reality, Nothing was nothing. The Creator of Nothing was a con, literally. And figuratively. And rudimentarily, as well.
The problem now was that people picked up on the church of the CON and went with it. The church of Hythmium eventually decided to accept this as a sister church, but never officially joined with it. Theoalchemy took off as the newest religious science and people started making metal from light, again, or at least attempting to.
In -90 EC, Irictus actually disproved the existence of Nothing (the light which only pyxies could see) by discovering that pyxies see in the same light range as Ghyllians. How he came to this conclusion is somewhat of a mystery but it can be assumed quite safely that it was not through interrogation of any pyxies. This caused some consternation in the church of the CON and Irictus was thrown out. He remained a member of the church of Hythmium until his death.
In -76 EC, Irictus helped to found the Tempton School in Ellensworth. This school specializes in what can only be called sociological behavior studies. Basically, the school looks at groups of people and finds patterns in their day-to-day lives and then groups these people with other groups based on these patterns. Remarkably, they seem to find more and more criminals every year. Unfortunately, this school was destroyed in -20 EC during the eruption of Pelon Peak.
In -53 EC, Irictus made his last public appearance before retiring to Folktown for the last of his years. He had been told, incorrectly, that he only had two or three years left to live; he was rather upset to find he actually had thirty more. During these last years of his life, he revitalized the church of Hythmium located in Folktown and helped to pick its popularity back up. Of course, the church was now teaching theoalchemy instead of hythmiosis, which is to say, they were still teaching the same thing but with a different name and more enthusiasm.
On his death bed, Irictus denounced his name and revealed to everyone around (both of whom were rather drunk at the time, though) that he was Irictus Summorius Hampous. He died shortly after this proclamation. In -21 EC, his last paper was finally published. Its popularity was not encouraging to the church. Once they realized its subject matter, they were no longer surprised. It seems that during his last years, Irictus set out to find a way to become immortal. His paper said that he had indeed found a way and he had set out to prove it on himself. Apparently, his findings were flawed.
In -10 EC, the Tempton School in Ellensworth was relocated to Folktown and renamed the House Augtig Mountis Gratis of Unilateral School. Basically, they wanted to honor Irictus in such a way as to allow people to easily remember him. Now, they would always know that he was long-winded, but to-the-point and made absolutely no sense in the end.
Citations: Creator of Nothing, Perky, Theoalchemy.
--Trousle Undrhil 02:00, 21 Jul 2005 (EDT)
