Magister Patriarch Alric is the kind of person best described with 'was' instead. He was a great hero, who fought in countless battles for the Empire. He was a widely-respected Supreme Patriarch. He was, indeed, the Savior of Apesto. But he also was the one in power on the Night of a Thousand Arcane Duels in 2415, when High Luminary Horx ambushed him, sealed him in crystal, and went on to unleash a Storm of Magic upon Altdorf that led to fifteen years of the Colleges being outlawed and besieged. He stepped down from the position of Supreme Patriarch in the immediate aftermath, and that should have been the end of his chapter in history. But he kept going, apparently on sheer inertia, and apparently had sufficiently recovered from his shame to retake the position of Supreme Patriarch in 2439, and then lost it in '47, then regained it
again for '55-'62. In recent years he's been alternating leadership of the Light College with part-time Magister Matriarch Mira, and from the outside it's not clear if it's an arrangement to take pressure off failing faculties or if leadership is being yanked back and forth like two dogs with a bone, but either way it bodes poorly for the Light College.
The man you are introduced to is unbent by age and rises to greet you when you enter, and glows with a luminescence that matches the walls around him to an extent that you have to squint to tell where the building ends and the Wizard begins. "Ah yes," he says, in a quiet voice that nonetheless seems to echo through the room. "The Dwarf-Friend of the Greys. I have heard good things of you in recent years."
"Thank you, Magister Patriarch," you say respectfully. Though not
too respectfully, as you used the standard title instead of whatever it is they call the position within the Light Order.
"Karag Dum, the letter said," he says thoughtfully, his long, boney fingers drumming out a melody on the arm of his chair. "It was lost when we were founded. Perhaps something must be lost for something to be gained. Still, no reason not to try. Are you going yourself?"
"I am, as are several of my colleagues."
[Rolling...]
"Mmm. Much as I would like to join such an adventure, I fear the Light College requires my leadership too much. Instead, I will send with you the greatest assistance it is in my power to give: my former apprentice, Magister Egrimm van Horstmann. He has been a stalwart assistant of mine in internal matters, but I am sure I could spare him for a few months."
"My thanks, Magister Patriarch." A single Magister. Well, better than nothing.
Which was my entire point there.
