Herrenhal

Herrenhal, also called Herinol and Heron Hall, is a great master of the Archon in the campaign Mürekkep ve Çelik ("Ink and Steel"). He supervised the first thesis of the mage Castor and later became his master.¹²

Character

Herrenhal is old, with a long white beard, and given to strange habits. He came to lessons half-dressed, Aypol Morks remembers; Castor once found his assistant planted as spinach in a flowerpot. He says he hates onion soup, yet eats it gladly and is seldom seen without it. He is the only loremaster at the Archon besides Castor and is trying to make loremastery a recognised school. He takes students rarely, by his own choosing, gives no lessons, and says that in the past he did things the Archon needed. He once had a dragon, he says, but would not speak of its end.³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸

He lives in a tower that floats a little apart from the Archon; a pale, white-skinned youth, his student, opens the door. Castor's thesis under him, on how magic reshapes the elements rather than calling them into ready moulds, was meant to help make loremastery an official school.⁹¹⁰¹¹

Teacher and protector

When Castor said he would apply for the mastery examination, Herrenhal said it was unethical to give hints before the board while reading through his notes anyway. He warned him that he might die in the examination, facing spells rarely mastered at his age, and that a helping hand held out when things go badly can bring a fate worse than death. He kept Castor's apprentice Glanfall and the bear Bobo overnight to study the boy's uncanny luck; they came back pale and sleepless, and Herrenhal, found pruning roses so that the thorns could grow, insisted that Glanfall, though he looks human, is not, without saying what he is.^121314151617

The master Nocklin says that Herrenhal cast the ancient, mighty spell that keeps the sunken city of Olmo, where the mastery examination is held, inside a bubble of air and stops it sinking further, a power close to that which keeps the Archon aloft. Pointing to a book of ancient rituals written in an old form of Elvish, Nocklin said that mages of old sacrificed parts of their bodies in such rituals, and offered his own theory that Herrenhal had sacrificed parts of his mind.¹⁸¹⁹

Spoiler: The rebels' gatheringGösterAçık ettiği: Mürekkep ve Çelik #10 · Ne okuduğunuzu söyleyin

Some time before, Herrenhal had asked Castor to fetch washing left hanging at the top of his tower by flying or teleporting, an errand that only later proved to be practice. When the rebels gathered on the Skydock, Herrenhal rose into the air and broke the great spell that held it aloft; his right hand turned to dust, and that part of the school fell. The griffins' cages broke and the beasts went free, while some of those on it teleported away.²⁰²¹²²

After the battle he visited Castor in the infirmary, prodding his sore places and bringing soup; later he sat knitting. He was not in the hall when the board met for Castor's second thesis, but when the demonstrations moved outdoors he was waiting at the top of the amphitheatre with his onion soup, and afterwards he told him that much of his theory might be wrong, though someone had to say such things, and he admired his courage. Hearing that Castor's two theses averaged seventy-nine, he said it was better than he had expected.^23242526

The choice of master

Herrenhal urged Castor to think again about the mastery examination: it is proportioned to the claims of the candidate, and he feared Castor would face one of the hardest the Archon had, for he was one of the few people whose loss would grieve him. When Castor told him that Horus Maxwell had invited him to his research team, Herrenhal praised Horus as the most systematic and productive master of the Archon and left the choice to his student. He also advised him to put lead between his head and the world.^27282930

Before the examination Castor washed clothes with him by hand. Herrenhal told him the examination tests character more than magical power, and would not lend him money, saying he had lost some at the yearly imperial races; instead he tipped a horse called Geri Tepici, bred by elves of a house like Silvar's, to win the race three months later. On the last night Castor and Glanfall shared wine and a grill with him before his tower and stayed there.^31323334

At Olmo it was explained that the city had not always been under water and that its present state is tied to events in which Herrenhal paid a heavy price; he knows more than anyone of Sars, the vast octopus-like being that guards the city and prepares the examination, under an agreement reaching back to the Archon's first years. The metal helmet Castor wore, taken with the master Yotun's leave from a heap of scrap armour, kept the creature from reading his mind, which gave Herrenhal's advice its meaning.³⁵³⁶³⁷

Returning, Castor came to his tower. Herrenhal praised the helmet and acknowledged that he knew Sars, but told him not to assume too much. He thought that Horus would not let Castor stray from his academic line if he became his student, though Horus was no bad man, and that their friendship would survive either way; he refused to go beyond the barrier himself, saying his body would likely be buried at the Archon.^3883940

Spoiler: Castor's armGösterAçık ettiği: Mürekkep ve Çelik #13 · Ne okuduğunuzu söyleyin

Castor had lost an arm, and guessed that Sars was to blame; Herrenhal would not agree.⁸

At the ceremony of mastery before all the masters, Castor chose to continue with Herrenhal, to Horus's anger. Herrenhal climbed onto the table, said that those who called him mad were right and that Castor had proved mad too, and returned to his soup; then he told Castor by telepathy that the world is changed by those who dream of doing what cannot be done, apologised for having doubted his choice, and said he would not be sorry to have him as a son.⁴¹⁴²⁴³

Later

Herrenhal spent four days rearranging his library at random, looking for an order he liked. He advised Castor not to trade his hat, on intuition. He has taken a new apprentice, a silent blue-skinned youth, and has been helping Bobo, who keeps growing now that what held him back has been lifted. At a night grill he fed a small dragon with magic missiles, danced on the table, flew and threw fireballs like fireworks; when he drifted asleep in the air, Castor brought him safely down.^{44454647484950}

Before Castor left for White City, Herrenhal confided his worry about Glanfall: looking into his soul he heard not one voice but many, as if many souls, or a broken one, were kept in his body, and he did not think the boy had been born naturally. In time, he suggested, one might master the dangerous spell of contacting other planes and turn it on Glanfall's own soul, though no answer might be better than an answer. He recommended the White Stag, a small tower near the palace known for its rice pudding.^51525354