Ser Caldus
Overview
Faction: Veilwalkers Age: 120 (appears 40) Origin: Unknown Role: Time manipulator and historical archivist Alias: “The Counterfeiter”
Ser Caldus manipulates time-not traveling through it, but editing it. He creates counterfeit moments that slot into history as if they always existed. He can add minutes to an hour, remove seconds from a fight, or make events happen in different order than they occurred. He’s Elarion’s only documented time manipulator and has lived far longer than should be possible by stealing time from others and adding it to his own lifespan.
Caldus’s past before arriving in Elarion seventy years ago is deliberately obscured. He claims to have been born in 1885, making him 120 years old, but looks like a man in his early forties. Records confirm his presence in Elarion since Year 35, but contradictory accounts suggest he arrived multiple times in different years. Before joining Veilwalkers, he lived as a historian and archivist, documenting Elarion’s post-Aetherfall transformation. His meticulous records became invaluable references-except that certain accounts contradicted each other, describing the same events differently.
Veilwalkers discovered his time manipulation when they noticed historical inconsistencies surrounding him. Events he documented sometimes showed evidence of happening differently than any other source recorded. When confronted, he admitted he’d been “correcting” history-editing timelines to improve outcomes. He revealed his ability emerged naturally (or so he claims) after prolonged exposure to raw Aether. Time became malleable to him-something he could stretch, compress, or reorder like editing a manuscript. He’d been using these abilities subtly for decades.
Widow Vain discovered his original name during research and now blackmails him for periodic payments. He pays because the name connects to something in his past he’d rather remain buried-something even his time editing can’t fully erase.
Personality
- Patient and Methodical: Caldus speaks with formal courtesy from an earlier era, possessing excellent manners, dressing anachronistically, and treating everyone with old-fashioned respect regardless of their faction or status.
- Ethically Troubled: He is deeply troubled by the implications of his abilities, knowing that editing time means changing what happened and potentially overwriting people’s experiences and memories-yet he does it anyway because letting terrible events stand feels worse.
- Isolated by Knowledge: He maintains extensive journals documenting his time edits, creating records of multiple timelines, and as the only one who remembers what he changes, he carries profound isolation from having lived through events that no longer happened.
- Pragmatic Strategist: Despite his troubled conscience, he pragmatically uses his abilities when editing time can save lives or prevent disasters, accepting the personal cost of remembering multiple contradictory histories.
- Philosophically Curious: He is fascinated by the Void Prophet, whose presence forces time to flow normally and undoes his manipulations, and their philosophical debates about time versus void can last for hours.
Abilities & Aether Use
Caldus views Aether as the substrate of causality itself-the medium through which time flows and events become fixed in reality. His philosophy holds that time is less like a river and more like a manuscript, where any passage can be edited with proper technique. He channels Aether not to move through time but to manipulate its very structure, treating history as malleable text rather than immutable law.
Time Manipulation
Time Editing: Caldus doesn’t travel through time-he edits it. He can add moments that didn’t happen, remove moments that did, or reorder sequences of events. These edits integrate seamlessly into history as if they always existed.
Temporal Theft: He steals time from others and adds it to his lifespan. He’s lived 120 years by taking minutes, hours, and days from people around him. His victims don’t notice-they simply have slightly less time in their lives.
Counterfeit Creation
Counterfeit Moments: He creates false moments that appear genuine-alibis for allies, evidence of events that never occurred, or gaps in enemy timelines. These counterfeits integrate perfectly into history unless someone knows to look for inconsistencies.
Memory and Burden
Timeline Memory: He remembers all versions of events he’s edited. This gives him unique strategic perspective but also immense psychological burden. He carries memories of timelines that no longer exist.
Limitations
He can only edit recent history-hours or days, not years. Large edits require enormous Aether and leave him exhausted for days. He can’t undo deaths directly (only edit circumstances around them). The Void Prophet’s presence collapses his edits, forcing time to flow normally. Each edit removes him slightly further from baseline causality.
Relationships
Widow Vain (Silvertongue)
Widow Vain holds power over Caldus through blackmail-she knows his original name and uses it to extort periodic payments. Caldus pays willingly to keep his past buried, though he could theoretically edit the timeline to remove her knowledge. Something ethical about his abilities prevents him from doing so, creating a strange dynamic where the time manipulator allows himself to be controlled by information he could technically erase. Their relationship represents one of the few constraints he places on his own power.
Void Prophet (Veilwalkers)
The Prophet serves as Caldus’s philosophical counterpart within the faction. Their abilities fundamentally conflict-the Prophet’s null field forces time to flow normally, undoing any temporal edits Caldus attempts nearby. Rather than creating animosity, this has fostered extensive philosophical debates about the nature of time versus void. Each respects the other’s perspective, recognizing they’re both working against natural law in different ways: one consumes what shouldn’t be consumed, the other edits what shouldn’t be edited.
Tess Aurel (Veilwalkers)
Caldus’s collaboration with Tess creates uniquely complex operations. Her probability perception interacts strangely with his time editing, sometimes showing her past futures that didn’t happen-echoes of timelines he’s altered. They work together on operations requiring both time manipulation and probability assessment, their combined abilities creating opportunities others couldn’t attempt while also generating unsettling glimpses of roads not taken.
Eidolon (Veilwalkers)
Eidolon’s reality editing complements Caldus’s time manipulation in powerful ways. Together they can reshape both space and time, creating operational possibilities that push the boundaries of what Veilwalkers can accomplish. Their professional partnership represents some of the most ambitious reality-alteration work the faction undertakes, though both are aware of the ethical weight their combined abilities carry.
Vesper Thane (Silvertongue)
Vesper occasionally hires Caldus to create alibi timelines for negotiation operations-inserting meeting records that never happened or establishing presence at locations the negotiator never visited. Their relationship remains purely professional, with mutual respect for each other’s rare abilities. Vesper pays well and asks few questions; Caldus delivers reliable temporal documentation without moral judgment.
