Wesmod

Wesmod, also known as Wesmod of Tyros, was a Tyrosian jurist and administrator who wrote the Wesmodian Invectives, and thereby launched the Wesmodian Reformation. Considered by many the most influentual thinker in the history of the Eleven Cities, Wesmod certainly created the pervasive conditions in which modern thaumatology is conducted, though whether he did so intentionally, and indeed what his overall intentions were, remain a subject of debate.    

Biography

  One of the peculiarities of the history of the Eleven Cities is that Wesmod's surname is not recorded. Some have suggested that this was deliberate, a way of concealing his identity as an author of contraversial ideas, though the fact that he courted publicity for his ideas after the publication of his invectives, giving many publc speeches and indeed embarking on a tour of the southern Alluvial plain to promulgate his ideas rather counts against this. Some imaginative scholars have even opned that Wesmod was not an indvidual but a committee, citing different writing styles and inquisitorial priorities in the different invectives, and suggested that the man seen discussing the ideas in public was not Wesmod but a spokeman for the group who took on that public persona; if true, this theory is unsupported and viewed by many commentators as a trifle flaky.   The fact is that Wesmod's early life is not recorded; even his date of birth is not widely known, though it is speculatively placed at around 40 BWR. He was clearly born to a literate, probably well-to-do family, as is clear from his erudition and adult position as an administrator for the Dog of Tyros. According to the Third Wesmodian Invective, Wesmod had a younger sister who died when she was seven and he was ten despite the intervention of the local clerics of Krezzan. This last detail is further evidence of an at least modestly wealthy, educated backround, though this is the extent of the biographical information to be gleaned from his own writings. No later than 10 BWR, Wesmod entered the Tyrosian civils service as a scribe, an inauspicious role bespeaking relatively modest birth or means; a family of genuine influence would likely have secured a rather more illustrious initial appointment, possibly to position their son as a candidate for higher office. Nevertheless the role would have placed Wesmod in a positon to record the minutes and meetings of the sitting Dog. Although he would not have been the only functionary doing this, he would likely have handled more minutes than he personally took and have been closely informed about governmental business in the city.  

Composition of the Invectives

  This position is likely to have precipitated Wesmod's place in history. Governing an island city whose population can only be fed by a continuous stream of maritime trade with the cities closer to the Alluvial plain, the Dog of Tyros needs must concern himself with goings-on on in the south. It is thought that, by keeping records of his employer's meetings about this matter, Wesmod began gathering stories about the culture of rural communities on the southern plain, which at the time would have included discussion of the Boles of Dahan. The Seventh Wesmodian Invective is almost certainly the first of the eight to be composed, due simply to its air of vented spleen; the others read like collected, rational extensions of a specific point to a general situation. That is to say that Wesmod probably started the Wesmodian Reformation as a reaction to stories he heard about the worship of Dahan on the southern plains.   Whether Wesmod actually expected this is unclear. It is known that he made every effort to have his Invectives published, circulating copies of the essays to numerous scribes throughout the insular cities. This would have required a knowledge of who to send them to in Dyqamay and Dypholyos, which indicates either that Wesmod had travelled to those cities or had contacts there. Both possibilites suggest, again, that his efforts were abetted by his posiiton in government.  

As a reformer

  Wesmod's invectives had reached all eleven cities within two years of their composition. They caused a sensation among those who had the time to read them, which of course included many wealthy and otherwise socially influential people. Wesmod is known to have been invited to give public lectures on his ideas in Dypholyos, Dyqamay and Elpaloz in this period. The exact subjects of these lectures are not recorded but the existence of such events suggests his ideas acquired a considerable following in the insular cities fairly quickly. The exact chronology of events is also unclear since various cities gave up on pre-Wesmodian timekeeping at various times, ushering in a chaotic period of fifteen to twenty years when calanders become unreliable.   Wesmod is known to have undertaken a speaking tour of the southern cities - Pholyos, Loros and Chogyos in what is thought to have been the summer of 3 AWR, or three years after the publication of his invectives. This was evidently arranged by the staff of Chogyos Customhouse, a peculiar sponsorship given that the Sixth Wesmodian Invective is an attack on the concentration of economic power in the hands of the clerics of Zargyod. The nunaces of that attack, however, are worth observing; Wesmod attacks not the concentration of economic power but the confusion of priorities created when a clerisy acquires such influence. The clerics of Zargyod in fact appear to have been instrumental in spreading Wesmod's work, and he seems to have accepted their aid without much question.   That autumn, Wesmod embarked on an expedition across the Alluvial plain to spread his ideas to various rural communities. The tour was probably bankrolled by the clerics of Zargyod and therefore probably involved touring communities where they were supervising the trade of food to the cities, and would therefore likely have begun with a trip a certain distance up the Chondolos River. From there he travelled widely across the plain, delivering lectures in numerous villages and communities. Accounts suggest that the first few such engagements went poorly, as Wesmod's urbane accent and diction failed to sway the people of the hinterlands. He met with a hostile response in many places and in one village his clothing was apparently ignted by a flaming missile thrown by an irate listener, though he was not seriously hurt. He also suffered counterarguements from various local priests of Dahan denouncing him for denying the god. A number of his speeches ended with he and his attendants (supplied, it is assumed, by his Chogyan backers) having to flee angry mobs raised by these priests, some of whom seemed to have some uncanny advance warning of his arrival. Gradually, however, Wesmod learned how to speak to hs audience, phrasing his message in ways to which farmers could understand. Audiences became steadily more receptive and listened less and less to the local Bole of Dahan, who appeared to challenge him less and less frequently. Over two years Wesmod is said to have spoken at over four hundred small villages before his perambualations took him to Pholyos, by which time audiences were taking his message readily and throwing their local priest of Dahan out of the village rather than him.   Or so says the one written account of this msision, a set of anonymous, undated, untitled notes left in the archives of Tyros. These refer to Wesmod in the third person, and are widely believed to be the work of an unknown secretary or attendant who accompanied Wesmod on his tour and intended to write a biography of him, though no such finished work is known to exist. Another possibility is that the notes are by Wesmod himself, who may have intended to write an autobiography or further observations of his time on the Alluvial plain. If this is the case, however, it raises the question ot why he referred to himself in the third person. In his Invectives - his only published writings - Wesmod refers to himself in the first person twice, so this is not a personal ideosyncracy of his. The notes run to barely two pages and have never been published, though researchers with sufficient clout to gain access to Tyros's city archives can read them.  

Later life and death

  Wesmod is known to have returned to Tyros after his southern tour and to have continued to campaign for religious reform. In this, however, he seems to have become a victim of his own early successes. While he was in the south campaigning against Dahan his ideas had been appled to the cults of other gods, most notably Ynglyas, and consequently public record-keeping and timekeeping had become wholly chaotic. No specific records of his subsequent work therefore survive.   Widespread oral tradition has it that Wesmod died of an attack of apoplexy some ten years after he returned to Tyros - that is, in 15 AWR. He will have been in his early forties.  

Thaumatological significance

  The Wesmodian Reformation had such a profound impact on society that the calendar had to be reconfigured to reflect the changes. Public date-keeping and time-keeping had traditionally been delegated to the clerics of Ynglyas. Deprived of public support, however, that clerisy collapsed, or at least withdrew its services from the public, leading to a great deal of confusion over whcih moon or year it was in any given city, or indeed from household to household. The Commercial Guilds, headquartered in Chogyos, eventually re-established a dating system based on the highest tide observed each spring at the Chogyos Customhouse, and it is from this that modern years "After Wesmodian Reformation" (AWR) are counted.   By challenging the social prominence of religion, moreover, Wesmod precipitated a broader collapse in public support for the gods and their earthly agents. In doing so he turned a body of stories, observances, rituals and customs from something the general public at least broadly believed in to a series of social and intellectual ideas viewed broadly as fiction. Modern thaumatologists explore these ideas in an effort to systematise them and create reliable magical effects. As such Wesmod set up the conditions in which modern magic is conducted.   In saying this it is important to observe that this does not appear to have remotely been Wesmod's intenton. There is no indication that he was interested in thaumatology in any way. As noted above, he was seemingly mostly motivated by a humanitarian desire to free the farmers of the plain from the perceived tyrannies of the Boles of Dahan, an objective that many modern thaumatologists see as misconceived and of sorely limited value in light of the social disruption it caused. The fact that he expanded that objective to include invectives against six of the other seven gods, however, does indicate a broader program of social and intellectual reform, the precise ramifications of which are occasionally debated by learned audiences. That debate takes place in a philosophical climate shaped by the antique nature of relgious observance, for which Wesmod is directly responsible. Few other individuals have had a more profound impact on the history of the Eleven Cities.