Bigby the Archmage
(born Kheti Takhaman)


Bigby was the nickname of Suhndi Archmage Kheti Takhaman, born CY 658 in Memsemet.
A prodigy of arcana, and the son of two wealthy wizards talented in their own right,
at age 5 he designed the Detect Magic Cantrip currently in use by all wizards (prior
to Bigby's design, its range was only 30 ft). The Caliph summoned him to Hephiontias
in 667, and there, little Bigby asked the Caliph, "What spells could you cast at my
age?" As the court gasped, the Caliph calmly answered "None. But tell me, when
you're my age, how clearly will you see Salaman's will?"

This began a long and profitable but eccentric relationship between Bigby and the
Caliph. It was requested the boy stay in the capital city, and his parents of course
assented. Thus from age 9 until he entered Hephiontias University at age 12 (two
years early) he spent a good deal more personal time with the Caliph than most anyone
ever had. And perhaps it was his familiarity with the See that made him feel he
could move freely despite the wishes of powers-that-be -- first, those advisors who
demanded he drop arcana and pursue the clergy, and later, those who insisted that
he study Divination if he had to study magic at all. But the Caliph himself never
gave young Bigby a direct order, and so Bigby without hesitation chose Evocation as
his school, and all his life, despite their demands, he never pursued a level of
cleric.

He completed his courses at University in three years, but the rules stipulated no
one could graduate until they completed five years of study, and the headmaster was
not one to open these rules to interpretation. Thus, bored, Kheti Takhaman spent two
years at University which he filled with studies of his own design, and accomplished
impressive feats.

First, he showed impressive organizational and diplomatic skill as he established
the inter-League spellcasting competition. Still held every year, prior to Bigby's
intervention schools met only to compete within their own League. Bigby posited a
simple trophy as prize, and the honor of carrying it home, and it immediately became
what he'd hoped. However, he magnanimously disqualified himself from the first
competition and sat as one of its judges, alongside professors, alumni, and zyr.

Second, he also composed the first of his famous Hand spells. He was but 17.
Bigby's Interposing Hand -- the hand of "My Childhood Djinn," he joked.

A word on the nickname, Bigby. As a child of 5, when he first came to the public's
attention, he had, as many children do, an imaginary friend, "Bigby." As the fame
spread, some misunderstood this to be the child's name; soon enough, it became the
child's nickname, as Bigby seemed apt for so small a wizard. And saddled with this
mistake for the rest of his life, the mage joked back at it by referring to the Hands
as belonging to this imaginary friend -- at long last, evoked for the world to see.

Bigby during the next 30 years was a loyal defender of the faith, though he turned
down all offers of church rank. As this was difficult to explain, many people chose
to believe that he was so pious his humility prevented from being even Wazif. He
remained content to head the Evoker school at Hephiontias, starting at age 26 -- still
the youngest school head ever. In 693, however, his old friend the Caliph died,
and Bigby began what years later was clearly a long slow withdrawal into his studies.

Future Caliphs respected him, but never cultivated a friendship. Occasionally he
joined military actions at their request, and he helped police the city, which made
him a highly visible personage, but on a personal level, he became a harder man to
know.

In 705 at age 47, he was offered the Headmaster of Hephiontias, but this position
required he be ordained. He declined the honor, and quit the University altogether.
In fact, he left the city, for 10 years.

During that time, he explored the Sunjewel Isles. What exactly he accomplished
there is unknown, but he remained in secret communication with the Caliph. It is
said he tamed the richest of the isles so that the Suhndi could inhabit them, and
that he defeated pirates on the high seas. Likely both these attributions are fact.
Certainly, in his absense, his fame back home turned into full-fledged legend.

When he returned to the public eye, he settled in Memsemet, against the Caliph's
wishes. He taught at Memsemet University, and attempted to befriend the Zyiph of
Numyria, but when that Zyiph became Caliph in 723, Bigby was disappointed to find
himself with only a political ally, not a friend.

Still, the ally helped. When a fierce wave of hysteria swept the Suhndi in 725,
Bigby's efforts to calm a rioting crowd in Peliotias were viewed as pro-sin, and
the legendary arch-mage himself came under attack. The new Caliph helped Bigby
escape -- not a guarantee, as at the same time this Caliph condemned to death three
other powerful and well-known wizards in Peliotias (wizards who, some say, Bigby
had been attempting to save).

After the hysteria died down, Bigby requested permission to resign from Memsemet,
and was denied. He continued to resign ever year from 727 until 740, when finally
the Caliph granted his wish, and Bigby traveled to the Halidan Desert, a region
now considered part of the Firm State Padashah but then quite wild. Somewhere in
the desert, he built a tower, and quietly pursued his studies. From 740 till 780,
he surfaced occasionally in the remote oasis town of Hakaw, and very rarely in
Hephiontias, where always he was welcomed but increasingly regarded as a strange
and mysterious old man -- well over a century old. And his tower in the Halidan
became something of a pilgrimage site for young wizards. Only a few claimed to
find it, but they told tales of amazing magic being worked in the desert.

It is said that during these years, old Bigby sat under the weight of the question
asked of young Bigby by the Caliph at their first meeting. "When you're my age,
how clearly will you see Salaman's will?" Bigby, now well past that age, had become
as concerned with purity as any Suhndi, and sought only to remove all blemish from
his soul. It is said that he came to fear the pilgrims who sought him, because their
very existence put him at risk of deadly pride and vanity. So he moved his tower,
deeper into the desert, and after 780 was never seen in Hephiontias.

Many believed he died, many others believed Salaman so loved him that he had been
granted the ultimate gift -- the time he would need to achieve purity. Others simply
felt his magic sustained him, perhaps a spell or perhaps just his general aura. He
was last seen in 850, when he met a young seeker on the road, a man by the name of
Djedkhonsiufankh Bek, and charged him with a responsibility. "Tell them," the 192-
year-old archmage rasped out, "I am leaving this world, and they must seek me no more.
I ascend the mountains now, to seek a contemplative state, and await Salaman's final
will." Indeed, he was never heard from again among the Suhndi.

The legend stops there.

However, since arriving in the Midlands, you have heard Bigby's name mentioned, by
a Vree fighter, no less. Covarrubias stole the secret of long life from Bigby, he
said. This makes little sense.

Djedkhonsiufankh Bek is a famous name, but Bek's celebrity begins and ends with his
roadside encounter of 850. If he went on to lead a life of any distinction, it
has been forgotten.