Abernaeron bani Ex Miscellanea is a legendary Mage of the Order of Hermes from Cymru, the land mortals call Wales.
Overview[]
The Llyn Brianne has moved from place to place over the centuries, and often vanished for long years. Those who find it are marked by destiny, for always there is a tale in the finding. Although, as I think on it, if some poor fool found the pool and did nothing with it, no one would hear of him, and a thin tale that would be, eh?
Be that as it might, this particular finding of the pool now, in 888, that is quite a tale, grand and sad at once. The mortal wizard Abemaeron had befriended a stand of the ghille dhu. They led him to the pool, which at that time lay halfway up beautiful, icy Mount Snowdon. The wizard sensed the pool's power at once, but more goodness he had than ambition. Rather than use its power for selfish ends, he brought the news to the Powis freehold of Prince Taliesin, whom Abernaeron had talked with at times before. The dying Taliesin gave Abernaeron the worthy task of discovering how best to use Brianne's magic for the good of the Principality.
While there, Abernaeron met and fell in love with Taliesin's daughter Rhonwen. It was love at first sight and the two were married with Taliesin's blessing in 891. When her father died, Rhonwen became Princess of Powis. Upon their marriage, the two conceived a great and wondrous working, the building of a new freehold near the Pool Brianne. In a single night under the full moon they built atop Mount Snowdon Caer Caledfwlch, a glorious castle and shining summer city surrounded by snow.
The sad tale of the fall of this freehold is told elsewhere. Suffice to say it was brought about by the Unseelie Prince Carniog. Along with his other crimes, Carniog had enslaved the will of another mage named Prester Fflydd. At Carniog's behest, Fflydd transformed Abernaeron into a small white fox. By a sad mistake of the magickal effect, Rhonwen thought Abernaeron had died. Heavy was her heart, as all her life's work fell to pieces around her, so heavy that she fell into despair and she swallowed a quick poison. The Unseelie prince let the fox roam free on Mount Snowdon. They tell me the fox did dwell upon that mountain, all alone, for the rest of his life, and finally vanished 15 years later.
References[]
- MTAs. Isle of the Mighty, pp. 135-137