Underis Querum

Underis Querum was the first recognized magic user in the world of Arcenor, the first widely accepted practitioner, scholar, and teacher of the magical arts to the mortal realm, as well as arguably being the most important historical figure existing within four Ages of Arcenor, and possibly more.

Unwritten Age
Querum himself stated in his diary of composite thoughts and memories, The Jibber of Querum, that he was actually born a cambion. His father was a forest man from the woods of Elium, and his mother a peasant woman from somewhere in the province of Kreshthra (likely the small village of Querum, though it is never specifically stated). He also stated that this was a time before recorded history, placing his birth in the Unwritten Age. This is significant because, providing that Underis was not writing a fictional account, this would make the Jibber of Querum the only document in the history of the galaxy to record events from the Unwritten Age.

He recounted that he spent most of his childhood working in the carpentry shop that his mother’s husband, Elimas Querum, owned. It would be Elimas who would go on to raise Underis as his own son, and teach him the ways of carpentry. Querum notes that he rather disliked carpentry, and was only fond of carving stools.

Underis continues on to claim that he first discovered his magical abilities when “trying to convince a snail that if he simply left his drab shell, he would then be a slug and would have much greater success in finding potential mates.” Underis stated that he only realized the ability to have conversation with the snail, at all, was in fact an inherently magical ability. He also recounted that he only realized this after the snail had pointed it out to him. This is the event that sparked Underis’ personal interest in magic.

Given his birth, he was quite easily able to pick up on things that various magical creatures taught him. It was during his teenage years that Underis wrote his first book of magical instructions and spells, all of which he had learned from the natural world. This is the manuscript of low level spells that Underis would eventually rediscover from his past, and publish many years later as a guide for young wizards and magicians, titled 142 Spells That I Learned From Things Like Faeries and Dire-Badgers, Who By The Way, Are Actually Pretty Nice.