Quennet the Clockmaker

Origins and Birth

Quennet the Clockmaker was born from the collective anxiety of the Gnome harbours of The Tidelace Coasts.

The coast lives by timing. Its inlets, fog belts, and tidal straits can be entered safely only inside narrow windows, and the harbour wards, sounding houses, and tide halls of the Gaugeward Leagues exist to read those windows truly. A pilot a moment late meets the wrong water; a beacon lit a moment early draws a hull onto the rocks. The people of those harbours did not pray for calm seas; they prayed for time. They begged for "just a little more" before the window closed, a breath longer for the fog to lift or the signal to be read right. They wanted the clock to stutter, to give them a few extra seconds to make the right choice.

Appearance and Presence

Quennet appears as an elderly, weary Gnome who seems to be out of sync with the world around him.

• Visuals: He is gaunt and stooped, with skin like parchment that has been folded and unfolded too many times.
• The Pocket Watch: In his hand, he always carries a large, brass pocket watch.
• The Atmosphere: In places where he moves, the air feels thick and heavy.
• The Voice: His voice sounds like the ticking of a hundred clocks overlapping, a rhythmic, metallic chatter that vibrates in the teeth.

Powers and Abilities

Quennet does not control time; he negotiates with it. Every action he takes has a price.

• The Temporal Stutter: He can cause a specific event to repeat a few seconds.
• The Long Wait: He can accelerate the ageing of an object.
• The Prophecy: He can reveal the most likely outcome of a decision. He shows the viewer a vision of the future based on current trajectories.
• The Time Debt: He can lend time to a mortal (e.g., "You have one more hour before the window closes").

Current Status: The Fading

Quennet is active, but he is fading.

• The Reason: The far side has learned to carry timing in custom rather than in prayer.
• The Symptoms: His form is becoming translucent. His pockets are empty. His watch has stopped ticking for long periods. He feels "thin," like a ghost.
• The Wanderer: He wanders the harbour chains and lee-side transfer quays such as The Counted Lee, looking for anyone who is "out of time" so he can give them a few more seconds.
• The Danger: In his desperation, he might start creating crises.

Relationships with Other Entities

• With Aion Prime: Quennet is a distortion of Aion's flow.
• With Maris of the Tides (Aqua): Shrine-neighbours along the same harbours.
• With Tamsel the Season-Weaver (Aion): Rivals since their worshippers' quarrel at The Counted Lee. To Quennet, Tamsel squanders the year; to Tamsel, Quennet hoards moments he cannot keep.
• With Kerrund the Stone-Warden (Terra): A quarrel of principle rather than of place, since Kerrund's Dwarven holds lie far from the Tidelace.
• With Ostrin the Lantern-Bearer (Lux): Another quarrel of principle.
• With Ulaun the Stilled Hour (Faded Aion): What he could become; see her page.

Legacy and Echoes

Though Quennet is fading, his echo remains in the world.

• The Stuttering Gauges: In old gauge houses along the Tidelace, timing instruments are said to stutter or run backwards for a few beats before a window fails.
• The Legend of the "Extra Second": A folk tale tells of a pilot who was saved by "one extra second" granted by a mysterious old Gnome at the edge of a closing tide.
• The Late Hail: The Grey Crews that row in the Long Grey are said, along the harbour chains, to be the crews Quennet stretched a moment for and could not save; they hail living boats a beat late, as his bells ring.
• The Wreckers' Clock: The wreckers of the outer chains keep a stolen gauge-house timepiece in their huts and pray at it, the tale goes, for a window to close early.
• The Debt-Takers: Pilots who borrowed an hour and never paid are said to lose a memory instead: a wife's face, the way home.
• The Name at the Revision: Some harbour wards still say his name under their breath when a declared approach window has to be revised, half in thanks and half in apology to whoever will bear the lost time.
• The Scattered Energy: As Quennet fades, his energy is returning to Aion Prime.