The signed author of On the Summoning of Guardian Spirits — a book that claims to teach the summoning of Celestials and instead calls up unformed demons of warped white radiance. He is the younger brother of Baldessare Malipiero, His Holiness Pious III, convicted of heresy around 1710, condemned by his own family, and officially executed. Uncle and Ismad doubt he died. (S6, GM)
What We Know
From the GM timeline
- Fall 1732: Owl Knights slay an unformed demon in southern Morrschatten and determine it was summoned using a found tome titled On the Summoning of Guardian Spirits.
- The tome purports to instruct the user on how to summon Celestials.
- The signed author of this book is Benedicto Malipiero. (GM)
From Uncle’s Men (S6)
- He is the younger brother of the current Most Holy — Baldessare Malipiero, elected Pious III in Summer 1734.
- Convicted of heresy and condemned by his own family, on a charge of dealing with the infernal.
- This happened five years before the Fifth Crusade — about 1710.
- He was a very promising talent, having mastered both the divine and the logos arts. Two of the three great traditions (Magic and Casting Traditions) — and, notably, both flavors of Ritual Magic, which per Ismad comes only in Divine and Logos.
- The Malipiero family is like the Balventias: involved with the Church for centuries.
- He was officially executed. (GM) — but the doubt is Uncle’s and Ismad’s own. They do not believe the official record, and they said so to the party. That is not the party’s inference; it is the assessment of the two best-informed intelligence men they have access to.
What This Changes
The wiki has held, correctly and repeatedly, that the party had “one surname and no genealogy” and should not build a case on it. That caveat is now void. They are brothers, of a church dynasty, and the disgrace is on the record.
The chronology that follows is ugly:
| When | What |
|---|---|
| ~1710 | Benedicto convicted of heresy for dealing with the infernal, condemned by the Malipieros themselves |
| 1715 | Fifth Crusade, against a Corrupted outbreak in northern Morrschatten |
| Fall 1732 | A demon in southern Morrschatten is traced to Benedicto’s signed book. Owl knights hold the evidence |
| Summer 1734 | His elder brother Baldessare is elected Most Holy |
| Spring 1736 | The Order of the Phoenix — sworn to the Most Holy’s person — dissolves the Order of the Owl and executes its members |
So the men holding physical, signed evidence of the Most Holy’s brother’s heresy were destroyed two years into that Most Holy’s reign, by his own order — and the interrogation record of their destruction is in the party’s hands.
That does not prove Pious III ordered anything. It does mean the “the sanctums corrupted them” charge is no longer the only motive on the table.
Why He Matters
The party’s working cosmology says the great imprisoned enemies are angels (The Six Voices) and that contact with fallen divinity marks the soul (The Curse on Titus, The Call at the Sanctum). Here is a man who mastered the divine and the logos arts, was condemned for dealing with the infernal, and left behind a working manual for calling something that answers to the name Celestial and arrives as warped white radiance. Compare The Abbot: “I touched the divinity and it broke me.”
The doubt is sourced, and that makes it heavier
The wiki previously argued that “presumed dead” was doing enormous work — that he was condemned, not demonstrably executed. The GM has corrected that: he was officially executed. But the correction cuts the other way, because Uncle and Ismad doubt the execution themselves.
So this is no longer a player theory built on a soft word. It is the working suspicion of the service that runs Hazad’s quiet business — men who deal in official records for a living and have decided this one is wrong. Ask them why. Something specific prompted that doubt and the party never asked what.
Note the company he keeps: Constanza Bethlen has been officially dead since 1720 and is at large; Madeline Foussard was gone seven years and is in Halwa. Official deaths have a poor record in this campaign.
Speculation
Hold Kraus’s Folly next to him. A scholar’s Celestial-runed Logos circle, a blood ritual framed as a test of faith, garrison provisioning, and a cell — run by someone with a theology. The Folly’s lord is described as a tall sandy-blond Averoign swordsman, which is not a Cardacci churchman; but the swordsman is a fighter, and somebody taught that operation what to do with a captured inquisitor. See The Lord of Kraus’s Folly.
Speculation
The family condemned him themselves, twenty-four years before the election. That is either a house dealing honestly with a heretic, or a house clearing its record early. A brother disowned in 1710 is a brother nobody can raise against you in 1734.
Speculation
The Owl may not have known who he was. They found a demon, traced it to a book, and wrote down the signed author. If the name meant nothing to them in 1732, it meant a great deal to somebody in 1734.
Open Questions
- What was the actual charge in 1710 — what does “dealing with the infernal” mean in the record?
- Why do Uncle and Ismad doubt the execution? The record says it happened; they don’t believe it, and they didn’t say why. Ask.
- When was the book written — before the conviction, or after?
- How many copies are loose, and who keeps “finding” them in war zones?
- Does Madeline know this story? Her last clear year was 1732, but the conviction predates her captivity by twenty years — this is one western fact she may still be current on. Ask via Sister Alasia.
- Is there a connection between his 1710 conviction and the Fifth Crusade of 1715, against a Corrupted outbreak in northern Morrschatten five years later?
Relationships
- Baldessare Malipiero — his elder brother; His Holiness Pious III
- The Malipiero family — a church dynasty of centuries’ standing, which condemned him
- Order of the Owl — recovered his book, and was destroyed four years later