Second son of House Ulpia, bearer of the rare Aurunculeia gift, reformed(ish) party animal, and one of Uncle’s Men. Aaron’s character.
Full character sheet: Sources/Gnaeus Clodius Ulpius(lvl4).md (level 4 as of 2026-07-31; the level-3 sheet is kept alongside it).
Languages: High Imperial (native), Court Hazadi, Hazadi, New Imperial — and now broken Cardacci, the tongue western merchants in Hazad tend to fall back on, learned from Ari, who speaks all three western languages. (Aaron) See Languages.
Background
- Son of the old Duke of Auvernius and his second wife Caesennia Aurunculeia — a marriage made as a deliberate gamble on House Aurunculeia’s powerful, rarely-surfacing gift. The gamble paid off: Gnaeus manifested it and was trained intensively from childhood.
- Raised knowing his role: support House Ulpia, and Hazad — in that order.
- Teenage rebellion: since you can’t ground a boy who can teleport, his father gave him a stipend, a servant, and a house in Uryula. Gnaeus spent four-plus years in the roving party “court” of Baahir — leaving him with an old friendship with the prince, a reputation, and deep knowledge of Coastal Region bars.
- His father’s death (when Gnaeus was 19) sobered him — the drinking and feasting are now a means to an end. The old Duke’s last act was arranging Gnaeus’s introduction to Uncle.
The Gift: Dweller in the Angles
The Aurunculeia sorcerous tradition — Time, Warp, and stranger spheres; its true name and source are unknown. In practice: teleportation, telekinesis, time manipulation (including rewinding — used in S1 to save the trapped documents), and force blasts. Casting produces visible magical signs. See Magic and Casting Traditions.
New at level 4: he can now take several people at once rather than one at a time — the exact limit that made the sanctum escape so ugly (S5) — and can teleport to somewhere he hasn’t seen, working from a description rather than line of sight or memory.
Note: House Aurunculeia are Restorationists, and Gnaeus’s grandfather’s ring is already at the center of one mystery — see below.
The Ring
His maternal grandfather’s ring, made of an unknown dark metal. It reacted to Ari’s chest at the smuggler drop-off, and Ari claims that by it she now serves Gnaeus — the same binding the Order of the Phoenix used. Highly heretical. See Ari and the Ring.
Current Threads
- Home in Isbi’liyyah, in a filthy midsummer, in a house that was stormed by a mob the night he got back from Gazra. He teleported the two badly wounded Ulpia guards out of the fight and tried to heal them; nobody knows whether they lived. (S6) See The Riot at the Ulpia Estate.
- Quietly buying Ari a house. He tasked the estate’s head servant with discreetly acquiring a small house to keep her in when the party is in the city — the estate’s servants have never liked her presence, and then the mob got angrier on seeing her. (S6)
- Building a proper disguise kit. (S6) The expat-quarter run in S5 was, by his own assessment, “not very effective.”
- Master Zumini’s portraits of the Ulpius Colony are proceeding, slowly. (S6)
- His man Titus is cured — Father Jamar, one night in a chapel. (S6) The Curse on Titus is closed.
- Sailed back from Halwa after entering the Sanctum of Sethariel. (S5)
- At the sanctum: walked down the 200-ft chasm wall rather than take the stairs, spotted the recent pitons that date the second incursion, and evacuated the party by teleport, one at a time, in a running fight up the tunnel stairs with The Abbot. Later teleported a torch 100 feet down so Haroun could see the gem shards. (S5)
- Wanted to withdraw from the abbot while Haroun wanted to fight — the reverse of their positions at Kraus’s Folly. (S5)
- His man Titus was cursed by the abbot and needs a far stronger priest than Halwa offers. See The Curse on Titus. (S5)
- Ran the expat quarter in disguise with Farraj and Titus; came back with complaints about newer expats and the western plague. He rates the run “not very effective.” (S5)
- His instinct at the Folly was diplomatic even toward an unknown power: leave a polite note for the absent lord and attempt to establish contact. The party smote the creature instead; it went poorly. The note idea is still on the table. (S4)
- Trying to learn sailing — charmed the crew, annoyed Captain Iram, won the crew back with diplomacy and a well-placed time rewind. (S4)
- Making scholarly connections via Princess Ensah’s set; working on his calligraphy. (S3)
- Early marriage discussions with Silvia Menenia of House Menenia — he wrote to her before leaving, letting her know he’d be traveling for some time. (S2, S4)
- Safia ibn-Akar, a merchant-class calligrapher, is clearly interested in him. (S3)
- Commissioned Master Zumini to paint the Ulpius Colony — the cats of the family’s city manor. (S3, GM)
- Setting up his brother Decius for success in the capital. (S2)
Relationships
- Titus Caetronius Surus — bodyguard/servant
- Ari — bound to his service via the ring
- Baahir — old friend from the partying years
- Julius Menenius — cold toward him, “likely due to my reputation” (S1)