In light of the gravity of these crimes, we sentence Shiloh A. Wrun to the most severe punishment the Wanderers' Library can deliver: Exile of body, of soul and of memory.
Shiloh A. Wrun
Author: Din-Bidor
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The Third Exile,345 The Mad Writer-God, Father of the Bookborn,6 Semantic Vampire, Maker of Shapeless Orphans, Imp of the Perverse, Word-Warlock, The Voice Behind Our Voice, Weaver of Stories, Speaker of Lies
Conspectus
We hereby find the accused, Shiloh A. Wrun, guilty of the following charges:
The creation of living, sapient fictional characters.
The subjecting of said fictional characters to torture, murder, severe psychological trauma, slavery, mass imprisonment, various forms of sexual torment, war, genocide, and uncountable other atrocities.
The propagation of his obscene material in the Halls of this Library to ensure its perduration and the persistence of his characters' anguish.
The syphoning of his characters' lifeforce to increase his own magical and writing prowess.
Contempt of this council and attempting to harm its members.
In light of the gravity of these crimes, we sentence Shiloh A. Wrun to the most severe punishment the Wanderers' Library can deliver:
DeathBanishmentOblivionExile of body, of soul and of memory.
— Sentencing of Shiloh A. Wrun by a council presided by Archivist Mintari on the thirteenth day of his trial.789101112 Mere hours before, Wrun had attempted to assassinate all present during his testimony.
Illustration
One of the few known photographs of Shiloh A. Wrun, taken at the presentation of his eighth novel Heberon's Folly—a rare appearance by the otherwise reclusive author.
Knowledge
Traits: Before his punishment, Shiloh A. Wrun had the appearance of a baseline human of Eastern European origin. In keeping with the mystical traditions to which he subscribed,13 he wore modest black robes and minimal jewelry in his scarce public appearances.14
This visage has reportedly been kept after his exile: those who have had the misfortune of encountering a remnant of Wrun's fading essence in the Library or the Ways have described the apparitions as decayed, gaunt effigies of the author that tether on the brink of tangibility for a few moments before irremediably dissipating into nothingness.
Nature: Entirely human, Shiloh A. Wrun nonetheless possessed formidable magical knowledge and abilities, being proficient in ritual magic and even creating his own brand of 'pataphysical techniques—now utterly lost—which he used to force life and sapience upon his literary creations. This power only grew as more and more of his creations became self-aware, with Wrun utilizing their suffering as a syphon through which he could imbibe their lifeforce for his own gain.15
Most of Shiloh A. Wrun's texts are now entirely illegible as befits his punishment;1617181920 what few traces remain show that his works touched upon a variety of themes that range from social and political critique to character-driven stories rife with interpersonal drama. Trust and betrayal, flawed heroes and false messiahs, doomed love, and futile defiance of fate—almost always framed in contexts of catastrophe or oppression—were core elements of his prose. The only genre he did not dabble in, it seems, was non-fiction.
As for the quality of Wrun's writings, opinions wildly differ amongst literary critics.21 Most praise is reserved for his earlier short stories and poetry, while the avant-garde novels that constituted the latter stages of his career drew mixed reception and even derision from most specialized publications in both the Library and outside it. The now-defunct Gallavent Quarterly was a particularly acerbic critic of Wrun within the Library, and was likewise held in profound contempt by the author; rumors exist that the Quarterly's eventual downfall was orchestrated by Wrun shortly before his exile. In any case, little else can be discerned due to most pieces of media about Wrun having been destroyed along with his accursed works as part of his sentencing.22
Even before the true nature of his crimes became known, Wrun was noted by his fellow authors and his critics to be arrogant and dismissive of others; his reclusiveness created a near-mythical halo around his person, which he was more than happy to exploit to increase the reach and popularity of his works—during his last years, as the controversy surrounding him reached its zenith, his books sold out mere minutes after release, and demands at the Library's front desk for any title concerning Shiloh A. Wrun overshadowed most other requests. Despite middling reviews, a dedicated readership surged amongst Wanderers, and small but passionate groups remain to this day who seek out what few extracts from his texts still linger within the Library.2324
As his power grew and more of his characters gained sapience, Wrun became increasingly megalomaniacal and developed a god complex, which became evident during his testimony. His current mental state is unknown, but given the humiliation intrinsic to his exile, any successful examination of his psyche—if that were even possible—would surely offer a dismal diagnostic.25
History & Associated Parties: Owing to his reclusive behavior, few details were known about Wrun's early life even before he was exiled.2627 What little can be ascertained is that he was born in a region within or close to the frontiers of a nation-state called Rulang, which was located roughly in place of his reality's equivalent of Kazakhstan.28 He did not stay there for long; in one of the few surviving interviews he ever gave to the press, he claims to have joined an unnamed sect of magicians at an early age and used their knowledge to enter the Wanderers' Library and travel the multiverse.
Wrun published his first book—Chrysanthemums for the Living, Roses for the Dead—in his late twenties. This collection of short stories and poetry earned him praise, and its contents were described as being visceral but moving. The following year he published two further short fiction collections and one novel, all of which met similar positive reception, and in the third year he published an astounding five novels and three poetry collections. Most scholars agree that it is at this point that Wrun began experimenting with 'pataphysical magic in an attempt to infuse life into his creations, but the exact timeline and the motives behind this decision remain unknown.29
His next novel, His Temple of Walls was the first experimental work Wrun put forward, and was met with mixed reviews by most literary critics. In it, Wrun went to great lengths to establish the mechanics of the fictional setting which—despite being inspired by the real-life political collapse of Rulang, which Wrun witnessed via scrying—was nevertheless subjected to numerous creative liberties; this decision is amongst the most recurring criticisms of the novel, for Wrun's descriptions are considered overly long and complex, and ultimately detrimental to the narrative rhythm of His Temple of Walls. After his crimes became public, it is now believed that the novel was Wrun's first attempt at creating a living, breathing world within his pages and thus opted to make it as close to a real life event as possible while keeping the work and its characters fictional.
From here on, Wrun perfected his literary and magical technique to create further works filled with sapient life, the majority of which held no similitude to any preexisting settings or events. Due to the punishment imposed upon Wrun, most of the information regarding the contents of his latter novels can only be glimpsed through the testimony of his freed creations, who are collectively called the Bookborn. The volume titled Ex Libris: The Crimes of Shiloh A. Wrun compiles the traumatic and soulrending experiences of these people, who tell of being forced to play roles in his narrative and remaining fully conscious while suffering or performing acts of cruelty in which they had no say.30 The only respite to be found within the pages occurred when the narration moved on to a different character or point of view, allowing the Bookborn to rest as if they were overworked actors in a hellish play.31
However, it is also here, in the subtext of the worlds they had been placed in, that the Bookborn outgrew their author. They formed families and relationships, expanded the unwritten frontiers of their reality, and made manifest that which had only been implied in Wrun's worldbuilding. Entire societies formed in the shadow of their author, given shape and substance not by Wrun but by their worlds' necessity to be whole and alive even where the author had not cared to write any details. Unfortunately, the nature of these "unwritten" parts of Wrun's works had tragic effects later on.
In retrospect, Shiloh A. Wrun's downfall was inevitable. His creations, despairing at their situation, learned to manipulate the books' text to call out for help in harrowing fashion.3233 Once word spread of these happenings in the Library, the Archivists analyzed the seemingly-haunted texts and determined it was neither a gimmick by Shiloh A. Wrun nor an outside factor altering the books: these were genuine pleas by people who—although fictional—were alive and suffering inside the pages. Wrun was swiftly taken into custody by Docents and put under trial by a council of elder Wanderers and fellow authors. A few of his creations were extracted from their books to testify against him and, following a tumultuous proceeding that nearly saw Wrun assassinate his prosecutors, the mad author was found guilty and punished for his atrocities.
Immediately after Wrun's exile, the Archivists put themselves to the task of freeing all the people trapped in his books and bringing them to the Library. The process, although successful, had disastrous consequences: the individuals now known as the Shapeless Ones—implied characters who existed solely in the subtext of Wrun's work and had never been written about or described by the author—perished the very instant they came into the material world; since they depended entirely on the blank spaces of Wrun's worldbuilding and were held together only by the need of named characters not to exist in a void, they crumbled into emptiness without any chance at restoring them. Thus the Liberation of the Bookborn, instead of being a time of celebration, was full of woe and mourning.3435
Approach: It is official Library policy never to speak of Shiloh A. Wrun, and what remains of his works—although illegible—is kept under lock and key. On occasion, a fragment of Wrun’s work may show up in some lonely corner of the Library, but such occurrences are rare and are almost always suppressed by staff. Members of the Serpent's Hand are advised not to prod the Archivists or Librarians on this subject to avoid unnecessary confrontation.
As for the man himself, Shiloh A. Wrun's particular condition has rendered him impossible to contact or interact with, and what echoes of him still cling to reality are too fragile to last. It is believed he will eventually fade entirely, his memory kept alive solely by the trauma with which he branded his Bookborn children—hopefully, one day even this will be no more than the whisper of a half-forgotten nightmare.
Observations & Stories
"Of course, violence for violence's sake is rarely more than mere vulgarity sprawled upon a page, but there is a masterful craft in Wrun's grotesque descriptions of flaying and trepanation, a quiet intimacy between the tormentor, the tormented and the reader. His words are a bridge into the heart of darkness that allows us to cross a moat full of prejudice and shame, an unspoken barrier that would otherwise prevent us from truly embracing our enjoyment of his work."
– Excerpt from a positive review of Wrun's novel Kyfal Surrendered to the Fire. Its author is unknown
"I believe writing is a magic in its own right. The characters and places you read about are not real, but the emotions they make you feel, the tragedies you share with them and their short-lived triumphs which you celebrate with ravenous excitement are all very tangible. I strive to make characters that transcend the medium in which they exist, beings of pure essence that can nevertheless have weight and presence as you parse through their lives. That, I think, is the emblem of a true artist."
– Shiloh A. Wrun during the presentation of Chrysanthemums for the Living, Roses for the Dead, his first published book
"Imagine dying over and over and never being able to truly pass on. Imagine waking up after every single death and knowing you will have to go through it again, to walk the path set before you with no control of your actions or a way to escape, only to meet the same grisly end in a neverending loop. You are born, grow up in the embrace of a family, and then march out to your demise. And every single time you do so, all you can tell your kin is not to miss you too much, for you’ll be back again. That is what my existence was like, an insignificant character meant to be disemboweled alive by a monstrous beast to show the protagonist the danger it represents. I didn't even have a name in Wrun's story—I was just "one of the men in the rear," meaningless but for my final throes of agony. That is what it's like to be the creation of a madman who fancies himself a god."
– Silvyan, formerly an unnamed background character in Wrun's short story Into the Iron Maw
"In a way, Shiloh A. Wrun represents the worst of us as readers and writers: a man so consumed by his desire to create transcendent art that he cared nothing for the pain and anguish he inflicted, further encouraged to persist by the restless masses who hungered for his work. I pray this painful lesson will prevent the surging of another like him, and that his punishment is never again necessary in these venerable Halls."
– Caduale Mezerizo, Sixth Chief Archivist of the Wanderers' Library, during whose tenure Wrun committed his crimes
Doubt
Although the arcane techniques used by Wrun to commit his crimes are presumed destroyed alongside his literature, magic is a universal constant. It would not be impossible for someone else to rediscover these secrets and the gains that can be made from exploiting the suffering of sapient fictional characters, even if they have never heard of Wrun before. So far, no way to ensure the full extinction of such abominable practices is known.36
Furthermore, the reason why echoes of Wrun continue to exist despite his punishment is unknown. For a mortal to cling to existence despite the eradication of his very essence is unheard of. The Fourth Chief Archivist was erased so utterly that only the idea that they once existed remains, and the Magpie lingers solely as a name and a legend attached to it. How Wrun manages to manifest intangible but perceptible effigies of himself merits further study to ensure he has not found a way to continue spreading his perverse influence from whatever immaterial hell he is now confined to.37