Poet Iraeta

Biography

Cordu, Trier, and the Approaching Apocalypse

Iraeta was an impoverished Trier poet in Count Poufer's Black Cat circle, accustomed to its humiliating and absurd performance-art games. Lumian found his lack of money and irreverent wit useful enough to sponsor his work as Ciel Dubois, creating a straightforward patronage relationship that Iraeta openly valued (Chapters 1774–1801)

Iraeta volunteered for Poufer's exploration of the Sauron family's underground maze because his sponsor was going. After Lumian used him to draw out a mutated spider, Iraeta learned that his companions were Beyonders and sensibly accepted an escort back to safety. On the way, his political memory and social observations exposed inconsistencies in Elros's story and revealed that he had previously seen Albus Medici at the Sacred Heart Cloister, making the ordinary poet unexpectedly useful to Lumian's investigation (Chapters 1856–1864)

Appearance and personality

Iraeta is an aging man with thinning hair and slightly sagging facial muscles who frequently smokes a cherrywood pipe. He is poor, witty, politically attentive, hard to embarrass, and casually provocative. His curiosity coexists with practical fear: once offered a safe escort out of real supernatural danger, he accepts immediately.

Pathways and abilities

Poet Iraeta is an ordinary human and has no Beyonder pathway or supernatural abilities. He has firsthand awareness that Beyonders exist from visiting a battlefield, plus strong memory for politics, rumors, and social inconsistencies.

Relationships

• Lumian Lee: Sponsor whose underground expedition Iraeta joined and whose investigation benefited from his observations.
• Count Poufer Sauron: Host of the Black Cat gatherings and organizer of the maze expedition.
• Novelist Anori, Painter Mullen, and Critic Ernst Young: Fellow members of Iraeta's artistic circle.
• Elros Einhorn and Albus Medici: Expedition companions whose backgrounds Iraeta quietly questioned.

Items

• Cherrywood pipe: Iraeta's habitual accessory.
• Carbide lamp: Ordinary light carried during the underground expedition.
• Poetry earnings: Meager ordinary income rather than a supernatural resource.