Abnaxus
From TLJwiki
The Longest Journey
Venar ambassador to the Ayrede Council, and keeper of their piece of the Stone Disk. While his true home is north of the Border Mountains, during his time in Marcuria, Abnaxus lives in the City Green of Marcuria in an interesting house. Either it's a house built in the shape of a tree, or a tree which has been built over with stone.
Abnaxus has a wife named Abyanda, and three daughters: Abratha, Abelexe and Abpalmana. Like all Venar, Abnaxus sees all times as one, which can make things a little confusing, as April Ryan discovers when she first meets him in the Journeyman Inn during the Festival of the Balance. He doesn't exactly invite her to visit him in the morning, because according to him, she already accepted the invitation a while ago. (April thinks this conversation, for strangeness, ranks about equal with an invitation she once received to a suicide party.) Abnaxus holds his rank as ambassador because he, alone among his people, can focus on one particular moment and therefore talk with people who 'flow with time', namely humans and Dolmari.
After Abnaxus gives April the Venar piece of the Disk, he tells her he and his people have passed beyond the Veil, a time when their vision of the future is darkened due to the current uncertainty regarding the fate of the Balance.
Many players of TLJ have a love-hate relationship with Abnaxus, due to his lengthy, grammatically tense-challenged speeches. The dialogue goes a long way towards helping us understand what it is like to be a Venar, but he does tend to go on. He went on. He will go on. He will have been going on.
Abnaxus also has quite an eclectic collection of books, including:
- Surviving the Border Mountains, by Tomi Strande, and even
- The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien.
Most probably named for Abraxas, a Gnostic deity. It is likely the character of Abnaxus was also heavily influenced by Treebeard in The Lord of The Rings, who is a sentient tree that has trouble adjusting to the short attention span of mortals.
Abnaxus is voiced by Jeff Meller.
longestjourney.com
The old website for The Longest Journey had Abnaxus give a rather foggy (well, normal for him) info session on the Venar, the Veil and the coming of the Kan-ang-la:
"No, friend, I am not. For she will come."
"I am Abnaxus of the Venar. I am an ambassador to the land of Ayrede, and the city of Marcuria has been my home now for…a time. How long? I do not know, friend. My people do not know of time. We do not live in the now. We live in the always."
"Farewell."
"No, do not be confused. To speak to you is oftentimes a difficult task for me, for I may answer questions not yet asked, or questions asked a time ago. To even make myself understood demands greatly of me, and it is a skill acquired by study. I am the only one of my people to speak with outsiders. For the others it is too difficult, and they may reveal your future yet to be, or a future that will never be, or a past hidden by chance or choice. To speak with my people is to enter the true mind of the Venar, and for outsiders, that may not be a pleasant experience."
"There is a veil in our path, however; a veil I cannot see past. We exist to that point, and at all points previous, but not beyond. For us, this sense of the unknown is like losing our sight. We are blinded. But we know of one person who is to lead us through the veil, to the other side. The Lady will one day unite the worlds, she will be the mother of a new world -- but first, she will lead us through the veil. "
"Am I afraid?"
"We are of trees, friend, and trees are of us. We plant the trees, and we care for them, and the trees care for us in return. A tree grows over time, yet it has always been there, and it always will be. And any moment is an eternity. Any moment is a lifetime. Do we die? I am dead, in this moment. I am born, in this moment. Any moment is all moments."
"You wish to go?"
"No, friend, I am not. For she will come."
Dreamfall
Abnaxus was originally intended to be in Dreamfall, but it was later decided not to include either he or Ben-Bandu. Ragnar suggested "You might still catch a glimpse of Abnaxus somewhere, but it’ll be brief", but this was in fact the case of Ben-Bandu, who could be seen in the Oldtown market.
In the concept art created for Abnaxus he is now wearing a leather cap and spectacles, and carries a bundle of what appear to be rolled maps under his right arm. Also intriguing is the prominent pendant bearing the symbol of the Balance he wears around his neck, similar to April's Talisman of the Balance.
