Quintinius Verginix
Quintinius Verginix is a fictional character from Paul Stewart's The Edge Chronicles.
Quintinius Verginix was a Knight Academic and sky pirate who lived during the first of three 'Ages of Flight' in the Edge chronology. He is the main character of three of the Edge Chronicles books, The Curse of the Gloamglozer, The Winter Knights and Clash of the Sky Galleons, as well as the novella Cloud Wolf. Known as Quint in his youth, he was the only surviving son of successful sky-pirate captain Wind Jackal. Apprenticed at age fourteen to Wind Jackal's old friend and Most High Academe of Sanctaphrax Linius Pallitax, Quint later joined the Knight's Academy and pursued a career as a Knight Academic. After a brief interruption during which Quint accompanied Wind Jackal on an ultimately futile hunt for the man who had killed the rest of their family, Quint returned to the Knight's Academy and remained there until he was ousted by his old enemy Vilnix Pompolnius and returned to a life of sky-piracy, taking up his sky-pirate name, Cloud Wolf. As a sky-pirate he struggled with debt and personal losses, and eventually died on a mission to retrieve stormphrax that was completed by his son, Twig.
Life History[edit]
Early life[edit]
Born to Orlis and Hirmina Verginix, Quint was the youngest of six sons. His father Orlis was a successful sky-pirate captain better known as Wind Jackal who captained the sky-ship Galerider and he and his family lived in an opulent mansion in the Western Quays of the Edge's largest city, Undertown. When Quint was four years old Wind Jackal's quartermaster Turbot Smeal set a fire near their home in an ill-fated attempt to avenge Wind Jackal's refusal to go along with a scheme of his that involved slavery. The fire spread through much of the Western Quays, killing Quint's mother, five brothers and nanny as well as Smeal himself and many others. The smallest member of the family, Quint was able to escape through a skylight and climb across the rooftops, where he was rescued by Wind Jackal returning to Undertown to find his home ablaze. The event left both of them emotionally scarred and Quint with a deep-seated fear of fire, but brought them close together as the only surviving members of their family. Quint then spent the rest of his childhood on a sky-pirate ship, learning the trade from his father.
Cloud Wolf[edit]
Quint earned his sky-pirate name at age fourteen after a dramatic battle between the sky-pirate fleet and their rivals, the tyrannical League of Free Merchants. Acting on the information of a youth named Pen, the sky-pirate leader Ice Fox summoned the sky-pirate fleet together for an attack on the Leagues' flagship The Great Sky Whale, captained by the Leaguesmaster Marl Mankroyd. The attack turned out to be a trap, as Pen was in fact the son of Leaguesman Ruptus Pentephraxis, and the attacking sky-pirate fleet was surrounded by Leagues' ships while the boarding party were ambushed by hammerhead goblins. Despite this, Quint and Wind Jackal manage to free their imprisoned comrades and the slaves aboard the ship before escaping back to the Galerider in time to trick Ruptus Pentephraxis into accidentally ramming the Great Sky Whale, destroying the ship and killing Marl Mankroyd. The battle over, Wind Jackal rewarded Quint's bravery by whispering his sky-pirate name to him: Cloud Wolf.
The Curse of the Gloamglozer[edit]
Shortly after the events of Cloud Wolf, Quint and Wind Jackal arrive in Sanctaphrax. His old friend and Most High Academe of Sanctaphrax Linius Pallitax talks Wind Jackal into taking Quint on as an apprentice, with a chance to become a Knight Academic. Linius's daughter Maris originally hates Quint for taking away her father's already scarce affection, but the pair begin to work together to investigate Linius's mysterious nightly disappearances into the stonecomb, a shifting maze inside the great floating rock upon which Sanctaphrax is built, after he returns from one trip horribly injured. During Maris's first and Quint's second venture into the stonecomb the pair are attacked by a rogue, blood-red glister, a hideous amorphous monster that feeds off living things by sucking them dry. They are saved by Bungus Septrill, an earth-scholar who had already saved Quint's life once before when he fell from a high rope in the abandoned Great Library while fetching a scroll for Linius. Learning the Linius has discovered the Ancient Laboratory, a sealed chamber within the stonecomb's core where ancient scholars once attempted to create life but only succeeded in birthing the rogue glister, Quint gives Bungus and Maris the slip and investigates the laboratory, entering with the seal of office he stole from Linius's bedside. Inside he encounters the Gloamglozer, a being Linius had managed to create but had subsequently been forced to imprison after he realised it was a malicious shape-shifter. Back at Linius's abode, the Palace of Shadows, Bungus heals Linius of wounds inflicted by the gloamglozer and hears his story before he and Maris rush back to the Ancient Laboratory when they realize both Quint and the seal are missing. En route they are attacked by the rogue glister, which Bungus holds off while Maris goes on to find Quint, but Bungus is killed as the chine-sand he uses to repel the beast is in the pocket of a coat he gave to Quint. Maris finds Quint unconscious in the Laboratory, knocked out by the gloamglozer, who assumes Quint's form and goes to the Palace of Shadows to torment Linius, lying that Maris is dead, killed by the glister, and that Bungus abandoned them in fear. Maris and Quint return to the Palace to find it ablaze, the gloamglozer having set a fire to kill Linius. Quint spots what appears to be Linius on the rooftop and overcomes his fear of fire to climb up, only for the gloamglozer to reveal itself in Linius's form. Quint wounds the gloamglozer with the chine-sand from the pocket of the coat Bungus gave him, leaving the evil creature scarred, and it curses him before fleeing. Quint falls to the ground but recovers and Linius is rescued from the blaze by his butler, the spindlebug Tweezel. In the epilogue, Quint and Maris grow closer together and Quint is offered a place in the Knight's Academy.
The Winter Knights[edit]
Shortly after the events of The Curse of the Gloamglozer Quint enrols in the Knight's Academy, one of Sanctaphrax's many prestigious schools that, unlike the others which all specialise in the study of a certain kind of weather, trains its pupils to become Knights-Academic. Brave and intrepid individuals, Knights-Academic pilot specially designed 'stormchaser' sky-ships into the heart of Great Storms to retrieve the solidified lightning, stormphrax, they produce. This occupation is extremely hazardous but also vital, as stormphrax becomes dramatically heavier in darkness and is used to weigh down the floating rock upon which Sanctaphrax is built.
Quint has a miniature portrait of himself painted to be affixed to the hilt of his sword as is traditional for those entering the Knight's Academy, but as the portrait is completed funeral bells toll through the city, signifying the death of Linius Pallitax from injuries he sustained in the fire that destroyed the Palace of Shadows. Quint is left without a future as Linius was to sponsor him through the Academy. After Linius's funeral the twin Professors of Light and Darkness are pronounced the new Most High Academes of Sanctaphrax, and the Professor of Light becomes Quint's new sponsor while the Professor of Darkness sponsors an Undertown knife-grinder, Vil Spatweed, who repaired and returned a telescope of his and has taken on the academic name Vilnix Pompolnius. Quint and Vilnix begin their studies at the Knight's Academy and Quint befriends fellow apprentice Belphinius 'Phin' Mendellix and lowly grey-goblin forge-servant Stope. As a freezing winter descends upon Sanctaphrax and Undertown Quint progresses through the 'Lower Halls' of the academy, creating a model skyship, learning the make-up of a Knight-Academic's armour from aged Hall Master Philius Embertine and being paired with a prowlgrin in the Hall of Grey Cloud. He develops an enmity with Vilnix, who is arrogant and cruel, which he attempts to repair by helping Vilnix care for his mistreated prowlgrin but ultimately concretes when he accidentally incriminates Vilnix in the prowlgrin's abuse, leading to Vilnix being struck with a crop. Quint and Phin befriend Upper-Halls squire Raffix 'Raff' Emilius and Quint also keeps up letter correspondence with Maris, who was orphaned after her father's death and is now in the care of miserly and cruel relatives Heft and Dacia Vespius in Undertown.
As the freezing winter worsens Sanctaphrax is imperilled as the buoyant rocks of the Edge become more so when chilled. Hax Vostilix, the master of the Knight's Academy, declares the approach of a Great Storm on doubtful findings and sends Knight-Academic-In-Waiting Screedius Tollinix to pursue it. He instigates an anti-earth-studies purge, dismissing all the other Hall Masters for various offences. Meanwhile, Daxiel Xaxis, head of the Academy's Gatekeeper guards, builds up a private army of thugs supplied by Heft Vespius and takes control of the attempts to warm the Sanctaphrax rock, mistreating the prowlgrins and giant fromps used to haul log-burners. The crisis steadily worsens as Hax sends more and more Knights-Academic to their death chasing every random weather flurry and his mental health deteriorates, while Maris remains miserable and a virtual prisoner in Undertown and Raff gets closer and closer to being sent on his own doomed stormchasing voyage. Quint's class graduate from the Lower Halls, with only Quint and Vilnix being elevated to the Upper Halls while others including Phin become Knights-Academic-at-Arms. Quint is proud to become an apprentice Knight-Academic, but Vilnix, who toadied up to Hax in order to secure an apprentice High Professor-hood, is horrified to receive the same apprenticeship as Quint, which he regards as a death sentence.
The crisis reaches its climax when Phin saves Philius Embertine from an accidental fire and learns that Philius has discovered a way to end the winter by purifying Open Sky with stormphrax as the first Knights-Academic did once before, but his age and infirmity meant no-one other than Screedius Tollinix, who had already set out on his Stormchasing voyage. Stope designs ingenious fire-floats to keep a flight-rock warm and stable in the freezing air and he, Phin, Raff and Quint plan to commandeer a practice sky-vessel Cloudslayer and take it into Open Sky with stolen stormphrax they discovered in Philius's rooms. Maris, whose communication with Quint has been maliciously intercepted by Vilnix, goes to a meeting on the Loftus Observatory gantry he has sabotaged, while Quint is tricked into attending the same meeting. Before they can confront each other over letters demanding money, the gantry gives way. The pair almost fall but are saved by Phin, Raff and Stope who catch them on the Cloudslayer. Quint quickly realises Vilnix's betrayal. Meanwhile, Vilnix murders Hax as revenge for reneging on his promised apprenticeship by disguising woodwasp eggs as sweets, which hatch inside Hax's stomach and sting him to death from the inside out. Daxiel Xaxis uses the murder as an excuse to attack the Knights-Academic-at-Arms in a bid to take control of the Academy, and a bloody battle takes place which only ends when the captain of the Treasury Guard, Sigbord, and one of the exiled Hall Masters arrive with reinforcements. Sigbord kills Daxiel, but the floating rock is now in serious danger of breaking free. Up in Open Sky Quint, Phin, Stope, Raff and Maris discover the cause of the winter, as vast sky-creature that is breathing cold air over the Edge, and heal it of its freezing sickness with the stormphrax, ending the winter and saving the city. When they return to the Academy Philius Embertine dies peacefully after learning that the crisis is over, Heft Vespius is arrested for forging the papers that allowed him to adopt Maris, and Vilnix is expelled from the Academy, vowing revenge. Wind Jackal suddenly arrives with a mission for Quint, and he and Maris board the Galerider, vowing never again to be separated.
The Stone Pilot[edit]
World Book Day novella featuring Quint. Quint rescues his future stone pilot, Maugin, from a slave market in The Deepwoods. He also aids in the destruction of Scourge of the Weak, a League ship captained by Ilmus Pentephraxis.
Clash of the Sky Galleons[edit]
This book begins with a desperate man-hunt for Turbot Smeal, who had murdered Quint's entire family years ago. He was presumed dead, until a series of messages from him prove otherwise. He leads them into secluded locations, each of which are traps that are narrowly missed. Afterwards, maintenance on The Galerider leads Wind Jackal into a contract to retrieve valuable Bloodoak wood from the Deepwoods. During the terrible journey, four of the crewmembers are killed, and are gradually replaced by Quints future crewmembers. Eventually they receive another message from Smeal, and travel to an abandoned sky-wreck in search of him. There, Smeal kills Wind Jackal and is supposedly killed by Thaw Daggerslash, an ambitious young sky pirate. With Wind Jackal dead, Quint becomes the new captain, and a devastated Thaw Daggerslash leaves on returning to Undertown. There they learn of a sky pirate purge, and they and around 240 Sky Pirate ships flee to their haven of Wilderness Lair. They fly out to meet the attacking fleet, and would have won easily if not for a colossal League Ship, The Bringer of Doom. The Galerider was destroyed and Quint, after sharing a brief kiss with Maris, opts to stay. However the Bringer of Doom crashed due to a design flaw. The battered league ships scuttle back to their nest in undertown. After a brief duel with Turbot Smeal, who was discovered to be Thaw Daggerslash in disguise, The Galerider is lost as it hurtles upwards. Quint and the crew escaped, and he and Maris fell in love. From this point onwards, Quint is almost exclusively referred to as Cloud Wolf.
Return to Sanctaphrax[edit]
After the events of Clash of the Sky Galleons, Quint returned to his studies in the Knight's Academy in Sanctaphrax, and became a knight-in-waiting. For nearly nine years he stayed in Sanctaphrax, awaiting the arrival of a great storm. When the time came, however, his knighting was interrupted by Vilnix Pompolnius, and his newly discovered Phraxdust. Vilnix overthrew the two Most High Academes, and Quint left to become a Sky Pirate.
Beyond The Deepwoods[edit]
To raise enough money for his own ship, Quint crewed on board a leagues vessel, captained by the ruthless Multinus Gobtrax. Maris followed him, and was soon pregnant with their son. Quint knew that he could not follow his dream of becoming a sky pirate with a son dragging him down, so he and Maris arranged for the owner of The Bloodoak Tavern, Mother Horsefeather, to "take the child off their hands". However, a terrible storm grounded them in the Deepwoods shortly after Maris gave birth. Quint knew that the boy would not survive the journey back to Undertown, and was forced to leave him in a village of woodtrolls. Quint returned to Undertown with Maris, now going only by his Sky Pirate name Cloud Wolf. He set out on many voyages in his skyship the Stormchaser to find his son, but every voyage ended in failure, and he eventually could not bring himself to see his wife and abandoned her. He put his old life behind to become a successful captain, assembling a crew from the surviving crewmembers of The Galerider, and other sky pirates. At some point during his time as captain, Cloud Wolf lost an eye while recruited Mugbutt, a dim-witted but vicious flathead goblin. Years later, Stormchaser crash landed in the Deepwoods. Cloud Wolf's son Twig, now a wanderer in the Deepwoods, saw the crash, and helped his crew repair the ship. Cloud Wolf that the boy was in fact his son, and flew away in the night, unable to bear the grief of the lost years. Some time, Twig's guardian caterbird dropped the boy onto the ship, and Cloud Wolf decided make him a crewmember, vowing never to abandon his son again.
Stormchaser[edit]
Approximately two years after being reunited with his son, The Professor of Light sends Quint and his crew on a Stormchasing voyage, in search of Stormphrax. He began the quest, but on the way a combination of weather and mutiny forces the crew to abandon ship. Quint stayed at the helm, and dissolved into the Mother Storm.
Midnight Over Sanctaphrax[edit]
His son, Twig flew his own ship, The Edgedancer in search of Quint. He flew far out into open sky, into the Mother Storm itself. There he finds Quint, and Quint tells him that the mother storm is returning to the Edge. The storm usually replenishes the Edgewater River at its source in Riverrise. However, this time the floating city of Sanctaphrax is in the way. Quint tells Twig to destroy Sanctaphrax to save the Edge from a never-ending drought. After his message is passed on, Quint "becomes one with the Mother Storm", fading into it.
The Immortals[edit]
Quint's spirit remains trapped in Open Sky for centuries, as the Third Age of Flight changes civilisation on the Edge beyond all recognition. Finally Quint's spirit travels to Riverrise with the Mother Storm. As the spring is renewed, he finally reunites with his son Twig, and his great-grandson Rook Barkwater, both of whom have been trapped at Riverrise throughout the Third Age of Flight, unable to die due to the healing powers of the springwater. Before they pass on, the Immortals travel to Old Sanctaphrax, which has been infested with Gloamglozers since the rock was cut from its mooring; their presence is the cause of Stone Sickness. The trio intervene to save the life of Nate Quarter their descendant, before the destroying the Gloamglozer swarm. With this done, the three transform into glisters, returning to Open Sky to be reborn.
Physical appearance[edit]
In The Curse of the Gloamglozer Quint is described as having dark eyes. In the illustrations, he is depicted as having dark hair and as a sky pirate, he has an eyepatch.
Sources[edit]
- Stewart, Paul (1998) Beyond the Deepwoods
- Stewart, Paul (1999) Stormchaser
- Stewart, Paul (2000) Midnight Over Sanctaphrax
- Stewart, Paul (2001) The Curse of the Gloamglozer
- Stewart, Paul (2009) The Immortals
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