Eleanora Montagu

The Honourable Miss Eleanora Montagu is the latest holder of the position of Librarian of the Great Library, a vast extradimensional library dedicated to the preservation of works of all worlds.

Description
Eleanora is a young woman of middle height, with fair skin, piercing grey eyes, and a rather long nose. Her auburn hair is mid-parted, and worn in curls about her head.

She is dressed in a striped sarsnet lilac Regency walking dress, very high-waisted, trimmed with a double quilling of satin ribband; the fronts of the dress cross to form a double stomacher. She has a Vandyke ruff and a satin straw hat, tied under the chin with a striped Barcelona handkerchief, and adorned with a small plume of ostrich feathers. Her white shawl is embroidered with scarlet and green silks. Her gloves, drawn above the elbow, and her ankle boots are in matching tan.

She carries a large leather-bound book, entitled in unfamiliar characters, under her arm.

Origin
The Great Library is hardly more than a legend, even in the mystic community. It exists in its own dimension, and is apparently unique in existence. Its first surviving mention, at least on this Earth, was at in the time of Atlantis, when the Librarian was apparently fae, though he has appeared as humans of various descriptions for millennia. It is unknown whether the librarian has changed or merely his appearance, or a mixture of both.

The origin of the Library is lost, unless a record survives in the Library itself. It may be that it started simply as the private library of magician of the fae, or perhaps of a still older race. But, at least since the fall of Atlantis, his has come to serve a greater purpose: the preservation of the knowledge of all worlds and all dimensions, against the coming of dark ages.

And so for millennia the Librarian has traversed the dimensions, collecting knowledge before it is lost. He has made deals with one or two magicians in each world: they are to keep the library current on matters of their worlds, and in exchange are granted access to the library. And when a dark age has hit a world, he has nudged it back to civilisation, typically by hiding a few ancient works to be discovered - though the true mission is to guard against a Great Dark Age encompassing all the worlds.

But the Librarian experienced these worlds as well as recording them, sometimes in great adventures to snatch books from an ancient library in flames, sometimes in things as mundane as attending dinner parties.

Powers
Eleanora has a handful of inherent superhuman abilities: she can read at impossible speeds and does not age. Both of these are gifts of the Library itself. She has a strange way of viewing existence, as a great collection of stories, and explains her being injured less than one might expect as the luck important characters often have, though this may be simply another such gift.

She is also a reasonably powerful magician, though she has little formal training and cannot cast a single spell without reference to her books. Two of these are worth particular mention.

She carries the Codex Fabulae with her everywhere, an ancient book containing spells that relate to a narrative view of existence, though he has yet to master the whole book. The spells she can cast from it are of two types. For the narrative spells she describes aloud an event, which then comes to pass as if she were a partial author of reality. However, this cannot depend on ridiculous luck: any such event must be plausible within the situation, just as in fiction too outrageous a coincidence can break suspension of disbelief. So, for instance, for a bridge to collapse spontaneously it must have previously been weakened, or observed already to be weak. The descriptive spells are not so limited. For these she declares an adjective or adverb to apply to target, be it person, object, action or area, beneficial (Aid) or not (Change Environment). And if all else fails she can just hit people with the book.

The Atlas of All Worlds has pride of place in the Library. The vast multivolume work can open a door to any place in any dimension. This appears as an actual door in that world (and so the way back can be blocked).

Personality
Eleanora's childhood yearning for learning and adventure has never left her. Through reading or direct experience, she always wants to find something or somewhere new.

This, however, is tempered by her duties as Librarian and the previous Librarian's demise. She knows she is not powerful enough to protect the library by herself, and so has sought out the company of heroes who can help, even if this means tying herself more to one world than she would like. She is also fearful of losing another friend, to the point of being overprotective.

Relations
Eleanora's strange life means she has many acquaintances in many worlds, but few true friends, which means the presumed death of the former Librarian has hit her especially hard. She has some casual friends among the inhabitants and frequent visitors of the library. On Earth-1, she is closest to Amelia and Connor.

She has not had contact with her family since she eloped.

History
It was always evident that finding a suitable match for the Honourable Miss Eleanora Montagu was going to be difficult: she was always far more interested in reading than in more ladylike pursuits, let alone in men. But no one would have expected of her the scandal that actually occurred.

As dinner parties go, it was an unremarkable one. There was a guest - someone from the British Library, it was rumoured - and there was some hope of intelligent conversation. Indeed, things started out well. But as things went on, the librarian's increasingly outlandish claims led to suspicions he was not the scholar he claimed. When he began to speak of travel to other worlds, the viscount actually declared it poppycock. At least the ostensible librarian had the decency to make his excuses early rather than to maintain his pretence later into the evening. Naturally, he would never be invited to another dinner anywhere in the district.

The only person, indeed, who gave any credence to the outlandish stories was Eleanora. This came as no surprise, as she had always been taken by fanciful ideas as found in her books. What was a surprise was when Eleanora vanished that same evening, presumably in the company of the outrageous guest! It was a scandal that the family was never to live down.

As for Eleanora, she travelled with the Librarian to all the strange worlds he mentioned and more, and read more books in the Library than she had ever dreamed of. She was his companion and assistant for some centuries, and yet every day continued to bring something new.

And then he was gone. He had gone off alone to handle some business - he had been vague of the details. Then she found a letter on her desk. "If you are reading this, then my story is over. You are the Librarian now..."

Eleanora has yet to accept the title - she feels unready still - but she has taken on the responsibilities. And the first of these is to keep the Library safe. Knowing she is yet far from powerful enough to do this herself, she has finally returned to the world of her birth, in search of those who might help her. And of all places on that Earth, she has come to Colonial Bay, where the threads of so many great stories intertwine.