Gaudius

Gaudius
Type	NPC
Actor	Matthew Mercer
Character Information
Name	Gaudius
Pronouns	he/him
Creature type	Aberration Humanoid (formerly)
Age	Over 850
Languages	Common
Place	Cognouza Ward, City of Aeor
Connections	The Somnovem
Profession	Leader
Status
Status	Dead
Cause of death	Soul released and dissipated, following the death of Cognouza Incarnate at the hands of Jester Lavorre
Death episode(s)	"Long May He Reign" (2x140)
Appearances
First seen	"Where There Is a Will..." (2x138)
Stream	Campaign Two (1 episode)

Gaudius is one of the Somnovem of the mutated Cognouza Ward of the city of Aeor. As an NPC, Gaudius is played by Matthew Mercer.

Description

Appearance

Gaudius's appearance, age or race prior to the flight of Cognouza into the Astral Plane and his subsequent transformation are unknown.

When Lucien was getting closer to the ruins of Aeor and the Immensus Gate he started seeing the Somnovem with more mundane appearances based on the idea he had of each one of them. To him, Gaudius looked like a man with lustrous black skin, bright-hazel eyes, a formidable nose and a welcoming face, always smiling; his black hair was close-cropped, with fractal designs shaved into the sides and back; he wore a gray robe with a hood.

When Gaudius was encountered by the Mighty Nein in the warped and mutated flying city, they took the form of a glowing red orb pushing up through the flesh of the floors and walls of the city that became an eye buoyed up from the ground like a twisted arm, with a strange bead of orange-yellow pupil-like light in the center.

Personality

While it is unknown what the pre-Calamity Gaudius's personality was, when the party encountered him in Cognouza he seemed soft-spoken and gentle but casually suggested that the party kill those others of the Somnovem with whom Gaudius disagreed. While he said that true purpose was protecting those that brought the Mighty Nein joy and meaning, his own purpose seemed to be "to bond everything in love and to become one [...]. Absolute, eternal love without boundaries." Something about the voice and the light of the glowing red eye was oddly comforting in the way he spoke.

Biography

Gaudius was one of the nine leaders, the Somnovem, of the Aeorian neighborhood called Cognouza. Those leaders led the ward to escape the destruction of Aeor by the gods and transport themselves into the Astral Sea, where they encountered a "psychic storm that wracked every mind and spirit and shattered them until they became one with their own city." "Thousands of people and the Somnovem that guided them were broken, and over time slowly reformed, powerful, the instinct of their dreams driving them, in a place where they could will their dreams to be, were their will not so fragmented."

After Lucien Tavelle and Cree Deeproots survived the trap that killed the rest of the Tombtakers Gaudius appeared briefly before the Nonagon, telling him about the Somnovem's expulsion from Aeorian society, and reminding him how close he was to Cognouza.

Gaudius was the third of the Somnovem that the party encountered. He spoke to the party in the form of a glowing red orb, saying that "the others" were all searching for the Nonagon. Gaudius expressed support of the love and sense of family the party felt toward each other, saying that Gaudius's goal was to bind everyone in absolute eternal love without boundaries, erasing "the horrid separation that plagues all life in the cosmos, breeding strife through loneliness and misunderstanding." His fellow Somnovem Fastidan and Culpasi, however, rejected the embrace, through what Gaudius termed disgust, arrogance, and deeply misplaced shame.

Gaudius urged the party to find the essences of Fastidan and Culpasi at the Aether Crux and "grant them their separation from reality," so that the rest of the Somnovem could join together without doubt.

During the battles with Lucien as the Neo-Somnovem and the Cognouza incarnate, attack by Gaudius's eye flickered a warm, welcoming sensation, filled with longing and love, which caused the target to become charmed for one minute. It could be resisted with a successful Wisdom saving throw. Even on a success, however, it sometimes caused a new eye to appear on the target's body.

Relationships

• The Somnovem

Character Information

Abilities

• Telepathy

Appearances and mentions

• The Nine Eyes of Lucien
• Campaign Two
  • "Welcome to Cognouza" (2x137), mentioned only (first mentioned)
  • "Where There Is a Will..." (2x138) (first appearance)

Quotations

• Ira: (snarling) "Gaudius, do not trust them. They push forward without call for truth in the evils of existence. They wash us all towards oblivion with arms open and naive."
• Gaudius: "You arrive by sheer force of love and family, protecting those that bring you joy and meaning. That is true purpose. Through these bonds eternal, everything, everything has meaning. We seek to bond everything in love and to become one as we all are. Absolute, eternal love, without boundaries."
• Gaudius: "[Fastidan and Culpasi] are driven from unity through disgust, arrogance, and deeply misplaced shame. They would divide and maintain the horrid separation that plagues all life in the cosmos, breeding strife through loneliness and misunderstanding. If you could show love for each other, and for us, could you find where they're harbored within the Aether Crux, and maybe grant them their separation from reality as they so seek, so that the rest of us might join without doubt? Please."

Trivia

• The name "Gaudius" may be derived from the Latin word for joy, gaudium, or rejoicing, gaudeo. Appropriately, his demeanor tended towards joy and amusement, and Lucien saw him as the most inviting Somnovem.