A mercurial polymathic genius of the Classical Period. Lykomorphus earned fame for his sculpture and painting, and as a poet, mathematician, scientist, architect, engineer and inventor. Among his inventions are scissors, certain improved types of mechanical weapons (see ballista, catapult, and crossbow), the archimedean screw, the magnetic compass, cement, and the sextant.

Lykomorphus was born in 4747, the son of a poor kyrion and his third concubine. His talent for drawing allowed him, and his penury forced him, to become an apprentice artist in Thekla. By the age of twenty-five he was famous as an artist, musician, and poet, and also a noted lover, brawler, and bon viveur, and had his own studio. His flamboyant style and aristocratic manner won him friends and patrons, but also made him enemies. His propensity to lose interest in commissions and abandon work on them prevented the financial success he might otherwise have had.

In 4796 he was famous around the world for his inventions, but personally quite poor. The city of Thekla was at that time besieged by forces loyal to Regikhord, and seemed in danger of falling until the city government called on Lykomorphus to lead the defence. With the aid of the fantastical mechanical and alchemical inventions of Lykomorphus, and by dint of prodigies of engineering, Thekla held out for two years, and then surrendered only when Hyrkanthes’s cause was lost in battles elsewhere. Lykomorphus became very unpopular at the court of Regikhord.

Despite his many torrid affaires with women, Lykomorphus never married or took a concubine, and acknowledged no bastards.

Copyright © 1991 by Brett Evill. All rights reserved.