Boddynok Barennackle

From Praemal

Not related to the Potentloins family (amazingly), but nonetheless of great importance to Ebuferpaly, is High Priest Boddynok Barennackle, the wise and venerable and senior cleric of Wit's End, who has conducted Bufer's training in the holy arts, with the intention that Bufer will one day replace him as the community's spiritual leader.

An old friend of Rubik and Glimnamfoodle Potentloins from their youth, Boddynok was once a Divine Trickster, an agent of Garl Glittergold in the service of the Laughing Knives of Tarsis, who sought to undermine the Church of Lothian and the stranglehold it held on the Tarsisian Empire, mainly through clandestine "practical jokes" designed to strike a blow against oppression. (In fact, Boddynok is still technically considered to be an enemy of the Church, though few would remember it.)

Now that the Empire is teetering on the verge of collapse, and the open practice of other religions is no longer persecuted, High Priest Barennackle considers his life's work to be at its end. He has devoted the final years of his life to shepherding the gnomes of Wit's End, particularly Bufer and his sister Ellyjojobell, for whom he firmly believes Garl Glittergold has plans.

Unlike many gnomes, who discuss the world in natural metaphors, particularly those relating to woodland animals, Barennackle sees the world in terms of illusions and reality and his sermons typically use that idiom. Even his chapel beneath Wit's End, the Cavern of Gold, is a great illusion wrapped around a smaller truth.