BARBEL OF GURTHBarbel of Gurth, son of Delbor of Gurth, was an arbiter and diplomat of the tenth century. His greatest skills were arbitrating and speaking in tongues, but on Suspendur 2nd, 927 GUE he also invented the GOLMAC spell ("travel temporally") which had been known of since at least 882 GUE. He held two positions of authority: President of the Gurth Arbiters Congress (GAC), and Guildmaster of the Gurth City chapter of the Enchanters' Guild, a position he attained in 933. With his authority, he was able to restore high enchantment dues.
At the 106th annual Convention of Enchanters and Sorcerers in 947, Guildmaster Barbel made veiled references to critical "elements" that portended an upheaval of all Learned Arts in the Empire, as well as quoting the renowned historian Ozmar, who wrote in 821 GUE.Bivotar seemed to believe that he was referring to alchemy and/or the Nemesis.
In Ottobur of 949, after Syovar's war with the Enchanters Guild had ended, Ellron, with amazing confidence at the recent victories, addressed a letter to Barbel of Gurth:
Now at last we can free
ourselves from the shadow of the Flathead failure and get on with the
job at hand. The creation of one noble and magical Quendoran empire,
the task begun by Entharion so many centuries, can now at last resume
again!
Barbel was a noted critic of his fellow Enchanters. He is most remembered for proclaiming that, "When I was a boy, I was told that any Enchanter could become a Guildmaster. Now I'm beginning to believe it."
Barbel was also quoted in the 957 issue of Popular Enchanting as stating that, "There's too much showing-off, too much one-upmanship between the chapters, and no cooperation. We’re here to share and exchange our advancements in thaumaturgy, and to try to solve our common problems, not to compete against each other in some sort of free-for-all. Frankly, I’m disgusted." This comment came after the 115th Convention of Enchanters and Sorcerers of the same year. His wisdom also inspired the quote, "The best place to be if there's a hubbub is somewhere else."
In 957 GUE, Barbel and Orkan of Thriff were together working on powerful thaumaturgical experiments.
The Enchanting CMLXIII EXPO of 963 GUE was scheduled to feature Barbel of Gurth along with Belboz of Accardi and Orkan of Thriff.
Incidentally, Barbel of Gurth's Double Fanucci handicap is 42.