Franklin Stokenshire

Franklin Kelner Stokenshire

Profile

Franklin Stokenshire is the current head of the Stokenshire family. He is the chief librarian of the Fantasmal Libraries and widely considered to be the greatest scholar of his generation. Franklin is well versed in history, spirituality, adimus sciences, politics, and much more. As the head of the Stokenshire family, Franklin also sits on the board of the Sunnin Social System.
Franklin has a very confident personality born from years of meticulous study and research. His theories are rarely wrong, and he prides himself on making sure he has all of the information possible before proposing an idea or plan of action. He is one of Fantasma’s top advisors and never hesitates to speak bluntly to him, as he takes his role very seriously. He is a loyal friend and is highly trusted by all who are close to him

Early Life

Franklin Stokenshire was born Franklin Kelner. Like all born in the Stokenshire line, he could not receive the family name unless earned, so his birth surname was his mother’s. His father, Marshall Stokenshire was a successful blacksmith but not as prominent as the other members of the merchant branch of the family. This was because success for the Stokenshires was measured by the amount of money and power one wielded, especially when it came to aiding the Sunnin Social System.
Marshall, though successful enough to provide an upper middle-class life for his family, was only able to give modest donations to Sunnin. Despite this, he had earned his place among the Stokenshires by being both a skilled smithy and highly devoted to the Daughter of the Sun, despite her long absence, and he made sure to instill this same devotion in Franklin.
For her part, Maribel Kelner worked in the field of adimus sciences and as both a professor and researcher at the Acumen Academy of Adimus Sciences in Belldurner. She believed in the importance and power of academia and knowledge and instilled this belief into her son.
Because he was born a mentant and not a channeler, it was impossible for Franklin to go into the fields of mentant engineering, smithing, or research, so his parents encouraged him to persue the path of a mind mage, since that would give him hundreds of opportunities in business, government, and academia. Franklin had a strong mind for studies and a passion for learning so this seemed like the best path to gaining a position of prestige, though it was unlikely that he would be able to earn the Stokenshire name since the vast majority of Stokenshires were merchants, smithies, or prominent artisans.
During his teen years, Franklin developed a passion for history, which was a largely overlooked field of study, even in the Kingdom of Acumen which placed a higher-than-normal value on academics. This was because history, on the whole, was seen as having no practical value. It seemed only epouranals and obscure scholars held the secrets of Mendala’s past. For Franklin, who’d grown up hearing legends and stories about the Daughter of the Sun, history was fascinating. He wanted to know the details of these legends and learn how it all entwined with other historical events. So, he spent a great deal of his free time visiting libraries and reading all he could find on the subject. However, the more he researched, the more he realized how guarded and rare historical documents were.
It was when he went to masters school that his passion for history took an unexpected turn. It was there that he had an encounter with High Mage Justina Vermellian, the Sunnandra Epouranal Mage. Vermellian was the chief librarian at the Belldurner Masters School when she was tapped to become an epouranal only five years prior, and she had not left that post. As a result, very few people knew that the chief librarian was an epouranal mage, especially since she rarely made public appearances.
Franklin met Justina by chance when he ventured deep into the library archives looking for historical documents on one of his days off. Not knowing who she was, Franklin made friends with Justina, who he saw as a fellow bibliophile and amateur historian. It took several months before he realized she was actually an epouranal mage but by that time, the two had developed such a close friendship, it hardly mattered.
Because of the supernal wisdom granted to her, Justina was able to give Franklin deeper knowledge and insight into a myriad of topics, and her status as epouranal allowed her to request historical documents from all over the world to study, which she shared with Franklin. It was through this unlikely friendship that Franklin’s passion for history ballooned, and he started to realize the importance of learning Mendala’s past and how it impacted the present and future.
Much to his parent’s chagrin, Franklin abandoned his pursuit to become a mind mage and instead decided to focus all of his energy into scholarly endeavors. Justina secured a job for Franklin in the masters school library, which was little more than a pretext to allow him to be paid to research and study with the epouranal. He remained there for twenty years living a modest but fulfilling life.

The Traveling Scholar

After spending over two decades ensconced in the Belldurner Masters School, High Mage Justina Vermellian felt compelled to leave her comfortable life and travel the world to teach others what she’d studied so diligently. At her side was her loyal friend and confidant, Franklin Kelner. Though it was not unusual for epouranals to travel and teach, Vermellian took a different approach from what would be considered normal for an epouranal. She and Franklin traveled from school-to-school teaching history, spirituality, culture and the importance of scholarly pursuits.
Because of her epouranal status, Vermellian could go to any masters school in the world and teach whatever she wanted, however she wanted. Schools would give her and Franklin whatever resources were required, and students would flock to her classes, no matter the topic. The two did not only teach at masters schools though. Much of their time was spent teaching young children in primary school, giving them a foundation in history and a thirst for knowledge.
Over time, Franklin developed a reputation outside of just being Vermellian’s companion. He taught classes independent of her and was widely considered to be extremely knowledgeable in a variety of subjects. Through their combined efforts, Vermellian and Franklin elevated the status of scholars throughout the world. The once-obscure profession that seemed to have no value now held great prestige and importance. This in turn elevated Franklin’s status even more. At Vermellian’s prompting he began to travel and teach separately from her, and schools welcomed him almost as favorably as they would the epouranal.
Franklin traveled and taught both with Vermellian and on his own for several decades.

Becoming A Stokenshire

When Franklin was in his early sixties, the Stokenshires held a family meeting to determine the family head’s successor. Though not a Stokenshire himself, Franklin was allowed to attend the meeting because his father, Marshall, was being considered for the position. Despite not being a prominent merchant, Marshall had considerable support throughout the family. However, the frontrunner was Alistair Stokenshire, an extremely successful jewelry merchant.
Unbeknownst to Franklin, there had been a lot of upheaval among the Stokenshires as to the overall direction the family should go. The merchant branch of the family held considerable power and wanted to push the family in a direction that would focus on increasing the overall wealth of the Stokenshires to better provide resources to the Sunnin Social System. This would mean only allowing family members to obtain the Stokenshire name if they held considerable status and clout in a merchant or craftsman field and turning away those who offered little in the way of monetary resources.
However, there was a faction of lower-class merchants, artisans, and others who vehemently opposed this direction. They believed that the test should primarily be loyalty to the Daughter of the Sun and as long as they supported Sunnin in some tangible way, that was enough. This faction saw Marshall as their leader and pushed for him to become the next family head. Though he was a blacksmith, he was nowhere near as prominent as most in the merchant branch and he too believed that the Stokenshire family had room for more than just the most successful merchants.
The family meeting, which took place in Weaver’s Road, was being held so that Paxton Stokenshire, current family head, could choose an official successor. This was an extremely important decision because the family head was the only one who could allow someone to obtain the Stokenshire name and thus would determine the overall direction of the family.
During that meeting, Franklin watched as his father tried to plead his case for continued diversity within the Stokenshire clan, but it was clear he had less compelling arguments than his opponent. The Stokenshires rise to prominence at the beginning of the TS era was due to Terence Stokenshire, the first mentant tailor to use ustus fabric and revolutionize fashion by creating the first robes. He was the first, an arguably most successful Stokenshire merchant, and it was his legacy and relationship with Sarah Fantas that made the Stokenshires what they were.
Though there were some non-merchant Stokenshires in the past, that was the exception. It was only in the last millennium, during the TA era that the trend started to change. Alistair’s reasoning was simple: the Stokenshire’s needed to return to their roots as merchants and use their wealth to further bolster the Sunnin Social System while they waited for the return of the Daughter of the Sun; that way her legacy would remain intact. After all, the main role the Stokenshires served for the Sunnin Social System was to be their primary donors.
After listening to Alistair’s impassioned argument, Franklin asked to speak on his father’s behalf and offer another perspective. Normally, this would not be allowed since Franklin didn’t have the Stokenshire name, but Paxton made an exception due to Franklin’s renown as a scholar. Franklin had spent years studying history and lore, specifically around the Daughter of the Sun, and made a connection that no one else did about the circumstances surrounding her disappearance. He reminded those present that the Stokenshire’s vow was not to provide money or resources to Sunnin, or even the Daughter of the Sun herself, but to serve her unwaveringly. Then he revealed how they had failed that duty, their highest duty, during Jasmine Lowens’s brief stint as Daughter of the Sun.
Maxwell Stokenshire, though a talented merchant and businessman, was unable to gain the trust of Jasmine and help her transition into her role. He was also not one of the people that Ruth turned to when she went to reclaim the Sun Stone. The reason was simple, despite his prominence as a merchant, Maxwell was ill-equipped to offer the kind of assistance that the Daughter of the Sun needed during these unprecedented times. Jasmine needed a scholar to help her learn and a counselor to help her adjust. Ruth needed fighters and adventurers to help her retrieve the Sun Stone.
Maxwell realized his own limitations as well the limitations of the Stokenshires as a whole. He vowed to make sure that his family would be prepared to serve the Daughter of the Sun in any and every way when she returned. This was why the family branched out beyond just merchants over the years, though the reasoning was lost to time. Franklin then reminded his family of the prophecy they’d held onto for centuries:
“When war threatens anew, and the warriors return, the sun shall rise again”
Franklin understood this to mean that when the Daughter of the Sun returned, it would undoubtedly be during a time of unprecedented war, so much so that the twelve warriors would need to return to stop it. He reasoned that if this was the case, the Daughter of the Sun would need more than just money when she returned to the world, she would need all manner of resources. All the more reason for the Stokenshires to have loyal members in walks of life beyond just wealthy merchants. Money was important, but there would be needs far beyond that and the Stokenshires should be prepared.
After hearing all of this from Franklin, Paxton was convinced. The Stokenshires needed a family head that could help build the family to be supportive to the Daughter of the Sun in many ways when she returned. Beyond that, it was important that every Stokenshire fully understood their own legacy and the legacy of the Daughter of the Sun to insure they knew the full weight of their duty as Stokenshires. Because of this, Paxton made the radical choice of appointing Franklin as his successor.
Franklin was stunned, as was everyone else present: he wasn’t even a Stokenshire. However, Paxton had made up his mind. Franklin had already earned a reputation as a great scholar, possibly the greatest one of the current age. With such notoriety, he would easily be accepted as a Stokenshire, who were widely known to always be at the top of their respective fields. In addition, by appointing a scholar to the head of the family, it sent a clear message that non-merchant members of the family were welcome to apply for the name. Most importantly, Paxton could easily tell by Franklin’s impassioned words that he was truly loyal to the Daughter of the Sun and would work to build a family that was ready to serve in any way that was needed.
Franklin accepted his new role, and though there was some grumblings among members of the merchant branch of the family, their loyalty to the Daughter of the Sun took precedence. They recognized that Franklin’s mindset was right and that in the end what was important was serving the Daughter of the Sun and keeping the Stokenshire’s vow.
Though he continued to travel and teach, Franklin also spent a considerable amount of time over the next decade learning everything he needed to know from Paxton to assume the role of family head, and he officially took up the position at age 72.

An Unconventional Marriage

By the time Franklin reached age 81, he and Justina had been traveling the world and teaching for forty years. Through their efforts, the general public’s perception of scholars greatly changed, especially in the areas of history, culture, and spirituality. Instead of being obscure and often overlooked fields, the profession was elevated to much higher and more prominent status, and people were eager to have the opportunity to learn from someone who had achieved the level of scholar. In addition, children even grew up with aspirations of becoming a scholar in the same way one might aspire to be a mind mage or guardian.
After forty years, Justina told Franklin that she was moving on to the next stage of her epouranal duties. She had fulfilled her calling to travel and teach, but apparently there was more for her to pursue that would take her out of the spotlight for many years to come. Before leaving to find her place of meditation in Sunntondra, she asked Franklin to marry her. By then they’d spent almost sixty years together, and Justina and Franklin had a very close relationship, but Franklin never imagined that the epouranal felt that way about him.
It wasn’t uncommon for an epouranal to have a spouse and children before they were granted their rank, but in those cases, the person eventually ended up leaving their family in order to pursue their duties. It was practically unheard of for an epouranal to have any sort of romantic relationship after their calling. However, Justina had been called when she was 28-years-old and had never been married or even had much of a romantic life, mostly because she’d been so focused on her research and studies. She regretted not being able to enjoy romance and marriage before becoming an epouranal, and she wanted to at least create a permanent bond with the person she fell in love with before having to go off on her own to meditate.
Franklin realized he’d felt the same way about Justina for a long time but had actively repressed those feelings because of her position. Not only was she one of the high prophets, but her life span would be three times longer than his. But when Justina confessed her feelings and explained why she wanted to get married, he accepted her proposal wholeheartedly.
Because of the controversy an epouranal’s marriage would cause, Franklin and Justina were married in secret by High Mage Seraphina Goodall with only a few witnesses from Hidden Valley. Shortly after that, the two went their separate ways: Franklin to continue his work as a scholar and Justina to start her years of meditation. They exchanged bonding stones as a way to be able to send messages to one another and find each other whenever they desired. Though they could rarely be together due to Justina’s role as an epouranal, the two are very happy with their clandestine relationship and value the bond they have. They met at least once a year on their anniversary and periodically when the timing was right.
Franklin never shared his marriage to Justina with any of his friends or family, not even the Fantasma.

Back to the Library

Shortly after his marriage, at age 82, Franklin was approached by the Fantasma to become the new Chief Librarian of the Fantasmal Libraries. The offer seemed completely out of nowhere until Fantasma revealed that High Mage Vermellian had personally recommended him. Justina had used her influence to give Franklin the opportunity of a lifetime. As a scholar, he jumped at the chance to study and do research in the largest library in the world. At this point, he was already widely considered to be one of the worlds foremost scholars, so Fantasma saw no reason to doubt the recommendation of the epouranal since Franklin already fit the role perfectly.
As Chief Librarian, Franklin’s main roles were supervising the inclusion of significant documents into the library and using the vast knowledge within to advise and aid the Fantasma and other high ranking staff members. Franklin served as Chief Librarian for the remainder of Fantasma’s term and continued in the role when the new Fantasma, Darius Wavemore, was appointed, becoming one of his top advisors in the process. Franklin’s knowledge, wisdom, and insight were highly valued within the Fantasmal Government, but just like how he was in the Belldurner Masters School library, he could easily get caught up in his research and disappear for days or weeks at a time.

Relationships

Franklin Stokenshire

Friend / Advisor

Towards Fantasma

5

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Fantasma

Friend

Towards Franklin Stokenshire

5

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History

Franklin met Darius when he was a guardian posted in Zohare. He developed a great bond with him and often offered the guardian advice. Once Darius became Fantasma, he appointed Franklin as one of his top advisors specifically telling him that he was one of the few people he trusted to tell him when he was headed down the wrong path.

Page Contents

Demographics

Age	109
Race	Human
Gender	Male
Height	5’7” (1.7m)
Build	Average
Complexion	Deep Brown
Eyes	Green
Hair	long black, peppered gray

Family

Father	Marshall Stokenshire (deceased)
Mother	Maribel Kelner (deceased)
Wife	Justina Vermellian

Mendalian Ranks

Social Rank	Scholar
Adimus Rank	Mentant

Affiliations

Hometown	Belldurner, Acumen
Stokenshire Family	Family Head
Sunnin Social System	Board Member
Fantasmal Government	Chief of Fantasmal Libraries

Library Info & Links

Spouses

Siblings

Aligned Organization

Fantasmal Government

Other Affiliations

• The Stokenshires

Character Guide

All Characters Characters by Group / Organization Characters by Location

Groups & Organizations