Few Rats have lived as honored and distinguished a life as Malcolm Quickskitter. He is at once the Serenity of the Scroll, the Keeper of the White Book of Mysteries, and the senior administrator of the Library of the Rats. While any one of these offices could easily overwhelm a lesser soul, Malcolm tends to his formidable duties with supreme skill and admirable grace.

     Little in Malcolm’s young life would suggest that he was capable of such achievements. The younger of two sons born to Karl Cheddarchaser (don’t ask) and Irolia Silkenpelt, Malcolm was a rambunctious, almost irrepressible youth. Cocky, curious, and cagey, Malcolm was not overly burdened by a surfeit of self-control. To this day, stories abound of his practical jokes and his skills in evasion—hence the name "Quickskitter".

     As Malcolm entered adolescence, however, he found a brilliant and beautiful reason to do some serious growing up—a reason that went by the name of Lauri Goldenquill. Lauri was Malcolm’s favorite tutor and more than twice his age. Hoping to impress her with some worthy achievement, Malcolm immersed himself in the study of magic, until then only a casual hobby. No one was more surprised than Malcolm when he displayed a genuine affinity for the Art, earning his seiaj after only six years of intense study. Though now a true spellcaster, dedicated to the Art for its own sake, Lauri still saw her young "suitor" as a talented but precocious child.

     That was about to change. Some thirty years after Malcolm earned his seiaj, his father embarked upon a mission that could claim his life, or soul, or both. He had dared to read the lethal Book of Mysteries, determined to earn the right to become the next Keeper of the White Book. The enormity of Karl’s courage and dedication struck Malcolm like a physical blow, and the young Rat reeled from the shame of his own childish irresponsibility. As months went by and Karl did not return, something inside Malcolm's soul twisted and finally snapped.

     Not knowing how he got there (he said of the incident later), Malcolm found himself alone in the Chamber of the Book, the stairway leading to the sacred volume left unguarded. Ascending the stairs, Malcolm stood chill and trembling atop a cloud, alone except for a white marble altar. The White Book’s guardian, an ancient gold dragon, was inexplicably absent and the text lay open to view. Alone with the Book, Malcolm’s rashness overcame him as he read a single obscure line—an act that committed him body and soul to solving the riddle of the enigmatic passage, or die in the attempt.

     Karl returned from his great adventure after a year and a half, and was grief-stricken by his son’s disappearance and the impulsive act that spawned it. Three years passed, and the Rats were about to give up Malcolm for lost when a lone figure strode into the Library. The stranger had set off no alarms, nor had he attracted the attention of Quinathuli, the Library’s dragon sentinel. Casting off his heavy wool cape, Malcolm stood before his people.

     The young Rat was adorned not only in his seiaj, but also in the vestments of an Adept of the Scroll. An enchanted sword was slung from his waist, and a heavy spellbook was tucked under one arm. But it was the Rat’s visage that told the true tale: Malcolm’s eyes were bright and hard, having beheld sights that would have broken most mortals, and his formerly black whiskers were now a premature, snowy white. Without a word, Malcolm knelt before his Head of Order and put his muzzle to the Ring of the Scrollmaster with grave respect. Their gaze met, and father and son silently acknowledged a shared trial, a shared triumph. Though he had not yet come of age, Malcolm’s childhood was over.

     And so was his courtship. Lauri was soon enamored with her former pupil, now an honored servant of the True Gods and wizened far beyond his years. A decade to the day of his return, Malcolm and Lauri were married.

     Their happiness was not to last. After 70 years, Lauri became heavy with Malcolm’s firstborn. It was a difficult pregnancy, and the delivery strained Lauri to such an extent that her health was broken. Despite the Rats’ best ministrations, Lauri died less than two weeks after the birth of their daughter, Cherlyndria Snowdrift.

     Malcolm was devastated by Lauri’s death, and the frailty of his newborn only added to his grief. Cherlyndria’s surname was well earned, for only an albino such as she could lay claim to such snowy white fur, pink eyes, and pale skin. Many of the Rats, Malcolm included, did not expect her to survive. But Sheri did survive, though she was never more than a sickly wisp of a child, largely confined to a bedridden existence.

     Despite his daughter’s poor health, Malcolm did not fully retire from the world to care for her. While some considered this selfish and even callous, others found inspiration in the Rat’s devotion to his calling. One of those "others" was Sheri herself, who begged her father not to give up on his ministry for her sake. Still, Malcolm rose rather leisurely through the ranks, making prudent career moves as his mood and Sheri’s health allowed.

     When Sheri survived into adolescence, the Serenity nominated his son for the coveted office of Knights Commander over the objections of many of Malcolm’s peers. Though all agreed that Malcolm was a highly competent "field priest" and certainly no stranger to death and hardship, many in the Order couldn’t see Malcolm as a "commander" of anything. The reluctant Graces eventually put their faith in Karl’s wisdom and confirmed the appointment.

     Within a year, Malcolm had pulled the rug from under his detractors. Now feeling himself free to give his all for his faith, Malcolm energized the Knighthood into a crusade known to Mirenian history as the Great Reclamation. Over the next three decades, the Knights of the Scroll scoured the surface of the Shattered Continent, recovering hundreds of priceless documents and cultural treasures from places that many seasoned adventurers feared to tread. As befitting an Adventurer of the Book of Mysteries, Malcolm led the most hazardous missions personally.

     After centuries of distinguished service, Karl Cheddarchaser decided to step down as the active Serenity of the Scroll. In a move unprecedented in the history of the Order in Miren, Malcolm Quickskitter was unanimously confirmed as Serenity on the first ballot. As his first official act, the Rat ordered an immediate inventory of the Order’s holdings—thereby exposing a slow but steady hemorrhage of church property from carelessness, graft, and neglect. Malcolm’s response to this disgrace was swift, harsh, and not soon forgotten.

     With old age upon him, Malcolm shows no signs of slowing down. His appearance has changed little, save for a graying of the muzzle and a gradual darkening of the skin of his paws and tail. To his fellow Rats, these changes make the Serenity appear even more handsome and distinguished than he did in his youth.

     The heart and soul of Malcolm Quickskitter has aged equally well. Placid and thoughtful by nature, the Rat is one of the few Serenities that actually "lives up" to the title. No being is beneath his notice or beyond his compassion; to him, rank and privilege are nothing compared to the soul that lies beneath. One particular incident illustrates the Rat's character like no other: when Malcolm was late for a meeting with the powerful—and pompous—Lord Governor of Orem, the nobleman went to find the Serenity personally. He found the Rat on all fours, gently pulling a filthy, frightened dog trapped in a sewer drain.

     His experiences as an Adventurer of the Book and as Knights Commander have made Malcolm streetwise and savvy, as well as a shrewd and nearly infallible judge of character. It has been said that the Serenity reads people with the same ease as he reads his beloved books. Even without his god-given ability to know falsehood whenever he hears it, the Serenity is not an easy being to deceive or manipulate.

     Malcolm treasures his books nearly as much as his friends and family, and is extremely well read. He is also a superb linguist who can speak the dwarven, gnomish, elven, and isaki tongues with both eloquence and elegance.

     Malcolm has very few vices beyond his single guilty pleasure, his water pipe. Whenever he becomes moody or somber, he will turn to his violin; though a talented performer, the Rat is no virtuoso. On the rare occasions he is driven to true anger, Malcolm radiates a silent, palpable rage that can terrify far more than any outburst. Given his arcane and spiritual powers, his formidable reputation, and his considerable combat prowess, the Serenity is rarely given reason to vent his wrath—because so few will actually dare it.

     The Rat is an unusually mobile and energetic head of his church. He manages to visit every major temple of the Shattered Continent once every five years and every modest one at least once every human generation. He prefers to travel with but a handful of skilled and trusted companions, forsaking a formal bodyguard more often than not.

     After centuries as a widower, Malcolm found another soul to share his life. The lovely mage Nia Riverdance had been his lover and confidante for four decades before their rather impromptu wedding a half century ago. Malcolm's daughter Sheri is actually quite fond of her stepmother (who is closer to her own age than to Malcolm’s) and her wish for a brother or sister was rewarded a decade later with the birth of Karl Shadowrun.

     Malcolm is giving serious thought to the decades remaining to him. His key concerns are selecting his successors as Head of Order and as the Keeper of the White Book. Equally important is the rearing of his young son, who may not come of age before his father’s passing. The Serenity also has three personal missions: a grand tour of Miren, a voyage to the fabled continent of Dass, and compiling a volume of his arcane discoveries and theories.

     The Rending came as close as anything to breaking Malcolm's noble spirit. After witnessing his brother's descent into madness and the carnage that followed, the Serenity's vengeful hand was stayed only by an Avatar of the Black Unicorn. Facing that terrible Power forced Malcolm to gaze upon the fratricide he was about to commit—and with every beat of his heart, the rage was purged from his soul. Satisfied that the Serenity had regained control of himself, Phyrrus quietly withdrew as Malcolm sent his brother Richard and all his loyal followers into an exile he hoped would somehow redeem them.

---