Abnaxus

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Character in the adventure game The Longest Journey.

Abnaxus is the Venar ambassador to the Ayrede Council, and keeper of Venar Stone, their piece of the Stone Disk. While he lives in the City Green of Marcuria, his true home is north of the Border Mountains. His wife is Abyanda, and his daughters are Abratha, Abelexe and Abpalmana.

Many players of TLJ have a love-hate relationship with Abnaxus, due to his lengthy, grammatically tense-challenged speeches. The dialogue goes a long way towards helping us understand what it is like to be a Venar, but he does tend to go on. He went on. He will go on. He will have been going on.

Abnaxus also has quite an eclectic collection of books, including:

  • Ruminations on the Chaos Principle, by Ror Agastanja
  • The Death of a Venar, by Ge'le
  • A Brief History of the Northlands, by Minstrum Lenyer
  • The Psychology of Stickmen, by G. Godager
  • Principles of Waging a Winning War Against Superior Forces, by General Hen Solber
  • Surviving the Border Mountains, by Tomi Strande

and even The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien.


The old website for The Longest Journey had Abnaxus give a rather foggy (well, normal for him) info session on the Venar, the veil and the coming of the Kan-ang-la:

"No, friend, I am not. For she will come."

"I am Abnaxus of the Venar. I am an ambassador to the land of Ayrede, and the city of Marcuria has been my home now for…a time. How long? I do not know, friend. My people do not know of time. We do not live in the now. We live in the always."

"Farewell."

"No, do not be confused. To speak to you is oftentimes a difficult task for me, for I may answer questions not yet asked, or questions asked a time ago. To even make myself understood demands greatly of me, and it is a skill acquired by study. I am the only one of my people to speak with outsiders. For the others it is too difficult, and they may reveal your future yet to be, or a future that will never be, or a past hidden by chance or choice. To speak with my people is to enter the true mind of the Venar, and for outsiders, that may not be a pleasant experience."

"There is a veil in our path, however; a veil I cannot see past. We exist to that point, and at all points previous, but not beyond. For us, this sense of the unknown is like losing our sight. We are blinded. But we know of one person who is to lead us through the veil, to the other side. The Lady will one day unite the worlds, she will be the mother of a new world -- but first, she will lead us through the veil. "

"Am I afraid?"

"We are of trees, friend, and trees are of us. We plant the trees, and we care for them, and the trees care for us in return. A tree grows over time, yet it has always been there, and it always will be. And any moment is an eternity. Any moment is a lifetime. Do we die? I am dead, in this moment. I am born, in this moment. Any moment is all moments."

"You wish to go?"

"No, friend, I am not. For she will come."


Abnaxus is voiced by Jeff Meller.