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**John Lyall** is a figure of the C9 universe, recorded as e1 progenitor (the architect class). He came out of deep time and pre-history.
John is recorded for reality writing (e1 tech/magic). As matter he is immutable. Like Leinder, he cannot be destroyed by conventional means. He can feign injury or death to advance the narrative. In energy terms he is he does not need Tesseract energy. He is a source of it. He likely built the Tesseract interface to give humans a toy to hurt themselves with. He can alter his vocal cords, bone structure, and pheromones to shift between identities flawlessly.
The record follows him across 3 periods of life. In the last of them he is recorded as leader of the opposition.
**John Lyall** is a figure of the C9 universe, an E1 of the architect class, and the adoptive father of [[life/chryssander-randolf-lyall-helvig|Chryssander Randolf Lyall-Helvig]]. John Lyall is one of his names. He has also gone by Thomas Elliott, Robert Graunos and Hans Luilphr, and his birth name is not on record.
## Early life
He is of deep time and pre-history, and he does not experience years as they are lived. He is credited with whitholium, and with the tesseract interface as humans received it.
The records give his origin as deep time / pre-history. His development is recorded as narrative parasitism. he survives the boredom of immortality by embedding himself in human lives, creating "stories" (families/wars), and watching them play out. His standing at this time was squad mate to eevi/amaryllis's parents. John's part in it was infiltrating the human resistance/science teams. He is creating the "Whitholium" technology to accelerate human warfare. In truth, he wasn't helping them; he was giving monkeys machine guns to see what would happen.
He disappeared thirty years before the events of *The Glass House*, the day after he published, and is recorded as deceased. He is not.
## Chrys’s adoptive father
## Method
His standing at this time was chrys’s adoptive father / the mentor. John's part in it was adopting chrys. He didn't save Chrys out of kindness; he picked a child with "Protagonist Potential" (High Intelligence, Tesseract affinity) and raised him to have a complex (Hero Complex). He left by faking his death/disappearance to give Chrys the "Core Wound" necessary to start his journey.
John does not read time as a sequence. He reads it as a plot, and works at the scale that allows: a seed planted in year 314 yields its harvest in year 340, and he plants accordingly.
## Later years
He understands human feeling completely and has none of it. Love, anger and grief are settings he adjusts in other people, and his sympathy is an instrument he plays. He survives the tedium of not dying by embedding himself in other people's lives, making families and wars, and watching what they do.
His standing at this time was leader of the opposition / E1 chaos agent. John's part in it was fighting chrys. He is now playing the role of the villain in his own son's story, pushing Chrys to break his moral code. He wants to see if he can break his "Pet Son." If Chrys kills him, the story is a Tragedy. If Chrys saves him, it's a Redemption Arc. Either way, John is entertained.
## The setup
## Abilities
In his earliest recorded period he was inside the human resistance and its science teams, under other names, as a squadmate of the parents of [[life/eevi-charlotte-helvig-norgaard|Eevi]] and [[life/amaryllis-rigel-helvig|Amaryllis]]. He gave them whitholium.
The mechanism on record is reality writing (e1 tech/magic).
He was not helping them. He was arming a conflict he wanted to watch.
The record notes whitholium Mastery. He knows the secret codes of the universe because he wrote them. The effect answers to boredom. He uses power only when the story stalls. There is no cost for him. He pays no price. The physical toll and spiritual toll are paid entirely by the humans (Chrys, Amaryllis, Eevi) he manipulates.
## As a father
### John Lyall
He adopted Chryssander as a child. The choice was not compassion: he selected a child with the qualities the story needed, high intelligence and an affinity for the tesseract, and raised him to carry the wound the rest of it required.
He uses "Genius Intellect" to build tools. He acts limited by human science.
He taught in suggestions rather than descriptions. *There are places that were built before anyone had names for what they were building, and the structures tell you everything.* Chryssander spent years finding what those sentences pointed at[1].
### Hans Luilphr
The disappearance was the last move of that period. He removed himself to give his son the loss the arc needed.
He uses "Chaos Magic" (Raw Tesseract Manipulation) to challenge the hero.
## Physiology
### The Author
John is immutable matter. Conventional means do not destroy him, and he can perform an injury or a death when the narrative wants one.
He stops fighting and simply speaks. He can deconstruct the reality Chrys stands on by revealing it was all a script.
He needs no tesseract energy because he is a source of it, and the interface he built for humans was a toy handed to people who could hurt themselves with it.
## Character
He alters vocal cords, bone structure and pheromones, and shifts identity without a seam. What does not change is the eyes. Whatever warmth the face is doing as John, whatever anger it is doing as Hans, the micro-expressions around the eyes stay exactly as they are: ancient, bored and observing.
John does not experience time as others do: he does not experience time as a linear flow. He perceives it as a plot. He knows that if he plants a seed (Chrys) in Year 314, he will get a harvest in Year 340. Socially, he understands human emotion perfectly but does not feel it. He views love, anger, and grief as mechanics to be adjusted in his subjects. His empathy is a performance tool. He thinks in orchestration. He created Whitholium not just as a fuel but as a plot device to drive the conflict he wanted to watch.
## Family
Early in life he held to a lie about hisself: n/A. He does not lie to himself; he lies to everyone else. Later he came to hold the opposite: "I didn't love you, Chrys. The record notes i wrote you.". The record notes warm, paternal, academic, reassuring. "I'm so proud of you, son.". The record notes cold, chaotic, mocking. "You are weak, little builder.". Detached. "That was a good scene, Chrys. But you missed your cue. Let's take it from the top.".
John Lyall raised [[life/chryssander-randolf-lyall-helvig|Chryssander Randolf Lyall-Helvig]], who later set the Lyall name down.
## See also
- [[life/chryssander-randolf-lyall-helvig|Chryssander Randolf Lyall-Helvig]]
- [[life/leinder-byron|Leinder Byron]]
## References
1. [[pages/glass-house-chapter-8-the-cave-and-the-guide|The Glass House, chapter 8]]