William of Baskerville

William of Baskerville is a Franciscan friar from England, where he studied under the scientist and philosopher Roger Bacon.

Description and Personality
He used to work for the Inquisition, prosecuting heretics, but became disillusioned because he found the church’s regime too harsh and was never sure whether the confessions he elicited were true or not. At the same time, however, he hungers for knowledge and longs to uncover the causes of things.

He is preoccupied by the relationship between signs and their meanings, which makes him an ideal detective, able to look at the physical evidence he sees in the world and devise plausible explanations.

William is intellectually brilliant, but also compassionate and sensitive, his tolerance for human fallibility standing in stark contrast to the hypocrisy and judgment of the clergy.