Alder Voss

About Alder Voss

There once lived a magnificent magician with many fun tricks up his sleeves. That magician is still alive today. Tinkering away. But before we get there we gotta go back to the start. Alder Voss used to be a very well known name around the Vesperwood region. Whenever you heard that Alder Voss was coming you knew a good time would be had. Magic came somewhat easily to him. When he first discovered what his magic was capable of he dedicated his life to it.

There was only one problem.

Alder's magic was never able to get quite as far as he wanted it to.

Even if his magic wasn't quite as potent that didn't stop him. He mastered enough to be able to teach his own disciples. Many young pupils would learn how to spellcast from the resourceful Alder Voss. Many of his students turned into very impressive magicians in their own ways. No longer needing his help. Able to do magic far beyond what he was capable of. At first, Alder was proud of them. Over time, however, his pride slowly gave way to envy. His students seemed so much more capable than he would ever be.

He could hear them. "Still trying to get back up? Stop embarrassing yourself. Just accept your limitations and ease gracefully into retirement." But he couldn't accept that. So he began searching for a way around them.

That was when he took up engineering.

It started as a few side projects. Little hobbies to figure things out. He built small devices to complete the smaller portions of work that his spells couldn't. Where his spells failed, gears, springs, brass plates, and mechanisms took over. The combination of magic and machinery was surprisingly more effective than he could've ever imagined. And Alder was one of the few that could effectively pull it off on this level.

Magic sharpened machinery and machinery sharpened magic. But most of the things he tested it on couldn't survive the strain. Vials cracked. Containers ruptured. Enchantments collapsed in on themselves completely ceasing to exist. At least he thinks that's what happened. He deemed those test subjects too dangerous to continue testing. He had created something incredible, but he needed something that was capable of enduring it.

Then he heard about Tallbarrow.

The town’s famous honey attracted his attention, but it was the bees that truly interested him.

Now you might be thinking "how would bees survive the strain better than his other test subjects?" That is a valid question. They are small, fragile, and individually not worth it. But there were thousands if not tens of thousands of them, all working together as a single colony. By far the largest bee colony in all of Vesperwood if not the whole known world! Alder began to wonder if a swarm could endure what a creature could not. If he could successfully infuse one bee with magic and reinforce it with machinery, he could spread it across the colony. Maybe he could evenly distribute the power between all the bees equally. Then the strain would be split as well. It was an idea worth testing.

He called his idea spellbees.

But when Alder showed up it was hard to find a place to test his experiments. He asked many locals their thoughts on the ideas of his and where he might be able to set up his own place. One particularly annoyed woman who worked at an apiary pointed towards an abandoned spire on top of Tallbarrow's main hill. He had no idea that it was abandoned. She never mentioned why but Alder didn't care. There was much work to be done.

He moved in and he didn't even need to pay! He instantly started to get to work rebuilding the spire and filling it with his experiments. Year by year, the old spire transformed from the inside out. There wasn't an inch of that spire that looked the same as it did. By the time Alder was done, it was hard to tell where the spire ended and the machine began. And then AFTER he fixed the place up was when they started making him pay taxes. This is why he doesn't like people.

The inside changed just as much. Full to the brim with machinery and wacky magic. Every room full of experimental devices, half-completed inventions, discarded mechanisms, and shelves upon shelves overflowing with records and blueprints of his work. Over the years, Alder accumulated countless journals, magical calculations, diagrams, blueprints, and notes detailing every success, failure, explosion, and breakthrough. All leading to his secret but greatest invention yet.

Alder spent many years pursuing things on the side. His biggest project was the spellbees until he accomplished it then seeked more. Along the way, he constructed experimental hives, alarms in case things went wrong, mechanical bees, and devices to help him collect more scrap that he could use to build more. He even created solar-magic power holders. Very handy. But when it came to inventions they didn't always work. Most failed. Countless exploded. A few worked well enough to convince him to keep following his ambitions.

After many, many years, Alder finally completed his greatest creation.

It was a really cool crown. I'm talking REALLY cool. His life's work. It was unlike anything you could ever see. It was far beyond anything natural. It represented everything Alder spent his entire life chasing. It gave power, status, and anything he could ever need. It could transform his ordinary magic into something immeasurably greater.

It was as powerful as it was dangerous.

Now, all Alder had to do was test it on the bees.