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Alestaire Middencroft was a snake-oil-salesman of Akkerman [[Anglian]] descent who became a renowned alchemist. Middencroft longed to travel and developed a fondness for alchemy. He worked in many diverse fields (some more morally dubious than others), with his alchemical studies gathered from the [[Allar]] of [[Hadar]] laying the foundations for the eventual formation of the [[Iron Fist]], which came about a decade after his passing. He is regarded as the man who launched alchemy from an obscure, occult practice into a true and formidable branch of science within the [[Regalian Empire]].
Alestaire Middencroft is a now-deceased well-known alchemist of [[Akkerman]] [[Anglian]] origin whose path into the field began in a realm of grays and trickery. Traveling across [[Anglia]], he originally sold products that barely worked, if ever, but soon learned genuine skills to sate his genuine curiosity, which ultimately culminated in attention from notable nobles of the [[Regalian Empire]]. He later traveled into a much wider sphere, enjoying friendships with many [[Allar]] and the eventual founder of the [[Iron Fist]], an [[Alchemy]] organization in [[Ithania]]. He is regarded as many things to various groups, but to alchemists, a father of the modern field which has seen Alchemy reach near-equal ability to [[Magic]] in some respects.


==Origins and Early Life==
==Origins and Early Life==
At dawn, on one early autumn day in 199 AC, a baby was born in [[Anglia]]. Even as a young child, it was impressed upon Alestaire that he was expected to do great things; unfortunately, Alestaire was something of a sickly child. While bedridden from his varying illnesses, his father told him stories of far off places and strange cultures. He found himself dreaming more and more of traveling to one of those places to escape all the expectations and hopes that rested on his frail shoulders. When he was well enough, Alestaire was shuffled around to all sorts of apothecaries and healers; it was here that he discovered first-hand how desperation for a miracle cure could cause people to buy almost anything. His parents began rapidly running out of the resources it took to shuttle their only son to physicians and turned to the help of cheaper, but less reputable practitioners. While the boy always felt better directly after taking his medication, he returned to lethargy only hours afterward. He became curious about what his “cures'' truly contained, hoping to study medical concoctions through the then-obscure art of alchemy.
Alestaire Middencroft was born at the dawn of an early autumn day in 199 AC to two Anglian parents. He was their sole child, and while great pressure was placed on him to take over the farm, he was frequently sick. He had been born early, and seemed to be a product of a bad match in his parents, for they had no more children after him. Still, he was loved, and well cared for by his mother when he fell ill during these early years. She was a well-traveled sort, having visited [[Axenfoord]] and coastal cities of [[Door-Inner]], and had also been the originator of his rather un-Anglian name. These stories, and the other myths she told, fascinated the young Alestaire, as did the various concoctions local alchemists and healers gave the family to help him shake off his various bouts of illness. An alchemist later recalled that at the age of nine, he was already able to smell distinct bouquets of the various herbal and alchemical plants used in healing droughts the alchemist provided the Middencrofts. Ultimately, the illnesses Alestaire suffered in his youth kept him from many of the norms of Anglian childhood, with limited education and not getting to know other local children save his cousins who came to visit on occasion.
 
By the age of ten, Alestaire was beginning to shake off his childhood weaknesses, and so his father put him to work more and more. However, the young Middencroft hated it, preferring to sneak off into the rough country bordering his family’s farms and explore, encountering the range of plants found there. He dried and kept them, though his father would commonly burn these samples if he found them in the open. As Alestaire approached his teenage years, he grew in many ways, physically growing narrow and tall, but also developing important skills. Due to the unfamiliarity locals had with him, he began to pull little tricks and scams with ease, most commonly targeting those his own age, but also suckering some adults on occasion to their humiliation, and then anger. At the age of thirteen though, his father had enough, and they had a loud row that ended with Alestaire being kicked out of the house. However, he did not stick around and took this as a sign his future was elsewhere. He left his small rural community that night and was soon on his way to Axenfoord.


==History==
==History==
Middencroft began his career in alchemy as a conman. Having been exposed to those same techniques as a boy, and longing for the nomadic life of a traveling salesman, he began purchasing mass quantities of mundane alchemical concoctions and rebranding them. Middencroft’s potions allegedly cured everything from infertility to insomnia. After a few years, he began to learn how to create the alchemical potions himself to cut down costs and increase profits. He discovered that he had a talent for alchemy, though these potions were closer to quack medicine than any genuine practice. He’d hire a mentor who taught him more about alchemy, with Middencroft able to gain a baseline understanding of the science while also conning every gullible person he came across over the next few years.
Middencroft’s life on the road was that of a con artist. While he had some degree of knowledge of plant life and some alchemical processes, he could not properly read or write, nor have any skills other than his wits, and his herbalistic knowledge. He used this in a variety of schemes, reaching Axenfoord at fourteen and becoming a staple to the city’s citizens, who knew to watch out for him. He commonly struck during market days, lacking his own stall but suckering visitors and newcomers with silver words to buy what was essentially cold tea, water with herbs floating in it. An [[Axelland]] alchemist named Larss took note of the conboy, and approached him after yet another brush with arrest. His deal was simple, come work for him, get him the herbs and more he needed from outside the city and within, and he would teach the upstart genuine alchemy. Alestaire immediately took him up on the offer, and the two were kindred spirits. While Larss was no cheat, he was a master of the act of exaggeration, and Alestaire watched him engineer repeat trips from many customers. By this time, willowy Alestaire was not as easy at scampering away when in trouble, so he turned more and more to his silver tongue to get him out of trouble. This partnership worked for several years before Alestaire struck out on his own–with a few stolen coins and ingredients from Larss private stash.
After going around Anglia as an alchemist and gaining somewhat of a name for himself, Middencroft was eventually discovered by the ruling [[Kade]] family, who initially hired him to become their court alchemist in [[Axford]]. He forced himself to completely abandon his conman roots and work towards genuine alchemy, as the Kades would never accept a quack doctor. His position afforded him contact with the [[Regalian]] noble circles until he eventually came across an Ivrae princess who convinced him to move to Regalia as an Imperial scholar. Now working with the government and funded by the [[Ivraes]], he began unscrupulous experiments on unsuspecting [[Vampires]] and [[Abberants]]. This experimentation resulted in the creation of Middencroft’s Decoction, a blood thinner, to be used on imprisoned vampires to keep them complacent and docile.
 
Alestaire Middencroft traveled to Door-Inner, and during this trip went back to his old ways, though with far more flair and always selling one successful product for every three duds he sold. Upon arriving in the artistic center of his people just shy of twenty years old, he began to provide his services to an array of theater companies, granting them Alchemy that was key for their performances. He never messed these up, because while most of these companies were small-time and local, angering them and having whole crowds sicced on him was not an entertaining prospect. One company was also very different, being the illustrious troupe sponsored by the now-infamous [[House Lo]]. In this era, they were merely a powerful family whose patronage he courted fervently. These efforts were successful, especially as while within Door-Inner, he finally began to read and write in earnest, no longer scrabbling for a livelihood. He soon learned that many of his processes, and alchemical creations, were innovations, not solely time-saving shortcuts like he’d performed in his youth. His first edition of Modern Apothecarium was published when he was only twenty-three, and soon got him the attention of others beyond the Los.
 
[[House Kade]] came knocking, but so did his family. His name, unique and somewhat infamous in the rural countryside, had now appeared on a fast-selling work of literature that had made it into the hands of an alchemist familiar with his family. The reunion was bittersweet, with his father having passed away and his mother a ghost of her former self. He immediately sought to help her, paying a considerable sum to his cousins to look after her, before departing to serve House Kade. These years are the most mysterious time of his life, referenced only vaguely in his well-structured autobiography. By the time he left their service at forty-seven, he was far more worldly and finally sought to travel beyond the shores of the [[Regalian Archipelago]]. He was aided by his new employer, [[House Ivrae]], though most would say his employer was still House Kade given the significant power the ascendant [[Morgan Kade]] had over the Imperial Family. Alestaire left the Archipelago and first sailed west, developing an appreciation for the finer things in life which he took his time to explore while in [[Ithania]], before he moved down into [[Daendroc]] and explored [[Daen]]’s wide range of plants the whole time. His last trip took him south to [[Hadar]] and the [[Chrysant Kingdom]] of Permatajan, where he made many friends among the Allar community there. He expanded his craft, writing his second edition of the Modern Apothacarium, and having the chance to meet with the future founder of the Iron Fist, [[Amelie D’fer]]. By this time, he was in his fifties, and she was in her young twenties. While some claim a romance blossomed, many who knew both lambast such an idea, instead calling their connection a friendship and a bridging of the minds over shared interests that went no further.


==Later Life==
==Later Life==
Well into his fifties, Middencroft remained unwed and seemingly uninterested in romance. After his funds from the Ivrae dried up, he abandoned the [[Holy City]] and set course for Hadar, with the intent of learning what he could from the homeland of alchemy. The greatest secrets of alchemy were kept under the close scrutiny of the [[Soor-Rassa-Allar]], though it is believed that Middencroft managed to convince an esteemed Allar alchemist that he could be trusted with learning from them. Over the next decade of his life, Middencroft expanded his knowledge of alchemy in a way that he had never imagined possible. During his time in Hadar, Middencroft began compiling what he learned into written texts before publishing them in his magnum opus: [[Modern Apothecarium]].
After turning sixty in a foreign land, Alestaire finally felt the pangs to return home. His personal wealth by then was vast, for while his funding and association with the Imperial Family had ended in recent years, he had long held onto a personal fortune which had only grown during his travels. When he returned, he brought with him plants and creatures alchemists in the Regalian Archipelago had never seen, especially those in his native Anglia where he settled himself, back near his old hometown. He had an estate built, and he finally reconnected with long-distant kin in the final years of his life. He also spent his days writing works of alchemy scholarship, and documents on his own long life, rather than craft new alchemy. He watched the Iron First emerge, as well as the [[Essa Empire]], but was spared from any problems his connections and fondness for the Allar [[Race]] might have caused thanks to his wealth, and success as a father of modern Alchemy. His fourth and final edition of Modern Apothecarium, with a complete assessment of the Five Forms of Alchemy, and creations from across the spectrum of Race and [[Culture]]. It was published when he was seventy-one, a mere year before his ultimate death, in his sleep, at the age of seventy-two.
 
In 264 AC, at age sixty-five, he left Hadar and returned to Regalia, to begin teaching interested noble students in the science of alchemy. Among these pupils was an Ithanian noblewoman named [[Amelie d’Fer]], who quickly established herself as an alchemical prodigy. Alestaire saw her spark of genius, working closely with Amelie over the next few years and considering her an equal of sorts. At seventy, he returned to Anglia with a fat coin purse and no relations to share it with. He purchased a handsome, but modest, estate in the countryside. He died, eventually, surrounded by servants and other impersonal staff, who saw that his funeral was a private affair; it was said Amelie was in attendance. He left his fortune to her, stating in his will that the most valuable commodity was knowledge.


==Personality==
==Personality==
Alestaire Middencroft, despite being a con artist in his early years, was not an unkind fellow. He had a mild manner and was quite calm and level-headed; however, his greatest vice was his greed. He developed an incurable addiction to money at a young age, and never really shook it. His miserly nature caused many to paint him as a frugal, ornery alchemist, but that simply wasn’t the case. He enjoyed his wealth but shared it often with whatever community he found himself in, partly out of guilt for his days as a conman. Religiously speaking, he was somewhat skeptical of [[Unionism]] but practiced nonetheless. He found himself caring for the people around him when he felt his religion had fallen short. Deep in his heart, he held some small amount of distaste for the Regalian Empire and its strict regulations and desire for control. He was never a true [[Ailor]] supremacist, and therefore could never truly believe in all of the Unionist dogma. He didn’t live to see the [[Chrysant War]] or the crackdown on both alchemy and Allar [[Culture]], though many contemporaries said that such events would have broken his heart.
Alestaire Middencroft was a complicated man who went through a long evolution in his life, though many of his core traits remained throughout his life. His biggest characteristic was his clever mind and sly manner, which coupled with his resourcefulness, allowed him to escape trouble many times, or at least avoid the worst of it. He rarely ever fought by hand, instead using his words, wits, and once or twice, his alchemy skills to solve problems when they became physically threatening. He was also a bit of a prankster and liked to target people he felt deserved some humility or were disliked by what few friends he had throughout his years of moving about. Alestaire was fiercely protective of his friends, using his aforementioned skills to shield them when their own schemes went awry in his younger years, and later using his weight and finances to assist them in their woes. It also cannot be denied that he had a streak of greed in him, seeking wealth and money not simply to survive but because, as he himself wrote, it made him feel greater than his origin and allowed him to bask in times he had formerly only dreamed of. As mentioned before, he was not stingy, and by the end of his life had left many of his more negative traits or edges for a philosophy of high quality and assistance to those closest to him. Many believe he would have been heartbroken to see the Chrysant War break out, since many of said friends were Allar.


==Legacy==
==Legacy==
A complex and interesting man, Middencroft’s legacy is mixed- some praise him for his charity at the end of his life while others scorn his memory for all his scheming and cons. Many alchemists read his book to this day which is seen as essential literature in the field, therefore, many hold a mixture of contempt and gratitude for the writer of their wordy textbook. Middencroft’s discoveries and writings undeniably helped propel the field of alchemy into true relevancy, attracting mainstream interest among the nobility even during Regalia’s initial ban on alchemy following the Chrysant War. Amelie d’Fer would go on to establish the alchemical organization known as the Iron Fist, with the group having its foundation built upon the work done by Middencroft. His name is synonymous with Regalian ingenuity, from its altruistic aspects to its selfish ones.
Alestaire Middencroft is often portrayed in the modern imagination as a swindler who struck on a few brilliant, accidental successes, while also copying many of his greatest successes from the Allar. These assessments are incorrect, and paint a fairly negative picture that many believe stems both from popular perceptions of his earlier career, and also lingering anti-Allar sentiments from the Chrysant War. Some even believe that young Allar alchemists who came to the Archipelago after the war found his work, and decried it as appropriation of their people’s efforts, unaware of Alestaire’s ties to the Allar. Among the scholarly and alchemical communities, he is considered an undeniable father of modern Alchemy. Modern Apothecarium is considered a standard textbook for education in the field (at least for non-Allar), and while some of its content is no longer accurate, or has been made outdated by new methods, its format and careful consideration of many factors involved in Alchemy creation lifted it above many books of its time which has remained the case until today. He is also partially credited with helping to found the Iron Fist, which formed from the efforts of his friend Amelie d’Fer with aid from Hadarian natives. All in all, Middencroft’s name is synonymous with Regalian ingenuity, from its altruistic aspects to its selfish ones.


==Extended Family==  
==Extended Family==
Very uncharacteristic for being from an Anglian family, Middencroft was an only child by the time he was born, with his mother allegedly having given birth to several sickly children that never lived past infancy before Alestaire came along. Upon his death, Middencroft was the last of his line and the last of his name. He was never married but was speculated to have been a lover to the Ivrae princess who funded his early work; their time together produced no children.
Alestaire was in the uncommon situation of being an only child. His father, Floris, and mother, Beatrix, were known to seek alchemical solutions to try and resolve their difficulty in having more children, but reaped no success. While Beatrix’s family was not local but from a community closer to Door-Inner, Floris’s extended family surrounded Alestaire in his young life and continued to play a role into his old age. Two children of his father’s brothers and sisters were named for him, while three more went into the Alchemy field themselves. Today, the Middencroft family is alive and well, keeping his name and accomplishments alive. Alestaire himself had no known offspring, despite many rumored lovers. He was a discrete man, and never settled down for long enough to marry.


==Trivia==
==Trivia==
*It is entirely possible that Middencroft intentionally never sired an heir just to spite his demanding father.
*One of the most common rumors of Alestaire’s love life was his supposed entanglement with Amelie D’fer, but this falsehood is thought by some to obscure another, much more likely relationship with an Ivrae princess. Indications that he knew Ithanian phrases, drank their wine, and stayed in Ithania for far longer than seems normal, lead to this theory, as does the extended presence of several Ivrae princesses in Ithania far from the reach of Morgan Kade during a similar time to Middencroft’s travels.
*Despite many rumors to the contrary, Middencroft and d’Fer were never romantically involved and never desired to be so.
*Alestaire’s memory has inspired many Anglians into the pursuit of alchemy. One of the most notable is the grandson of one of his old family playmates. Aerge Middencroft showed an incredible skill in Alchemy at the age of eleven, and was last seen in Ithania in 309 AC.
*Alestaire Middencroft’s steed of many years, a [[Stadder Horse]] named Klein, was certainly not like its master. Stolen by Alestaire at the age of fourteen, by his departure from the Regalian Archipelago, he had become a well known stud of fine offspring sought after by wealthy Anglians across Axelland and Akkerman areas. He died while Alestaire was overseas.
{{People}}
{{People}}
{{Accreditation
{{Accreditation
|Writers = KrakenLord01
|Artists =
|Processors = HydraLana, Woodwork, AlphaInsomnia, Antimreoir
|Writers = HydraLana
|Processors = MantaRey, FireFan96
}}
}}
[[category:People]] [[category: Public Figures]]
[[category:People]] [[category:Public Figures]]

Revision as of 19:35, 10 July 2022

Alestaire Middencroft
Notable Person
Full NameAlestaire Middencroft
RaceAilor
Date of BirthAutumn, 199 AC
Date of DeathAugust 12th, 271 AC
Claim to FameFamed alchemist and author

Alestaire Middencroft is a now-deceased well-known alchemist of Akkerman Anglian origin whose path into the field began in a realm of grays and trickery. Traveling across Anglia, he originally sold products that barely worked, if ever, but soon learned genuine skills to sate his genuine curiosity, which ultimately culminated in attention from notable nobles of the Regalian Empire. He later traveled into a much wider sphere, enjoying friendships with many Allar and the eventual founder of the Iron Fist, an Alchemy organization in Ithania. He is regarded as many things to various groups, but to alchemists, a father of the modern field which has seen Alchemy reach near-equal ability to Magic in some respects.

Origins and Early Life

Alestaire Middencroft was born at the dawn of an early autumn day in 199 AC to two Anglian parents. He was their sole child, and while great pressure was placed on him to take over the farm, he was frequently sick. He had been born early, and seemed to be a product of a bad match in his parents, for they had no more children after him. Still, he was loved, and well cared for by his mother when he fell ill during these early years. She was a well-traveled sort, having visited Axenfoord and coastal cities of Door-Inner, and had also been the originator of his rather un-Anglian name. These stories, and the other myths she told, fascinated the young Alestaire, as did the various concoctions local alchemists and healers gave the family to help him shake off his various bouts of illness. An alchemist later recalled that at the age of nine, he was already able to smell distinct bouquets of the various herbal and alchemical plants used in healing droughts the alchemist provided the Middencrofts. Ultimately, the illnesses Alestaire suffered in his youth kept him from many of the norms of Anglian childhood, with limited education and not getting to know other local children save his cousins who came to visit on occasion.

By the age of ten, Alestaire was beginning to shake off his childhood weaknesses, and so his father put him to work more and more. However, the young Middencroft hated it, preferring to sneak off into the rough country bordering his family’s farms and explore, encountering the range of plants found there. He dried and kept them, though his father would commonly burn these samples if he found them in the open. As Alestaire approached his teenage years, he grew in many ways, physically growing narrow and tall, but also developing important skills. Due to the unfamiliarity locals had with him, he began to pull little tricks and scams with ease, most commonly targeting those his own age, but also suckering some adults on occasion to their humiliation, and then anger. At the age of thirteen though, his father had enough, and they had a loud row that ended with Alestaire being kicked out of the house. However, he did not stick around and took this as a sign his future was elsewhere. He left his small rural community that night and was soon on his way to Axenfoord.

History

Middencroft’s life on the road was that of a con artist. While he had some degree of knowledge of plant life and some alchemical processes, he could not properly read or write, nor have any skills other than his wits, and his herbalistic knowledge. He used this in a variety of schemes, reaching Axenfoord at fourteen and becoming a staple to the city’s citizens, who knew to watch out for him. He commonly struck during market days, lacking his own stall but suckering visitors and newcomers with silver words to buy what was essentially cold tea, water with herbs floating in it. An Axelland alchemist named Larss took note of the conboy, and approached him after yet another brush with arrest. His deal was simple, come work for him, get him the herbs and more he needed from outside the city and within, and he would teach the upstart genuine alchemy. Alestaire immediately took him up on the offer, and the two were kindred spirits. While Larss was no cheat, he was a master of the act of exaggeration, and Alestaire watched him engineer repeat trips from many customers. By this time, willowy Alestaire was not as easy at scampering away when in trouble, so he turned more and more to his silver tongue to get him out of trouble. This partnership worked for several years before Alestaire struck out on his own–with a few stolen coins and ingredients from Larss private stash.

Alestaire Middencroft traveled to Door-Inner, and during this trip went back to his old ways, though with far more flair and always selling one successful product for every three duds he sold. Upon arriving in the artistic center of his people just shy of twenty years old, he began to provide his services to an array of theater companies, granting them Alchemy that was key for their performances. He never messed these up, because while most of these companies were small-time and local, angering them and having whole crowds sicced on him was not an entertaining prospect. One company was also very different, being the illustrious troupe sponsored by the now-infamous House Lo. In this era, they were merely a powerful family whose patronage he courted fervently. These efforts were successful, especially as while within Door-Inner, he finally began to read and write in earnest, no longer scrabbling for a livelihood. He soon learned that many of his processes, and alchemical creations, were innovations, not solely time-saving shortcuts like he’d performed in his youth. His first edition of Modern Apothecarium was published when he was only twenty-three, and soon got him the attention of others beyond the Los.

House Kade came knocking, but so did his family. His name, unique and somewhat infamous in the rural countryside, had now appeared on a fast-selling work of literature that had made it into the hands of an alchemist familiar with his family. The reunion was bittersweet, with his father having passed away and his mother a ghost of her former self. He immediately sought to help her, paying a considerable sum to his cousins to look after her, before departing to serve House Kade. These years are the most mysterious time of his life, referenced only vaguely in his well-structured autobiography. By the time he left their service at forty-seven, he was far more worldly and finally sought to travel beyond the shores of the Regalian Archipelago. He was aided by his new employer, House Ivrae, though most would say his employer was still House Kade given the significant power the ascendant Morgan Kade had over the Imperial Family. Alestaire left the Archipelago and first sailed west, developing an appreciation for the finer things in life which he took his time to explore while in Ithania, before he moved down into Daendroc and explored Daen’s wide range of plants the whole time. His last trip took him south to Hadar and the Chrysant Kingdom of Permatajan, where he made many friends among the Allar community there. He expanded his craft, writing his second edition of the Modern Apothacarium, and having the chance to meet with the future founder of the Iron Fist, Amelie D’fer. By this time, he was in his fifties, and she was in her young twenties. While some claim a romance blossomed, many who knew both lambast such an idea, instead calling their connection a friendship and a bridging of the minds over shared interests that went no further.

Later Life

After turning sixty in a foreign land, Alestaire finally felt the pangs to return home. His personal wealth by then was vast, for while his funding and association with the Imperial Family had ended in recent years, he had long held onto a personal fortune which had only grown during his travels. When he returned, he brought with him plants and creatures alchemists in the Regalian Archipelago had never seen, especially those in his native Anglia where he settled himself, back near his old hometown. He had an estate built, and he finally reconnected with long-distant kin in the final years of his life. He also spent his days writing works of alchemy scholarship, and documents on his own long life, rather than craft new alchemy. He watched the Iron First emerge, as well as the Essa Empire, but was spared from any problems his connections and fondness for the Allar Race might have caused thanks to his wealth, and success as a father of modern Alchemy. His fourth and final edition of Modern Apothecarium, with a complete assessment of the Five Forms of Alchemy, and creations from across the spectrum of Race and Culture. It was published when he was seventy-one, a mere year before his ultimate death, in his sleep, at the age of seventy-two.

Personality

Alestaire Middencroft was a complicated man who went through a long evolution in his life, though many of his core traits remained throughout his life. His biggest characteristic was his clever mind and sly manner, which coupled with his resourcefulness, allowed him to escape trouble many times, or at least avoid the worst of it. He rarely ever fought by hand, instead using his words, wits, and once or twice, his alchemy skills to solve problems when they became physically threatening. He was also a bit of a prankster and liked to target people he felt deserved some humility or were disliked by what few friends he had throughout his years of moving about. Alestaire was fiercely protective of his friends, using his aforementioned skills to shield them when their own schemes went awry in his younger years, and later using his weight and finances to assist them in their woes. It also cannot be denied that he had a streak of greed in him, seeking wealth and money not simply to survive but because, as he himself wrote, it made him feel greater than his origin and allowed him to bask in times he had formerly only dreamed of. As mentioned before, he was not stingy, and by the end of his life had left many of his more negative traits or edges for a philosophy of high quality and assistance to those closest to him. Many believe he would have been heartbroken to see the Chrysant War break out, since many of said friends were Allar.

Legacy

Alestaire Middencroft is often portrayed in the modern imagination as a swindler who struck on a few brilliant, accidental successes, while also copying many of his greatest successes from the Allar. These assessments are incorrect, and paint a fairly negative picture that many believe stems both from popular perceptions of his earlier career, and also lingering anti-Allar sentiments from the Chrysant War. Some even believe that young Allar alchemists who came to the Archipelago after the war found his work, and decried it as appropriation of their people’s efforts, unaware of Alestaire’s ties to the Allar. Among the scholarly and alchemical communities, he is considered an undeniable father of modern Alchemy. Modern Apothecarium is considered a standard textbook for education in the field (at least for non-Allar), and while some of its content is no longer accurate, or has been made outdated by new methods, its format and careful consideration of many factors involved in Alchemy creation lifted it above many books of its time which has remained the case until today. He is also partially credited with helping to found the Iron Fist, which formed from the efforts of his friend Amelie d’Fer with aid from Hadarian natives. All in all, Middencroft’s name is synonymous with Regalian ingenuity, from its altruistic aspects to its selfish ones.

Extended Family

Alestaire was in the uncommon situation of being an only child. His father, Floris, and mother, Beatrix, were known to seek alchemical solutions to try and resolve their difficulty in having more children, but reaped no success. While Beatrix’s family was not local but from a community closer to Door-Inner, Floris’s extended family surrounded Alestaire in his young life and continued to play a role into his old age. Two children of his father’s brothers and sisters were named for him, while three more went into the Alchemy field themselves. Today, the Middencroft family is alive and well, keeping his name and accomplishments alive. Alestaire himself had no known offspring, despite many rumored lovers. He was a discrete man, and never settled down for long enough to marry.

Trivia

  • One of the most common rumors of Alestaire’s love life was his supposed entanglement with Amelie D’fer, but this falsehood is thought by some to obscure another, much more likely relationship with an Ivrae princess. Indications that he knew Ithanian phrases, drank their wine, and stayed in Ithania for far longer than seems normal, lead to this theory, as does the extended presence of several Ivrae princesses in Ithania far from the reach of Morgan Kade during a similar time to Middencroft’s travels.
  • Alestaire’s memory has inspired many Anglians into the pursuit of alchemy. One of the most notable is the grandson of one of his old family playmates. Aerge Middencroft showed an incredible skill in Alchemy at the age of eleven, and was last seen in Ithania in 309 AC.
  • Alestaire Middencroft’s steed of many years, a Stadder Horse named Klein, was certainly not like its master. Stolen by Alestaire at the age of fourteen, by his departure from the Regalian Archipelago, he had become a well known stud of fine offspring sought after by wealthy Anglians across Axelland and Akkerman areas. He died while Alestaire was overseas.

Accreditation
WritersHydraLana
ProcessorsMantaRey, FireFan96
Last EditorHydraLana on 07/10/2022.

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