CHARACTER PROFILE: ELDRED

As always, this post is filled with spoilers, read at your own risk, blah blah blah. 

“Nature often draws concepts for men to perfect.”-Eldred, Sins of a Sovereignty 

Back when SoaS was just a short story there were a lot of things just thrown in there with a Meh, fuck it, whatever this is fantasy, I’ll do as I please, attitude. One of those things were the sentinels, which I never figured would end up being so important. In the short story, Eldred was referred to as the Archmage, and was a much more derivative and boring version of the old wizard archetype. He didn’t become relevant until I needed to explain the sentinels which serve as the Queen’s bodyguards. 

. 

(Big Golden Robots you say? Where have I heard of that before?)

More on the sentinels later. For now, more about Eldred. 

Eldred was resurrected by Cambrian (for reasons unknown,) and brought back as a sorcerer roughly 20 years before the Rose Rebellion. During this time, Cambrian was far more liberal with who he gave his gift, and there were more magic users in Amernia than at any point in history. The power a sorcerer has at their disposal weakens with how many other sorcerers they have to share it with. (Which is why Calcifer and Pierah are noted to be abnormally powerful.) By resurrecting so many sorcerers, Cambrian could guarantee that their power would be manageable, but he would still have hands in Amernia if he needed them. In theory. 

"Before they were hellions trapped inside a bottle they were spoiled pretentious sloths, drunk on their own power and happy to layabout dining on cake. Just like Phineas, he chuckled. What sort of god gifts power so recklessly?”- Clark Pendragon

Disgusted by the hypocrisy of Amernia’s sorcerers, Eldred sought to abandon their kind. Valuing knowledge above all else, Eldred mutated his brain, and ascended his mental capabilities at the cost of his own body. The other sorcerers would attempt to mimic the success of Eldred’s mutation during the Green War. They failed, and became the monsters known as hellions.  

"Instinctively Eldred blinked to protect his eyes from the light but it did little good as his eyelids had long since become translucent. There were no creatures like Eldred. He was the Hellion that had inspired all Hellions, but unlike his mad brethren, Eldred still maintained his sanity. He was more or less completely immobile, more coral than man. Three massive twisted trunks of brain erupted from Eldred’s skull and clung like vines to the rock and stone behind him. His torso was bare and skin stretched from him like roots, sticking his body to the wall. Red tendrils supported the bulk of his weight and grew from the sockets where his arms and legs had been."- Sins of a Sovereignty 

No longer would Eldred hunger for food, or desire a woman’s touch. He had become less than a man, and yet somehow so much more. For decades Eldred has lived in his lab, advising anyone who asks for his guidance. Although no longer a sorcerer, technically, Eldred is a strange sort of mutant. His augmented brain allows him to possess the empty preserved souls of the dead, (which inhabit his machines) or the souls of lesser creatures, such as the Gremlins which he uses as a slave race to build his machinery. Eldred is essentially a fantasy Supercomputer.

(Like this, but fleshier.) 

Many are suspicious of Eldred. Perhaps with good reason, perhaps not. Eldred see’s himself as a teacher of men, and he has taken quite a liking to Queen Minerva Roselock, admiring her strength, wit, and courage. 

Eldred’s inventions range from musical instruments, such as the piano and saxophone, to robots such as the sentinels and drones. It’s important to note that these robots have no A.I. and are controlled by Eldred directly. In theory he could manufacture a robot army and use it to take over Amernia and then the world. But why would he want that?

Eldred’s goal is to further progress. A friend of progress is a friend of Eldred. Still some questions remain. 

1.Can the Queen trust him?

2.How much does Eldred know?

These questions will be answered in time. 

More on that later ;D