Alistair is a temporal and cosmic mage who founded Alistair's Network in Brighthaven. He worked with Oktlix, Raphael, and Gabriel while seeking power against the gods. After stripping several gods of their powers, he escaped into the Malverand Intergalactic Empire.
Appearance and magic
Alistair has long black hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. He uses illusions to change his appearance and conceal his essence. He worked as Alice, using a woman's appearance, and also impersonated Aldar and Astryx.
His temporal magic allows him to blink and remember precise details of places and people. He combines it with cosmic barriers, beams, and divine enchantments. His divine magic can heal injuries and form blades.
Under Oktlix's instruction, Alistair spent prolonged periods in the void. The exposure fractured his essence, letting him pass through solid matter but leaving him hollow and liable to fall apart. Artifacts around his arms and wrists held him together and regulated how far he could let his body phase. Air magic and powerful explosions could scatter him. After entering the other Valrindor, his body gradually became solid again.
History
Radiance Prime and Oktlix
Isandriel left Alistair in charge of Brighthaven. In 2085 AX, Alistair witnessed Pyrathalor's birth destroy Radiance Prime, killing his wife and sons. Alistair expelled Isandriel and the people involved in the god's creation, including Aurelia and Viviana. He reorganized the triarch, restricted access to Brighthaven, and taught its people to distrust gods.
Seeking enough power to oppose them, Alistair studied Arcanis's gate at Arcanis Village. He used essence from Varnhallow's temporal barrier to open a smaller passage into the void. Oktlix contacted him through it and offered to teach him in return for freedom. Its instruction gave him the ability to phase, but damaged his body. It also guided his manufacture of the artifacts that kept him intact. He could not learn origin magic himself.
Helena
In Ulzathir, Nadun appointed him to teach Helena temporal magic. He introduced himself as Alistair Toss. Oktlix recognized her and ordered him to prevent her from becoming Ozaith's wielder.
Alistair deliberately taught her incorrect spells and used her failures to justify harsher treatment. He kept her apart from her siblings and Sariel, threatened her mother's life, and punished her with slaps and divine burns. He healed the injuries to conceal the abuse and later touched her sexually while healing her. He blamed Aurelia for the destruction of Radiance Prime and took revenge on her daughter.
When he tried to take Helena away from Ishtanûr, she called for Sariel. Alistair let Sariel's beam strike him to test his altered body and artifacts, using an illusion to make it appear that his head had been severed. He reassembled after Sariel left with Helena.
The network
Alistair returned to Brighthaven and trained talented children as agents. They shared the name Alistair, adding surnames such as Voss, Koss, Moss, Doss, and Zoss. Each trained a successor to inherit the name. He placed them in other nations and maintained their loyalty with wealth and access to Brighthaven's luxuries.
Alistair Voss administered Brighthaven while the original worked elsewhere. Alistair Koss served on Ulzathir's council. Their deaths during Vianna's return to Brighthaven and Zain's seizure of the throne did not kill the founder.
Rahmavir and the source
Alistair allied with Kharvos and joined the first invasion of Zarephon with several agents. A temporal loop trapped the attack for about two centuries. He escaped by blinking, but lost contact with most of his people and had to rebuild the network.
He later allied with Raphael and Gabriel against the Order of Thalion Zenith, whose alterations to history he blamed for Valrindor's destruction. He assisted their war against the shapers and took part in the later conquest of Zarephon. There he researched the source with Oktlix and Rahmavir's scientists. He used the origin mage Boss's captured spells to develop spellblasters that disrupted other magic.
Alistair recruited Severin to investigate the source without Raphael's knowledge. Severin discovered Gabriel's body beneath the water. Alistair built shield generators to inspect the breach beneath the lake. Through Koss, he encouraged Ulzathir's invasion of Thalassai and helped ensure that Ozaith chose Maia as his wielder. The war was intended to weaken both sides. Zain's pact with Khauren frustrated his plans.
The other Valrindor
Using the appearance of Alice, Alistair persuaded Nero to carry him down to the source. His hollow body let him pass through its narrow breach into a future of the other Valrindor. He found Maraveth ruined and saw a Spiral Mandate vessel disintegrating vegetation. Three of its occupants confronted him, and one disrupted Oktlix's projection with a device. Alistair killed them, stole small devices from their ship, and returned through the breach.
Nero brought him back from the lake. Alistair told Eliona that the other world was peaceful and its people had given him gifts. He concealed the danger to obtain the Order's help in closing the source, intending to kill its members afterward. Eliona took him to Eira, and they shielded her and Azarion to stop their battle. Eira agreed to help on condition that Raphael be killed.
The destruction of Zarephon
Before Eira, Xarion, and Kaelion entered the source, Alistair ordered Doss to impersonate Alice and leave for Cyndarel with Severin. He then lured Myrelia away from the source and planted the stolen devices in the cave wall. When the three members of the Order descended into the lake, he fired a concealed cosmic beam into the devices.
The explosion destroyed Zarephon and buried the source. Alistair escaped with burns, believing he had killed the three below. He resumed the Alice disguise, replaced Doss aboard the returning skyship, and helped retrieve Eliona, Azarion, Myrelia, and the other survivors outside the cave. His substitute's departure gave him an alibi, while Nero became a suspect.
Raphael, Aldar, and Ulzathir
After escaping the darkness around Cyndarel, Alistair watched Raphael fight Aldar, Khoradyn, and Zhang. He placed another stolen device on Raphael and detonated it with a cosmic ray. The blast killed Raphael, Khoradyn, and Zhang and fatally wounded Aldar. Alistair took Raphael's Malverand heart and Aldar's spiral shard, then killed Zorath. The heart and shard gave him greater power and helped hold his body together after his bracelets broke.
He impersonated Aldar and joined Thalassai's forces. During the attack on Ishtanûr, Astryx recognized that he was an impostor. Alistair killed him by striking him into a cosmic beam. He then fought Khauren in Zain's body while Cassian severed the god's escape routes and destroyed the body and core.
Alistair dropped the Aldar disguise and joined Cassian against Gabriel and Azarion, although Cassian refused to attack Nahm or Tianlei. Azarion defeated him, and Alistair let his body disperse. Cassian believed him dead.
The gods at Stella Aeterna
Alistair entered Stella Aeterna disguised as Astryx. He let Nethira take Thalia away, then threatened to destroy Chronasis unless the gods descended as humans. He forced Cassian to seal the chamber against them and permanently sever their connections to the God Realm. He also apologized to Thalena for his treatment of her as Helena, explaining his revenge against Aurelia.
Hrzai volunteered when he demanded a death to prove that they had become mortal. Alistair shot Eira through the chest when she protested, then killed Hrzai with a ray through her heart. He severed the wielders' hands, burned away the flesh, and made Cassian destroy Ozaith's, Xoh'Tenol's, Zal'therak's, and Tianlei's cores. He spared Eira's empty shard.
Alistair cut off his own shard hand and threw it to Cassian, surrendering the Malverand heart concealed beneath it. He let his body become hollow and escaped through the open void gate. Thalena and Hadrian's attempt to catch him with aether magic further scattered his form.
The empire and the Spiral Mandate
He followed the cable through the void to the other Valrindor and began studying the Malverand Intergalactic Empire. His body gradually recovered its solidity in the world without essence. He obtained citizen identification by claiming to be Lumerian and traveled toward Proxion, seeking a way to reach the Spiral Mandate and prevent the destruction he had witnessed.
Thalena’s account
In Thalena’s Shores of Eternity, Alistair left the empire aboard a fast ship with his followers and infiltrated the Spiral Mandate through illusions. He became a politician under the name Alicia. Thalena recognized him at the Spiral Hall and confronted him, then spared his life. He helped her search the Mandate’s archives and supplied recordings of messages attributed to Isandro.
Relationships
- Oktlix: Alistair accepted Oktlix's help to gain power against the gods and worked for centuries to free it. He followed its orders concerning Helena and the source. After escaping into the other Valrindor, he pursued the Spiral Mandate without it.
- Isandriel and Aurelia: Isandriel entrusted him with Brighthaven. The destruction of Radiance Prime turned him against Isandriel and Aurelia, and he punished Helena for her mother's part in it.
- Thalena: Alistair abused her as a child and later targeted her companions. He apologized while forcing the gods to become human, explaining his revenge against Aurelia.
- Raphael and Gabriel: He cooperated with them against the Order and in the research at Zarephon, then killed Raphael and joined Cassian against Gabriel.
- Severin: Alistair recruited Severin as a trusted operative and kept his service secret from Raphael. Severin worked beside him for centuries and searched for Alice after Alistair's disappearance.