Rinaldo Garibaldi

Faith, Fortune, and Folly

Early Life

The man the Queendom would eventually know as The Mad Alchemist was born in the then small town of Artonia, deep in the Wyrd Wood forest. Stories of his earliest childhood have been largely wiped away by rumor, superstition, and slander. What is known is that when he was 6 years old, Circe's first proclamation of her ascenscion changed his life forever. Both he and his family were taken by her warmth and commanding presence and became instant converts, believing she was there to carry on her mother's legacy.
Rinaldo became infatuated with her power when she plunged the queendom into endless night and installed a new moon to watch over everyone. This fascination drove the direction of the rest of his life. Incapable of true magic himself, he leaned into studying the Herbalist's and Alchemist's arts as a substitute and began working on new concoctions and designs inspired by his love for Circe.
He is credited as being the creator of a Queendom-specific variant of a Mandrake Root he called the Moondrake, one that only grows under the magical light of Circe's moon.

Rise to Prominence

By age 30, Rinaldo had amassed a small fortune as one of the most renowned and respected Alchemist's in the Queendom. Despite his success and dedication to both his craft and Circe's rule, he struggled with feeling it was never enough. Lake Mortvia had been one of his favorite places to travel and ponder, just outside his home town of Artonia. With the clear open break from the rest of The FEN, it afforded an unobstructed view of Circe's Moon, as well as the unique experience of seeing a great reflection of it on the water's surface on calm days.
In 3A Y514, it was a trip to Lake Mortvia to calm his nerves and seek solace that struck him with inspiration. He had a vision of a great pristine temple raising from the water, shaped like a crescent moon, to great Circe's Moon as a symbol of the mortal and the divine reaching for each other. He became obssessed with the idea and immediately ceased all other projects as he began drawing up plans.

The Shrine of the Crescent Light

Firmly convinced that he had found his life's purpose, Rinaldo began to quickly put out requests for workforces from the faithful, calling on any and all favors he had remaining. Word began to spread quickly throughout The Queendom that the great alchemist Garibaldi was hiring for a massive project with promise of dedicated work for years, if not decades, and workers and priests came from far and wide.
He employed Sisters of The Coven to bless the stones. He employed sellswords to drive back the Cursed Mermen. He employed any tradesperson or able-bodied worker he could find to haul the stone. He kept a fleet of merchants on retainer to ensure he never ran out of supplies. The project became known throughout The Queendom as much for its cost as its ambition.
Initially, the project went smoothly as he had a clear vision, but as the years went on and the scope became grander, he became obssessed with expansion and perfection. He would randomly fire his foremen over inperceptible flaws or disagreements after a section was built and he wanted it redone to accomodate a new design ideas.

Garibaldi's Folly

After 20 years of second-guessing, last second changes, fights, and redesigns, the final fate of the project came in 3A Y534. Though there had been setbacks and emergencies throughout the process, they had been mercifully non-lethal. However, after 3 years of redesign and reworking on one of the largest sections of the main structure, the primary support column reaching deep into the lake gave way. There was no warning, and some today blame sabotage from the cursed mermen, but the collapse was enough to drop the entire structure underwater in a matter of seconds. Over 300 workers and faithful who were inside were killed; some were crushed, but most were drowned as the structure filled with water and pulled them under with no way out.
The people turned on Garibaldi, blaming his constant redesigns and unwillingness to trust his builders. In a month's time, the whole of The Queendom's opinion of him had flipped. He was no longer The Divine Herbalist, faithful to Circe; he started to be known as The Mad Alchemist.

The Alchemist's Madness

With the people turned against him, his support network collapsed and he couldn't even offer them double their prior price to continue the work. He went mad. He still believed this was what his life's work was meant to be, but knew he could not do it on his own. He quickly spent the remainder of his once vast fortune to grossly overpay less trustworthy merchants and workers, but even they were disgusted by him and used the opportunity to demand the money upfront and then simply abscond with it.
After years of attempting to get the project going again, Rinaldo Garibaldi simply vanished from the public eye. He would make occasional journeys into towns for supplies, but even those seemed to stop after a time. The last known sighting of him was in 558, where a significantly aged Rinaldo was attacked by a group of adults who had lost their parents in the collapse years before. Beaten and broken, he slunk away, never to be seen again.

The Legacy

The failed Shrine of The Crescent Light came to be known as Garibaldi's Folly over the decades and centuries since. The remnants themselves continued to fall into further disrepair, break away, and eventually collapse. In modern times, there are sunken ruins and debris all across the shoreline and waterline, with only one significant section remaining intact and at least partially above water.
As far as Rinaldo Garibaldi himself, rumors circulated for years about what he did in the decades after his failure. Some believed he retreated to a secret laboratory to work on his alchemy; others suggested he traveled The Queendom looking for magic that could undo his failures; though most believe he simply became a reclusive hermit and lived out his shame alone.

Beyond Exile

In 3A Y1190, a group of adventurer's working on behalf of the local forest witch, Madame Green, was sent to investigate the origin of a series of strange occurrences in the area. Madame Green had been able to track what she believed was the source of the events, and was preparing to depart herself when the party of adventurers arrived at her cottage. After a brief negotiation, they were given the task in her place while she would endeavour to secure information and answers for their questions.
After a short trek to a decrepit and forgotten building in the The FEN, the adventurers determined it was a lost branch of Academia Alchemia, the formerly renowned and respected Alchemist's guild and business that had been founded by Rinaldo Garibaldi. Eventually, they made their way into the cellar of the building, discovering it was in fact the personal laboratory of Garibaldi himself. After his disappearance from The Queendom in 558, Garibaldi had locked himself away down in his laboratory with the resources and materials necessary to survive, believing he owed the world some form of penance for the tragedy of the collapse of The Temple of the Crescent Light.
The adventurers explored the forgotten lab, eventually finding his experiments left half finished, his materials still intact, and time and circumstance casting the lab into chaos. By way of a number of recovered pages of Garibaldi's personal journal, the final years of his death were able to be understood. An exact time was impossible to say, but the pages indicated that he had survived another 10 years at least past his last known sighting, putting him just over 100 years old at his final days.

Garibaldi's Journals

Current Status

Deceased

Life

468 3A 570 3A 102 years old

Circumstances of Death

Died in isolation

Birthplace

Artonia

Place of Death

Personal laboratory underneath Academia Alchemia west of Deauna

Sex

Male

Gender

Male

Eyes

Grey

Hair

White

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

White

Height

6'1''

Belief/Deity

Circe