Grand Magus Alferno

Last Grand Magus

Alferno is considered one of the greatest mages in the history of Costrus, and the last Grand Magus. While the general population have inflated his achievements there are sections of his disciple's tomes that serve to humanize him to some degree.

Many of the tall tales about Alferno are based on some thread of truth. The story that he reached the rank of magus by the age of 3 is rooted in the truth that he certainly was the youngest recorded magus in the Coven's history but he was 17 when he achieved that milestone.

When he achieved the rank of Grand Magus he announced it proudly and over the years he slowly began to disappear from records, until sightings of him were incredibly rare. No one is quite sure when or where Alferno died. Some say he still wanders the world having found the secret to immortality.

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Contributions

Alferno contributed heavily to the change in mindset to get away from using blood for mana in spells and instead using plants. He spent a good deal of time researching botony and history linked to plants and blood mana. One of the things he noted extensively was that more accidents happened when mages used their own blood as opposed to plants for spells and activating runes. He also came up with some of the more accurate, albeit complex, methods of calculating the exact amount of mana a person or plant contained.

While he made many of his discoveries and theories public knowledge linking them to every mage's tome, there were a few things he chose to keep within his line of disciples. Leaving letters hidden in the tomes to be found by maguses.

Into the Ruins

In his search for peace and quiet to do his research Alferno began to delve into the ruins. Sites that dot the landscape, marking places where magic went wrong in its early history. Much of what he learned from the ruins is religated to his disciples' tomes and guarded behind powerful contract magic. Some of the most important and fiercely protected knowledge relates to the sundrop lotus and mana stones. These stones are one of the things that make large and permanent spells possible, it is also the secret behind the haldae coordinator Pins.

by RandoScorpio via Midjourney

The Prodigy

Often portrayed as a young man in paintings, Alferno was considered talented and handsome. He accomplished a great deal in short amount of time, but missed out on many things in his life because of his focus on his work.

It is believed that he never had a family of his own, but condsidered his disciples to be like his children.

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Disciples

Alferno had only a handful of apprentices in his lifetime. His approach to teaching magic was considered radical. Other maguses simply taught a new mage the basics and how to use their tomes to unlock new information and then leave them to their own devices. Alferno would stay with mages and help them understand difficult concepts that they might get stuck on. He was known to keep a disciple at his side for at least 3 years in order to make sure they had a solid foundation to learn from. It is thought that while this method didn't catch on with all his disciples it did with some and he is the reason some mages today keep apprentices around for longer periods of time. It could also be the reason that Court Mages keep their apprentices close for much of their formative training.