Volta Hearth

Illustration by Tatiana Vetrova

**Volta Hearth** is a scientist and tinkerer planeswalker from Festenya. As the Senator of Invention he spends most of his time on the plane overseeing the growth of artifice and pursuit of knowledge. In his free time Volta wanders the multiverse searching for new technologies to apply to his own thopters.

## Early Life

Volta spent his younger years in Vitalia, Festenya's upper-class district. He was born into a family of notable lawyers and never had to worry about money or opportunities growing up. His parents encouraged him to explore anything his mind desired, and he became fascinated with mana and how it worked.

As Volta grew he learned he had no talent for spellcasting, and by the time he turned 18 the young inventor could barely feel his connection to Festenya's leylines. He applied to the Night's Ring academy, a prestigious school for mages, several times over the next few years, but was rejected each time for a lack of talent.

Feeling discouraged, Volta turned his attentions to the human body, in an attempt to discover why spellcasting had failed him. By age 22, with the help of the slightly unstable artificer Galvani Sienal, he had created and mapped a rudimentary diagram of the human nervous system. It reminded the young scientist of diagrams he had studied of Festenya's leylines. From this, he theorized that he could mimic the electrical pulses of the human body within a mechanical frame using mana. The only problem was he still could not channel raw mana.

Volta's next step was to create a container that could store mana for future use. He studied mages' abilities to channel a plane's mana and developed mana batteries that could hold mana independent of the operator. This technology would open up the use of artifice to anyone, regardless of their talent. With the mana batteries at his disposal, Volta delved deep into artifice and launched Festenya into a new age.

### Explosion of Artifice

The next few years went by in a blur for the young scientist. Volta developed a variety of thopters and servos, channeled mana to create lights and lamps, and refined many of Festenya's artifice techniques. He, along with his trusted partner Galvani, became one of the most famous inventors in all of Festenya. One of the pair's most important inventions was the Hearth-Sienal express, an above ground train that ran parallel to Festenya's leylines. The train drew mana directly from the leylines it ran on to recharge its mana batteries.

Volta's inventions made Festenian life easier and more comfortable, and the scientist duo felt unbeatable. They bought an old island sanitarium off Storia's shores and converted it into a home and research facility. On the island, Volta turned is attention to the concept of planeswalking, and began theorizing ways for normal humans to break into the multiverse. He worked for months with no considerable advancement, and Galvani was afraid the reasearch was going to drive his friend mad. It wasn't until Volta had a run-in with a vedalken planeswalker from Mirrodin that he had his big breakthrough: Objects from different planes vibrated at slightly different frequencies. Volta believed he could use this knowledge to create a doorway between planes that the average person could simply walk through. With the help of their planeswalking accomplice, Volta and Galvani began working on a door prototype.

## Planar Doors

*(Main article: Doors Project)*

Eventually Volta had a working prototype, but lacked a willing test subject. He was worried that a planeswalker going through the door would skew the data, and he needed Galvani and himself in Festenya to record results. He was approached by the Senator of Commonwealth with a dubious offer: Volta would have research subjects and continued funding for the door projects as long as the subjects he tested on never returned. Out of options, Volta reluctantly agreed.
Work on the doors continued with great success until he was approached by a mysterious woman without a name. She had no memories but claimed she knew Volta and Galvani, and begged the two to help her stop an attempted coup. Volta dubbed her Subject M, for mystery, and agreed to help.

## His First Planeswalk

While studying Subject M, Volta discovered the origins of the planeswalker spark within the body. His mappings of the electrical impulses of planeswalkers were strikingly similar to maps of his own nervous system. Volta concluded that it meant he had a spark himself, but had not found a way to "activate" it yet. He polled the planeswalkers he knew and eventually theorized that his spark lay dormant because he had yet to experience the fight or flight response in other spark stories.

Late one night, desperate to further his own abilities, Volta entered a door alone. The experience drove his body to its breaking point, and he passed out. When Volta woke up, he was on a plane he had never seen before with no return door near him. Overjoyed with his success, he cheered and was promptly attacked by a massive dinosaur shaped construct.

## Present Day

Since his first planeswalk, Volta has been traveling the multiverse in search of other planes of artifice. His goal is to make his automatons more natural, responsive, and self-serving. He's visited Kaladesh, New Phyrexia, Langor, Yakizma, and more in his search of self improvement.

When he's not touring the multiverse, Volta spends his time as the Senator of Invention back on Festenya. He oversees the development and perfection of the doors project, as well as makes laws regarding the safe and secure use of automatons.