Alden

## Backstory

Alden's parents were forced to leave when he was too young to realize it, leaving him in the care of Maren, his older sister. Though she generally did a commendable job parenting when she herself was still a child, the lack of real supervision and guidelines created a certain wildness in Alden. He grew to be unresponsive to authority and extremely whimsical, often caught daydreaming both when and where he shouldn't be. Paired with a natural intellect high above a normal child's, this wildness fostered a thoroughly unusual childhood.

Their grandfather, Brookstead's cleric, was very fond of Alden. Though he didn't have as much time to watch over him as he would have liked, he contributed amply in terms of education. Owning a wide variety of texts concerning magical concepts, he taught Alden to read. Alden began to spend more time under a tree with a book than with the other children his age. He was fascinated by magic, constantly envisioning a world in which he controlled it. When the village was attacked by raiders, and Alden was still a child much too young to fully understand his actions, that world became his reality.

Alden was approached by one of the raiders intending to loot his home. He was told to move or die. Frightened, Alden unleashed the spell he was reading about, Lance. The raider was thrown back and knocked unconscious after hitting his head on the way down, his chest severely burned. Alden, unsure of what to do, continued to read with a watchful eye. Not long after, when the raid was repelled, a group of older students from the academy came by checking on the outlying farms. To their surprise, Alden was still sitting down reading with the unconscious and badly wounded raider at his feet. Needless to say, the story spread quickly.

Alden became a bit of a pariah, as the other children his age feared him. The story had grown well out of proportion, with many different embellished versions floating around. At this point, even less able than usual to socialize with his peers, Alden latched on harder than ever to Maren. When she entered the academy, and consequently had less time for him, he returned to his reading. Their grandfather would travel on occasion to restock his library, trading out versions that Alden had already read.

By the time he entered the academy, Alden was a more powerful mage than any other magically capable student. Still in his first year, he has the respect of his teachers and the fear of his peers, not that he really wants either. With Maren nearing her graduation, Alden is beginning to latch onto Garrick and Irving, some of the few in Brookstead who treat him the same as they would treat anyone else.

## In Gameplay

Alden joins you at the very first map of the game and consequently has better availability than any of his peers; this alone affords him a considerable advantage but Alden's main strength lies in his Magic and Speed Aptitudes. In tandem these ensure that he can double other units reliably while remaining safe due to his high evasion. If he is promoted to Magician and later Illusionist these strengths are only enhanced and allow him to dart about the battlefield with relative safety despite his squishiness.

Despite his undeniable efficiency as a unit Alden has an abysmal Mastery Aptitude and his low base stats only exacerbate the issue. Because of this, Alden struggles to overcome enemies with high Fortitude, even units that he has an Advantage against, while this not a big issue in the early stages of the game it is felt more and more as the game approaches the endgame and this is only enhanced on higher difficulties. Players that wish to use Alden on Deity+ are advised to consider ways to rectify this, which is accomplished most easily by making him a Wizard.

### Aptitudes

Personal Skill - Slumbering Strength: Guaranteed a minimum of 4 stat increases per levelup

Slumbering Strength works as the following:

Alden rolls a normal lvl up. After that, the game checks if less then 4 stats increased (for HP if 2 increased). If so, he gains automatically HP, Magic, Fortitude and Luck, if they weren't already rolled.

### Bonds

* Irving
* Garrick
* Maren
* Sophia
* Brooke
* Corvan
* Aurima
* Maeve
* Faust
* Fenton