Alister Dalimar is the father of Charles Dalimar and the main antagonist of Fate´s Carnival, Dire Grove, Sacred Grove, Key to Ravenhearst and Ravenhearst Unlocked. He is known for his hunt for immortality.
Personality[]
Alister Dalimar was a murderous, irredeemable, ambitious, power-hungry, ruthless, sadistic, psychopathic, egotistical and unpredictable individual.
He did very little to hide his dark personality and often made sure that people around him knew that he was a force to be reckoned with, he often worked alone and only kept people close to him long enough for him to use them, despite this he wouldn't hesitate to murder his closest servants to reach his sadistic goals.
Appearance[]
Dalimar has a sinister and gaunt appearance, his skin is very pale and his eyes are green.
Alister was 559 years old before he died, hence his strange appearance, his hair is white and long although he usually covers it with his hood.
Biography[]
Early Life in Ravenhearst[]
Alister Dalimar was born on April 20th 1567 and either moved to or was born in Ravenhearst City. He would shortly apply for a locksmithing apprenticeship at Gideon Selwyn's locksmithy; Alister would be treated harshly by his master who often ridiculed him for his work, and constantly berated him and reminded him that he would never amount to anything while simultaneously flaunting his gold and wealth. Once Alister had received his apprenticeship certification he had coldly decided that Selwyn was no longer of any use to him, Alister buried Gideon alive in the walls of his shop along with all his gold and wealth. Alister appeared to go on to commandeer the locksmithy in Gideon's absence.
He began studying alchemy and magic, something highly illegal in England at the time, he practiced dark magic and began to slowly understand and develop his future as the most powerful sorcerer ever.
Understanding that every powerful wizard had a trusted animal familiar, he began experimenting with animals in order to find a suitable familiar, initially taming snakes but eventually settling on ravens. One raven in particular, Tanatos, would take a particular liking to him and an understanding was forged between the two. Alister would succeed in executing a dark ritual that tore a part of his own soul and latched it onto Tanatos, this allowed the connection between him and his familiar to become stronger while simultaneously allowing his soul to remain on earth even in the event of his death.
The Well of Souls[]
Although the binding ritual with Tanatos was Alister's first known attempt at cheating death, he would swiftly discover that a secret beneath the city itself could allow him to truly achieve his dreams of immortality.
Alister learns of the Well of Souls, an ancient structure buried deep beneath Ravenhearst City which has an limitless amount of human souls, the waters of this well can be used for all sorts of rituals and alchemical concoctions and even to unlock the secret of eternal immortality.
He plans a ritual involving the Well of Souls and a rare ingredient called a Black Orchard, he comes into contact with Lady Morwyn, the wife of Lord Cedric Ravenhearst, and she decides to aid Alister with the agreement that with Alister's power upon completion of the ritual he would kill Cedric and allow Morwyn to take control of the city. Lady Morwyn would bribe the local Apothecarian, Hedwig, to locate a Black Orchard, she would also bribe a passing theatre troupe to mock and insult Cedric during a mystery play. All of this would amount to Alister obtaining the Black Orchard and while Cedric summoned the guards in fury to arrest the theatre troupe, Alister would slip by into the castle and execute the ritual required to obtain his "rightful power".
On the day of the plan he is told of a "Master Detective" by the name of Ellen Hornebolt has arrived at the city to arrest those guilty of practicing magic, upon arriving at Hedwig's Apothecary he finds that he is burning all traces of magic and has backed out of the plan due to the Master Detective's arrival, Alister uses Tanatos to throw a smoke bomb into his house, scaring Hedwig out and allowing Alister to search the house for the Black Orchard himself.
He finds the Black Orchard in a secret basement beneath the apothecary, however is stopped by Ellen Hornebolt and two members of her guard, Alister is locked up with a guard while Ellen leaves to write a letter to the Queen of England. Despite this predicament, Alister escapes, however it is too late to enter the castle and the plan is ruined. He decides to search for Ellen and take revenge, he finally meets her in the Bailiff's office where they duel, resulting in the Master Detective's defeat. She surrenders and allows herself to be locked up with one of Alister's complicated locks.
Despite the setbacks he does manage to slip into the castle and towards the Well of Souls, however he didn't appear to get any further than the entrance to the chamber before being seen by guards. Alister evades the guards and swiftly leaves the city and uses the full extent of his magical powers to wipe Ravenhearst City off of the map by sinking the entire cliff face into the sea, he curses Lord Cedric Ravenhearst, Lady Morwyn and Ellen Hornebolt to live beneath the sea eternally.
Continued studies on immortality and travels to the Orient[]
Alister continuously studies magic, alchemy and researches possible sources of immortality, it becomes his obsession and he begins to believes that eternal immortality is true power and he will not stop until he gets it. While researching, he finds out about a mysterious object called "The Key" which can be used with the Well of Souls to "unlock" immortality.
In 1594, at the age of 138, he decided on travelling to the Orient "in pursuit of knowledge and wisdom", he travelled first to the mountains of China where he asked the seers about "The Key". After they disappointed him, he travels to the Kara Kum Desert and meets with the oracles there, however his questions of immortality disturb them and they refuse to help him. Eventually he finds himself at the foot of the Himalayas where he seeks to find wisdom from local priests, however they treat him with distrust and he gets no information from them.
Finally in 1614, at the age of 158, he found out that The Key was in England the whole time and in the hands of a powerful seer named Madame Fate, whose magical powers were unmatched.
During his travels back to England, he finds the ancient sect of druids living in York called Mistwalkers, he learns of their extended lives and puts off the Ball of Fate for a while to study the Mistwalker's powers. He joins the druids and lives amongst them for a while, using the Mistwalkers "Ritual of Spirit" to enhance his lifetime. However, as Alister seeks eternal life, he attempts to change the ritual thus creating the Blood Ritual which involves the sacrifice of the Child of the Forest and two blood relatives. The other Mistwalkers learn of this and banish him, upon fleeing he leaves behind his daughter, Lily, who is also indoctrinated into the Mistwalkers.
Alister would eventually be known to the community of Mistwalkers, and even a few hunters as a mysterious and malicious hermit living deep in the woods, indicating that he lingered in Dire Grove for some time, likely to observe his daughter's life.
Abigail O'Malley and the Asylum[]
Around 1870, Alister meets Abigail O'Malley, an obese carnival worker hired by Madame Fate as "The Fattest Woman Alive". Abigail would fall in love with Alister, although he sees Abigail as nothing more than a "ticket" to the carnival Alister appears to feign feelings for her and eventually they get married and Abigail becomes pregnant with Alister's child.
Thanks to his relationship with Abigail, he finally manages to secure a job at the elusive Fate's Carnival, Madame Fates nomadic circus troupe as a sleight of hand magician.
However, when Alister reaches the carnival, he has a mental breakdown. After years of searching for the key, his proximity to it is too much to handle and his facade as a simple magician falls. The local asylum at Manchester is contacted (likely by Abigail herself) and he is restrained and put into the care of Dr. Robert Lanswiller.
Alister would be secured in solitary confinement and was, despite his powers, unable to escape the cell. Alister took this time to further study the art of magic and alchemy, and several documents pertaining to this were kept in a secret underground lab that Alister dug beneath his cell.
According to Dr. Lanswiller, Alister died in the prison shortly before his son, Charles, was admitted there. It is likely that he faked his death to escape the asylum.
Exactly what Dalimar did once free of the prison is uncertain, but it's likely that he returned to Dire Grove where he stalked his daughter from the woods surrounding the hamlet. By 2014 he is well known in the Mistwalker community simply as "The Hermit" and the Crawfords appear to be aware of his identity so clearly he had quite an effect on the village. Meanwhile he would learn that Abigail bore a son of his shortly after his incarceration and that his son Charles had been recently sent to the very same asylum.
Charles[]
At the age of 11, Charles Dalimar was taken to asylum and was placed in the maximum security cell next to Alister's old cell, Alister spoke to his son via Tanatos, there he taught his son all he knew about immortality and the soul, hoping for his son to one day be as power hunger as he is.
Unfortunately for Alister, Charles got distracted by a newspaper article one day, he fell hopelessly in love with Emma Ravenhearst, an American woman who had recently moved to Blackpool. Much to Alister's chagrin, Charles stops listening to Alister, he is no longer interested in immortality and wishes to court Emma instead. Charles later escapes the asylum by stealing liquid nitrogen from the lab and caves in a drain cover, escaping through the sewers where he would murder Abigail before looking for Emma.
Photos of Alister kept in his private diaries indicate that he spent some time at his sons estate, Ravenhearst Manor, even calling it "his home" at one point. It can be assumed that after Charles murders Emma and kidnaps his servant, Rose, and their daughters, Alister stayed at the manor, likely aiding Charles in the creation of his Soul Machine. Alister would learn that through Charles and Rose he had three grandchildren, Victor, Gwendolyn and Charlotte.
Back in Dire Grove[]
At some point during the 90s(?) Alister would return to Dire Grove and privately witness Lily, an ex-mistwalker, marry the hunter Samuel Crawford. He also witnesses the birth of his two grandsons, Peter and Derek.
Shortly after their birth, Alister curses Lily who eventually dies from the illness when the Mistwalkers refuse to heal her. Samuel appears to know that his father-in-law was behind this.
Alister lures Derek out into the woods one day when he was only a child, he drew him far out until eventually leaving him to die in the snow, knowing that the Mistwalker's laws would prohibit them from healing him, thus further sowing the seeds of disdain between Samuel and the Mistwalkers.
Derek was found practically on his death bed, but the Mistwalkers refused to heal him. However Peter secretly made a pact with the Mistwalkers in the night, he would leave his home forever and become a Mistwalker so long as they healed his brother. Derek was healed and by the time Samuel found out what happened to Peter, it was too late. Samuel would, for years, believe that Peter had been ritually sacrificed by the Mistwalkers and his hatred for them grew.
Although this certainly wasn't Alister's original plan, it worked perfectly. He met with Peter and destroyed his memory, so that he might never return home. All the while, as Derek grew up brotherless and with his bitter father, he became a hunter and believed that the Mistwalkers were pure evil. And thus Alister's plans of creating two blood relatives, one attuned with nature and the other opposing it, had finally come to fruition; however it would take years for his grandchildren to grow up into their opposites.
Content with his work so far at Dire Grove, Alister returns to Fate's Carnival in 2006 and finds Madame Fate in her caravan, he demands that she hand over the Ball of Fate, Madame fate refuses and thus Alister attempts to steal the ball from her, however she uses a spell to ensnare Dalimar within the crystal ball, trapping him. Alister remains trapped in the ball for decades, at one point witnessing the modern day Master Detective solving the mystery of the curse over Fate's Carnival, he also witnesses Madame Fate's death at the hands of his son, Charles.
Fate's Carnival[]
In 2013 the curse on Alister trapping him in the Ball of Fate has weakened, allowing him to summon Tanatos to him, he tells his familiar to lure the Master Detective to the remains of Fate's Carnival, it is currently unknown how he knows of the Master Detective or her strengths in puzzle solving
While in Ball of Fate, Alister uses his (greatly weakened) powers to graffiti the carnival and summon the spirits of the long-deceased carnival workers to torment them. Eventually the Master Detective finds her way to the carnival after Alister's powers over the carnival were noted as "anomalous activities" by the MCF, Tanatos follows and monitors the detective around the carnival until finally she makes her way to Madame Fate's caravan and unlocks the Ball of Fate without realising that Alister Dalimar was trapped within.
Moments after being released from his imprisonment, Alister sends the Master Detective to the tomb of Madame Fate now that he can use his powers without restrictions. With the Master Detective passively dealt with, Dalimar uses the full extent of his magical powers to greatly alter the ruined carnival into his own personal, twisted reality called "Alister's Sanctorium" where he revives several more carnival workers and gives them each the chance to help him, those that refuse are tortured and some are eventually killed at Alister's hand. He constructs a tower using his dark magic, and plans to construct an indestructible automaton capable of containing his soul so that he may live eternally, the automaton appears to be powered by an enormous machine built within the nearby Ferris wheel. He hired Dr. Goodwell to work on the automaton while other carnival workers that had taken his side such as Mao Tan, Amber Tan and Dante Camelo guard the tower.
Alister learns of the Master Detective's return to the carnival with the aid of Madame Fate and prepares a trap for her, he creates a false "Book of Black Magic" and places it at the bottom of his personal aviary. He later finds his assistants subdued and the automaton has been deactivated, he takes to the aviary and finds the Master Detective attempting to destroy the book, Alister swiftly explains that it is a fake and the real Black Diary was hidden away long ago before blowing apart the aviary, letting the Master Detective fall. However he finds her clinging on the cliff edge holding the original Black Diary, much to Alister's surprise. The detective takes her badge and stabs the book which destroys Alister and releases the curses upon the carnival.
Tanatos survives and flees with the Ball of Fate to Dire Grove.
Dire Grove, Sacred Grove[]
Alister flees once more to the hamlet of Dire Grove, a place which he is rather familiar with. Upon his arrival he sees that his two grandsons, Peter and Derek have both grown to oppose one another's ideologies, that of the hunt and of nature.
Apparently Alister had purposefully left a part of his soul in Dire Grove last time he was there, and thus used this to regain his body once more.
Alister stalks his grandson, Derek Crawford in the forests, eventually being noticed by a local hunter named Ted. When he finally catches Derek alone he puts him under a spell giving him full control over Derek, Alister makes his grandson kidnap the Child of the Forest and send a letter to the Mistwalkers demanding they turn over Peter, however the letter never finds its way into the Mistwalker's hands and the disappearance of it's child angers the Keeper Spirit who curses Dire Grove into everlasting Winter. The Master Detective is summoned to Dire Grove by the Mistwalkers and she investigates the Crawford family eventually resolving the hunter's and Mistwalker's feuds and they all confront Derek who is planning on bringing the Child of the Forest and his brother Peter to Alister Dalimar so that he can complete the Blood Ritual, however the spell is partially broken when Peter reveals himself to Derek.
In Alister's anger, he reveals himself to the Mistwalker's and attacks Dire Grove, cursing the forests with totems and black smoke. He takes Derek and Peter and plans to attack the Keeper of the Forest and take the child himself to finally execute the Blood Ritual and grant himself eternal life. However his plans are thwarted once again by the Master Detective who is aided by the Keeper Spirit to survive Alister's reality altering curses upon Dire Grove, she saves Derek and Peter and activates an ancient altar used for the Blood Ritual. Alister is completely obliterated by the full power of the altar, the Master Detective later returns to blow up the altar to ensure that Alister doesn't return and attempt the Blood Ritual again.
Key to Ravenhearst[]
Tanatos survives his master's demise and, once again, acts as a vessel for Alister to channel his soul through, Tanatos takes the Ball of Fate and travels to Blackpool where he finds Alister's last surviving relatives, Gwendolyn and Charlotte Somerset, the twins have become twisted and somewhat sadistic by this point (due to their Dalimar blood heritage), through Tanatos, Alister teaches his granddaughters about the secrets of immortality much like he did with Charles. Alister manipulated his grandchildren to look up at him, and to respect him, their passion for their grandfather and his ideologies was verging on that of cult-like.
Dalimar told the twins to reclaim the Ravenhearst Estate and began planning the reconstruction of the manor, they found out about Benedict Cauldwell, a genius engineer and architect who may be the only one capable of construction and designing Alister's creation, The Collector, a machine capable of storing thousands of corpses and their individual souls to revive Alister, construct him a new body and act as a fuel for his grand master plan, "The Great Unlocking". The twins find out that Benedict Cauldwell has recently admitted himself to the Manchester Provincial Lunatic Asylum, they trek out to the asylum where they find Benedict in the middle of a security breach. The twins lock up Benedict and release their sadistic energy onto him by torturing him into submission with the nearby hospital equipment before putting him under a trance and taking him back to the Ravenhearst Estate.
Dalimar patiently waits for Benedict and the Twins to finish construction on the Ravenhearst Museum and The Collector, once the museum has been finished the twins kidnap all of the workers and builders and they become the very first victims of The Collector. Alister tells the twins to collect more souls by wrecking ships passing by with the nearby lighthouse which the twins executed with a little bit too much enthusiasm. The twins also began work on creating a vessel for Charles and Victor Dalimar's souls, they extract some of Tanatos' DNA and begin merging them with human captives leading to several horrific bird-men, at one point they managed to channel their father's soul into one, however it only lasted a few moments. Alister explained to the twins that they were simply too weak, and that only himself is capable of truly transcending death.
Finally, Alister had a puzzle box of his own design created which was to be given to the Master Detective. The Master Detective makes her way out to Ravenhearst once again under the summons of the Queen and begins piecing together what Alister and the twins have been doing there, the puzzle box leads the detective deeper into the complex until finally she witnesses the creation of Alister's new body in the depths of The Collector. She also succeeds in sabotaging the machinery which gave Alister a much more weakened body, despite this, Alister had still successfully returned from the dead and the twins trapped the Master Detective in a pod, intending for her soul to power The Collector.
Alister immediately makes his way to the Unlocking chamber, where the twins have set up several large pieces of machinery with the intent of channelling souls directly into the Ball of Fate, by this point there are over 500 souls in the Collector and the Alister begins slowly channelling them into his body via the Ball of Fate thereby "unlocking" immortality. However, unbeknownst to him and his granddaughters, the Master Detective had escaped her imprisonment and follows Alister into the chamber, while Alister was distracted by the ritual, she knocked the twins unconscious and overtook the machinery, she decided that the best course of action would be to focus all of the souls into Alister at the same time, hoping that the sheer amount of energy would destroy his frail body.
The machinery couldn't handle the power and the entire complex began to combust, the Ball of Fate shattered however Alister survived this and picked up the shattered pieces of the Ball of Fate, prepared to do something he had been putting off for a while.
Ravenhearst Unlocked[]
All of Alister's machinery and assets have been destroyed at this point, he knows that the Master Detective will soon be on his tail once again and so he decides to bring his home city back from the ocean floor where his old enemies still lie in waiting. Upon piecing the ball back together, he realises that there is still a piece missing, he comes to the conclusion that there must be a shard caught in the Master Detective after the explosion.
He sends Charlotte to find the Master Detective, where she locates her and tells the hospital that she is suffering from delusions and is to be sent to Manchester Provincial Lunatic Asylum at once, she follows her to the asylum and leads a breakout with the other prisoners and, in all the carnage, steals the shard and gives it to Tanatos.
Tanatos returns with the shard and explains Charlotte's failure which Alister is disappointed with, he asks Gwendolyn whether she would stay loyal to him before attacking her with a dagger, he uses Gwendolyn's sacrifice to release the spell over Ravenhearst City and raise it from the sea. He and Tanatos make their way into the city, without realising that the Master Detective is following closely behind, Lord Cedric Ravenhearst recognises Alister's arrival and shouts for him from atop his battlements. Meanwhile, Lady Morwyn meets with Alister in what remains of the high street, there she discusses Alister's treachery centuries ago, however a sea mine goes off and disrupts the conversation.
Alister continues his travels towards Ravenhearst castle where the Well of Souls lies, Tanatos (who has been monitoring the city) tells Alister of the Master Detective's arrival and to expect her, however this does not make Alister cease. He finds Lady Morwyn once again at the entrance to the Well of Souls and she warns him that Lord Ravenhearst has made his way down into the caverns also, Alister follows Cedric and Lady Morwyn is shortly murdered at the hands of the Master Detective. Alister meets Lord Cedric Ravenhearst at the Well of Souls, Cedric expects to defeat him however Alister has his hands on the Ball of Fate, something they both recognise to be the "fabled key". Alister begins transferring the limitless amount of souls from the well into him via the ball. Ellen Hornebolt appears and attacks Alister, however he retaliates with a burst of energy from the ball towards her, knocking her unconscious. Cedric takes this chance to attack Alister also and they both struggle for control over the ball.
The Master Detective witnesses this fight and, while both Cedric and Alister are distracted, uses the Staff of Oscillations to shatter the cavern ceiling above them, the resulting rockfall knocks both Alister, Cedric and the Ball of Fate into the waters of the well. This fuses Cedric and Alister to the Ball of Fate, making them a strange, god-like, double entity, the Master Detective reveals herself to them. Cedric attempts to over power Alister but fails, Alister decides that they should work together for a moment to defeat their common enemy, the Master Detectives. However the Master Detective takes the Staff of Oscillations once more and stabs the Ball of Fate, destroying it. The attack resulted in the destruction of the Ball of Fate, releasing all of the souls from the well into the afterlife, including Alister's.
Tanatos witnesses his Master's demise and flees the cavern, however is stopped by falling debris, he is defeated himself by the spirit of Ellen Hornebolt possessing him, destroying the last remnant of Alister's soul.
Crossfade[]
to be added
Gallery[]
.jpg "Hqdefault (2).jpg (43 KB)")
Game Featuring[]
Trivia[]
- Alister appear in the bonus chapter of Grim Tales: The White Lady developed by Elephant Games after the studio left the MCF series.