Unlike the rest of his siblings, Alistair has recollection of a free Calphryn. Before the dark times - before the Empire - life was much simpler. When war came to Calphryn, they put up little in the way of resistance. How could they? Most were simple farmers and shepherds, leaving the local militia with little to do but flee before the dragoons caught up. The Blackstocks, though, had a reputation to uphold. Each son of the Blackstock served with the Calphryn Blackwatch Brigade - nearly 1,000 of of the meanest folk the mountainous nation had to offer.
Too young to fight at the time, Alistair joined his father's company as a drummer boy. Still, with the gluttonous Imperial war machine bearing down on them, Alistair quickly found himself rising in the ranks as his officers were cut to pieces by musket fire. Despite their heart, the Blackwatch could not defend their motherland alone, and the militia could not be counted on to fight. So, in time, Alistair came to the command of his father's company when his father was removed from duty by a canister shot. Only eighty of the two-hundred man company remained, and so they were dubbed the Forlorn Company, lead by a boy too young to grow a beard.
It was to the great surprise of his betters that Alistair made the best of his rag-tag company of men, ditching the decorum of war to set traps for the Elutrian troops, harassing their supply caravans and camp retainers. Much to the chagrin of his commanding officers, Alistiar had taken to targeting Imperial men of rank. Stories tell of the boy and his men painting their faces in blue paint and ambushing scouts, hacking them to pieces with swords and axes. Despite the relative success of the Blackwatch's Forlorn Company, Calphryn's leaders signed their souls away to Elutria, and Alistair's men with it.
The forty remaining men and women of the Forlorn Company were hanged for war crimes against the Empire, but the Fire Corps field martial suffered Alistair to live. Thrown into the Fire Corps as a private, Alistair proved a stubborn and temperamental sort, developing a reputation for bruising his betters when he had the chance, but always sure they knew he was useful enough to keep alive. Alistair proved his worth in spades in Eltruia's campaign against Kayana, holding defensive lines against superior numbers and breaking defenses in unusual and ungentlemanly ways. While many in the Empire gained their rank through social status and relation, Alistair was what soldier call a 'ranker' - climbing the ranks through muddy trenches and mountains of corpses of friend and foe alike. Presently, he bears the rank of Brigadier, looking to reinstate the Blackwatch under his design.
Alistiar's desire to reinstate the Blackwatch was something rather recent, sparked by the boyish aggression of Eltruia's new emperor. Beholden to the crown and its commands, and those of his generals and field marshals, Alistair and his brigade have been tasked to commit acts Alistair knew were deserving of a hanging. The campaign left a bitter taste in his mouth, and if Alistair could have even a single brigade of highly trained and loyal Blackwatch Guard that followed the old Calphryn warrior-poet way, it would allow Alistair to push back against such abuse of command.
Thanks Mother Goose.
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