Alder

Alder is a character played by Shanghai.

Appearance
Alder is an anthropomorphic lion with a wine-red mane and bright green eyes. He is stoutly built, of average height but broad with both muscle and fat. He has a lion's tail which reaches down past his knees.

At first Alder wore only a pair of white briefs, one of the very few personal articles that remained with him when he regained consciousness in the world of Sockscraft 2. However, at the urging of his friends and after many months in the world, he commissioned Daisy for a proper outfit. That outfit consists of a black button-down shirt, black leather pants, and armored boots. A tattered red cape is also fastened across his neck and hangs down his back. His shirt is unbuttoned at the chest, and is festooned with numerous silver chains and trinkets. At his waist is a black belt with a silver lion head buckle. Additionally, he wears several ornate silver rings and a silver helix piercing on his left ear.

When in battle, he wears a single armored shoulder brace and wields an axe that seems to suck light from the air, appearing unnaturally dark.

Bio
Alder appeared in the world of Sockscraft 2 in the wilds just outside of North Station. Just prior to waking up there, he had been sailing a sloop near the edges of his own world, Teora, looking for his lost lover, Orion. A wall of mist enveloped him, followed by an "indescribable" sound. After he regained consciousness, he found that he had nothing left but his axe and (mercifully) his underwear.

Having previously conquered his home world of Teora and ruled over it with violence, he set forth into Sockscraft 2 with confidence. However, it quickly became apparent to him that the metaphysics of this world were vastly different from those of the one he'd conquered, and its residents had strange and frightening powers that he did not understand. Most notably, while people typically respawn in Sockscraft 2, all death was permanent in Teora.

Due to this fear of the world, he became a recluse and largely remained in his volcanic home. However, his desire to return to Teora eventually drove him to seek out others with knowledge of travel between worlds, and he became friendly with numerous residents of the world. He continues to search for both Orion and a way back home.

Personality
Alder is inquisitive, decisive, and dogmatic. He rose to power through violence, but maintained it through politicking and seeking out advice from the right sources. Thus he is generally pleasant and kind to others, careful about not making enemies where he doesn't need to. He is in his late 40s and takes a long perspective on most things, and can sometimes come off as very tired. However, his quickness to draw his axe and make snap judgements about who may be a danger still lurk in his mind, causing him to jump to confrontation when threatened.

Events
Alder held a large potluck dinner at his castle, inviting everyone to make and share food with one another. The event was very well-attended. During this dinner, Alder announced his intention to depart and scour the world for his lost lover, Orion. Shortly afterwards, he said goodbye to his friends and acquaintances and left his castle. He was absent for nearly two months.

After failing to find Orion, he returned to society bloodied and disheartened. Shortly thereafter, Shock presented him with a flower xey had found near laundry town. This flower was one dendrobium azureum, a subspecies of blue orchid carefully bred by Orion back in Teora to maximize their latent nature magic. With this newfound proof of Orion's presence in this land, Alder redoubled his search efforts.

Alder enlisted the help of Ludo, Marlow, and Buttercup in maintaining the orchid and using its unique magic to help locate Orion. After several days of careful work, Marlow managed to distill a bottle of pure Teoran magic from an orchid clipping, which it gave to Alder. Alder upended the entire flask of highly volatile magic into the orchid, causing it to grow explosively into a massive tree made of thousands of intertwined orchid stems. The flowers of this tree physically react to Teoran magic, reaching towards it and glowing.

After weeks of preparation, Alder gathered a large search party to help him find Orion, directing them to fan out in the lands around South Station. It wasn't long before a cabin belonging to Orion was discovered. Inside, Alder found only ruins and a diary from Orion which detailed his time in this world and his eventual death. Stricken with grief, he vowed to destroy the world itself in revenge and attacked everyone present in the search party. This attack severely damaged Fillet. Alder then revealed that he had grown the orchid at his castle to even greater size, and distilled from it another bottle of magic. He threatened to drink it, using its power to assist in tearing the world apart, but Ludo, Shock, and Buttercup talked him down from his mission of destruction and helped him face his grief.

Trivia

 * Alder was the first character on the server to have a Customizable Player Models (CPM) model
 * The world of Teora, where Alder comes from, is meant to resemble a fantasy-themed permadeath PVP server. This is why Alder did not understand respawning and does not struggle with attacking other players.
 * Alder is Shanghai's fursona, with this particular character model and skin predating Sockscraft. His backstory as a villain on the server was chosen because it fit the cool volcano castle that Shanghai wanted to build.