Dr. Alistair Weldon

Dr. Alistair Weldon is a character from Heaven's Bones. He is the darklord of the tiny domain of Riverbend. His relatives include Fanny Weldon, his daughter, and Beatrice Weldon, his wife. He suffers from horrible loneliness and boredom, for besides the deformed husk of his wife and the ghost of the daughter he mostly ignores, he is alone, served only by invisible, incomprehensibly whispering presences that serve as replacements for his former servants and slaves.

Biography

Although trained as a physician, Dr. Weldon did not practice as a normal medical doctor due his wealth as a rich plantation owner in Alabama. Instead, he performed illicit and brutal medical experiments on slaves behind closed doors. These medical procedures cost many lives, including that of Sadie. So heinous was Weldon's experiments that during Sherman's March in the waning years of the Civil War, Dr. Weldon's slaves rebelled and burnt down his plantation, catching his family within. However, the Mists grabbed Dr. Weldon and transported him into a Mist-born copy of his plantation that was intact. The ghost of his daughter lingered, though he mostly ignored her. Beatrice remained as a deformed and burnt husk, but still living after a fashion.

Years of miserable isolation and ennui later, Dr. Weldon stumbled upon the body of the man formerly known as Tibor Vadoma elsewhere. On a whim, Dr. Weldon patched the stranger up, and they formed a friendly (or at least non-hostile) relationship. The man took on the guise of Trueblood and began following an agenda Dr. Weldon had little involvement with. Trueblood established Bryani-House-of-the-Mists as his base of operation, a place that was mostly out of Dr. Weldon's reach for a long time. Dr. Weldon did eventually reach it, where he found Trueblood and presumably spoke with Dr. Robarts about medical techniques.

Later still, Dr. Weldon encountered Sophie Huxley and Henry Thorpe trying to flee the Mists and invited them into his home. Henry Thorpe discovered Beatrice and screamed at the sight, thereby earning Dr. Weldon's wrath. However, Sophie escaped the Mists with the help of Fanny. Meanwhile, Dr. Weldon tortured Henry Thorpe by almost drowning him before bring him back to the plantation, where he coerced Thorpe into designing wings for Beatrice like Thorpe had for Dr. Sebastian Robarts Angels.