Thaddeus Thage "Father of Alchemy"

…Born to a family of gnomish alchemists. Thaddeus was an irreverent and confrontational individual. The only thing he seemed to love more than alchemy was getting revenge on people who had wronged him. One notable example was a challenge posted to an Elven scholar on the effects of quicksilver on the body. This particular scholar, by the name of Erish Keil had declared Thaddeus a fraud. Thaddeus responded with the challenge of creating a potion that would protect the drinker from the effects of quicksilver. At the grand show Thaddeus went first. Upon drinking his potion, he downed eight ounces of mercury. Everyone was shocked, but the Father of Alchemy stood strong. Erish, seemingly stuck between his pride and a hard place, declared Thaddeus a fraud once more and accused him of using fake mercury. He drank what little was left in Thaddeus’s mercury vial to prove it. Erish’s death was slow and painful…
…Thage had a hard childhood as it turns out. He and his brother were used for a number of dangerous experiments over the years by their parents. This all came to a head when his brother was killed by one of these experiments. After killing his parents in a fit of rage for this act of Filicide he fled Gnomeland. After spending a few years writing books in the Golden Forest the vampire Kaiser Zander brought Thage into his employ as a royal alchemist. It was during this time that the Father of Alchemy would create the tome which gave him such a name. The effects of Tractatus Alchymiae Animarum cannot be understated. It changed the field of biology, created the field of Alchemical Spiritualism, and significantly increased the quality of life by finding ways for better long term food storage among other things…
...Its questionable if he had what most would call friends, though there were people who liked him and people that he liked. Normally those who felt, as he did, that the Divine are tools for man and should be treated as such. Not worshipped as deities like so many do. He is also said to have had a soft spot for those with siblings. The true reason is unknown, but most believe this is due to what happened in his youth. Of all the Divine he seemed to have the most hatred for Urlock...
…It was after that incident in which Thage decided to make his own kingdom. We aren’t sure what deal he made with the goblin clans to get all that land, but to this day it seems the goblins don’t attack those of Terra sine Magia, now commonly known as Secludton, for all those who wish to live a life without the “crutch of magic and the false faith of the Divine” as he put it…
…Despite being a gnome Thage didn’t live more than 100 years as he died of Aetheric Poisoning while attempting to create the Philosopher’s Stone…
-Experts from Alchemy and You Volume 1, by Xyx Kemaramadum

by me

You think your spell craft impresses me? That your miracles leave me in awe? Fool, every impressive thing you can do I can put in a bottle.
-Thaddeus Thage