Maestre Gerhardt

Little is known about Maestre Gerhardt other than that he is the author of Das Thaumas, published 150 years prior to the events of Three Parts Dead, and that he was one of the central figures of the God Wars, whose final battle therein created a wasteland where reality itself is still broken in the "present day" of the book series. Gerhardt's works and theories would form the foundation of Craft."'Societies characterized by the relationships between the divine and the mortal appear as 'an immense accumulation of power.' To improve these societies, we must understand the dynamics of power .'"While Gerhardt is now revered as the father of Craft, his later work had mixed results. Elayne Kevarian credits his experiments as contributing to the desertification of the Northern Gleb. And while Das Thaumas does provide the building blocks for a Craft practitioner to achieve functional immortality, it is implied by Alexander Denovo that Gerhardt did not know or anticipate that it would require the practitioner to sacrifice their human body as a result.