Alton was born as the only child of a middle-class merchant family. In Alton’s childhood, the Lockes partnered with another merchant family, the Keyes, and found great success shipping goods between Amedra, Linhythe, Song-Lu, and Estraude. The family quickly became far richer than they had originally hoped; their small townhouse near the docks became a townhouse in the market district, then a manor in upper Linhythe. Alton’s father, Harrison Locke, and his business partner, Charles Keyes, wanted to raise their sons, Alton and Royce, as brothers, so they could leave the company in good hands when they were ready. The two were thick as thieves; they studied, partied, and fought together, two troublemakers with daddy’s money to piss away.

Charles Keyes was the first to notice the awful pair of brats they named heirs would certainly drive their beloved company into the ground. They lacked humility, the savviness to carve out a life by themselves, the gumption to get through the rough. So the fathers proposed a challenge, an opportunity for the two boys to learn and prove they were the right choice. The two were sent into the world with five silver to their name and a simple task: Make the most profit by the end of the year. The winner would be named the next president of L. & K. Company.

The young Alton stepped from the lap of luxury to stale bread stew and swill, dripping roofs and draughty windows. The rich boy was roughing it with the worst at the dock. It was a wake-up call he needed, he had to pull himself up by the bootstraps, or he would never climb out of the pit with the rest of the plebs. Five silver became twenty, then fifty, and eventually his first gold. Alton was doing well, pulling together a network of trusted people, and Linhythe was filled with opportunities that turned a decent profit. To celebrate the last month of the challenge, Royce and Alton met up to waste some of their hard-earned cash on revelry. The two started plotting to report the same impressive profit, and Royce had found a lead that would nearly double their money if they invested quickly. Alton quickly got on board, devoting his funds and borrowing more from generous friends to fund the venture. The paperwork was signed that evening, assured that Royce had already sorted his side earlier that day. They drank till the world spun, and the sun rose over the city of opportunity.

Days, weeks passed. No news came. No penny returned. Royce had run a scam to trip him at the last hurdle. Devastated by the betrayal, Alton confronted him; the young man laughed and claimed, ‘It’s just business. No hard feelings, friend.’ Defeated, Alton returned to his father. He had nothing to show and was indebted to the wrong sorts of people. The competition had been lost, and his father wiped away the debt. For his failure, L. & K. company welcomed Alton as a Purser aboard one of its ships, far from the riches and glory of leadership and back into the rough and gruelling life of the working man. Those years at sea showed him the world, all breeds of people, and taught him the skills he needed to survive a cutthroat industry. Alton worked his way up, returning to Linhythe as chartering director and marrying a well-off businessman's daughter. He spent many frustrating years juggling his role as a penpusher and a father, unable to provide the same luxuries that he had grown up with. Alton decided it was finally time to pay Royce back for his favour.

The L. & K. company had held a Linhythe government contract for shipping vital goods across the empire for many years, and had been granted a hefty sum to purchase several clippe,rs to speed up vital trade routes. Alton had found the perfect opportunity to strike Royce down, aided by the company’s unscrupulous head accountant. With forged papers and fake accounts, the money vanished, leaving only a paper trail that painted Royce Keyes’s hands red. Royce was unable to prove his innocence, especially when Alton and the head accountant testified against him, sealing his fate. L. & K. company was shuttered, but through careful manoeuvring, a new company, ‘Locke & Company ’, was born from the ashes with Alton as its president and founder.

Alton wasted no time raising his company (and ego) to new heights, amassing enough wealth to purchase a diamond mine in Tusa, a cotton mill in Linhythe and several smaller shipping companies. He had grand dreams for Linhythe, believing he could bring more profit to the country if he just had the influence and funding to carry them out. At every attempt to make those dreams come to fruition, he was roadblocked or ghosted by officials, leaving those plans on a path to nowhere. The world was within reach, if he could only just figure out how to unlock it. Meanwhile, his beloved wife, Clara, had been slowly deteriorating from a chronic disease, and the stress of the business was getting to consume their marriage completely. In 8289, Alton decided to take a step back and prioritise his wife; the pair moved to a quiet seaside village far from the hustle and bustle of Linhythe, where the sea breeze would do good for Clara’s fragile health. The move granted Clara six years of peace, sheltered from the machine that the Locke & Company had become, protected from the horrors of world events, and she remained blissfully unaware of the gods.