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Today’s modern history many consider Campaspe no more than a mere myth, but as most things to do with the warehouses she was so much more. Campaspe was a prominent citizen of Larisa born of a noble line. While history denotes her as no more than the possible first lover and mistress of a young Alexander Great, there was a much more applicable reason for her relationship with the Lord of Asia: she was the first caretaker of the warehouse.
Little is known about the relationship between warehouses and their caretakers, even by caretakers and the regents and agents that work with them. What is known is that warehouses choose organically their caretakers. Campaspe was no different. One day she was shopping in the market with some companions and next thing she knew she was being compelled towards the city center towards the palace. Soon, she was pushed out the road by soldiers hauling in who knows what from war victories. In their rush, a small pair of shears fell towards her feet and she grabbed at them.
As Campaspe turned them over and over in her hands, she noticed that there was writing in Greek in them, but it was incredibly faint. She folded them into the cloth of dress and made her way back to her companions. Later that night as her servants undressed her she caught the shears before they fell and hung onto them until she was dressed for sleep. She carefully pushed them open and went to cut off a lock of her hair, but before she could a knock on her rooms sounded.
“Come in,” she voiced thinking it would only be her servants again, but next thing she knew two men burst into her rooms.
“Lady, you must come at once with us by the order of the Alexander the Great.”
“What is the meaning of the?” she demanded as she was hauled to feet, almost dropping the shears in their abruptness.
“This must be them Odium,” said the shorter of the two men as he grabbed the shears from her hands with a piece of cloth.
“You are not in trouble my lady, but you much come with us now,” answered the man, now known as Odium.
She was brought outside after one of servants brought her a cloak and taken upon horseback. Soon she was in a building adjacent to the palace and being brought before her ruler.
“Campaspe, correct?”
“Yes my liege!” she exclaimed dropping to her knees, before being hauled back up Alexander himself.
“These shears, why did you take them?” he questioned.
“I honestly have no idea, I just felt the need to,” she said feeling ashamed.
“It is not your fault my dear, this is an objects of magical properties and was originally the property of the Graeae. They used it to end the morality of people by cutting the threads of their souls, or whatever that means…”
“It did not harm me, though,” Campaspe said.
“No, you did not activate it.”
“I see.”
Campaspe did not understand why, but Alexander kept her around and had her move into the palace. He often would call upon her to help with this collection of magical marvels. Society deemed her his mistress, but that did not describe their relationship accurately at all. She had never had children after her father had dissolved her marriage, but Alexander was almost like her son. He had no one to really look after him. She had started to manage his collection and he one day brought back a thread of leather. It was a man’s war favor. He whispered some words in some foreign tongue and next thing she knew: she knew it all. She could sense the magic of all of the collection. She knew them intimately and personally and Alexander was her leader, her friend, and her son. He was the creator of the warehouses and she was their mother.
What many don’t know about warehouse caretakers is that the relationship is more than any relationship between humans. The warehouse chooses a human that is capable of seeing past society’s norms: seeing past the normal hang-ups of people. Campaspe today is consider nothing more than a myth because the scholars closest to Alexander never wrote about her, but she is known as the woman that was his mistress because she was an unmarried woman that lived in his palace and was seen as extremely close to the man. Campaspe, though, never once corrected people in their belief that she was his mistress. She was what undid the man, though, as he began to grow his collection and misuse his magical war trophies. He became changed and not for the better. Knowing in her heart what was to become of him, and the future of his realm she killed him using a poisonous artifact that he had no idea existed. With Alexander’s death she became obscured by history and died a mortal death a mere 2 years after the death of the Alexander the Great.
Warehouse caretakers have the ability to be both what makes and ruins a warehouse. They have a darker side that a warehouse seeks out just as much as it does the lighter qualities of a potential warehouse caretaker.