Scythe Volta

Scythe Volta
Biographical information
Full Name	Shawn Dobson
Age	Younger than twenty
Residence	Maxim Easly's estate
Date of Death/Gleaning	December 31st, Unknown Year Before the Year of the Capybara
Place of Death/Gleaning	Tonist Monastery
Physical description
Gender	Male
Genetic Index	Predominantly Afric
Affiliation
Occupation	Junior scythe
Mentor	Scythe Nehru (former)
Robe Color	Yellow with golden citrines sewn on
Patron Historic	Alessandro Volta
Alignment	New Order (officially) Old Guard (morally)

"Without the threat of suffering, we can’t experience true joy." — Scythe Volta, Scythe

Scythe Volta was a junior scythe associated with Goddard.

Biography

Shawn Dobson was taken on by Scythe Nehru, presumably for showing his conscience and moral fiber. He ultimately passed the final test and was ordained as Scythe Alessandro Volta less than four years before Scythe takes place.

He, however, felt that Goddard's teachings were going to dominate the future, so turned his back on the old guard and tried to come to love gleanings. However, he never fully came to, which is something he always hid from other scythes, afraid it would put his position at risk.

Shortly before Vernal Conclave, Goddard leads his junior scythes, Volta included, on a mass gleaning in a plane. He also goes to Maxim Easley's estate, doing little of note.

Volta is seen at Vernal Conclave. He is presented as a new order scythe, hanging around Goddard, Chomsky, and Rand, When Faraday fakes his self-gleaning, Goddard takes one of his apprentices, Rowan Damisch, on. Volta arrives to pick up Rowan in a mortal-age car. Rowan and Volta talk, and Volta comments that Goddard likes those around him to be "as sharp as [Goddard's] blades".

Throughout the days of training, Volta was the one doing memory training with Rowan. One day, he and the other junior scythes join Goddard on the lawn for the first session of a different kind of killcraft training, one on live subjects. He tells Rowan that the reality of it is much more tolerable than the anticipation, comparing it to a cold pool. He and Rowan bond over their shared morals throughout this time of training, Rowan beginning to see that Volta isn't truly fond of gleaning the way the new order does it and that he secretly hates himself for it.

One day, Goddard holds a feast following a mass gleaning. Neither Volta nor Rowan feel hungry, and Volta excuses himself to his room to cry. Rowan comes in at one point, and Volta, sadness turning to anger, hurls objects at Rowan to try to get him to leave. Volta says that if he tells anyone (assuming that Rowan is confronting him to blackmail Volta about his secret hatred of mass gleanings), he will make Rowan's life a living hell. Rowan laughs, and Volta assumes that this is directed towards him instead of because Rowan's life is already one. Rowan dispels this, and Volta calms enough to talk. Rowan says that he knows that the mass gleaning was hard on Volta and that Volta isn't like Rand, Chomsky, and Goddard. Volta, feeling once again saddened, says that Goddard is the future and he doesn't want to be part of the past. Rowan continues pressing, and Volta becomes more hostile, saying that as soon as Rowan gets his ring and kills Citra, he'll be a part of it too and that he'll know there is no coming back for him. Rowan continues to unravel Volta's facade, and Volta stands up, pressing Rowan to the wall. Volta says that he won't let his position be compromised by an apprentice, and Rowan continues to insist that he isn't blackmailing him. Eventually, Volta calms and backs off, apologizing. He says that because he is surrounded by so much scheming, he had begun to think that everyone acts that way, even when he knows Rowan is better than that. He and Rowan express how they truly feel on Goddard; that he is a killer and a monster.

At the Harvest Conclave, Volta once again hangs around the new order scythes. After, when he is back at the mansion and Goddard is expressing his pride at Rowan's breaking of Citra's neck, Volta points out that Rowan made enemies of other important scythes. At the party, Volta overhears Goddard and Xenocrates's conversation. He is asked by Goddard to stick nearby to provide a dagger to use against Esme to control Xenocrates and play the role of a toady. At one point, he and Rowan play pool and debate Citra's theory on Faraday's 'death'.

The last mass gleaning of the year, which is justified by Goddard as being in the new year across the world, is at a Tonist cloister. He has reservations about gleaning all Tonists there, but goes along with it, expressing that the best part about the mass gleanings is their swiftness in ending. Volta reacts to Goddard's statement that he intends for Rowan to glean someone by the end of the day and Rowan's hesitation by saying he'll do fine. Volta finds a classroom of Tonist children, including one who took a miniature bident and tried to ward him off. In the end, he self-gleans in front of Rowan by slitting his wrists at the Tonist monastery because of his regrets over this and the cruel mass gleanings in general. He has Rowan promise to be a better scythe than Volta was and then dies. Volta's last words were “And then maybe… maybe…”

Relationships

Rowan

From the minute he heard of Rowan's being taken on by Goddard, he knew that Rowan was a moral person and had figured out Goddard's motives for this. He had become a sort of older brother figure, who secretly agreed with Rowan on most everything concerning Goddard. When confronted on the latter, however, he was initially convinced Rowan was trying to blackmail him, but once his anger wore off he recognized that he knew Rowan wouldn't do that. He wanted to, when Rowan was ordained, split off from Goddard together. When Volta self-gleaned, he made Rowan promise to be a better scythe than Volta had been.

Goddard

Goddard and Volta didn't seem to think much of each other. It is unclear why Volta was accepted into Goddard's inner circle, but judging how he took Constantine as an underscythe and Rowan as an apprentice, it was likely to make a point about old guard apprentices becoming new-order. Their only shown interactions are Volta being treated as a servant to move chairs closer together so Xenocrates and Goddard could talk as well as to provide Goddard a dagger, and Goddard's reaction to Volta's objections on massacring Tonists, which was to be patronizing. On Volta's death, Goddard says that he wasn't completely surprised, and he'd happily have Rowan take his place as his third disciple. He also recognized that Volta had never had the hunger to kill that Goddard prized. Volta, meanwhile, felt that Goddard was a sick, twisted killer. He didn't express it, but Volta was disgusted by Goddard's actions.

Rand and Chomsky

He viewed Chomsky as brainless brawn and Rand as the wild force of nature, with Volta as the one to balance them. Not much is seen of them interacting, but Volta wasn't afraid to glare at Chomsky for being impatient with Rowan's first killcraft lesson on live people.

Appearances

• Scythe
• Thunderhead (mentioned only)
• The Toll (mentioned only)

Trivia

• Scythe Volta’s patron historic is Alessandro Volta, an age of discovery physicist and chemist known for his pioneering of the battery.
• The reason why Neal decided that Volta's robe color would be yellow was that when his kids were younger they used to play the Nintendo game Pikmin. The yellow Pikmin were the electrical ones, so he associated Volta with that shade of yellow.
• According to Neal, Volta’s role in the story was essential to catalyze Rowan’s transformation.