Archive for November 30th, 2012

#28 – Griffon Rezal

Griffon Rezal grew up, an impoverished thug on the streets of Barkala, the largest coastal city on the planet of Axan Prime. Griffon’s home was a planet born out of colonization and warfare, when the first surveyers came across it hundreds of years ago, a mad rush to lay claim to its vast natural resources followed, a rush that was decided in blood, as multiple factions warred to gain control of most of the planet’s habitable surfaces. Four different spacefaring nations managed to dig their hands into Axan Prime, each vying for their own slice of the the pice. After another century, the various people of Axan Prime banded together, and organized a immense revolution that saw the planet find its own independence.

For that revolution, may of the nations that once owned part of Axan Prime have never fully forgiven it, and for all of its natural resources, Axan Prime has never reached the primacy and advanced status as other colonized planets. Even as its cities grow larger, most of its populace lives an impoverished life under a openly corrupt central government.

Griffon’s home city was located on a fault line of sorts, the border between two of the nations that used to control Axan Prime ran right through the city, and since revolution, the citizens there have managed to live together, mostly in peace, despite their differences. However, frustration with the authorities has grown in recent years, and it seems that conflict is coming to Axan Prime.

Griffon does not fancy himself a political person. An opportunist, Griffon has spent much of his life preying on those weaker than him. The gang he runs with are your average street thugs, running prostitution, smuggling and protection rings in the small little section of the sprawling city they have come to see as their entire world. Like many of his friends, the 19-year-old Griffon has never left the city in his entire life. But as violence on the streets increases and the authorities find themselves increasingly powerless to do anything about it, Griffon and his friends are being increasingly swept up in the conflict.

Griffon is, at his core, a young man desperate to find family, after being driven out of his home by his parents. He has come to understand street violence as a basic mode of communication, and fervently believes that the only true thing he has to his name is his pride. But for all of his street smarts, he is naive, short-sighted, and completely incapable of imagining a world outside of the small section of Barkala he has spent the last decade in. If you asked him, he would describe the growing fighting and violence as an opportunity, but deep inside, he believes he is facing a wave that is far, far over his head.