Player Name: Sevillalost
Character Number: 2
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Character Name and Pronunciation: Avidian (ah VID ee an - Short "I" on the VID)
Gender: Male
Character Rank: Stillmaster
Character Age/Date of birth: 54
Family: Daughter - Dividia, age 30, White Lightning Weyr
Current location: the newly declared White Lightning Weyr
Physical description: Avidian (or "Vid") is a big man. He's packed on a few layers of fat over the years, and he's got a belly to be proud of, but it wouldn't behoove one to make the mistake of thinking that he's soft or out of shape. The man can and has broken bones with his bare hands. It also doesn't hurt that his hands are, predictably, huge as well.
Vid's bald as an egg, having resorted to shaving his head in his twenties when he began to lose it in patches. He's got bright blue eyes that can light up with pleasure and go flat and cold in an instant. And Faranth defend you if he looks at you with the latter.
He tends to gravitate toward tough, nondescript work clothing in dark colors, though he does have a few sets of finery for appropriate occasions. Vid is a big believer in projecting the right image at the right time to meet one's goals. If the image is one of intimidation, fine. If it's one of prosperity and wealth... well, that's just another form of intimidation, isn't it? But he's prepared for that, too.
Vid is always armed with multiple bladed weapons, but the only one you'll ever see is his belt knife. It has a tooled leather scabbard that was a Turn's End gift from his daughter. He wears that a lot.
Play By: The late, great, James Gandolfini
Photo Reference: https://i.imgur.com/xDhUI6G.jpg
Personality: Avidian doesn't consider himself to be a complicated man. He values two things: his family, and his bottom line. Mess with either one, and he'll have you eliminated. It's that simple.
The truth, however, is that despite his delusions of simplicity, Vid is, in fact, incredibly complex. On the one hand, his devotion to his family (whether by blood or by choice) is genuine and touching. He is notoriously generous with those for whom he cares deeply. The best example of this is his relationship with his daughter, Dividia. After his wife's death when Dividia was a child, Vid let the girl run wild, under the protective eye of several of his enforcers. He took great pride in how she grew up, and how she applied herself to learning all the nuances of the family business. And though he rather famously lost his temper with her for the risks she took in bonding herself to Divisk, he is quite obviously extremely proud of how she managed to do so. Though Dividia is a showy example, the truth is that this deep love and devotions extends to anyone Vid considers family. In fact, the only thing that one of "his" could do wrong in his eyes would be to betray him or another member of the family. That is a crime for which there is no repentance, in Avidian's eyes.
In contrast to the loving family man, however, at the end of the day, Avidian is a ruthless criminal kingpin who won't think twice to take whatever steps he deems necessary. His priorities are clear. Family first, profit a very close second. And since maintaining the family requires income... well, the margin between the two priorities is shrinking every day. Vid will lie, cheat, steal, and even kill to protect himself and his family... and has done so. He is not a man to be crossed lightly.
The thing that makes Vid most terrifying, however, is not his ruthlessness or the capacity for brutality in his nature... it's his intelligence. The man is wickedly smart, as evidenced by his ability to build a bootlegging empire out of the nothing with which he started.
Theme song: "Copperhead Road" by Steve Earle
History: Avidian was born the bastard child of a professional gambler who cheated at cards, and a woman of questionable virtue. Vid never even knew his mother, since she abandoned him to his father's care immediately after his birth. Avidian spent the first, formative years of his life traveling around both continents, staying one step ahead of the angry revelers who always seemed to turn up in his father's wake.
Vid's father wasn't entirely neglectful, but he did love and raise his son with a rather absentee attitude. However, Avidian spent enough time staying with "friends" of his father's that he was able to observe how other families operated. At a very young age, Vid picked up on the idea that there was nothing more important than one's family... and that in order to protect one's family, one must be willing to do whatever it took. With those guiding principles in mind, young Avidian set out to learn everything he could about making his own way in the world.
During one of their "excursions" through the South, a sixteen turn-old Vid and his father stayed with an old man who ran a small liquor distillation operation. The liquor that he produced was unlike anything Vid had tasted before. It was like drinking pure lightning, and left rapid, euphoric intoxication in its burning wake. When his father left, Avidian stayed on with the old man, learning all the tricks and tips of the distilling trade. "Trade", rather than "craft", because the old man never paid a tithe of any kind to the Vintnercraft or any Hold. His income was like his liquor... pure and potent, direct from the source. Vid knew that he could take the old man's operation and make it into something epic, given half the chance.
When the time came, Avidian left the old man with thanks for the knowledge he'd received and set up a still of his own. His was larger and more well constructed than the old man's, thanks to some engineering innovations of Avidian's own design. This allowed for a much greater output of product, which Vid promptly began to sell in the back corners of Gather markets, where the reputable Crafters and Holders wouldn't pay any attention to his illicit deals. Predictably, he began to rake in Marks hand over fist. Also predictably, those reputable Crafters and Holders began to notice, and weren't happy about not receiving their cut.
Avidian learned a valuable lesson at that time in his life: it paid to follow his father's lessons about always having a way out.
Over the next five Turns, Vid began to build his empire. He started by finding men to act as his "crew", helping him stay one step ahead of those who would shut down his operations. He hired on with a Trader train and managed to work his way inland into the less-inhabited areas of the Southern Continent. This allowed him to stumble on the geothermal hot springs at the canyon cave system that would one day become White Lightning Weyr. He also fell in love with a trader girl, and stole her away in marriage.
Two turns later, Avidian had a wife, a baby daughter, a cozy location, and a thriving still operation. His "crew" continued to move his product and profits in and out, but the remote location of the still made it nearly impossible to find. Smuggling the White Lightning (as he called his liquor) into and out of the legitimate Holds became a very lucrative enterprise. Life in Vid's world was good.
Until the day that his wife's family came to call.
Avidian had always stressed to his wife that it was necessary to keep their location a secret. She'd always said she understood, but she hadn't been able to resist reaching out to her family and inviting them to come and meet with Avidian. Her father's trader train was small, but they knew the interior of the Southern Continent better than any of the others. Avidian did not react well to the surprise.
In his mind, his beloved wife had betrayed him, and therefore, there was nothing to be done but to eliminate her. He strangled her himself, and had his crew dispose of the body. Then he and his crew arranged for a rockfall to kill the remainder of the trader train, leaving their secret once again, safe.
To this day, Vid still mourns his wife as she was before she betrayed him. But he never questions the rightness of his actions. Family first, profit second. That's all there is to it.
Vid raised Dividia and his empire continued to grow. All was as it should be until the day that dragonriders showed up on his doorstep, demanding a home. It will be interesting to see whether Vid decides to adopt the outcasts, or to have them somehow eliminated as well.
