Post by lavulpe on Jul 10, 2015 21:16:31 GMT
Character's Full Name: Yasir Maalik
Character's Age: 28
Nationality: Sarranid
Character's Skin Color: Dark Tan.
Eye Color: Dark Brown.
Hair Color: Pitch Black.
Occupation: Gentleman, Slave Master, and Grand Merchant.
Interests: Wine, Wealth, Fine foods, Archery, Fencing, a good mental Challenge.
Fears: Humiliation, Poverty, Poison.
Allergies: Dog hair.
Personality: Very Charismatic and obsessively polite in public, puts a large focus on image and honor. Kind more often than not, though if pushed tends to become a cold and methodical decision maker. Enjoys making other people happy, and appreciates hard work.
Strengths: Highly intelligent and educated with a talent for numbers and management. Used to politics and the higher class, as well as basic swordsmanship. Open to new ways of things and new experiences. No bias against any race, seeing a place and use for each.
Flaws: High standard of honor and a short temper if ignored or called a liar, goes into a rage if workers are mistreated. No pity for outlaws or rude people.
Appearance: 5'10 (178 cm), well built and decently handsome. Trimmed and well kept with a swagger in his walk, has the Sarranid symbol for Will branded onto the back of his right hand, and the symbol for Determination branded onto his left. Both are tattooed black.
A (somewhat) Brief history:
The Younger Years
Prosperous Master. The irony of his name was not lost to the young slave Yasir. Born a slave, raised by slaves, the young boy spent his life working for the Caliph of Southern Sarria, one of his lord's hundreds of servants. His early days were spent at a coin mint, carrying supplies and tools to the smiths who worked the raw gold, silver, and copper ore into the currency of the land. Every day the young boy watched more money leave that building than he knew he would ever have in his life. One day however, he decided that he would become rich. Not rich like the vendors, not rich like the Shahs, not rich like any man in the capital. He would be so rich that if he were to drop one of those sacks of new coins, it would be a waste of his time to bend over and pick it up again. With a new-found fervor and drive, he pushed himself to his limits, working with every ounce of strength in his small bones. At the age of twelve he asked the smiths for a favor, to forever remind him of his drive to gather that money and be free of this life. The smiths complied, and branded a symbol onto the back of each of his hands, after which an alchemist dyed the brands black. No tears were shed at the event, no cringe of pain nor cry of anguish. The only emotion shown by young Yasir was determination. Every day onward his encouragement was in plain view as he worked bellows and pushed carts, and the young boy pushed himself that much harder.
The Caliph
The Caliph he served was a kind man, an unusual trait for a man in charge of such a strict faith as that of the Sarranid people. Known as the Smiling Servant of God, His kindness had allowed him to overthrow the man before him, The Grand Imam, who had been a man of cruelty and hatred, and the Caliph had led the people and the Sultan's Mamelukes to release the man of this world. Serving as the new Grand Imam, he guided the young commoners on their paths in life as well as faith, until the passing of the Sultan. As the Sultan had no heirs, and his brother died in battle, the Grand Imam stepped forward before the power vacuum could start a civil war, becoming the first and only Caliph of Sarria. The Caliph then traveled Calradia for years, listening to the issues of his people and becoming further known for his willingness to give any citizen their chance at greatness, many of his pupils rising to become lords themselves. As his age grew on him, he returned to the capital to govern from comfort, though soon the wanderlust was upon him once more.
The Destined Meeting
Walking through the districts of the Capital, the Caliph visited the mint that Yasir labored in, nearly being ran over by the fourteen year old as he pushed a cart of gold ore across the floors of the workplace. To the surprise of the work-master and Yasir alike, the old man gave an apology to the child for slowing his work, and asked for forgiveness. Through the shock the young boy accepted his request, and quickly returned to work. The Caliph simply smiled and asked the work-master of the brands on the child's hands. After the surprise of learning they were requested instead of a sign of punishment, the Caliph requested the boy accompanied him on his next adventure. After tracking down the astonished parents, who gave a stunned mark of approval, the Caliph and his young ward set off to travel Calradia as he had in his younger days.
The Great Lesson
For years Yasir traveled under the tutelage of the Caliph, listening closely as the old man taught him of politics and religion, the rich and the poor, and how a man's image can alter the world around him. From the Nordic mountains to the Khergit plains, the many cultures, and many markets, were seen and noted. The Caliph showed the boy the profits to be made in different cities as well as the laws of supply and demand. He was shown the importance of keeping your workers happy, while a man content with his work was not as productive as one driven by the lash, he was infinitely more loyal and willing to push himself when needed. As they went over the many lifestyles and workshops, Yasir noticed one thing the Caliph had not focused on, the one commodity which could create any of the others. Slaves. Always in demand, workers could create supplies based on what the market needed, they could even produce new coins to bring to market. He questioned the Caliph of the righteousness of such an action, and was given a simple answer. "A man who does what he loves never works a day in his life, and a man who is not forced to work is never a slave."
The Forming Plan
Eventually they returned to the Sarranid deserts, and the Capital after that, the skirmishes with the local Khergit tribes making land travel past the sands an unneeded danger. Yasir was now a young man of eighteen years, with a wealth of knowledge that surprised even the well traveled nobles of the courts. With a knowing smile he approached the Caliph in his reading chambers and asked for a loan, promising to repay it before he reached his twentieth year. The Caliph, smiling as always, laid down his scrolls and opened his coin purse.
The Preparation
The young man went to the market center of the capital the next day, taking a quick look around the stalls and shops, before heading to the slavers. After looking over each of their charges thoroughly, to the confusion of the manhunters, Yasir picked out the oldest, most feeble slave they had, an old Khergit woman. Returning to the main market, he bought a few bolts of linen, weaving supplies, and a large comfortable Sarranid pillow, putting it all over his shoulders as he guided the old crone along. Returning to his quarters, and using his basic knowledge of the Khergit language, he gave the woman the pillow to sit on and the supplies to work, asking her to make whatever she knew best. The next day he returned to the market and bought another Khergit girl, this one a bit older than himself, and a bolt of silk. He took her back to the old woman, and asked her to help with whatever the elder needed. He repeated this for a week, gathering a small group of Khergit women and weaving supplies, and at the end of the month, bought the cheapest lot he could in the market. Biding his time, he visited the courts and palaces daily, listening in on the conversations of generals and shahs as they spoke of the coming war.
The Grand Beginning
It was a hot day, not a cloud to be seen, just as many a day in the deserts of Sarria. But this day was different. The whispers of war finally reached the people of the market, and the Khergit traders left the city, going to the borders before the armies of Sarria could mobilize and force them from the city. It was on this day that Yasir opened his stall, becoming the only merchant of Khergit robes and blankets in the entire city. His return on his coin was swift, as the robes and dresses famous for their quality and patterns entered the market with no competition. As soon as he broke even on his initial investment, he went to the pillow merchant once more, buying a horse cart full and returning them to the sewing room. To the surprise of the women, when they returned to sew the next day the entire floor was covered in Sarranid pillows, as well as new baskets and fine spinning wheels. To the shock of the younger girls, a leather tannery had appeared in the lot next to theirs, with young Khergit men carrying in hides, which were soon on display as new saddles and jackets. The next month, carpenters and masons arrived with news that living quarters were to built over their shops, and that the contractor had asked that the buildings be connected.
The New Man
Yasir continued his trips to the market every day, purchasing slaves according to the political rumors of war. Soon his stores were the talk of the market, famous for providing goods that were unavailable anywhere else in the region. As if carried by divine winds, the day merchants from a country had to leave due to war, a new shop, fully stocked, would open, staffed entirely by slaves owned by an unnamed Sarrian. Due to them being property of a countryman, the guards had no choice but to let them stay. And so this pattern continued for nearly two years. On the day before his twentieth year, Yasir returned to the Caliph dressed in the finest robes and new-found power in his step. A pair of slaves followed him, placing a small chest on the table of the study. Opening it, Yasir declared he had repaid his debt, with interest, within the terms provided. With a smile on his face, another pair of slaves brought a larger chest, which was laid on the floor. And now a new offer. His freedom. The old Caliph just smiled.
The Grand Market
For years Yasir grew his market, buying up other shops and providing his slaves with the best conditions, as he recalled his days in their shoes. Unlike any had seen before, the Young Master went out of his way for the comfort of his workers, purchasing whatever they needed, using his profits like the funds of a town inside the city. Soon the whole market area was purchased and split into sections, each worked by slaves of the same homelands. Symbolically, they were put into six sections, each adorned with the colors of their homelands and shops producing their kin's goods. The locals called it "Little Calradia", and to the dislike of the guards, it was soon armed, each section providing a small militia to patrol their section. To the surprise of the Royal Guards however, the crime rates in the area were almost unheard of, as each section applied justice to criminals according to their peoples values.
The Test of Loyalty
The guards changed their tune when war came to the city, a group of Rhodok lords laying siege to their walls. The Rhodok district was watched closely, the glaive bearing slaves under constant scrutiny from the Royal Guards. It changed on the day the ladders hit their walls. As the main armies collided on the Northwest walls, a group of Rhodoks set a ladder on the southern wall to open the rear gates. Setting foot on the walls, they were shocked to be greeted by a small wall of Rhodok pike-men and crossbows, these ones wearing a yellow striped livery with a gold sun in the middle, Yasir standing behind them with a banner bearing the same in one hand, a curved sword in the other. A group of a half-a-dozen Khergit archers rode out of the rear gates, followed by mounted Swadians in light armor with lances. Nords charged from between the pikes as Vaegir and Sarranid archers fired arrows from the towers. Stunned and confused, the flanking force was quickly repelled, and as Nordic axes hacked the ladder to pieces, the merchant's militia turned and went to the Northern walls. The loyalty of the market was clearly in the hands of it's master, and they proved it to the Royal Guards in blood. The siege was pushed away a few days later by the army of the Caliph, and the market militia returned to their shops unmolested by the Royal Guards. The festival thrown in the market square that night however, had to curbed back by the town guard, followed by a river of apologies and gifts from the drunken Yasir.
The Next Journey
Remembering his young life and will to be free, every slave in his ownership was given the option of freedom once they had made their worth in profits for him. More often than not, to his surprise, they denied the offer, preferring the life under a man who knew their struggle and worked to fix it. The power of the market grew, as families would sign themselves over to Yasir, the living conditions of his workers far exceeding the small homes of the common man. Yasir expanded his control further, purchasing land outside of the city for farmers to work, and using his wealth to improve the housing and farms. Eventually his wealth reached it's peak, out of room to expand, his workers happy, and with more money than he knew what to do with, Yasir decided it was finally time to move on.
The Winds of Change
As Yasir prepared for his departure, a ship came to harbor bearing slaves as was usual in the region. With the usual procedure Yasir went to the docks and quickly purchased the slaves of reasonable temper. However on this day something was different, instead of the harsh slavers that came and went weekly, the captain of this ship was a well dressed man with the fire of adventure in his eyes. After paying far more than asked for the slaves brought by the captain, Yasir boarded the ship, setting out to wherever it may take him.