Verak Tibor

==Stats==
===Mark Tracker===
Marks: 1 I
Afflictions:
===Advances===
*Privateer Crew (Voting, +1 Defence)
*Expert Scavenger (Story: Magitech Genuis)
==Background==
The small nation of Riza was corrupt and destitute, and was consumed by a civil war. Until the Empire came. Their legions stabilised the country, while their bureaucracy weeded out corruption. It seemed like everything had been solved.
In the new province of Riza a young shifter was born to the Tibor family, who named him Verak. He was raised to believe in the Empire and their salvation. He trained as an blacksmith, but was not particularly good at it. He loved to work with metal, but found forges to be arduous and primitive. When he was offered an apprenticeship with Sternsel, a company based in the Borderlands, specialising in arcane and mechanical engineering, he jumped at the opportunity. It provided him with training in a field that suited his interests perfectly.
He progressed quickly through the training, but felt that the company didn't really have the best interests of the Empire at heart. While their efforts certainly created many benefits for the people, they did it almost entirely for the money they made, and several phenomenal projects were shelved due to a perceived lack of interest.
Verak desperately sought more fulfillment from his work. He thought perhaps the Empire would be able to force Sternsel's management to be more compassionate, so he sought out the relevant authorities and made a report. Instead of instructing the company to reform, the authorities immediately nationalised Sternsel, and promoted Verak.
Not long after, he was was approached by a recruiter for the 108th Dharmic Expeditionary Force, who claimed they would provide him with the opportunity to use his skills to better the world beyond the borders of the Empire, and bring light to dark places, as they had once done to Riza. He signed up eagerly. He studied under the Artillery Legion, and learned to bring his talents to bear on all kinds of tactical situations.
After a year, he was sent out with 108th, and served for five more with distinction and honour, rising quickly to command his own platoon. But at every turn, he was dogged by the perception that something was not right. There was no denying that the Empire improved the world around it, pushed back darkness and the life within its borders was undeniably better than without. But at what cost?
Despite their insistence that they aren't racist, what the administration apparently failed to recognise was the importance of culture in the lands they colonised. Caught up in the tangible benefits they brought, they failed to recognise the cultural damage they were causing. Native cultures, like Verak's own Rizan, were oppressed, not by intent, perhaps, but by oversight. The Imperial way was the best way, so it was known. Other cultures were not outlawed, but it was tacitly understood that for anyone to progress in society, they must be prepared to abandon the less “progressive” parts of their origins and embrace the Imperial way completely.
That's not to say that Imperial culture was static: indeed, much of what made it so successful was that it was the way it assimilated the most persuasive parts of the cultures it consumed. And consume them it did, for in so doing, they effectively discarded the carcass of each culture. The homogenised whole was somehow less than the sum of its parts.
The people in these regions worked hard, not simply because of their pride in their work, but because they dreamed of moving on upward to some paradise deeper inside the Empire. No-one seemed to have the space to simply enjoy the safety the Empire had brought them.
Furthermore, in several regions, Verak encountered provinces and nations unwilling to yield control to the Empire, but in desperate need of help. Time and again, he was ordered not to assist locals until they had accepted Imperial sovereignty. Indeed, some nations never gave in, but nearly their entire population fled to the Empire anyway, often with Verak shepherding the refugees away from danger.
Verak began to hear of the Athesian Council, and place where freedom was valued more highly. His colleagues, even the former Athesian, General Erentos, disparaged them as inefficient and destructive extremists, making a lot of progress, but also a lot of mess that the Empire would inevitably have to clear up. They said that the Athesian freedoms could not last beyond the lifespan of its "heroes". But Verak was curious. He sent out word, and eventually made contact with Dargan Drosilan, and was surprised to find the man not only less volatile than the Athesian reputation, but also far more personally powerful than he had expected too.
His interest piqued, he continued his relations when his duties allowed, with the intention of trying to highlight to his superiors the worth of the Athesian way. But the restrictive structure of the 108th didn't have room for what it saw as seditious sentiments and insubordination. He earned a few black marks speaking out at the wrong time.
The final straw came last year, when he was sent back to his homeland of Riza, to quarantine the province after the outbreak of an incurable disease. After months of quarantine, his people were agitated, and demanded something be done. Verak made several inquiries about the progress of the research, but received non-committal responses. He pushed harder and harder for answers, but was eventually told that nothing could be done, and the threat was too severe. The most affected regions of Riza were to be firebombed to reduce the mass of infections, and the rest left to die out.
He defied the order, and resigned from his post. His platoon was disbanded, and its members reassigned to another commander who was prepared to carry out the order. Verak and his closest comrades left for Athesia, to find a people that would respect their need for greater freedom and compassion. It remains to be seen if this Council of Heroes will provide what they seek. But wherever he ends up Verak will always honour the memory of Riza by fighting for a better way.
_____
Shortly before the Imperial Invasion, Verak disappeared from Athesia. Of course, suspicious minds wondered where he'd gone, but the truth was far less covert. He'd simply got in over his head on what he thought was a normal patrol in the Broken Lands. His normally trusty armour failed to stop a magical blast that tore through his right leg. Though he tried desperately to fight on, he could not outlast the attackers. 
He awoke in a laboratory, alive, but with a leg twisted and useless. His captor, an elf named Cumineus, demanded that he detail plans for all the Empire's technology. Of course, he could not let this happen, but he could hardly escape with his leg like this. 
So, he wrote incomplete and sabotaged plans, buying himself time to construct two pieces of technology in secret: a , a replacement for his leg, and machine to remove the old one. Then one night, when Cumineus was away, he dosed himself on opiates, and placed himself under the knife.
Though he is no medic, he bought himself enough time to retrieve his armour and flee to Unity City, where his wound was treated properly. Though too much time had passed for his leg to be regenerated, he made upgrades to his replacement, and it works as well as the original in most respects. And of course, while there are some issues with it, it can do some things the original could not, and it's a continual work in progress.