Anđelo Žorić

**Anđelo Krsko Žorić** is a Croatian physicist, chemist, astronomer, and philosopher in the Nuuk Empire. He is notable for his work on various Imperial technological innovations, including the Quark Bomb and Gastae Celestia, as well as his fiercely strong anti-Weltreich views. He is considered one of the most intellegent men of all time, and holds a close personal rivalry with Corilus Heidelberg.

## Early Life

Anđelo was born in Zagreb on July 12th, 2964. At that time, the German Reich had already occupied and annex Croatia, and had begun its policy of racial genocide against the Croatian people. As such, Anđelo was born into extreme poverty, with his parents being taken away when he was just four. He was placed into a crowded care home, where he and over 100 other children shared tiny rooms scattered across an abandoned apartment complex. The living conditions were unbearable, but the workers did their best to provide an education for their children. Anđelo was noted for being extremely gifted in his educational ability. He picked up most subjects extremely fast, and was able to deduce the equations brought before him in moments by the time he was 8. Also at this time, the Reich increased the pace of its genocides. The care home was "accidentally" bombed by a Lutfwaffe plane, but miraculously Anđelo survived. He was found by one of the care workers, Nada Vlašić, who took him in as a personal adoptee. She took him to her home, which was still a dingy apartment, but a huge upgrade from the care home. Now with someone to call his mother, Anđelo found some form of joy and satisfaction. However, Nada knew that she and Anđelo could not stay in Zagreb. The boy was too smart to live in a hellhole like this, and if things kept up the way they were, they would die. After some work on the streets, she came across a group called the "Slavenskog Bratstva" ("Slavic Brotherhood'). The group was a pan-slavic movement in the southern Balkans that ran an underground railroad to help Slavs escape from the Reich into the Nuuk Empire. The group worked tightly with the Untererd, a larger resistence movement led by slavs, jews, and other "inferiors" in the Reich. Nada wanted in, and after some evaluation, she was accepted into the group. She was promised an escape to Central America, along with her boy Anđelo. Only a few weeks later, she took Anđelo and made off for the Escape Route. She took a hidden ferry to Italy, where she stopped off at a small port town and set off again for Gibraltar. There, she met with an Untererd agent who took her, as well as numberous other refugees, to Central America. Now free from the racism of the Weltreich, Nada and Anđelo could live a peaceful life. Nada took a job as a waitress, and was able to afford a small apartment in Puerto Cabezas. Anđelo and Nada had experienced some of the greatest pain and suffering humans can go through on a day-to-day basis until this moment. Anđelo was eternally grateful to Nada for being his mother and saving him from the Reich. He carried a deep hatred for the Reich his entire life.
When he was 11, Anđelo was enrolled at a middle school in Puerto Cabezas by Nada, who hated to see her adopted son's intellect going to waste. He was noted for getting top scores, being enrolled in honors and gifted classes, and his extraordinary talent for critical thinking. He moved onto High School taking AP classes, and passing them all as valedictorian. After graduation, his talent was clear to any university he signed up for. He decided to shoot for the stars, applying for an education at Nuuk University. After close inspection of his record, he was cleared to enroll at the school. He and Nada relocated to Nuuk so Anđelo could continue his studies. His Croatian accent was noticable, but his Greenlandic was impeccable, as he had studied the language since Middle School. He was, however, unused to the new environment. Everything was busy at any given time, a stressful situation for him given his past. However, he was able to pull through, scoring in the top 10% of the school and attracting the attention of several companies and agencies. After this graduation from Nuuk University in 2986, he was recruited by several groups, but the one he ultimately chose was the Nuuk Imperial Scientific Agency. He would join as a low-level lab technition, but build up his reputation through several strokes of genius in which he solved baffling equations plaguing the Agency. In early 2988, he was comissioned to commence work on a new weapon, one to end all wars: the Quark Bomb. The theory that a bomb could split a quark like an atom had been proposed several years earlier, but little progress had been made. Anđelo was recruited to the project in the hopes that he could aid in the progress of the weapon. Indeed he did, picking the project off the ground and sending it into the sky. However, it would not last forever. Later that same year, the Greater Decade's War began.

## Middle Life

The Greater Decade's War influenced Anđelo's work and life significantly. For starters, work on the project became increasingly difficult. The need to produce the bomb became ever moreso important, but they could not recieve the funding they needed, as it was being sent to the Sakkutuut. Anđelo repeatedly complained to Tamesse Ayodele about the problem, but Ayodele was unable to help, saying once, "As much as I'd like to help you, lad, there's little I can do. The Emperor is adamant that we divert all major funds to the Military, and I have no right to object his authority." Anđelo replied, "Tell that bloody fool we can't make his bomb, then!" Ayodele laughed boisterously at this, before saying, "Tell him yourself, lad! I want a head!"

During the war, Anđelo was an open critic of the reign of Motzfeldt XVIII. He said in a 2991 interview, "The Emperor's first action was dragging our beautiful nation into a collossal war that has killed millions already. I am no supporter of the damned Weltreich, but I sure as hell don't want our own people massacred daily!" He recieved attention from the Emperor himself, who requested he retract his "open slander against the current regime." Anđelo refused, but never suffered serious reprecussions.

By the time news came out about Project Endsieg, Anđelo had put considerable time and effort into the Quark Bomb. His response to Endsieg was, "Heidelberg can piss up a rope." It is said he was furious the following days, for he now realized the greatest project he had ever undertaken was being rivaled by a new technology in the Reich. He quickly came to personally despise Corilus Heidelberg for his leadership of the project, giving him the nickname "Uznemiriti Ubod" (Uptight Prick). He made himself an enemy out of Corilus.

By the War's end, Anđelo was unable to finish the bomb. He considered this a personal failure, but recieved ample compensation from Motzfeldt XIX and was offered the chance to continue work on the bomb. He accepted, but took it up as more of a side project while he worked on other things, such as Gasae Celestia, for which development was finished in 3000. Tragedy struck in 3001, however, as his adopted mother, Nada Vlašić, died of natural causes on September 16th. For about a week after, Anđelo became a shut-in, rarely leaving his home to mourn. Little is known of what he did in this period, but when he came out, he announced, "I am refreshed, enlightened. I am AnđeloŽorić, still, but I am past a dark period. I am ready to continue my work."

## Modern Life

Anđelo still resides in Nuuk to this day, working on numberous projects the Nuuk Empire has put forth. He is a figure of inspiraton for all those in the Empire who persue a scientific path. He has a wife, a Czech woman from Zenfran Czisko (San Francisco) named Jarmila Tesařik, and a son named Berislav Žorić, both of whom are very near and dear to him.

## Character

Anđelo is a bold and eccentric man, saying things bluntly (sometimes rudely) without much care to what others think or feel. He is brash and frank, but he does like to joke, one of his favorite topics being Corilus Heidelberg.