The Marquis d'Apien

The Marquis was described as being strong and well built, with dark skin and yellow eyes- like amber or a topaz. He usually spoke softly, and enjoyed controlling, humiliating, hurting, and killing others. He liked to play games with others to make himself feel like the smartest individual in the room, and unfortunately he was often three and four steps ahead of his enemies. He had an enormous amount cybernetics, which made him shockingly strong, fast, and resilient.

He used an *akanthus* as a calling card.

### Early Life

The Calix clan was the last decendants of Shastina Emperus, the turian woman who had colonized Invictus "through sheer stubbornness". The Marquis was born "Kairius Calix" to Melaeni Vaedolor and Traqien Calix eight years after their marriage. Kairius learned business dealing at his father's elbow, and while he accrued a large amount of skill, he quickly discovered that he had ***no*** use for his father's troublesome morals. At seventeen he was already building investment portfolios and shell companies and accruing wealth. When he was nineteen, he decided that he was ready for his inheritance and had his parents killed "in a tragic accidental fire" and changed his markings, and falsified the records to make it appear that no children had been born to his parents.

### An Underground Empire

Flush with capitol, he turned his mind first to the safer side of the black markets- selling illegal mods, weapons, and armour. Once he had a good enough foothold, he moved into piracy and smuggling. Before long he moved to indentured servitude, and then to the slave trade. He considered this especially savvy; why bother paying for your slaves when you can steal them for little cost and sell them at the same rate as the indentured servants he'd acquired previously. During this switch to slaving, he acquired his "Marquis d'Aien" epithet from a woman he briefly considered an equal before killing her.

As his empire grew, he took time to indulge himself in his proclivities, though in what he considered "moderation", having no patience for those who squander their inheritance or resources. He established a name for himself among the elite of the galaxy for his elegance and sophistication, an image he enjoyed keeping even as he tortured, raped, and murdered those in his way.

### The Silver Star

One of his slaving ventures, The Silver Star, operated somewhat openly on Ilium, selling "attendants for the discerning elite". It's leader was a batarian named Har’steil Weiak- though it is unclear if Weiak was a true business partner. The Silver Star got the very best and most talented people the slavers captured, and as a result were very well connected.

Sometime after November of 2177, The Marquis brought a new acquisition to the Silver Star, a human called Isabel Windsor. The Marquis had fought her, correctly asserting her to be a spy, but his sadistic nature and amusement stopped him from killing her outright. For months, he subjected her to drugging, rape, torture, and eventually making her torture others at his behest.

Unfortunately for the Silver Star, they had underestimated Isabel. One night, while the Marquis was away, Isabel murdered the entire board and escaped, along with the slaves in the mansion.

Unfortunately for everyone else, this likely barely dented Calix's pocket book, especially with the connections already made. As Seri would tell Archangel later, "(Isabel) was the only one who really got away." Even worse, he survived the Reaper War.

### Cat and Mouse

In October of 2187, almost ten years after the events at Har'steil Weiak's mansion, Commander Shepard had a prolonged flashback that revealed her classified past to her squadmates, including Garrus. Garrus would later ask Admiral Steven Hackett if the Marquis had ever been caught. When he learned that the answer was no, Garrus took on the hunt for him.

### List of Demands

After capturing Coriphae Solana Vakarian, Calix sent a simple list of demands: He was to go free, no charges, his assets returned, no more chasing. And Councilor Shepard was to go to a location of his choosing- alone and unarmed.

### Easter Eggs

#### Meanwhile, on the Discord Server

On October 18, 2021, Evil Atlas wrote: "Public service announcement: Today in EOTA, we will be referring to Kalix by the possible sounds of his death,". This led to a running server-gag of never referring to the Marquis by name. Some highlights of what he *was* called include:

* [SOUND OF INCOMING TRAIN]
* [the honking and pecking of a thousand angry geese]
* "the collective galaxy's shit-stains embodied"
* [BUZZ OF A ROTARY FAN]
* [AUDIO CORRUPTED, REPAIR PRIORITY "EH"]
* [SOUND OF EVACUATING AIR]
* [NUCLEAR LAUNCH DETECTED]
* [LOUD SPLATTING NOISE]
* [SCREECH OF A CLIFF RACER]
* [mooing of seventy thousand out of tune cows]