Mickey Finnegan

Commander Finnegan, 265 A.U.

**Michael Ryan "Mickey" Finnegan, Jr.** was an ex-officer of the Republican Irish Constabulary and a member of the Knights Mercantile. Finnegan was somewhat legendary among his men and in certain circles of the KM for his straightforward command to "Fuck 'em up!" In his time, Finnegan overcame severe alcoholism, trained both Frederick Hopkins and Roy Stallion and eradicated the Dalcian Opium Cartel. He perished in Moscow, Russia at the hands of Agent Petrov in an act of petty revenge.

Finnegan was recruited into the Knights Mercantile by Cayde Morn, a former Yakuza contractor turned KM operative in Ireland.

## Personality

Mickey harbored a great sense of pride in overcoming the hardships of his youth, in turn developing quite the ego in his early career. He insisted on being addressed as "Commander" and made the title a requirement in all of his contracts with the Knights Mercantile. Mickey struggled with alcoholism for most of his early life and even developed a moderately effective motivational style consisting of drunken slurs and exhortations to his men. He abandoned this vice, however, in the middle of a failed KM expedition to the Taino Basin. The assassination of Cayde Morn by a Yakuza operative implanted into the group led him to vow never again to allow his personal demons to limit him from protecting his friends and the soldiers under his charge.

## History

### Youth

Mickey Finnegan was born to Irish parents in Dublin shortly after the Second Irish Civil War, the second of three children to Michael Sr. and Anna (Laughlin) Finnegan. His father had fought in the Republican Army and still held a close personal devotion to the cause of Irish independence, but he renounced violent resistance in order to make a life for his children. Mickey grew up in conditions of poverty and despair; his younger brother Stephen was kidnapped by guerrillas and ultimately killed in a botched prisoner exchange between the rebels and several constables of the Aeldrum-backed government. The death of his youngest son at the hands of men with whom he sympathized destroyed what remained of Finnegan Sr.'s spirit, while it hardened young Mickey's resentment of Ireland's new Elvish overlords.

### Adulthood

Despite his personal disdain for the new Irish government, Mickey enrolled in the famed Commonwealth Military Academy (formerly the Royal Military Academy), hoping to continue his family's tradition of military service (and, perhaps, to enact his idealized vision of his own father, who lived a double life in his son's mind as a withered drunk in the present and a freedom fighter in the glorious past). Unfortunately, Mickey's own guilt over the death of his younger brother and his own increasing complicity in the tyrannies of the Commonwealth government drove him to drink much like his father.

Despite his growing habit, Mickey distinguished himself as an infantry officer cadet, displaying a natural command over unruly soldiers. This talent, as well as his politically problematic family background, saw him assigned to naval training, destining him for a life of command over criminals and outcasts. This same talent attracted the attention of a secret operative of the Knights Mercantile, Cayde Morn, who reached out to the disaffected young Irishman and convinced him to defect. Mickey received his commission and promptly faked his own death.

### Knights Mercantile

*Main article: The Expedition Campaign*
In very short order, Cayde inducted Mickey into the KM and placed him as the commanding officer of the soldiery of an expedition to the Taino Basin (which Cayde had helped to organize and now led).

Though Mickey had no children of his own and no ties to his family back in Ireland, he developed quasi-fraternal or paternal relationships with two younger men during his service in the KM. The first was Frederick Hopkins, a corporal in Mickey's command during the Taino Expedition. Hopkins swiftly became Mickey's indispensable right hand, translating or moderating his drunken outbursts and, later on, helping the Irishman to maintain his hard-won sobriety. In turn, Hopkins looked upon Mickey with absolute admiration as a great man who needed the corporal's wry counsel to reach his full potential. As Mickey rose through the ranks of the Knights Mercantile and eventually became a signatory to the Russian Charter, Hopkins rose with him.

*Main article: The Russian Campaign*
The second figure in Finnegan's ersatz family was Roy Stallion (stage name), a Russian con artist and magician encountered by the officer in the early days of the Russian Charter. Finnegan saw potential in the charismatic, moderately combat-capable Roy and hoped to induct him into the Knights Mercantile rather as Cayde Morn had done for him. Unfortunately, the impressionable magician proved to be a liability for the Charter, as he offered a point of traction for the manipulations of Doc Ray, an insidious Dwarven psychiatrist on the payroll of the Russian Opium Cartel. Ultimately, Mickey could not protect his charge, and Roy's death affected him greatly. He decided from this point on to think, somewhat selfishly, of protecting his own interests and survival.