Calman

Jusakim "Calman" Levek (Royal: *Jusëkim "Kaltar" Levek*) was a former lieutenant in the New Calpirites. In Geran Year 1795, Calman was captured by the King's army in a raid on a hidden tunnel that passed through the Bitterstone Mountains, and was used as one of the final subjects to be turned into a goon.

## History

### Early Life

Jusakim Levek was born in a small farming village in the duchy of Godonto. He was one of several siblings born to Jusakim Geratar, a man highly respected in the village for his amity and wisdom. His mother was Finda Rinrin, an illegitimate child born to Finda Manju and a wandering Gristokre merchant. Though he had no access to any kind of formal education, Levek was always incredibly fascinated with how to world worked. The rudimentary devices used in his village such as pulleys, levers, and wheels were an endless source of fascination as a child. Soon, he became well-known in the village for his ability to repair most machines, even the few who were granted more complex machines came to rely on Levek to repair them. He also became one of the small number in his village who learned to read. As he continued to get older, however, his fascination with understanding the world turned to bitter cynicism as he learned more and more of how the world outside his village worked. Why did his people have to give so much in taxes if almost no protection was provided for his village, which often had to deal with bandits? Why did his people have to get their local baron's permission to move, marry, or arrange a funeral? Why did everyone in his village adhere to Battlism so strongly when he had heard that those in the east of his duchy practiced a totally different religion? It seemed to Levek that the people around him, his friends and family, simply accepted these things as the way of the world. By the time he was 16 years old, Levek became motivated to change things. He had heard of cities, and how they were untroubled by feudalism, where people of all social classes and ethnicities could build a free life for themselves. He concocted a plan to make his way in the city, and pay for his father, mother, and siblings to leave their farming village for a better life.

### First Days in Tamenomasia

By escaping under the cover of night and using what little money he had to pay a few traveling merchants for conveyance, Levek made it to Tamenomasia, the largest city in Godonto. He quickly found, however, that social stratification was just as pronounced as Tamenomasia as it had been in his village, only in the city it was by wealth instead of by title. Though Levek had hoped to secure a job as a machinist, he instead ended up working in an arms factory because of his youth and lack of social and monetary capital. In this job, Levek barely earned enough to rent a tiny apartment and often had to skip meals. Saving up enough to secure a better life for his family seemed impossible. It was at the arms factory, however, that Levek first came into contact with the New Calpirites. A few of the other workers were foot-soldiers in the organization, who occasionally managed to smuggle a dagger or some bullets out of the factory to give to the higher-ups, hoping to earn their respect. Levek, sensing an opportunity, and feeling no love for the factory he was working in, decided to take it. He ingratiated himself with those who were close to joining the gang, and decided to plan an operation that would involve smuggling out several firearms, spears, and battleaxes. For days, he studied the movement patterns and break times of his section's line managers and meticulously planned his operation. With the help of three others, Levek managed to succeed, and he personally presented his haul to the local New Calpirite corporal. Recognizing his merit, the corporal officially inducted Levek into the New Calpirites. However, one of the others who had participated in the operation but had not been promoted told the factory managers of what Levek had done. He was fired and a small local bounty was put on his head, but he was relatively untroubled. He had found a outlet for his intellect in the relatively meritocratic ranks of the New Calpirites. Needing an alias to operate under, he chose "Calman", a relatively generic name that hid his affiliation in plain sight. Calman then swore that once he had earned enough, he would renounce his criminal ways and pay for a decent life for his family for the rest of their days.

### Ascending the Ranks

Applying his razor-sharp intellect and excellent stealth abilities to problems the New Calpirites needed solving allowed Calman to rise up the ranks incredibly quickly. Calman would become a corporal within a year, allowing to lead small operations of his own. Calman specialized primarily in smuggling and trafficking, and he quickly learned to quash whatever guilt he might feel, believing his actions to be in the service of the greater good. Calman's continued success kept earning notice for those high in the ranks, and in 1793, at the age of 22, Calman would become one of the youngest New Calpirite lieutenants in history, despite the fact that, unlike most New Calpirite higher-ups, he didn't give much credence to the cultural or religious aspects of the gang. His authority held sway over almost half of Godonto. As his power grew, he began to lose sight of why he had joined the New Calpirites.

### Capture

Calman began to plan riskier and riskier smuggling operations, culminating in dramatically expanding the smuggling that took place in a co-opted abandoned mine that cut its way through the Bitterstone Mountain Chain on the border of Godonto and Sunna. As larger routes through the mountains, such the Cornered Pass, were heavily guarded, this made an unknown mineshaft invaluable for moving goods and people from Vos to Zeminar unchecked. Though Calman's intelligence told him that the King's Army had tracked the source of smuggling to in that general area, he stayed anyway to continue managing the crucial operation, continually reassuring himself that he would soon abandon it. In 1795, the King's Army conducted a raid on the mineshaft. Caught by surprise, nearly every New Calprite there, including Calman, was apprehended. By that point, they all knew what lay in store for them. They knew that captured criminals were being sent to Efsisi en masse for some kind experiments that they never returned from.