Alexander Rodya

Portrait of Alexander made with Artbreeder

> A curious fellow, his psychology is largely unknown to me. He came in a self proclaimed priest of The Raven Queen and died in a tragic end out of a combination of distrust and a unique take on vengeance for the death in someone he helped to kill. A truly tragic specimen indeed.
>
> - Personal remarks of Archivist Vreenak

Alexander (also referred to as "Alex") served some role as a cremation specialist in District 9. During the Games, he is most notable for his curious character and demeanor. Alexander's alliances were complicated and at odds with each other throughout his time in the arena. Alexander was a part of three major alliances; Tree Huggers Inc. (Betrayed), Ifan's Angels (Betrayed), and the Disaster Gays. After the conclusion of the Games, he was posthumously given the title of Season 1 Villain.

## Character Bio

### Appearance

Alexander was a shorter man, measuring 5'2 and just 120 pounds and around 18-20 years of age. His casual wear included neutral-tone clothes from his days in District 9. He did, however, adopt something a little more colorful on occasion. His more "formal" robes were much more interesting. To his interview in the Capitol with the renowned Caesar Flickerman, he wore elegant black robes, the sleeves slightly charred from his work as a cremation specialist. A bold outfit to be sure and it represented Alex's essence quite well.

### Character History

#### Childhood

Alexander's childhood was quite typical for District 9 children of his generation. Many children in the District were orphaned due to a tragedy where the grain supply was low for a period of time and in order to save their children, many adults sacrificed their grain reserves. Many parents died as a result by giving up their food to their newborn children. It is unknown exactly how old Alexander was when this occurred, however our best estimates project he was between 4-6 years old. In his conversations with fellow tribute Ifan, he suggested that he did not have memories of his family, seeming to claim he was an orphan all his life though this could not possibly be true. Either Alexander was lying about this or had blocked out his memories from that time. Either way, some have suspected that his fascination with death began in his infancy.

#### Adolescence

> "There are not many places to go as an orphan; either you become a field worker or see them off to another life...the latter has a higher survival rate."
>
> - Alexander to Ifan

Alexander's adolescence began in the fields. Quite the fieldsman, his manager reports that Alex engaged in his duties in a ritual fashion after he had been accepted to join the morgue. His decision to apply to the morgue seems to have been criticized by his peers as morbid. Alex's pragmatic nature seemed to be a defining feature of his adolescence. A few months after he joined the morgue, his innate tendency towards fire became apparent in a well-attended cremation ceremony. Reports say that as he began to lift the flame to ignite the body, in a supposedly standard ritualistic ceremony, the flames began to spill down the candle, over his hand, and onto the body, engulfing his body. Witnesses reported to this Archivist emotionally confused remarks regarding the incident. These included the following moments, when Alex was asked to initiate the semi-regular burning of the fields near his hometown. (*Confused by the idea of burning grain fields, I investigated and found that this seemingly counterintuitive procedure was in fact what keeps the grain products in Panem fresh and delicious*). After his first self-powered field burning, Alex's control of fire became a local legend. His social status rose to what appears to be that of a local priest, however he mostly disregarded this newfound social capital. There are unconfirmed local legends, however, of Alex burning the ale jugs of local drunkards to encourage them to stop drinking; a noble endeavor indeed.

## Preparing For The Games

### Interview

Alexander's Interview was, as compared to his fellow tributes, rather quiet. His responses were relatively reserved and thoughtful. Unfortunately for him, none of them seem to have connected with the Capitol audience. His brief responses were fairly pragmatic, focused on his ability to survive and his power over fire. Alex's interview also made apparent that he had accepted the possibility of his death some time before. Toward the end of his interview, Alex appeared to have made an attempt to recover audience favor, though his effort had mixed results.

### Time in the Training Grounds

Alexander was fairly active in the Training Grounds. Most of his time there was spent with fellow tributes Amara and Ifan, birthing the start of the alliance eventually known as Tree Huggers Inc. Ifan's silver tongue managed to convince Alexander to relax and the two built a camaraderie over their similar skills in magic and commonality of worldviews. Opposition to District 4 tribute Zerlina's behavior was also a common ground for the group of three, as they united against the outgoing young woman's demeanor and took chances to play pranks or taunt her when possible. Alexander, whether intentionally or not, began to form a rift in his group over his distrust of Thyra's dragonmark. It remains unclear how Alexander knew was able to identify Thyra's mark.

## During The Games

### Bloodbath

Alexander's impact on the Bloodbath was in large part in association with Ifan's Angels. The group was allied against Zerlina's alliances. After opening the Bloodbath by strategically lighting some of the Cornucopia's items afire to make them dangerous or otherwise unattractive, he slowed Zerlina's pace with an Entangle spell. Alex then targeted survival tools and attempted to sway Morrigan and Amber to turn on Zerlina. Eventually, Alexander saw an opportunity to attack Zerlina with an Ice Knife spell, which struck Zerlina's head and knocked her unconscious. It was at this moment that Alexander seemed to change his perspective. Perhaps inspired from the act of killing, he made the fateful decision to betray the Ifan's Angels alliance. The most likely explanation of this sudden change of heart was that Alex was suddenly faced with the fact that *he* had killed someone and he reasoned that Ifan's Angels had *forced* him to kill someone. This is purely speculation, however, In some twisted bit of revenge for Zerlina, Alexander formed a secret alliance with Juniper, Amber, and Morrigan after her death, a group that would come to be known as the Disaster Gays. Alex escaped the Bloodbath with the quarterstaff Thyrus and newly-formed secret alliance.

### Day 1

After the Bloodbath, Alexander's first day in the arena was largely uneventful. Alex spent most of the day expertly deceiving Ifan's Angels and working to lead them into an ambush by the Disaster Gays. Most of the conversations between him and his former allies consisted of friendly banter and strategizing. Alexander also showed his intelligence to potential Capitol sponsors by keeping Ifan's Angels on the leash for long enough so that he and the rest of the Disaster Gays could take a long rest and replenish their abilities while Ifan's Angels remained on the trail with limited abilities post-Bloodbath.

##### Battle at the Lifespring

Once the Disaster Gays were ready for the ambush, they prepared their positions at the Lifespring. The resulting fight was an ironic and fitting conclusion to Alexander's tale. The keen eye of Thyra, member of Ifan's Angels, thwarted the plan for an ambush and she quickly began to lead Ifan's Angels away. Once Amber, Morrigan, and Juniper revealed themselves to Ifan's Angels, his former allies, unsure if Alex was on their side or not, decided to turn and attack the Disaster Gays. Once they approached closely enough, Alexander caught two of them with an Entangle spell, limiting Ifan's and Lithuana's abilities during the combat. Ifan's Angels then cut Alexander out of their communications and proceeded to massacre the Disaster Gays. Amara and Ettezroc managed to evade the Entangle spell and dealt heavy damage to the Alex and his alliance members. Luck was not on the side of the Disaster Gays that day, as Morrigan's shots couldn't find purchase while Ettezroc and Amara landed lethal blows on them in return.

### Death

As Alexander fell to a firebolt from Thyra, he began reciting names in his unconscious state. Zerlina. Then Ifan. Then Amara. Then Thyra, Ettezroc, and Lithuana. Amber, Morrigan and Juniper followed. In some twisted dream in his final moments, he seems to have completed his cycle of revenge and betrayal before Amara ended his life with her quarterstaff.

## Trivia

Alex was the nickname given to him by the tribute he had the least amount of trust for: Thyra.

Alex’s trinket was a burnt lamb mask that was inspired by League of Legends champion Kindred. He also appeared to use this as a spell focus in his Evaluation. It was rendered inert afterward.

The part of his backstory regarding field brining was inspired by real agriculture techniques to do controlled burns, similar to how controlled forest burns help to maintain a healthy forest.

Alex was intended to be a Wildfire Druid, however he never managed to get to second level to realize that vision.