Katali Altozan Hemlock

## Summary

Katali Altozan Hemlock is a large-scale con artist and notorious womanizer. While he had a fortunate early childhood, having been born to rich parents, all that was thrown away early because of a simple mistake.

Having escaped Isolone with the help of a sympathetic lawyer who wouldn't condemn a minor, Katali made his way to Meridian where he started a new life - and a very low one too. Despite his wealthy past, he realised he had few skills that were of use in the Meridian's difficult streets, though he had his looks and language. With that, he became a con artist and so far, has yet to be caught by the police yet.

He currently lives in a cheap apartment in Mercatio, Lower Meridian East, and shares his life with best friend Azrain Lost. While the two seem unlikely friends, it was Azrain who guided Katali through life and made it less lonely for him. As such, Katali is wholly loyal to Azrain and highly defensive of his best friend.

## Biography

Katali Altozan Hemlock hails from the metropolis isles of Isolone, Edern. His first appearance in Meridian was after a scandal about his family's high-ranking business led to the destruction of the business, his family reputation, the suicide of his mother, and his father using his private police force to arrest Katali at the age of 14.

Because of Katali's status as a minor at the time of the arrest, his charges were cleared and a sympathetic lawyer helped him gain asylum in Meridian until he was no longer a minor. While Meridian did provide him enough to get by as an asylum seeker, they pretty much forgot about him entirely as soon as he turned 18.

With only the more barebones education and few skills that the luxurious Meridian would remotely consider useful, Katali turned to stealing to get by. For a good part of his young adult life, he lived in the shadows of the neon-stained city, where the rich and famous would hardly regard anyone amidst the dark and grime.

He also developed a talent in con-artistry and forgery, and forged documents in his father's name to get himself into higher education, paid with his father's money, that he didn't actually have as the business shut down shortly after the scandal broke loose. This resulted in Katali's father being thrown in jail for multiple accounts of fraud, after the accounts were looked into.

According to official records, Katali first met his now best friend Azrain Lost in 2781, when Katali was 26. However, they met each other three years before and shared an apartment in the derelict parts of town. They have since moved out and are renting a one-bedroom apartment in Mercatio.

Katali has since become a professional con-artist and occasional thief, though he has mostly stopped stealing in exchange for finding time to hang out at strip clubs. While the police are aware that someone is conning multiple people successfully, they have yet to trace it back to him. As far as the police are aware, Katali is a jobless lowlife who stays in his apartment all day and burns the money Azrain gives him on women.

## Personality

Katali is at his surface, a charming man with a vague backstory. It adds to the mystery, after all. Good-looking and silver-tongued as he is, it's no wonder women flock to him in the hopes they can unlock his Tragic Backstory.

Under the layers of handsomeness and flirtatious words however, he is nothing more than a cunning fox looking to make his next meal by luring the unsuspecting and foolish into his claws. While he is by no means evil, he is not above taking advantage of others misfortune and misunderstandings to make a profit. As a master of wordplay, subtext, and undetectable manipulation, Katali is a stellar con artist and a thief. He can often be apathetic to the worries of the rich and famous, citing that they have no right to claim suffering when they have enough money to throw at any problem until it goes away.

He is undoubtedly loyal to those who have the fortune of being called a friend, and will go lengths to prove it to them, whether it's stealing a long lost heirloom, or permanently silencing an abuser with blackmail.

Katali's greatest strength is also his weakness - a love for theatrics. While his ability to misdirect people from his actual goal has been the thing to save him from bad situations plenty of times, Azrain's concern is that Katali's love for dramatic acts is one day going to be the thing that gets him killed if he just goes a little too far, or isn't careful enough.

## Relationships

### Azrain Lost

Azrain is without a doubt, Katali's best friend. Having known each other for eleven years, there is no person Katali trusts more than the grizzled Azrain. While it is a strange dynamic that a military veteran with no pension would ever make friends with a con-artist, it seems to have worked out. Azrain keeps Katali's antics in check when things get too out-of-hand, and Katali rakes in large sums every now and then to keep the lights working. Katali's main drive to get a better life is so that Azrain can be happier, though the former has never bothered to ask Azrain if joining Meridian's elites would make him happy in the first place.

### Allie "Crystalis" Krezan

As a frequent guest at Club Aura, Katali is no stranger to Crystalis, though he failed to get her personal attention until a get away from the police through the staff area had him - literally and figuratively - running into her. Crystalis admires Katali and thinks him to be very handsome, though she doesn't believe him to be particularly honest when it comes to his work. However, Katali was quick to consider her a friend and had a hand in helping her get what she was owed from past clients. Katali has stolen things like jewelry for her without even blinking, though Crystalis often feels guilty for asking in him to do so at all.

### John Polonski

Katali has little in the way of respect for Genesis CEO John Polonski, believing that he has no right in any sense to have problems as Meridian's richest person. When John put a bounty on his head for the Atlas Drive, Katali had no problem looking for a way to get rid of it out of sheer spite and hatred. Katali isn't above toying with John either, feeling it is justified to slowly break apart someone so esteemed yet pathetic.

### Hanso MacKellen

While generally untrusting of an ex-Genesis worker, Katali tries not to have much of an opinion about Hanso, as the latter was willing to help him break into Genesis Headquarters for the greatest heist of all. However, Katali does find it hard to accept Hanso as a friend, preferring to remain acquaintances at best.