Editing Mythic A JRPG 2:Kaleb Wyman Misra (section)

= Backstory =

The Empire has many sins to its name, but one of the worst is forced homogeny. They will not accept any people who do not accept the supremacy of their people and culture, and who run themselves ragged to be like their conquerers - which means acknowledging their inherent superiority for whatever reason the Imperials feel. This includes blood; to be born to an oppressed group is to be inherently less than, because no amount of imitation in the world will change genes or the justification of "civilizing" their client states.

A shame, because if Kaleb had been born without the culture around him, he probably would not have felt the need to try to join the military to be accepted, and he might have had a cheerful life. His family was a happy one - his mother was an Imperial nurse who journeyed to his father's native lands on missionary work, his father a fisherman and minor sailor-mage who regularly sold his catch to the food-curious garrison and missionaries. They hit it off during their frequent chats, his mother eventually paying to take him back to her native land to be wed, eventually having him and his twin siblings (they're twins, he's older than them by about a year).

Unfortunately, nothing in the world would change that he was and always will have foreign blood in him. He was able to pass for a pureblood Imperial, but any check into his heritage would show he wasn't the gentleman his mother taught him to be - not pure enough. Desperate to be accepted and supply money for his family, Kaleb joined the army for the pay and the chance of a free higher education if he proved a competent mage - which he did with flying colors, he always had a talent for it, and his father's techniques for sailing magic synergyzing well with the marines' practical techniques. In fact, he not only excelled, but he was quietly shifted to the special tactics unit known also as the Medium Corps, the Imperials' magical logistics department, and his natural talent fanned and diversified into a full necromancer. He excelled as a soldier and a military magus, even finding a family of his own...

Except, slowly, he noticed that for all of his competency, he was never actually brought up for promotion beyond Captain - or more accurately, Warrant-Captain. He had the right to coordinate his assistants and undead troops, but not actually order intelligent troops around or offer his advice to his commanders directly. More pertinently, he was never given a higher pay grade. He mentioned this once, during a long post-victory party over a ghostly ship the navy had accidentally awoken, a few too many cups deep, at which point a member of the full army gave him a chance to get a good letter in for promotion - he just had to help with one thing first...

Whatever that thing was (and because it's linked to the main plot, I'll let the GM define it), it killed most of his assistants, and nearly got him as well - and then the letter was cheerfully burned in front of him, the fact that his command had been taken from him by his would-be patron to mark his men for death used as evidence as to why he didn't deserve the favor. Not that he would have accepted it (he doesn't think), he saw things there that banished the illusion that, however strict they were, the Empire was symbiotic with its vassal states - and that its view of being a true gentleman was anything to look up to. So, instead, he pulled some favors, to hide his wife, unborn child, and living blood family away from legal reach of the Empire, and then used his name to reveal the internal black market the higher-ups had for illicit goods and were using to drive up the price of luxuries to the Imperial public, especially tea. And then he fled to the yet-independent territories to hide from his superiors' wrath as their secret project was derailed by the angered nobility.

And so he's stayed, using his talents to run a library and help others make peace with their dead loved ones. But, his past is about to find him...