Damien Gavalian
Damien Arnason Gavalian is CEO of the Kuat Consortium and the wealthiest man in the Web. He is responsible for the production of more weapons than any person in history.
Personal Stats
Biological:
Born: Exact date unknown, but believed to be sometime in the 60s WB. This would make Gavalian nearly a century old, quite possibly one of the oldest living humans in the Tasnica Republic. Access to very expensive anti-agathics and plastic surgery keep him looking like he’s in his mid-thirties. His location, however, is known; a small chicken farm north of Egmont.
And as for what day he celebrates his birthday, when you’re the richest man in the Web, EVERY day is your birthday!
Sex: Male
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5’ 11”
Weight: 192 pounds
Personal:
Religion: Rainericism
Nicknames and Titles: CEO of the Kuat Consortium, King Kuat, the Greatest Modern Tasnican, the Merchant Prince of Death, Damien “OWNS YOU!” Gavalian
Hobbies: Playing with his daughter
Favorite Color: The color of money.
Inspiration: Eusic Mori
Marital Status: Married to Emily Gavalian.
Who is he?
Damien Gavalian is the CEO of the Kuat Consortium, the largest corporation in the Web, with primary interests in weapons, aerospace products, and consumer goods and secondary interests in almost everything. He is uncompromisingly ruthless, incredibly self-aggrandizing, cunning and ingenious. He is a devoted loving father to his genetically engineered daughter, Leisha Gavalian.
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Enemies
Fastjack is responsible for keeping Damien informed as to the various plots against him. Here are Gavalian’s enemies, rivals, and other people who have devoted some portion of their lives to making him miserable:
- Populists (Tasnican, in particular Kenny Brackhaven
- Lofwyr and Saeder-Krupp Industries
- Forge Mechanicals
- Communists
- Emily Gavalian
- Reklar
History
Note: Damien’s history is covered at great length and depth in the megapost “The Man Who Would Be King”; what follows here is a short summary of that post with the more recent events added on.
Damien Gavalian was born on a small chicken farm near Egmont. His father was the town drunk and habitually bit his wife and his children. In fact, Damien did not even have a name originally; Damien is derived from “damn one”, what his father called him initially. Only Damien’s sister Leisha supported him, caring for the infant and teaching him how to read. In the midst of one of his father’s particularly brutal assaults Damien fled to Olivawk.
Olivawk was ground zero for Tasnica’s industrial revolution, and Damien soon found himself in the Termite Mounds, the slums of the city where most of the poor workers lived. The Termite Mounds got their name from the massive infestations of mosquiterms and wooden construction. Damien rose to the top of one of the gangs and educated himself in fields such as chemistry; Damien invented TNT, among other innovations. Eventually, knowing that the gangs of Olivawk had no future, he returned to Egmont and set up shop as a gunsmith.
This small business gave Gavalian a steady source of income and a line of credit which allowed him to take out a loan from Republic Interdimensional Bank to form a larger business, Truppenamt (literally “Troop Office”; originally it was called Truppenamt Supplies, but later took the name Truppenamt Macrotechnology). Gavalian introduced several innovations into armaments manufacture; in addition to TNT, he began using assembly-line production and introduced rifled weapons. Some of his innovations were recognized and picked up; others were ignored in favor of cheaper alternatives by the military establishment (which would lead to many Tasnican defeats versus NAMAC in the Great War.) He also sold his weapons outside of Tasnica, to nations in Dragon and elsewhere.
In addition to building his business empire, Damien, with the help of Lucien Bauen, began the process of transforming Egmont from a small fishing village into a major city. In Damien’s mind Egmont was to be the Republic’s New Modern City, and indeed the city featured for the first time modern conveniences now widely taken for granted such as electric street lights and a mass transit system of elevated trains. Bauen, an architect by training, pioneered in Egmont the architectural school of Supermodernism, of soaring glass and steel skyscrapers and a bold, aggressive feel.
When the Great War broke out, Damien Gavalian profited. He continued to sell more weapons and build his empire. He ruthlessly crushed his rivals, even ordering the torture of the father of a woman he was romantically involved with.
After the war, Damien was already hugely wealthy, but the title of wealthiest man in the Web was not yet his. However, as the Grand Army began to explore space options, Gavalian proposed a Consortium of four large Tasnican corporations to face the challenge: Koensayr, Urbangroup, Aratech, and Truppenamt. After the CEOs of the other three corporations died under mysterious circumstances, Damien assumed control of the Kuat Consortium and began their interests in space. This merger also gave Kuat many consumer goods concerns, which Gavalian proceeded to build and expand with his characteristic ferocity.
The Age of Imperialism was a heyday for the AAA Corporations, as they possessed enormous wealth, power, and even private armies which they used to launch the Moogle Wars. As the Web was always at war with each other, Damien continued to profit. The early thirties also marked the emergence of Damien’s great rival, Lofwyr, who appeared virtually from nowhere to purchase Saeder-Krupp Industries.
When the Leviathan War broke out Damien committed troops and weapons to the Returners Expeditionary Force to fight communism, knowing that a communist web would have little place for capitalists like him.
Shortly after the war in 37 WR came the Foreman’s Rebellion. Several workers on a Kuat asteroid mining facility discovered the Seraphim Typhon and decided to strike. the facility was eventually destroyed, and everyone onboard was killed. This shed a very visible light on the excessive power wielded by the corporations and directly led to the Kanavem Act and the rise of the Populists
However, Damien was married to Emily Gavalian, a relative of Tasnica’s (defunct) royal family, and in 38 the couple celebrated the birth of their genetically enhanced daughter, Leisha Gavalian.
Facing an anti-corporate backlash and well aware that he was a main target, Kuat took great pains in the late thirties to clean up its labor record; the idea was to have a record so spotless no one could accuse them of any wrongdoing. However, the Populists electoral victory in 40 WR was a severe blow to Damien and his ilk; the new Prime Minister, Kenny Brackhaven, went so far as to create a Ministry of Labor, which Gavalian described as “a ministry solely concerned with making my life miserable”. Despite this, Kuat continued to flourish; the Web, after all, still needs weapons.
Damien Gavalian recently committed his troops (and money for a reward) to defending Egmont from the rampaging Reklar. Engaged in a massive shadowy corporate war with Lofwyr, he has launched a takeover bid of Forge Mechanicals.
