Alexander Leovarus
Doctor Alexander Leovarus is a Human who serves as the Master Engineer of the Galactic Empire. In this capacity, he oversees and administers the considerable research and development efforts of the Empire, and serves as scientific adviser to his master, Emperor Tuscano. He is considered the most prominent polymath in the Empire, is capable of fluently reading, writing and speaking twenty languages, and is one of the foremost names in the Imperial scientific community.
He is a member of the Ruling Council, the Emperor's inner circle of primary advisers. Known only to a few is the fact he is the only mundane on the Council.
Leovarus is highly respected and is considered ambitious, astronomically brilliant, and the Empire's finest engineer. He is likewise a deeply amoral man whose sole drive is his love of tackling seemingly impossible issues and making his projects realities. While an intensely driven scientist, he still maintains a deep personal loyalty to the Emperor, and is one of his few close confidants.
Basic[edit | edit source]
- homeworld - Argus
- height - 1.854 meters (6 ft, 1 in)
- weight - 81.81 kg (180 lb)
- hair color - black
- eye color - green
- weapon of choice - D-21 blaster pistol
Biography[edit | edit source]
Early Life[edit | edit source]
Born on 4.5.10845 on Argus in the United Dominion, Alexander was the youngest of four and the only son. While not wealthy, the family was not poor - father Martin was a supervisor at the central spaceport and mother Rebecca a droid technician. From an early age, he demonstrated considerable talent, drawing complex designs and easily working puzzles that would stymie others. As he grew older, he pursued more and more advanced courses in the sciences and engineering in his education, and his ideas, drawings, and holographic models became increasingly complex and detailed. At the age of 13, he worked up a full-detail holographic model of a solar ionization power plant entirely from memory, and his instructors found no errors in his design.
At the age of 16, Leovarus decided he wanted to pursue the most advanced engineering courses possible, and intended to seek admission to the prestigious New Geneva Collegiate, a top-level university. His father, however, wanted him to attend the Argus Collegiate and stay close to home. An extremely heated argument ensued, with Alexander packing his datapads and few personal effects in his bag and storming out. He worked for the next two years as a free hand on the tramp freighter Arethusa, staying with the ship as it worked its way gradually to the Dominion capital on its regular shipping routes. He spent the first five months of 10862 trapped on Masada, an independent world located in the buffer zone between the Dominion and Federation borders, by the ongoing civil war. Alongside the rest of the crew of the Arethusa, he saw no other way offworld but to help, and fell in with the mercenaries known as the Aulari, who had come in support of the government. When the civil war ended in May of that year with a government victory, he was adopted by the Aulari in recognition of his dogged combat style - learned in the field and aided by his quick memory - and given the nickname "Deathwalker." By the time he reached Imperia in 10863, he was a hardened and streetwise man, though the endless hard work had only intensified his determination to reach his objective.
Leovarus enrolled in the New Geneva Collegiate a month after reaching the capital, and quickly earned his way into the top engineering courses the institution offered. He would spend the next four years studying temporal mechanics, theoretical physics, quantum physics and mechanics, fusion engineering, and everything else he could. He consistently outperformed even the intensely demanding teachers expectations, and was the top student month after month. He finally graduated in late 10867, and remains the first and only student to ever pass the final examinations with a perfect score.
Dominion Service[edit | edit source]
His performance during his collegiate years had earned Leovarus the attention of Dominion scouts, who were always on the lookout for highly promising students who could make excellent new additions to the Dominion's R&D establishment. He accepted an invitation to visit the OSI headquarters on New Geneva, where he was immediately drawn to the advanced power projects underway. His ease at picking up on the research to that point and the effortless way he formulated an analysis of the project and potential solutions to problems that stumped the scientists more than impressed the OSI officials, who offered him a post at the think tank on the spot.
As his service to the Dominion progressed, Leovarus gained familiarity and extensive knowledge of other fields, including chemistry, chemical engineering, genetics, weapons engineering, ballistics, biology, anatomy, surgery, pharmacology and architecture. He would eventually develop projects in numerous fields outside of his usual engineering disciplines. By the time he first encountered General Tuscano in 10869, he was already earning his chops as one of the Dominion's finest engineers. Tuscano himself was already a general, and earning a name for himself, as well. The two conversed at length on the prospects of two experimental weapon systems the Dominion was considering deploying against the Commonwealth and the Federation, and it was Leovarus' unvarnished opinions of those weapons that led Tuscano to lobby against their use, which spared the Dominion considerable embarrassment, as both weapons tests ended in failure. Impressed, Tuscano quietly began to work Leovarus into his plans, eventually coming to call the man his "favorite engineer, " reaching out to him whenever he needed a bit of technical wizardry in expediting the development of weapons awaiting deployment.
In 10878, Leovarus was responsible for enabling the Dominion to successfully make its final push into Commonwealth territory. Having developed a fascination in Omega Black - and acquiring samples through Tuscano - he had been conducting off-the-books (and highly illegal) research with the pathogen since 10876. Interested in its potential effectiveness as a weapon, he had developed a secure delivery mechanism that would release the virus into a planetary atmosphere. He considered the work a "pet project," but approached Tuscano about the concept anyway, asking if it could be "field tested." He gave the general the half-dozen "Omega Black bombs" he had produced, and Tuscano knew right away what to do with them.
With the assistance of his colleague Admiral Virini, Tuscano had the pods secretly released into the atmosphere of the Commonwealth border fortress world of New Camden, which was the target of a pending Dominion invasion. Mixed in with the other ordnance of a regular bombing strike, they went unnoticed by the personnel that loaded the bomber's ordnance bays. The pathogen infected the entire planet within two standard weeks, turning every sentient being on the planet into a ravening, cannibalistic, homicidal maniac. With the garrison totally decimated by the disease, Virini's fleet arrived to find the planet devastated by the disease. Following protocol, the admiral bombarded and laid waste to the world, opening up a hole in the Commonwealth perimeter and leaving it defenseless against full invasion. The death toll on New Camden was ultimately estimated at somewhere between three and five billion. Leovarus considered the "test" a "rousing success."
After the decimation of New Camden, Tuscano kept Leovarus close to him, the Omega Black experiment proving to him that the engineer had a sadistic streak in him, even if he was a mundane. Shortly thereafter, Tuscano tested the man's loyalty to him by revealing his identity as a Shadow Lord. The engineer admitted he wasn't bothered as to the general's real identity, though he did grant he had found his few studies of what little data was available on the Ambience to be "fascinating, if mildly difficult to believe." Tuscano, convinced the scientist was not dissuaded, told him he had important plans for the man when his own designs came to fruition.
Imperial Service[edit | edit source]
Since the formation of the Empire, Doctor Leovarus has remained close to the Emperor as his favored engineer. His intensely driven mind is constantly working on problems his master poses to him, contemplating the potential solutions and methods for achieving those solutions. The Emperor knows that if his own researches do not yield him the answers he seeks, he can turn to Leovarus and allow the ravenously brilliant scientist to work out an answer. He has been described as having a memory "like a steel trap, " remembering the help or hindrance of others even years later. Other scientists refrain from interfering with him or his work, knowing doing so will likely draw the Emperor's wrath.
Ambitious and ingenious, Leovarus is highly-respected for his work, and he is likewise proud of the technical achievements he has made in the Empire's few short years thus far. He has developed the Ultima Cannon, the Sun Crusher and the Planet Prison, three weapons projects which remain shrouded in secrecy and hidden from public awareness. He was also behind the initiation of Project Silent Herald, an initiative currently in limbo. He fears the Emperor's displeasure, though he has yet to fail him. He is not a perfectionist, though he is incredibly detailed in his work. At the same time, however, he despises failure, and will not tolerate it even from himself. A practical man, he will always caution against impractical designs or technologies. When presented with a particularly difficult challenge, Leovarus is known to become giddy with excitement, as he relishes such opportunities when designing.
Publicly, he is jovial and good-humored, but is happiest when deep in his work. His opinion of his work is known to be very amoral, as he cares little for the innocent deaths that may be caused by his creations. He believes those deaths and the subjugation of the entire worlds to be "irrelevant." The Emperor grants him considerable latitude and resources in his work, and he continues to forge technologies that only further the Empire's interests and capabilities.
Doctor Leovarus is not married, has no significant others, and has no children. He has been openly homosexual since he was 17,and is known to enjoy the company of other attractive gentlemen scientists and engineers his age with whom he works. While the relationships are both friendly and intimate, they are never serious. He has not spoken to his family since he left Argus at the age of sixteen. Few people have ever inquired about his family, as those few who do are cut off in mid-question and thereafter ignored. Socially, he is a very close friend and confidant of the Emperor, and is a frequent guest of his at dinners and parties. The Emperor privately muses to him that if he ever finds the right man, he will personally perform the wedding ceremony for him. Leovarus counters he'll accept only if Lord Tavari stands in as best man.