User:Rakkeyal
From The Kodiak Republic Wiki
Characters
Patrick "the" Barber (Active)
Secretary of the Kodiak Federation of Industrial Unions
Leader of the Kodiak Workers' Party
(Technically the Kodiak Section of the Workers' International)
Born in 595 in Kodiak to two immigrant parents, Patrick Barber was raised in San Chico where he spent and equal amount of time in the mechanic shop down the road as he did in school. Originally educated as an agricultural mechanic at the San Chico Trades College, Barber moved to the agricultural region near Rykkburgh in 615 and it was here that he attended his first Kodiak Workers Party meeting. By 620 he was President of the Workers' Youth League. He was arrested a number of times for staging illegal walkouts and protests against local businesses and was charged at least twice with battery.
Barber was regional steward of the Kodiak Mechanics Guild and was instrumental in the amalgamation of it with the Automobile Workers Union into what is now the largest Kodiaker industrial union, the United Machinists Union. In 625 Barber was elected Assistant Secretary of the UMU and by 633 was Vice President of the Kodiak Federation of Industrial Unions. With the sudden death of Secretary Frank Hollowitz by heart failure in 635, Barber was eventually selected as KFIU Secretary in the fourth ballot.
There have been unconfirmed allegations of intimidation by members of the San Chico organised crime syndicates against KFIU electors. While there is no solid evidence Barber is involved in criminal activity, a number of businesses have been victims of arson after refusing UMU arbitration.
At least one retired intelligence officer has made allegations of KWP involvement with and funding for the "Peoples' Brigades," a known domestic terrorist group supposedly seeking a Marxist take over of the Kodiak State.
Patrick is often referred to as "the Barber" in reference to how thin he has managed shave operating margins for manufacturing businesses in Kodiak after union disputes.
Ulrykk von Guelderlaand (567)
Father of the Nation
Deceased, 638
Born in 567 in Kodiak to the prestigious von Guelderlaand dynasty, Ulrykk von Guelderlaand was raised on the centuries old Thatcher Estate. The oldest of three, the death of his younger sister at the age of 9 in 582 deeply affected him. Von Guelderlaand graduated in 592 from the Kodiak National University with a Masters of Public Affairs. His parents and younger brother were both killed in a motor vehicle accident in 594. Without family, he devoted himself to his work running the von Guelderlaand trust, expanding the number of charitable projects it funded, and worked to rebuild international confidence in the failed republic.
In 625, after decades of work, the Assembly of Nations selected von Guelderlaand as the primary liaison for the removal of Kodiaker quarantine. He pledged millions of his family's fortune to the cause, personally funding many of the civic institutions required for the preparations to rebuild the republic. In 628 he was appointed Provisional President of the Kodiak Provisional Assembly. In 630 he was selected by the Provisional Assembly as the first Chancellor of the new Kodiak Republic. He served as Assembly President from 633 until his death in 638.
On 4 August 638, while giving a campaign speech where his notes suggest he was about to declare his intent to run for Chancellor, Ulrykk von Guelderlaand was gunned down by right-wing domestic terrorists in front of the Rykkburgh City Hall. He was 71. After his death, it was discovered that von Guelderlaand had anonymously spent his entire fortune on funding state rebuilding projects. The von Guelderlaand Trust was bankrupt, and the Thatcher Estate was sold to the Kodiak National University for just one florin.
Von Guelderlaand was posthumously granted the title "Father of the Nation" by Chancellor von Battenburg-Grafton. Dying childless, the historical von Guelderlaand dynasty ended with his assassination.
