Freelance Traveller

profiled by Peter Gray for the Crucible Campaign

Background: Danforth Lewes hails from the conservative (most would say reactionary) "traders world" of Adabicci. Lewes was born into an upper middle class family of rather unremarkable history, his parents were successful small businesspersons. He was exposed to politics and political philosophy while attending university, and found he had a natural gift for oratory and attracting followers. He quickly fell in love with the erotic adulation of sycophants, and sought to fly higher and higher, propelled, as he once put it to an interviewer, by the roar of throngs seeking paradise, with himself as the stand in for the messiah. He completed a law degree and passed the bar exam in near record time, and actively sought out a law firm that would jumpstart his political career. At the same time he espoused a vision of a restored Imperium sanitized by the "deviationism" of Norris Aledon's reforms.

His fiery rhetoric and charm enabled to win a Senate seat from Adabicci in 1160, beginning a four decade career in politics and government. His arrival was propitious, as he came to power during the period of disillusionment following the Liberation Riots in the Thinrim. Thus the conservative movement found a new spokesman that had the wit and the charms to propel it of its doldrums, and Lewes had an audience that would dance to his flute. No less than Senator Eshi Shaakhinmen, the grandfather of the Regency's unreconstructed conservative faction, made him his protege and helped groom him for higher levels of leadership and power. But Lewes soon overshadowed his mentor by forging the alliance of disparate conservative elements that always eluded the older statesman.

Within a decade of coming into the Senate he had forged the modern Purifier Movement from previously irreconcilable factions: disenchanted and disenfranchised nobles, ambitious corporate bigwigs, smouldering intellectuals and activists, disgruntled average citizens and more than a few Flame of Purity terrorists. His biggest catch were members of the remnant Tukera family, namely the patriarch Jordan, who agreed to help bankroll the movement to make it a seminal force within Regency politics. He also groomed several younger politicians to follow in the footsteps of himself and Shaakhinmen and further perpetuate the movement's goals, persons like Trent Endrass, Dominic Navarro Alba (AKA Senator DNA) and a young up-and-comer named Lemat Arthurian.

In failing health, and with most of his goals accomplished, Lewes retired from the Senate in 1200. He anticipated that events outside of the Regency would upset the status quo, and has reorganized his law firm to assist allies in government to exploit the situation. A year before the Zhodani Exodus, he was already advising allies like Terilla Sung on a master plan for Corridor Sector. A plan that would plunge the Regency into an unplanned war with a Virus Hive, and draw the lines for future flirtation with authoritarian rule and war with the Zhodani.

Appearance: Once a handsome and striking man, ill health seems to have shriveled him up. His countenance is pallid, his face most prominently marked by watery eyes and a shock of wiry white hair. He must walk with a cane, as he never regained full use of the right side of his body in spite of major medical intervention. But the animated quality of his hands and facial features, in spite of obvious infirmity, show that his bilious spirit is undaunted. In fact his disability tends to disarm people, and they are even more susceptible than ever to his charms.

Personality: Lewes is a smouldering man that news media on Mora once dubbed the Clever Dragon. He has the ability to hide the true power of his personality and will behind a well rehearsed performance of flimflam and buzzwords. He revels in adulation and crowds, and he has great ability to ferret out the motives and objectives of an audience through shrewd measuring of their appearance and reactions, through a cat-and-mouse dialogue. Only once they have given themselves up to him does he overwhelm them with rhetoric crafted for their ears and eyes.

In years past his rhetorical fetishism makes him rather more complicated than most of his conservative counterparts. His longtime adversaries and allies suspected that principles and ideology are simply costumes for him to don before a paying audience. When they were no longer of use for him he discards them in favor of ones that are more contemporary or useful. This colored his loyalties, and his devotion to the Purifier cause was predicated upon the fact that a resurrected Imperium is simply the best means for bringing even more power and adulation; if some other means for accomplishing this existed he would have betrayed the cause decades ago. However no such alternative exists, and while it doesn't he was an indefatigable proponent of the cause.

But the two strokes that he has suffered in the last decade has left him rather unbalanced. He has developed neurotic obsessive complexes about several parts of Norris's legacy, in particular the "rabble" elevated by democratic reforms, but especially what he views as the "mental pollution" of psionics. His obsession about the latter prevents him from shaking hands or holding conversations for longer than a moment with psions, and he sleeps in a psionic shield to prevent their contamination of his mind in an unguarded state. He has also developed an irrational aversion to the Zhodani that borders upon hatred. In short everything that has happened in the last 70 years is an abomination. As such he has abandoned all moderation and caution to advocate the most draconian methods possible, and in doing so has encouraged Terilla Sung and her lieutenants to throw their principles away in favor of ruthless tactics and a end-justifies-the-means philosophy.

Danforth Lewes 475ABC-0-F Age: 70 in 1202 (Date of Birth: 087-1132)

Homeworld

Adabicci/Lunion (Spinward Marches 1824)

Occupation

Former Regency Senator from Adabicci. Architect and leader of the Purifier Movement. Currently advising Deputy Defense Minister Terilla Sung in regards to the reopening of the Regency Frontier and the ensuing Landrush.

Career Path

1150-1153 Adabicci University of Public Service
1154-1157 Randmos Law College, University of Terelwen
1158 Passed Bar, joined firm of Kastenburg and Eshiikirir
1160 Won election to Regency Senate from Adabicci's 7th election district.
1162 Survives censure vote for strongarm tactics.
1164 Made co-chairman of the Senate Military Affairs Committee.
1165 Succeeds Eshi Shaakhinmen as chairman of the Imperial Flame Club, which advocates the restoration of the 3I.
1166 Founds own law firm in conjunction with Trent Endrass.
1171-1175 Becomes Senate Minority Leader. Makes alliance with Tukera family.
1176-1181 Becomes Senate Majorty Leader.
1182-1184 Becomes Senate Minority Leader again.
1185-1191 Appointed Minister of Finance in National Unity government by Regent Seldrian.
1193 Suffers stroke that leaves him paralyzed for three months. Makes an apparent recovery.
1198 Suffers another cardiovascular episode. Withdraws from active role in Senate.
1200 Retires from Senate to concentrate upon lobbying.
1202 Is secretly named Senior Advisor to Terilla Sung's Operation Iridium Lazarus, the master plan to resurrect, via Corridor, the Third Imperium.

Initiative: 3

Combat Assets: Slug Pistol-4/8

Other Assets

Admin/Legal-8/19; History-4/15; Persuasion-6/18; Interrogation-6/18; Observation-3/13; Bargain-5/17; Act/Bluff-8/20; Recruitment-7/19; Streetwise-3/13; Forgery-4/11

Hit Capacity

Head: 10; Chest: 27; Other: 18

Weight: 75; Load: 27; Throw Range: 15; Unarmed Combat Damage: 1

Contacts

9 Legal; 9 Government; 4 Criminal