Julius D'Crion is a terrorist.
Also a chess novice, blatant self-publicist, egoist, lecher, braggart, con-artist, sneak-thief, back-stabber, cut-purse dirty sneaking CHEAT, knave, arrant swashbuckler, occasionally-petty tyrant and a snappy dresser to boot!
It sometimes quite difficult to tell him apart from the rest of the Crion Aristocracy, except for the bits where he lovingly extols anarchic Liberty and actually favours clothes that aren't (A) mainly Black or (B) Blatantly Intimidating.
The reward for his successful capture varies from government to government but is currently slotted at ten million credits for the Galactic Unity, six million for the Archduchy of Crion, and fifty-thousand credits from the Confederacy of Allied Worlds.
The Confederacy is smart enough to realise that it's not CATCHING Julius which presents the biggest problem, it's keeping him on the hook long enough to deal with him - amusingly the Unity and Crion bounties have each been paid out at least once, with the money winding up in Lucien's hands BOTH times (on neither occasion did Julius actually PLAN for this to happen).
Really, he's broken every law except ones related to sex and slavery.
The latter is completely accurate, the former is accurate only if you don't count that little incident on Prime-1 (which has some of the strictest laws against public mention of SEX or anything else at all distracting in space); he broke every single anti-Doing-the-Nasty law (as opposed to anti-Just Plain Nasty) live on Prime-Time.
In his defence he'd just got back from infiltrating a Prime-14 renunciate sorority, which had left him slightly frustrated, since he just HAD to pick the one where they took that sort of thing SERIOUSLY.
Like most members of the Freedom Alliance's Inner Circle, Julius D'Crion is a somewhat complicated man.
There is an excellent reason why he travels around on a ship largely bossed by Women.
In all seriousness Julius has been known to exaggerate the complexity of the Freedom Alliance's situation to the point where it's meaningless to philosophise further because that way lies madness, simply as his way of avoiding being obligated to actually THINK too much about some of the things his Allies get up to.
The galaxy is not the kind that supports unambiguous freedom fighters against evil tyrannies, even if the Galactic Unity is an evil empire and the Freedom Alliance is a group of plucky rebels.
Precisely because this is a 98.99% accurate statement, just about everyone in the Galaxy will take issue with some point within it.
He attempts to minimize the causalties that occur due to his plans but he's all too understanding that he's a murderer many times over.
A major problem is that he keeps thinking of his killing as Murder - almost all of it, at least. This isn't very healthy for a conscience as ... eccentric as his is; Brother Gehern, of all people, once tried to point out to his little brother that there is at least some distance between Killing and Murder, but since this is Gehern D'Crion we're talking about Julius didn't take to this line of thought very well, even if Lucien shares it (albeit with a morality based more on principle than his own objectives).
Julius D'Crion was born the son of Zollas D'Crion as one of the many attempts to create a superchild heir to his fortune.
To be fair Archduke Zollas actually ordered the creation of his scions so that they might inherit his dream and make it a reality - he plans to plunk his FORTUNE down on some suitably ingratiating or amusing natural-born, since he suspects that those 'Losers' need SOME purpose in life, even if that's only sucking up to Daddy dearest for fun and profit.
Hundreds of fetuses were aborted in this quest and there are rumors many early attempts were euthanized.
Interestingly while the Crion Nobility have absolutely no problem with bumping other healthy specimens off, some of the oldest and most rigorously-applied laws of the Archdukedom make 'Destruction of Genetic Material' an offence punished by Suicide via Duel* at best and Judicial Autopsy** at the very, very worst.
By this I mean that if this euthanisation of fetuses and living individuals bearing the D'Crion genome became known or even SUPECTED, he would be in ... well, he'd be dead. The Crion noble caste are not necessarily sentimental, but their hatred of those that manipulate the Genetic Material of Crion and then mistreat the results tends to be faily spectacular (in theory 'mistakes' are to be brought to full term and kept alive only long enough to be studied - in practice they tend to live out lives as full as they are able to endure, since Crion Nobles tend to save up all their unused sentimentality about family members for relatives who don't stand a snowball's chance in Hell of actually hurting them).
*The malefactor is obliged to fight a duel with an opponent so formidable as to make combat with them a slightly more protracted form of suicide, so that everyone might save face.
**The malefactor is surgically taken apart piece by piece, while still alive, nominally so that they may be studied for the root of their wickedness and in practice so that the entire Galaxy understands that Crion is not messing around. It is a sentance that has not been needed to be passed in centuries, since they broadcast the fate of the only known malefactor live and re-play the whole thing on the anniversary of the event.
Julius fell under the ranks of "passable failures" and joined at least twenty other failed children in the Academy where he was tested in a variety of means to try and create specialized tactical planners that might assist Zolla's plan.
At a guess Lucien and Gehern D'Crion were each graded 'Success' and therefore openly adopted by Archduke Zollas as his own? (along with most of his natural-born by-blows, interestingly enough, not all of whom are Pure Noble-caste, although all are full Crion - Captain Jack Carpenter's yeoman and Girl Friday happens to belong to this latter group. Her mother was a Worker and she's more than just industrious in her own right).
Julius, eventually, realized the nature of their plans after unwittingly killing millions. Organizing a breakout, only a small number of the children escaped as the rest were brutally cut down.
Interestingly this breakout came as a consequence of Gehern D'Crion requesting that his brothers and sisters be permitted a 'Field Test' (partly because he wanted to cut out the middle-man and time-lag imposed by interplanetary consultation, partly because he needed tactic genius very badly in the aftermath of Lucien's departure. Some even claim he actually thought that a calculated display of trust might improve the condition and loyalty levels of his siblings, but if this was the case he never actually mentioned it).
It's a lot easier to escape from an OM-class warship than it is from Totenkopf.
Julius is aware the majority of Crion soldiers are not involved in Zollas' atrocities but he fully believes that the Archduke is a monster who has to be stopped at all costs. Recent encounters with the Unity have only confirmed that Om is no better.
Doubtless Julius sometimes has difficulty deciding which one he loathes more - the all-too-Human egoist megalomaniac or the calculating machine who ought to know better! (for a man who advocates almost ludicrously Libertarian-Anarchist philosophy, Julius has a somewhat peculiar reverence for Logic Calculated, not to mention 'Bots).
Then he remembers the Megalomaniac Speciest Hypocrite is his 'Father' and
still commanded that those things be done to him, then regains his focus.
Julius is naturally a highly introverted individual nearly incapable of human interaction, but training under Po-Ji has allowed him to focus and sort his mind enough that he's developed a stable personality he's mostly based off of science fiction swashbucklers.
Po-Ji would be proud of this student's achievements if it weren't for the fact that he turned his abilities to "Setting the Hearts of the Galaxy aflame!" by setting a match to just about every tyranny he came across - it's not that Po-Ji objects to Liberation in principle, he's just aware that in practice when you try lighting sparks across the Galaxy, some of them WILL find a powder-trail leading to Total War.
There are MANY reasons Po-Ji drinks and variations on 'For Fun' only comprises about 18.55% of them.
In truth, Julius wants to be good but he has almost no experience in what good is and is more concerned with results than he is the means.
A trait that he shares with Brother Gehern; Brother Lucien has had a few brushes with this line of thought, but has determinedly taught himself better over a period of years (admittedly with a fair bit of help from a few eccentric mentors - unlike Gehern he didn't limit himself to Krieg tutors, much less Krieg tutors approved by Father). There's a reason he fights in the front ranks so often - not that he does it every campaign, since he's Commander-in-Chief, but he still owes more to Patton than to Eisenhower.
As a wannabe Bendai Monk and hero, it's strange that Julius has an oddball fascination with pirates.
When you're fiercely individualist, not very fond of 'Laws' and habitually watch almost every station in the Galaxy (within signal range) for inspiration and edification, you pick up some pretty weird influences.
There's also the fact that his idea of Hero was primarily shaped by the Freedom Alliance, who have a long tradition of Piracy and Smuggling, with the occasional Privateer to add variation.
As a side-note in my mind Merry-Belle is currently primarily earning her bread-and-butter as a Blockade Runner for Freedonia, with occasional sidelines to acquire some extra flavours from the Galactic Smorgasbord.
She's not a paid-up member of the Freedom Alliance, since she likes being a free agent, but she does admit that they have a number of fine ideas and an equally large number of fanatical crazies.
He pilots an ancient Evarri Star Galleon called H.S.S. Revenge, which is pretty much a magnificent ship once used by Darklings to rob the starways.
Also to explore the Galaxy - so that they could find or make NEW starways to rob - and transport entire populations - sometimes as part of slaving operations, sometimes so that they could maroon them, let them breed, then come back and rob them for fun and profit.
In addition to shearing their sheep and doing to them what un-naturally cruel shepherds have done to their flocks since the beginning of time, the Dark Evarri liked to herd them and ... breed them for 'Fun' and Profit.
On a lighter note Julius keeps changing what 'H.S.S' actually stands for, sometimes from minute-to-minute.
Julius, himself, enjoys using a Light-Foil as his weapon of choice even though its somewhat useless without his personal energy shield.
In his less sober moments, Po-Ji takes this as a personal insult to his teaching prowess "I taught that ... that ... POSER better!"; A Real Bendai uses their Fighting Stick!
He's also very willing to claim he meant to do something totally unexpected.
Amusingly even Captain Jack thinks that Julius is Crazy ... but not stupid; he kinds of admires his free-thinking, but not the terrorist acts - Julius admires the Captain's love for freedom, but not his (admittedly occasionally grudging) willingness to work within the system WITHOUT being forced to or at least trying to take it apart to see how it works.
Founder of H.E.R.O.I.C, Complimenter-in-Chief, Co-Arch Henchman to the Grin, Servant of the Hoff!
Rule Brittania! Praise the Hoff and the Grin!
Warning!: May cause Thread Drift.
