Backstory

His father, Albert, was highly educated and, for the era, quite affluent because he was involved in the corn trade. He was operating under the control of the Dioso family. Eugene was the second child in the family and had one older brother, Louis, one younger brother, Anatole, and three younger sisters, Philippine, Josephine and Amandine. This family was settled in Westcrown, Cheliax.
 
Eugene’s youth was tumultuous. Fearless, boisterous, and cunning, very talented, but also very lazy would be a good description of him. He spent much time in the fighting halls of Westcrown and earned a reputation as a formidable fencer and the nickname the wild boar of Halikarnassos. He provided himself with some level of comfort by stealing.
 
When Eugene was thirteen, he stole his parents’ silver plates and spent the money in a day. He was arrested and brought to the local jail three days after the theft. Ten days later, his father revealed that he had arranged for the arrest to teach him a lesson. After spending fourteen days in prison, he was released, but even this did not restrain him.
 
At the age of fourteen, he stole a significant sum of money from his parents’ bakery cash box. He then departed for Hinji, where he attempted to board a ship headed for Korvosa. However, he was swindled one night and found himself without any money. To survive, he worked for a group of itinerant artists. Despite the regular beatings he received, he worked hard enough to be promoted from stable boy to ringmaster of their troupe. But he was banished from them for flirting with his employer’s young wife. He worked as a peddler’s assistant for a while, but as soon as he approached Westcrown, he came back to his parents’ house to ask for forgiveness. His mother, Adele, received him with open arms.
 
He joined the Cheliax Army, the Dioso Regiment, where his reputation as a good fencer was confirmed. According to Eugene, in his first six months he challenged fifteen people to duels and killed two of them, with improbable luck for such a young man. Although he was not a model soldier and caused trouble, he spent a total of only fourteen days in prison. During those two weeks, Eugene helped a fellow prisoner escape.
 
Eugene took part in several battles against Ulfen pillager whose raids have moved from Ravounel to the Hellmouth Gulf and Corentyn after Ravounel's independence. He was promoted to corporal, but during the promotion ceremony, he challenged a fellow corporal to a duel. The sergeant major refused. Eugene struck him. Striking a superior officer could have led to the death penalty. So he deserted and joined the 11th Chasseurs, forging and concealing his story. “Chasseur” is the designation given to certain regiments of light infantry to denote troops trained for rapid action. Eugene was identified as a deserter. A chasseur-captain friend interceded for him, so he was allowed to rejoin the Chasseurs. Finally, he resigned from the army because he was no longer welcome.
 
He was eighteen when he returned to Westcrown. He quickly gained a reputation as a womanizer. His seductions often ended in duels, and he was imprisoned for almost a year.
 
Eugene returned to the army but he didn’t stay in for long. He spent most of his time in Corentyn, which at the time was a cesspool of swindlers of all kinds. He supported himself by running small scams. One day he was picked up by the police and, as a deserter, had no valid papers. When asked for his identity, he forged a new one, claiming to be Ravel from Belde , and escaped while the police tried to confirm his story.
 
Still under the name of Ravel, he joined an army made up of “officers” who had no commission or regiment. They were raiders who mapped out routes, created ranks and uniforms, but stayed away from the battlefield. Starting as a lieutenant in the Chasseurs, Eugene gave himself the title of captain. In Macini, he met a wealthy widow who took a liking to him. One of Eugene’s accomplices convinced her that Eugene was a young nobleman on the run. Shortly before their wedding, Eugene confessed to her. He then left town, but not before receiving a generous cash gift from her.
 
Eugene settled in Egorian, the capital of the Cheliax Empire where he squandered all his money entertaining women. He joined a group of Varisian gypsies, where he met a woman he had fallen in love with, Jacqueline. When Jacqueline left him for a real soldier, he beat both of them. The soldier sued him and Eugene was sentenced to three months in the prison of the Sorrowgate Towers.
 
Eugene was twenty-five and quickly adapted to life in prison. He befriended a group of men, among them Boitel, who had been sentenced to six years for stealing. Then Boitel was suddenly released, but the next day, the local inspector noticed that the pardon was forged. Eugene claimed two fellow inmates, Grouard and Herbaux, had asked to use his cell to write something of an unknown nature because the common room was too noisy. Both inmates claimed, however, that he helped in the fabrication and that the whole thing had been his idea. Thus, Eugene was not released after the three months.
 
After a long delay, his trial for document forgery began. Eugene and a second accused, Herbaux, were found guilty and sentenced to eight years of hard labour.
 
Eugene was to wait several months for the transfer to Westcrown to toil in the galleys. An escape attempt failed and precipitated his placement in a dungeon for eight days. Finally, he was sent to Westcrown. He escaped again dressed as a sailor. Only a few days later, he was apprehended due to a lack of papers, but the police did not recognize him as an escaped convict. He claimed to be Augustino Fausto, and while officials checked this claim, he was put into a prison hospital. There he stole a nun’s habit and escaped in disguise...
 
Eugene was now on the run when he finally boarded a ship bound for Korvosa. He had just enough time to say goodbye to his family and ask his mother for money to pay for his passage.