Antonin Meldrake

Antonin Meldrake—"Tony" to close friends—is the president of the state of Repus on Gallerra. He prides himself on being the only current non-super head of state on the Earth. The cressarchs dispute this claim on the grounds that Repus is a micronation not recognized by genuine nations, but many of Gallerra's superheroes support Meldrake and Repus as a symbol of resistance to the cressarchs' rule. For that very reason, he's often been the target of attacks by the cressarchs' forces, but he has superhero allies who protect him from these assaults.

History

Antonin Meldrake was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1951, a first-generation Canadian born to a Czech mother and a half-French, half-American father. He moved to Ottawa at eighteen with the intent of pursuing a career in national politics; while his success there was limited, he ended up instead getting involved in the then-incipient home computer revolution, and ended up as one of the founding members of the software company Albedo Computing. while not a programmer, Meldrake found he had business talents that allowed him to play a vital role in the company's marketing and economics. When one of Albedo's products, a science-fiction adventure called Quasar that was one of the first computer role-playing games, was a modest hit, it was the beginning of Meldrake's fortune. (Both a planet and an NPC in Quasar were named after Meldrake, the former after his surname and the latter his given name.)

Now that he had some seed money, Meldrake put it to good use, employing his financial acumen to make well-judged investments that increased his assets. Between those investments and some executive positions he held at various companies, by the time he was thirty Meldrake was a wealthy man. He took advantage of his wealth to travel around the world for several years, experiencing many foreign nations and cultures. before long, however,he decided to revive his earlier aspirations of getting into national politics. After an ultimately unsuccessful but surprisingly strong run as an independent candidate for the House of Commons, Meldrake secured the nomination of the Liberal Party, and, after one more unsuccessful run, finally secured a seat as a Member of Parliament.

Unfortunately, it was not long after that Overkill conquered the United States, and the Deconstruction began. While Canada remained for the moment free, Meldrake better than most saw the writing on the wall. He stayed in government service for the moment, and was instrumental in seeing the Canadian government through a panicked secession attempt by Quebec, the province of his birth. Of course, Canada, too, ended up falling to the cressarchs, but by then Meldrake, ever the ace at seeing coming trends, had already made his preparations, buying a series of islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence off the Quebecois coast, and as the Canadian national government officially dissolved when Ottawa fell to Dr. Democritus, Meldrake moved to his islands with as many people as he could persuade to follow him, declaring them the sovereign nation of Repus. He got away with this at first likely because the cressarchs considered him and his "nation" beneath their notice, but as the rest of the world fell to their conquest, Repus, as perhaps the last state on Gallerra still ruled by a non-super, became a beacon of hope and an emblem of defiance for those who opposed the cressarchs and their reign. By the time the cressarchs realized this and decided to wipe him out, some of Gallerra's superheroes, too, had seen the value in Repus's continued independence, and resolved to do their best to preserve it.

Appearance

Antonin Meldrake is a distinguished-looking man of about sixty, although he could easily be mistaken for considerably younger, with salt-and-pepper hair that he generally parts in the middle and styles to the side into "horns" in front, while keeping it short in back. He has a stocky, solid build, with broad shoulders and large hands, into the latter of which he is quick to envelop others' hands in a firm, congenial shake. Meldrake almost always wears well-pressed pinstripe double-breasted suits, with epaulets on the shoulders and various medals to mark his official position. Aside from his wedding ring, he disdains jewelry.

Meldrake's face is broad, oval, and somewhat flat, and has been compared to the heel of a shoe. He has an aquiline nose over a thin-lipped mouth, and bright blue eyes set deep in their orbits. Though when he has a neutral expression his face is remarkably unlined for his age, he develops deep creases at the sides of his eyes and mouth when he smiles, and on his forehead and chin when he frowns. A characteristic dimple on his left cheek is actually the result of an otherwise invisible scar he received from an accident in the Philippines.

Goals and personality

Antonin Meldrake is a shrewd and ambitious man, skilled at judging other people's motives and emotions and using them to his advantage. Whatever his ultimate goals are, he keeps them secret; for the moment, at least, ruling Repus seems to be enough for him. While he's quick with a quip and ready with laughter when appropriate, his humor strikes some people as an affectation, as calculated to put others at ease and not indicative of genuine amusement. Even if this is true, Meldrake does seem to take genuine pleasure in new experiences, and will jump at the chance to try a new dish or become familiarized with an artist he was previously unaware of. As great a patron of the arts as his current beleaguered status will allow him to be, Meldrake stocks his palace and the public buildings of Repus with various artworks, and subsidizes several poets and authors.

Meldrake is by no means unaware of the status of his state as a token of resistance to Gallerra's cressarchs, and in fact may very well have had this in mind from the start. He's certainly not averse to accepting the aid of Gallerra's heroes in staving off the cressarchs' attacks, and he takes pride in his position as the world's solitary non-super sovereign. Still, for all that, he's a just and capable ruler for his paltry population, and shows real interest in their welfare.

As aloof as Meldrake often appears to be, he seems to have a soft spot for underdogs, and isn't above giving a little under-the-table aid to someone who might strike him as needing it. Many of Meldrake's palace servants come from just such a situation, Meldrake having taken in people in need of jobs or protection.

Relations

Between his travels and his business dealings, Meldrake has still managed to find time to raise a fair-sized family. All of his near relatives now live on Repus, mostly for their own protection, as Meldrake fears—with justification—that the cressarchs might try to use them against him if they got their hands on them. This has given rise to some difficulty with Meldrake's ex-wives, Julia and Parthenope, with whom he isn't on the best of terms, their relationship not bettered by the thought that his political deeds have now put them in possible jeopardy. Meldrake still lives with his third wife, Eileen, and their three children, Aadam, Brett, and Ciannon.

Aside from his family, and the Repan officials he works with on a daily basis, perhaps the people Meldrake is closest to are some of the heroes who have made it part of their duty to watch over Repus and protect it from the punishment of the cressarchs. Kudzu, the Fortune Cookie, Revenant, and Seafoam in particular have found themselves defending Repus on numerous occasions and could more or less be regarded as Meldrake's allies.