[center][hider=CHARACTER PICTURE][URL=http://s638.photobucket.com/user/jnrgnymd/media/JimRaynor_SC2_Cncpt2_zpsu1ned6yd.jpg.html][IMG]http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu102/jnrgnymd/JimRaynor_SC2_Cncpt2_zpsu1ned6yd.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/hider][/center]
[center][i]"You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not smashing it."[/i][/center]
[b]Name:[/b] Wilton 'Wilt' Grady
[b]Nickname/Alias/Title:[/b] "Iron Mad" Grady; Sarge; Captain
[b]Sex:[/b] Male
[b]Age:[/b] 44
[b]Race:[/b] Human
[b]Occupation:[/b] Sky Captain of the [i]Aleph Null[/i]

[b]Past:[/b] Wilt was born and raised in a farming village called Little Colby, days west of a small town days west of a small city days west of anything you'd recognize marked on a map.  Little Colby was locally known for its apple orchards, and once a year its Harvest Festivals would see farmers and villagers from near round gather to celebrate a successful season with barrels of applejack, pies, cheeses and sweets.  Aside from the occasional farmer getting drunk off too much applejack there was never much call for law, which meant that Wilt's father, the village lawman, had plenty of time to teach his son.  Not only how to use [i]caith[/i] artifices like firearms, and other skills a lawman needed, but more importantly how to read and write; how to question what he heard; judge men by their actions; and how to stand for what he believed in and make his word count.

So at twenty-four when the recruiting officers came by looking to enlist able-bodied men for the Sorrowars - when the inscrutable Gygr people descended from their mountainous homes and ransacked half an empire - Wilt was still young enough to long for the adventure of war, and educated enough to be made an officer.  The next year his training developed further as he learned to read terrain, read maps, learn the skirmish tactics the Gygr favored and how to counter them.  As a Sergeant he spent four years leading a team of men, learning to enforce discipline, how to use his men effectively while building the right crew for any given job.  He also saw how little his men were paid, under-equipped and overworked.  Saw his superiors continue to underestimate the enemy, continue to replace the seasoned officers and generals with noblemen who saw the war as a way to advance their interests in the court.

At thirty, nearing the end of the Sorrowars, Grady's unit was placed under the command of another wet-arsed nobleman who hadn't seen any fighting save through a pair of oculars or as tokens moving on a battle map in his officers' tent.  Despite hostilities winding down, the officer demanded to lead a raid through Gygr territory, taking Grady and 20 of his men beyond the established perimeter at night.  Only four soldiers returned the next morning, with neither Grady nor the nobleman among them.  The tale was told about the men being ambushed, surrounded, yet exhorted to fight on by the officer even as Grady called to fall back and regroup.  After the battle, with 14 dead soldiers and only three giants to show for it, Grady snapped, beating his CO to death with his bare hands before abandoning his surviving men.

[b]Present:[/b] Grady has spend the last fourteen years on the seas and skies of Oceanica, going from swabbie to eventually captain of his own vessel, the [i]Aleph Null[/i].  As captain he prefers to go after cruise ships, luxury yachts and other high-end prizes.  He says it is for the easy payoffs, even if the scores are fewer and farther between than some would like, but deep down he is simply continuing his fight against the noble class that in his mind butchered his men and caused him to abandon his duty and disgrace his family.  He is a bitter man - he has always seen himself as better than the pirates he works with and now leads, and the shame and impotent rage warring within him have hollowed him of his nobler attributes.  He is still a good leader with a smart tactical mind, especially for skirmishes and ambushes, and he believes he has the loyalty of his crew, which he tries to run with a military air.

Grady is a large man, though not exceptionally tall at 6'0" he has a hulking frame - wide shoulders, strong back, thick limbs and large hands.  He wears his graying hair long and loose, but keeps it trimmed, along with the neat beard he maintains daily.  He still wears the trenchers uniform of his officer's days, though all military insignia have been removed.  Knee-high leather boots, dark trousers held up by braces, buttoned shirt and high-collared coat, and the thick knee-length trencher's coat of dark gray.  The nickname he earned as an officer, "Iron Mad" Grady, refers to his penchant for wearing two firearms and two trench knives at all times.

[b]Future:[/b] Grady's current aspirations are to continue his one-ship vendetta against the noble classes, and insulating himself in his mind so that it is his ship and his crew against the world.  In his more private reflective moments he longs for the family life his father had - a simple honest job in an upstanding community, a loving wife and doting children.

[b]Skills[/b]: Grady is a skilled soldier in both hand-to-hand fighting and some ranged weaponry.  He has a good mind for small-scale tactics although he trusts his Sailing Masters to make the right choices in combat, because he tends to focus more on the man-to-man fighting than ship-to-ship.  He is good at training, leading, and promoting skilled people around him.  In fact, although sky pirates have no organization beyond sailors sharing stories at bars in Havenstad, word-of-mouth is that if you've worked with Grady for long you can find work on any ship in Oceanica.

[b]Strengths:[/b] [Attack; Intelligence] - Grady likes to hit hard.  Whether with his fists, his ship's cannons or with his words, he goes with everything he's got and trusts his actions to start and end fights quickly.  That being said, he's smart about when and where to fight - it's hard to catch him off guard or force him to fight unless conditions are favorable.

[b]Weaknesses:[/b] [Dexterity; Charisma] - Grady moves well for his size, but he is by no means the nimblest of sailors in the skies, and he doesn't have the sky legs that most of the men born to the life have acquired.  Grady thinks he has his men's trust and loyalty, but if he does it's because of his skill and fairness, not because of his politeness.  He is hostile and bitter, demands a military excellence from all around him, and has bouts of rage where he'll find someone to dress down and punish for little reason.  

[b]Equipment:[/b] Two pepperbox pistols - firearm artifices that deliver six ferrum bolts or a single discharge per crystal.  Two trench knives, which combine blade and brass knuckles in one.  He rarely takes it with him but keeps on ship a blundergust - a stannum artifice that delivers a high-powered blast in a wide area, effective at short range.  

[b]What other characters would know[/b]: His clothing and weaponry mark him as a trencher, one of the front-line soldiers and officers in the Sorrowars.  It is unlikely that anyone knows more about his history, although his murder and desertion charges would be public record for any who could access it.