[b]Elder (Aiden) Shaw:[/b] Patriarch of New Hope

[img]http://i.imgur.com/TQWgfiF.jpg[/img]

[b]Physical Description:[/b]
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[*]66 years old as of 2023.  (Born 1957.)
[*]5'8", 165#.  Slight of frame; thin and fragile (from a decades long illness).
[*]Graying dark hair; full beard.
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[b]Psychological Description:[/b]
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[*]Goes by the name Shaw, though most of the Citizens of New Hope call him Elder Shaw out of respect.
[*]Lifelong pacifist.
[*]Determined and dedicated; confident, sometimes overly so.
[*]A caring, empathetic person.
[*]Has been celibate for decades, not that he wouldn't take a lover if the right one came along.
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[b]Background:[/b]
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[*]1957: Born.
[*]Was a dedicated, socialist pacifist all his life.
[*]Spent most of his teens and adult years on a succession of [i]communes[/i] dedicated to simple and peaceful living.
[*]Although he empathized with the protesters of many movements, he never participated in such civil disobedience.
[*]2022: 
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[*]Shaw was an Elder on a commune near Sweet Home, Oregon, when the virus struck in mid-November.
[*]Of the nearly 200 people living there, only 6 original residents remained alive by year's end.  
[*]The City of Sweet Home suffered a fate similar to that of the nearby commune, with the population of nearly 10,000 shrinking to just over 100.
[*]However, the commune's promise of peace, goodwill, and harmony toward all drew plague survivors to it from both Sweet Home and other communities.  The population there fluctuated between 20-60 over the weeks to come.
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[*]2023:
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[*]By late-February, despite there being hundreds if not thousands of [i]unoccupied[/i] homes, businesses, and other structures in and around Sweet Home that could be pillaged and looted likely without resistance, raiders had attacked the [i]occupied[/i] commune three times.
[*]Shaw -- now the commune's Patriarch -- began speaking of a new way of life, a simple existence without the trappings of technology ... and without the violence.  
[*]In the dark of night, Shaw lead 50 people away from Sweet Home, east into the Cascade Mountains, then south toward the Sisters Wilderness area.  He had often vacationed in a small alpine valley that he hoped would be perfect for the establishment of a new community ... a place that would come to be called New Hope.
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