Douglas Munro
Douglas Munro is a life mage and a senior member of The Fearless Jackals.
History[]
Douglas Munro was the son of parents that were of Scottish descent and was born in Carlisle, a small city mostly settled by immigrants from England, on the New Paris colony world in 2228. His father was a successful attorney and the senior partner of a small not widely known yet respected and extremely expensive law firm of less than a hundred partners and associates. Among the very wealthy on the planet, the firm was known to be exceptional at finding every barely legal loophole and other means that resulted in minimizing their taxes paid to the various levels of the Earth Federation government.
Fifteen years after Munro was born, his father was approached by Andrea Treschi who had then become briefly the Commander of the Raptors. He offered him and the firm a ton of cash and other incentives in exchange for their legal and financial expertise that were needed to run various complicated money laundering schemes in order to hide the financial activities of The Fearless Jackals. While The Fearless Jackals were known among some government bodies over a decade earlier, they were regarded as a small time smuggling operation, not much of a threat, and slowly forgotten in the face of much larger issues facing the Federation. Treschi sought to keep it that way, in spite of the fact that it had entered into numerous other illegal activities resulting in more significant revenue streams. Treschi wanted to keep the increased financial strength of The Fearless Jackals hidden from various government agencies within the Earth Federation and his competitors.
At this time Munro was second in his class at New Chethams Boarding School in New Manchester. He had applied and had been accepted at New Cambridge Law School in Avalon. Given his talents, his father wanted Munro to join the firm after graduation. However, his father also learned that his son had awakened as a mage with just enough magical abilities to be required to join the TI.
In addition to significant financial compensation from Treschi and The Fearless Jackals, Munro's father's primary condition for convincing a small number of partners with in the firm to represent the Fearless Jackals, set up false aliases and records, and ensure that the actual nature of the agreement secret was for Treschi to ensure that Munro would not be drafted into the TI. When Munro was tested for magical abilities at the age of 16, Treschi falsified the results and kept the knowledge that he was a mage a secret.
Treschi also recognized Munro's intelligence and potential. He patronized his education initially behind the scenes. He took measures to ensure that he took courses at New Cambridge to make him a better personal attorney and groomed him to be a loyal and reliable subordinate. Personally grateful for being kept out of the TI along with his father's established working relationship with Treschi, Munro developed a strong desire to help him succeed and look out for his best interests.
Recent History[]
After Munro graduated from Law School he joined his father's law firm. Soon after, he took over the legal aspects of handling the Fearless Jackals money laundering scheme. Over the next several years, he became intimitely knowledgable about their personell and the organization itself. He personally consulted Treschi on numerous occassions and eventually started to provide solid advice regarding ways that the organization could become more than just a financial source for Treschi's notorious activities. Eventually, Treschi came to recognize Munro as being his personal attorney and advisor.
In spite of the fact that Munro was not a standout or powerful mage, Treschi was moved by his intellect, vision, and loyalty. Treschi offered Munro a position of leadership with in the Fearless Jackals with a considerable salary and a small percentage of the organzation's profits. Munro accepted Treschi's offer but continued to be a partner of the firm as consultant. His main capacity at the firm was to ensure that partners and associates that were involved with hiding the Fearless Jackals revenues kept their mouths shut or quietly disappear.
During the brief time Treschi was still the commander of the Raptors, he used his influence to help a small number of other select mages evade the draft. He provided them incentives in exchange for them joining and commitment to the Fearless Jackals. Years later when Munro joined the Jackals many of the members, especially the mages, recognized Munro's intelligence when it came to making wise decisions regarding the operations and even establishing some of the long range goals of the Fearless Jackals. Munro became Treschi's right-hand man and removed many of the responsibilities of running the organization off his shoulders. This allowed Treschi to concentrate on other pursuits that would both directly and indirectly increase the wealth, power, and influence of the organization.
Even though Treschi is well known by many people in the Federation, his connection to Munro has gone largely unnoticed.
Behind the Scenes[]
Scottish names were selected of this character, because of his parents. The personality and appearence are based upon Mr. Kobayashi from The Usual Suspects are in homage to Pete Postlethwaite who passed away in January of 2011, and who of course serves as his Actor Avatar. His boarding school was named for the real one attended by the father of one of the players.