WARNING: This information should be considered OOC Knowledge unless one has the IC means to access it.
 Anwar portrayed by None |
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Anwar Zelimov was born into the Aleroy mountain teip, at the base of the Aleroy mountain, Chechnya on March 13, 1982. His parents, father Zelim Achmedov, and mother Yakhiyta Ramazanova, were shepherds on the outskirts of the village. From a young age, Anwar's parents would remind him of how his teip was a true Chechnyan teip - with it's very own mountain. And how, as Chechens, they have to stick together, and stand up for one another. The teip was an extended family, and within it, they were all brothers and sisters. Anwar was instilled with the history, and culture, of his village, and his people. Nevertheless, when he went to school within the village, where he was somewhat prone to being involved in mischief. With a strong sense of what was right, and what was wrong, Anwar was often found standing up for the smallest students, often ending in a tussel with bigger ones.
When he was eight, his quiet life in Soviet Russia was interrupted by the struggle for Chechen independence. As a child, he was kept away from conflicts, his schooling became sporadic. Members of the teip that were teachers held schools in safer areas. As young as he was, Anwar would help carry school supplies and offered salted sheep milk cheese to the volunteers. It was this innocent volunteering, at a young age, that eventually led to Anwar's greater involvement in the Chechen independence conflict.
Anwar was twelve years old when the First Chechen War officially started. Most of the politics went over his head, but what did not was Anwar's belief that his people should not be under the dominion of some bigger power. They were, after all, not Russian, they were Hoxчu - Chechen. They should be as free as wolves, that was the Chechen way. And Anwar always stood up for his beliefs, and the smaller power. He was too young to fight, and his mother was strongly against it. Anwar's father, however, knowing mountainous terrain well, volunteered. Anwar was to stay behind, to protect his mother. Anwar watched the First Chechen war from the sidelines, watched the reports of the air raids and the artillery shelling, the civillian deaths. Anwar knew, and his mother knew, that should the fighting continue for any longer, Anwar would join the resistance fighters. Anwar's mother argued that if Anwar was a man, he should protect his mother. A young Anwar argued that they wouldn't have anything free to protect if the war were to continue. No news reached Anwar about his father.
The war continued. When Anwar was thirteen, he naively went to assist in the mountain resistance, serving as a guide for the terrain, and carrying supplies. It helped that Anwar looked slightly older than thirteen - and that he knew some of the resistance fighters. He heard reports over guerilla radio about how the war was becoming unpopular even in Russia. When the resistance fighters had extra ammunition, he was trained, young as he was, how to shoot an automatic rifle. How to take cover, how to predict the movements of enemy soldiers. How to use the terrain, the city scapes, how to sabatoge and make things difficult for the movement of troops. Anwar met many different people there - not just Chechen's, which surprised him. There were others there, that Anwar didn't always trust - they had come because of religious ideals - to fight a Jihad, to establish a Muslim state in the North Caucasus. But they brought firearms, and they brought manpower, so Anwar couldn't fault them. It is from one of these people that Anwar learned the basis of his rudimentary English. Anwar didn't participate in any of the attacks, but he did learn. And Anwar, he looked for his father. In the chaos and the destruction, he wasn't able to find Zelim Achmedov.
Anwar assisted in the clean up at the end of the First Chechen war - carrying the injured and the dead from Grozny. Bringing medical supplies to relief tents. Around him, buildings were grey, hollowed out shells, reminders of what had been a fine city, and good industry. Now, rebar twisted out from the concrete walls, destroyed by the air strikes or the artillery. A constant layer of heavy dust hung over the city. And still, Anwar could not find his father. Finally, Anwar returned home.
It was there that Anwar found his father. Alive, Zelim Achmedov had returned a changed man. He would stare, for long periods, looking out the window of their modest house at the sheer mountain faces. Anwar was changed as well, but whereas the spark of life seemed to be extinguished from his father's eyes, for Anwar, that spark only burned brighter. Anwar took care of both his father and mother, helped tend the sheep. Anwar had survived the war for Chechen independence. He was hoping to enjoy the fruits of his labour. Instead, he watched his new country start to crumble. He heard how the factories had been destroyed, and how kidnapping was now the way to make money. Money was scarce, and finding people who wanted to buy Anwar's wool, milk, and cheese was difficult. For three years, Anwar was a shepherd again.
Troubling news came from the cities that Anwar ranged through, trying to find a buyer for his goods. The IIPB had invaded the nearby Dagestan to support separatists there. And that, because of that, the Russians were going to invade Chechnya. Anwar was seventeen years old, and the farm was not doing well. They had less sheep now - why, when there was no one to buy what they were making? Answar's belief in his fellow men was being challenged from what he was hearing: that the warlords who were ravaging the land. A part of Anwar, however, needed to fight for some cause. And this part could not be satisfied by quietly sitting by, shepherding. So he left his hometown again.
This time, Anwar was old enough to participate in the attacks. His fingers remembered the action of the rifles, the reload mechanisms. How to support a surface to air missile, how to set up stolen artillery. And What to do during an air raid, where to plant explosives, how to escape, and regroup, and attack again. The more adversary Anwar faced, the greater the resistance he put up. As young as he was, he was in Grozny during the seige, and fall of the city. He lead a small group of resistance fighters, sniping Russian soldiers from rooftops, attacking from the back. They were ruthless, brothers in arms. When the city fell, they ran through Alkhan-Kala, through the minefield there as around them, as concussive blasts punctuated the sound of the rapid stucco blasts of the rifles with a deafening crack, and shrapnel flew. Anwar was lucky to survive, although heavily scarred. He recouperated in the mountains, at the last stand for the resistance fighters, near Vedeno. The mountainous terrain was where he was most at home, and even injured, he continued to fight. Anwar was able to hide in the mountains, and survive.
The guerilla fighting that followed was worse than the war, filled with sudden ambushes and explosives. It was during the fighting, when the mountain range was lit by the light of the full moon, that Anwar came across the werewolf. Wolves have always had a special significance to the Chechens, even for the shepherds, which came into conflict with them. They represented freedom, equality. Huddled behind an outcropping overlooking a road, the werewolf, lured out of his mountain home by the blood and the bodies in the unfamiliar area, came across Anwar. Anwar thought it might be rabid, from the strange behaviour. He tried to frighten it off without alerting the Russian patrol about to come down the road. He wasn't able to. The Russians saw the slight dome of Anwar's helmet peek over the top of the hill, and they fired at him. They didn't hit Anwar, but the bullet glanced off an outcropping of rock - and a fragment of the bullet hit the wolf. Injured, it struck out at Anwar, biting him on the arm. Anwar had to shoot the wolf before he would let go. At the sound, Anwar's guerilla fighters opened fire on the Russians, their surprise attack turned around. They sustained heavy injuries. The wolf ran off into the highlands.
Anwar was of hardy stock, so when he was taken ill, it was a surprise. They did not have vaccines for rabies as part of their medical equipment - and taxed as they were with the injuries from the failed ambush, Anwar was simply kept warm, dry, and well hydrated, as best as the moving encampment could provide - although Anwar demanded to carry his own weight, he wasn't able to. The guerilla fighters main advantage was stealth and mobility - and between Anwar's sickness and the injured, they were forced to take refuge in an abandoned farmhouse to recouperate.
In the next weeks, Anwar's illness worsened. He was feverish, an unhealthy glow in his eyes. It was while staying at the farmhouse that Anwar first shifted. He had stumbled from the pallet of old straw that made up of his bed, and towards the fire, kicking dirt into the flames in his confusion. In the smoke and sparks thrown up, Anwar's wolf form started to burst out of his body. Rather than run away, his brothers in arms tried to restrain him. They managed to tie him up, but not without injury. Most of his six strong company were scratched, or bitten in some way. Fed with mountain rabbit, and stolen sheep, Anwar spent his first night as a wolf tied up.
In the next month, those that were infected were now wolves. And rather than wait the three months they were expecting to recouperate, they had only two to be fully healed. They patrolled the mountain ranges of Chechnya, killing Russian patrols as man, and as wolf. After all, the Russians had lead alloyed bullets in mass production, and not silver.
It was during this time that they ran out of supplies, and had to go down to the villages to buy more. On the radio, a news broadcast was playing. Rather than hear something about the wolf warriors in the mountainous ranges, they heard more disturbing news - that 'Chechen terrorists' had been involved in bombings in Russia. The possibility disturbed Anwar, but his company was convinced that Russia would say anything to discredit their resistance movement. More disturbing than that, though, was how Ahkmad Kadyrov, formerly a leader in the reistance movement, had changed sides to support the Russian federalization of Chechnya. To Anwar, that was betrayal. When Kadyrov called for an end to armed resistance, Anwar realized it was the beginning of the end.—Without funding, with the withdrawal of his supporters, he left his country behind.The funding dried up. Without it, Anwar's resistance group was weakened. They had less food, less ammunition. Overdrawn, they started to sustain serious causalities. Fatigue from lack of rations made them careless. The lack of cartridges meant they had to make every shot count - until at last, they didn't have any left. Anwar found his band dwindling in number - some fled, to larger groups with a greater chance of success - leaving the pack out of tiredness for the unending, uphill fight. Some went to live with the natural wolves, as wolves - spending the rest of their life as something wild and free. The final blow came when the Russians sent reinforcements. And this time, they brought silver. In one charge, the remnants of Anwar's company was slaughtered. Anwar's survival was due to luck. The wolves had attacked after nightfall, when the advantage of the wolves' eyes and ears would be at its greatest. And in the dark, Anwar, injured in the attack, and bleeding into shrubbery, was missed.
He was found by a sympathetic wheat farmer. Although not a Chechen by birth, the Russians had, after all, driven tanks right through his fields. Recovery for Anwar was slow, and scarring. His Pack was gone, his cause was lost. Now it was only a rallying point for the religious. One day, he got up and left.
Anwar went alone, for the first time without his teip and blood brothers, working odd jobs across the Middle east to North Africa. He crossed Egypt, Libya, and Algeria, learning skills, and languages. From Morocco, he started work on a boat. Originally prone to seasickness, it seemed like an odd choice. Anwar brought a large chest with him, and hid in it during the full moons. That he made a good labourer helped him keep a low profile. That the captain was an easily cowed man also did. He crossed the Pacific ocean this way, months spent on the ship, and keeping to himself. Finally, he came to port in a major US port city.
Boston.
Anwar Zelimov's Sheet
| Logic: | {$Logic} | Muscles: | {$Muscles} | Senses: | {$Senses} | ||
| Creativity: | {$Creativity} | Fitness: | {$Fitness} | Observation: | {$Observation} | ||
| Force of Will: | {$FOW} | Reflexes: | {$Reflexes} | Memory: | {$Memory} | ||
| Abilities: | {$Abilities} | ||
| Merits: | {$Merits} | ||
| Flaws: | {$Flaws} | ||
| Powers: | {$Powers} | ||
| Size: | {$Size} | Defense: | {$Defense} | Power: | {$Power} | Experience: | {$Experience} | ||
| Initiative: | {$Initiative} | Speed: | {$Speed} | Willpower: | {$Willpower} | Health: | {$Health} | ||
