Julian Augusta Griffin was born on December the fourteenth in the year nineteen-eighty-seven two very loving and caring parents. He was quite a happy child, being raised by a comfortably upper-middle class household. Certainly not a spoiled child, though still also not lacking in some small pleasures of life.
Julian was a fairly typical young male child attending school like most others his own age, studying the same topics all the kids in the Chelsea area study. Granted he did have a few select things that would certainly embarrass him completely if others found out; one of them being a very embarrassing fact that he took Ballet classes until his senior year of high school. He hid it well, mind you, though he still attended a dance studio for quite some time in the Boston area. This is until his chance infection… you see Julian was not quite eighteen, when he met what turned out to be the wrong guy in the wrong place. It turns out tough guys from Boston usually are gang related… who know?!
Previously, Julian had started hanging out with the wrong kind of crowd back when he was seventeen. They all seemed like nice people, granted they dealt in selling a few lesser drugs along with maintaining their own 'space' in the city. Certainly not anything that completely freaked Julian out. What's a little pot sales and defending your own territories have to do with being a bad person? Julian wasn't exactly a weak gentleman of the city of Boston. He was muscled from his dancing experience and work-out routine. When Julian began hanging out with his 'new crowd' he was introduced to the art of Kung Fu from one of his 'friends' who seemed to be a little more interested in his ability in controlling himself than a typical friend should be.
One faithful day, in the summer after Julian graduated high school, he was invited to attend a meeting with his friend to meet 'the boss'. Seeing that he'd never been offered such an honor nor would he most likely be asked twice, Julian went along with the idea. Boy was that a bad idea on his part. Turning out a very territorial gang is sometimes run by more powerful entities than just humans! That's the night he met Travis… one of Boston's former Nimir-Raj's. Granted Travis was as gentle as one could be in their meeting. He only offered a chance at a life Julian couldn't refuse… literally! Damn him and training constantly to be useful to his posse! That was his night of infection. He doesn't exactly remember all the details, since it was quite a blur after being asked if he'd ever heard of things call shifters. He though they only existed down south, away from actual civilized culture. Guess some things are better known before you enter strange people's houses.
Needless to say, Julian's life changed drastically after his infection. He was a pretty physically capable guy being a bit above average in that category without giving up too much of his own intelligence to do so. After his infection, his strong willpower seemed to fortify quite nicely along with his physical abilities. His swift moves from dancing seemed to help his more accurately learn kung fu quicker along with the fact that his physical training made him the perfect potential gang member to be used as a physical pawn to be treated with respect.
By the age of twenty-two, Julian had been a member of Boston's Pard for four years. He had gone through rigorous training both inside the typical rankings as well as be taken under a small group of alpha leopard's wings to be one to rise in success fairly quickly. Having been infected by the Nimir-Raj himself, Julian was nearly guaranteed a strain of alpha infection. So his training, after the whole fever and feeling like he wanted to die thing, began like any typical shifter. He was trained in the art of controlling his shifting, developing healing ability after random bouts of sparring with the best fighters of the Pard, as well as getting a few bits of torturous actions done to him during a few dominance fights. Let's just say, all the damage was healed and anything missing was grown back properly. Odd thing about regeneration, it works wonders for a shifter's body.
By the time those four years had passed, he was already honored with the title of low alpha in the Pard with little effort on his own part. Honestly, he didn't mean to be Nimir's pet. It just happened that way! Promise! This is when the real training began. He was brought into the Alpha community, as his rightful power begged him to be, by his few alpha posse. He trained in assisting others using his natural abilities in calling others beasts along with dominating and controlling their urges to shift. He also had personal lessons from Travis in the art of partial shifting for use in various acts need to fill the position of 'Second'.
Throughout his time as a shifter, Julian had encountered various other supernatural entities. A few were actually allied to the Pard, while some? Well some of them weren't so keen on the idea of were-leopards controlling or evening playing in the local political climate. It was known Nimir-Raj Travis had made a few enemies in his rise in power. Though Julian never knew they'd been so deep to lead up to what happened later, before the demise of Travis, Julian was charged with shadowing the Nimir-Raj everywhere. While shadowing and dealing with the local government to allow the gang to operate under Travis’s rules without much if any interruptions. He also was tight the general ins and outs of using intimidation and persuasion to deal with others outside their formal group. Hey, you need to learn how to govern a group somehow!
It's been a year and a half since his training has finished. Thankfully too since only a three months ago was the Pard's Nimir-Raj killed in what was talked about as a 'gang related death'. Though surely killing a Nimir-Raj isn't as simple as one might think! It truly is a mystery on who murdered his leader. Though when he finds out, there certainly isn't going to be a warm greeting! So being the strongest natural alpha of the Pard Julian was 'elected' as Pard leader and given the honor of Nimir-Raj.
