Riku Tavash

Rikharthu Czernobog Tavash (Russian: Рикхартху Чернобог Таваш; born 21 December 2151) is a formerly Soviet, mid-rank military officer of the Antarctic State Military (ASM), and a bachelor of science in aeronautical engineering. He was previously a policeman, and later a member of the Riot Control Corps. He is the founder, CEO and lead designer of Vash FD&M. Similarly, he is the Chief of Staff of Research & Development in the ASC Department of Defense, a title he is the first to receive.

Tavash was born in Anchorage, Alaska under the rule of the New Soviet Union. He studied aeronautical engineering at Kadic Academy in the Overcast, graduating in 2180 with a bachelor's degree.

Tavash, in recent decades, is known primarily for his propensity to tinker with existing military hardware and turning them into upgraded variants or new platforms, from small arms to aircraft. Tavash himself has stated that vehicles are his favorite to work on. A number of personal/side projects of his are generally worked on in concurrence with military projects. He has been credited on many occasions for improving the quality of life of soldiers and officers alike through progressive development of equipment and logistics.

Childhood
Tavash was born in Soviet-annexed Alaska on the 21st of December, 2151. At the time of his birth, his mother, Vesna Volkov, was single and unmarried. His father, Zvonimir Tavash, had been killed a year before his birth by the New Red Army (NRA), of which they were a conscript, for unauthorized sexual conduct with a factory worker, Riku's mother. At this time of Zvonimir's death, Vesna was allowed to keep her life and her child under obligation that he be raised with guidance from the NRA.

When he was born, Tavash was given the surname of his father, the first name of Rikharthu by his mother, and the middle name of Czernobog by the NRA. Czernobog is an old Slavic deity whose name translates to "Black God".

As a child, Tavash quickly developed a hobby around disassembling Soviet small arms upon the curiosity of how they functioned, and subsequent awe of the many different designs and potential for improvement. Tavash also began to subtly admire the Soviet soldiers that were all around him, like a child would admire a firefighter. At the age of four, Tavash was ordered to attend state schooling, where he was to be indoctrinated with Soviet propaganda among other things, albeit with his mother preventing it from turning Tavash into a blind follower.

At the age of nine, Tavash's mother made a drastic decision. She had taken her child to the nearby port, and snuck aboard a nuclear-powered shipping supertanker of a neutral party. Sometime before the tanker's sailing, Tavash's mother lost contact with him, was discovered, and subsequently ordered off the ship. Tavash however, remained on the ship in a hiding place, put there by Vesna. It was not until after the supertanker had set sail, that the child was finally spotted; however, it was too late for the ship to turn back. As such, a young Tavash was looked after and cared for by multiple affable and sympathetic crew members throughout the month long journey. Tavash found the journey to be bittersweet, missing his mother dearly, yet becoming great friends with the crew, especially with a bilingual interpreter. Upon arrival in Ross Island, Cyberia, Tavash was immediately transported to the nearest orphanage, and parted ways with the ship crew.

Tavash still hadn't fully come to terms with the fact that he would never see his parents again. During his stay at the orphanage, he would often rough up other children and even some that were older than him, whenever they either spoke out against him or did something he didn't like. Riku was very protective of his belongings, for example, and would frequently refuse to share things until he was forced to by an adult. He had natural size and strength on his side, and only the adults could make a practical effort in restraining and calming him down. Tavash spent eight long years at the orphanage being skipped over by potential foster parents, usually due to his rowdiness, which in turn led to more rowdiness, and vicious cycle from there. When he hit the age of seventeen, he took the first opportunity possible to join the Cyberian Military Forces.

Education
In 2155, Tavash's mother was ordered to enroll him into New-Soviet state schooling. He attended School No. 256 in his birth town of Anchorage, Alaska. The government taught him basic math, computer literacy and the Russian language, amongst close-minded propaganda promoting blind loyalty to the state as well as the inferiority of other countries. His mother, unhappy with the authoritarian regime, personally taught Tavash with her own home schooling and critical thinking, and attempted to persuade him not to become like them.

From 2160 to 2168, Tavash attended Cyberian middle and high schools in the metropolitan area of Ross. There he was taught the English language and broader, more practical topics than those that were offered in Soviet schooling.

On the 1st of September 2177, at the age of 25, Tavash was accepted into Kadic Academy in the City of Overcast, Cyberia. With military grants, the majority of his studies included the practical applications of aeronautical hardware and electronics, and minorly included similar topics focused on ground vehicles. He graduated in 2184 with a bachelor of science in aeronautical engineering, and with it he later became a commissioned officer in the state military.

Military Career
Tavash spent half his childhood without real parental figures, and living unadopted in a Cyberian orphanage. Later into his Cyberian schooling, Tavash eagerly visited recruiters increasingly often after school. He began to see them as father figures and became good friends with a specific by the name of Schreiber, who taught him many candid things about the military, and offered him the very first opportunity for enlistment as soon as Tavash was of age (17.5 years of age).

Tavash did quite well in his time as a bare-shouldered private through basic training, although he found it tiresome as a platoon leader to lead young and unmotivated troops. During the eighth week of basic training, Tavash was given the freedom to choose his job area. He opted for a job in civilian law enforcement, and so was later sent to Jakari HQ for post-basic, specialized training. Tavash went on to serve as a policeman for one term (4 years), rising to the rank of staff sergeant before his abnormal height made him unfit for duty as a policeman, and thus needed a change in MOS. Knowing that the Riot Control Corps (RC) quite liked having very large personnel on their staff, Tavash soon transferred to RC for two terms (8 years), where he eventually achieved the rank of.

Tavash had been charged and otherwise scrutinized on a number of occasions for causing the deaths of civilian criminals throughout his time as a policeman and member of Riot Control. However, most of not all of these charges were handled internally, dropped, and not one of them resulted in jail or prison time.

Having graduated Kadic Academy as a bachelor in his later years as a member of RC, Tavash applied for commission and attended Officer Training School (OTS) soon after. Upon completion of OTS, he joined a research & decelopment regiment within a larger parent division of the ASC Department of Defense as a.

It was at this point that Tavash steadily became his most influential in he state military. Upon arrival at Ramiel CMB he had already, previously noticed many points where quality of life could be improved in a cost effective manner. This was in addition to the many idle thoughts he had earlier in his career about improving on the way things were handled in the military. Tavash began speaking with and persuading his superiors to allow him to try different ways of handling various aspects of military life, alongside his primary job of improving military hardware. Tavash continued to rise in rank as he proved to have a knack for proposing practical solutions to problems, and further needed subordinates to help carry out larger projects as well as multiple projects in general.

Tavash eventually convinced his higher-ups, including the President of Defense, to give him a body of like-minded engineers and a bit of time, and he promised he could outdo or at least be on par with a bunch of other defense industry companies, for a lot less money as well. Thus spawned a new division of the DoD specifically made for R&D. He had later been credited with consolidating the military-industrial complex mostly into a single wing of the state military, where nowadays the vast majority of R&D is handled internally rather than expensively contracted out to external companies.

Tavash is still currently enlisted in the CMF, at the rank of. As of 2206, in total he has spent roughly 37 years working directly for the Cyberian military.

Influence on the Military
Starting in his first years as a, Tavash was on his way to restructuring the way the Antarctic State Military handled the military-industrial complex. Before the present time, the military would offer contracts to external companies, commissioning the design of a certain item, and asking for the right to use their designs in military hardware for a certain period of time. This meant that military was not in complete control of the way components were designed. Tavash wished to change that, and so he offered many of his own designs. Coming from the then smaller internal research & development wing, he had a bit more inherent persuasion in the eyes of his superior officers.

Tavash proposed that they only internally create and test designs virtually, and apply a significant portion of servicemen (larger than the R&D wing was at that time) to a dedicated division for further physical testing of accepted virtual designs. To realize the first half of his plan, Tavash funded and supervised the building and programming of an extremely powerful supercomputer for the purpose of running a very complex and remarkably accurate physics simulation engine, which would be used to test any number of otherwise physical systems in a virtual, thus much more cost effective, environment. Tavash emphasized the fact that the virtual test environment alone would not be sufficient for adoption of new military hardware, and so he requested the expansion of the R&D division to dedicate them to the manufacture and battle-testing of promising virtual developments.

As Tavash was progressively promoted to mid-ranks, he became the main commanding officer of the research and development division of the ASM. Soon after, he was given a new officer MOS and job title of Chief of Staff of Research & Development.

Business Career
Some time after Tavash became the Chief of Staff of R&D, he began to bring his own, personal designs to light using the same physics simulation software and supercomputer his subordinates use. He expressed interest in manufacturing and selling his gun designs to the general public. Tavash offered some of his early designs to close friends upon completion of their physical iterations. Many of them expressed great interest in his work, stating that they could sell well to the public. Over time, Tavash founded the company Vash Firearms Design & Manufacture. He put his completed designs out on the market, which became well-received, if not a bit expensive.

To this day, Tavash continues to sell and develop upon many kinds of firearms and products that are largely related to firearms of all kinds. Some of his products are labeled as "novelty" items as he calls them, due to the fact that they serve little purpose other than the 'cool' factor. Arguably the most well-known novelty item he produced was the Vash NT, a civilian supercar powered by purpose-built turboshaft engine. It is generally regarded as quite expensive and fuel-hungry, but also quite fun and a collectable in limited supply.

Origins
As a Soviet schoolchild, Tavash didn't like to play nice with most of his classmates. He found it easier to force what he wanted out of them rather than persuade it out of them. At one point, he even hospitalized a classmate when they dared to stand up against him. Needless to say, his teachers disliked this about young Tavash; however, the Soviet higher ups in the school system turned a blind eye to Tavash's antics. In some capacity, they even encouraged his bullying behavior. His mother didn't look too far into his boasting about his natural strength and superiority above his peers.

This bully personality was carried with him through to his late childhood years spent in the Cyberian orphanage and Cyberian schools. There, the young Tavash found himself in many fights that ended in either a forceful breakup or his victory. These fights generally began as either a teasing of his orphan status or frustration with never finding replacement parental figures. He was suspended from school multiple times and even threatened to be expelled. These infractions played a large part in why he was never adopted, which only cycled back into malicious behavior.

The Soviet school system taught him how to be mentally and physically strong, as well as how to convince people to be on the same side as him. They also tried to teach him to practice blind loyalty to the state, a teaching that his mother subtly raised him to ignore. In his high school years, Tavash turned to the military to fill the void left by the absence of parents. He very much admired Riot Control specifically, due to their well-known aggressive nature.

During his early career as a policeman, he felt a great sense of duty to serve to protect his country. As Tavash later became a member of Riot Control, he felt his bully nature resurge within him.

Present Day
Now in his current place as a commissioned officer, Tavash holds onto both his sense of duty and his sense of power. He seems to take enjoyment in being seen as an intimidating or otherwise authoritative figure. He calls out those that he thinks show too much weakness, and forwardly gives advice that will help strengthen them in the future. Those who don't think like him are commonly corrected by him whenever he feels the need to defend his interests. Furthermore, Tavash very much prefers logical and practical approaches to problems, as opposed to emotional or theoretical ones.

Since becoming a Chief of Staff, Riku has become more reserved and stoic, if not visibly grumpy by default. He simply prefers not to be bothered by the world around him, while he tends to his own projects and usually minds his own business. There are still most definitely topics that he expresses very strongly upon, but beyond those, he shows a passive, almost secretive attitude to most people he meets. Beyond his inner domineering personality, he is known to be a sweet person, but only to those he sees fit to deserve the sweet side of him. It's no secret that he treats his husband and stepson with much more love and compassion than he does with the majority of other people outside of his family.

Colleagues and family members of his tend to express that Riku is best described as a busy, to-the-point man who doesn't take kindly to having his time wasted. They maintain that while he does have a good sense of empathy, he does not show much sympathy for people he doesn't personally know.

Religion
Riku holds much the same beliefs about religion that many of his like-minded comrades do, which is that he believes the vast majority of religions do not have nearly enough empirical evidence behind their claims to justify putting any of his faith in, as opposed to hard science and numbers. He insists with certainty that religion in and of itself is simply a coping mechanism for mankind to make sense of itself and the laws of physics, from the tiniest quantum fluctuations, to the most massive astral bodies. That being said, he does believe in a higher plane of existence than the world he lives in. Riku personally believes that all things are a part of a of greater digital simulation, explaining the beginning of the universe or universes, and affirming that intelligent life has no inherent purpose nor point beyond simple.

Thoughts on the Space Industry
Tavash has said that he, personally, cares little about interstellar or even interplanetary travel. He asserts that the astronomical distances between celestial points of interest are so great and accelerating away so fast, that travelling said distances is not doable in any useful length of time. Riku's vested interest in space is limited to orbits about Earth reaching no farther than the Earth's moon. He even sometimes jokes about intentionally triggering a epidemic, just so the world would "stop wasting their time with interstellar nonsense".

Relations with Soviets & Foreign Policy
Riku has been previously questioned about his relations with the New Soviets. He maintains that while he was raised halfway by Soviets, his loyalty stands with the Antarctic State Military and no other. Tavash has also publicly stated that he is neutral to most of not all other countries, as is the Cyberian military itself. He echoes the cautionary remark of the ASM, that he is "always watching."

His Personal Image
One of his most recognizable features is the consistent, natural frown/scowl he has as a resting facial expression, which when combined with his size, tends to present him as an unapproachable brute. Tavash has mentioned that he is amused by the fact that people see him as a hulking wall of anger, perhaps showing that he still holds a sense of inherent pleasure in power. However, Tavash has expressed regret in the fact that he is so tall and large, as it makes it impossible for him to personally test the vast majority of vehicles and vehicle upgrades that he produces for the military. He has a burning passion to fly and drive, however again his size makes it impossible for him to fit in driver's and pilot's seats. Instead, he experiences joy in some of his creations vicariously through close friends and family members.

Native Language
Russian is his native language, and English is his second. Tavash learned Russian from birth for about nine years in the New Soviet Union, until he immigrated to Cyberia, where he was then taught English. Due to English being mostly unknown by him until the age of nine, Tavash holds a bit of a Russian accent, even as he speaks English more often.

Gigantism
Perhaps Tavash's most defining feature is his extremely abnormal size and bulk. Standing at, he has stated this is due to that he has experienced since childhood. Despite experiencing this disorder, Tavash does not currently show any signs of debilitation due to it. Friends and former superiors of his have recounted days where he would seem fatigued or otherwise weakened before he became a mid-rank commissioned officer. Tavash did not personally disclose that he had gigantism to his superiors until around the time he became a commissioned officer. Riku himself recounts that he was around his twenties, and  in his thirties. Tavash also states that he has not grown very much, or at least not as fast, after the nine foot mark reached in his forties.

Tavash's extreme size has led to many accommodations being necessary for his quality of life, including but not limited to, a custom uniform made far outside normal size ranges for servicemen, and special APCs modified by him for personal transport.

Family
Tavash's mother and father are both deceased, as they were executed at different times by the New Soviet Union. He does not recall having any personal relations to uncles, aunts or any type of family member beyond his immediate parents.

In the year of 2190, Tavash married a military scientist by the name of Alabaster Eversnow, a male snow leopard who is a special case, in that they actually live with Riku at his personal residence, whereas his wives do not. Before this particular marriage, Tavash assisted Eversnow in raising an existing feline child immediately after Eversnow's previous divorce. Tavash has since legally adopted the child, named Keydin Eversnow. Keydin has went on to be a major contributor to Tavash's work as an expert programmer.