Damned!

The Priest

Heinrich McNalster was an opportunist. Having been orphaned himself, growing up in a poor Spanish orphanage, he knew how to make the most of circumstances.

Perpetually growing and clumsy as a youth, his limbs often failing him in balance and sports, he quickly discovered that his mind remained steady, capable of intaking large amounts of information and digesting them to fit his needs. When extra rations were passed out during war time, Heinrich kept to the side, instead helping the cook clean up the scattered mess of bread crumbs that landed on the ground. Next time, the cook repaid him by secretly handing him rations saved after distribution.

In this way he found favor with most adults he encountered and was soon recognized as a star student. At the age of sixteen, when the fathers asked him where his devotions lay, he proclaimed loyalty and duty to the church, as he had seen too many comrades of enlistment age tracked from the orphanage into the armed services and never heard of again.

Within a year's time Heinrich had accepted a direction out of the country, in the country of Thas. He had never traveled before. His assignment was Medium Cruces, reporting directly to the Thas archbishop Sebastien Dominez. There he had become ambitious, converting the native population in the ways of the church and calming the resentment towards the capital within the community. Through establishing capitol trade contracts within the native fishing community, he vastly advanced the Gandan people's economy that would have been overlooked from the capitol. Importantly, he more than once saved their way of life and community from erasure and in so doing hushed the brewing tides that predestined guerilla warfare. Within the community, he was considered an advocate. He opened his doors to all, relieved friendships within the community, and increased trade routes of fish and game to the capitol. Within the capitol, on top of his priest's salary commissioned from the archbishop, he was monetarily rewarded for his efforts to favorably connect the two.

The Gandan people knew his personality could be harsh. As well as an advocate, he was a zealot for Catholicism and regularly fought the people's belief in polytheism. At first, the native population were shocked to see and hear him preach often against their gods. They noticed how he forbade street vendors to sell their religious figurines in the market, driving them off with his pious rantings, only to have the vendors establish an underground network of selling their wares. Also, many shrines along the river bank quietly disappeared. It was believed to be Father Heinrich McNalster who vandalized the banks.

Despite this conflict in beliefs, Gandans came to a gradual acceptance of the priest. As for Heinrich, besides the coveting of power and respect, perhaps it was his love of beautiful beings that convinced him to stay and claim Medium Cruces as his own home. The Gandian women were easy targets, young and impressionable. Federico was not the only fair-haired youth that stood out in the community of blue-black haired children with deep mocha brown eyes. Heinrich was not without morals, he provided for the community as a whole and made sure the church provided for all basic needs, but he never claimed family rights or acknowledgement to the few children he fathered.

Heinrich was Federico's biological father only. This very deeply bothered the boy, who turned into an arrogant teen, who grew to be an intelligent physically strong man. As soon as Federico was of age, he left the town that had neglected to give him a supportive childhood. He left for the city. There, many years later his English wife passed away leaving behind a four-year-old Ein. Despite his misgivings with his own childhood, Federico knew his boy needed the hand of a woman to raise him and decided to send Ein back to Medium Cruces to be raised in the care of his mother, whom he long ago forgave, and his father whom he spoke to under threat only. Recognizing the damage done, Federico made sure Ein was chosen as an altar boy, given extra time for academic tutoring, and special status in the community, all under the threat of exposure for Heinrich's lecherous acts that had produced illegitimate children. In this way, Ein grew up knowing who the priest was, and although he never approached him as grandpa in his youth, as an adult, he did call him by his familial name when serious topics warranted.