Albin Leigh

Albin Leigh, most commonly known as Governor Albin, is the governor of the city Graal and is the largest benefactor of The Tournament. Some say that Governor Albin has a "short-man complex" but he would argue that he has no grand designs beyond his means - though his means are plentiful. The Mor Constabulary Bank has never won the primary seat of government for Graal until Albin Leigh used all of his powers for the underhanded to get himself the seat and bring his bank to prominence over the older, more elitist banks. His manipulations of other bank members has kept them in check and him in power, as well as his popularity over the people of Graal. He is known to rig matches for The Tournament, benefiting himself and his friends and seeking to keep the matches interesting for longer. He has a lot of sway over the Graal Metropolitan Police Department and delves into shady business. The gladiators of The Tournament he considers to be his property.

Physical Appearance
Albin Leigh is a little short, measuring at 1.63m. He's slim and not well-built. His white skin is typical Graal pale thanks to many generations under the blanket of pollution. Albin has never done a day's physical labour in his life and so his skin is very soft and uncalloused. His hair is thick and black, save for a small shock of white at the fringe. It's quite long and fashionably unkempt, cut to the rough length of his jawline.

Clothing
He will wear a white, stylish jacket, black suits trousers and a black, long-sleeved t-shirt under the jacket. He has a blue kafkan scarf around his neck and wears smart, black leather shoes. Though his jacket is quite trendy, his dress sense is considered understated for most of Graal's elite; though this is also typical for members of the Mor Constabulary Bank, which draws its heritage from mercenaries and crooks rather than old world money.

Amphitheatre Fulminis
Main article: Amphitheatre Fulminis

The Amphitheatre Fulminis is an ancient construct, dating back to the times of The Pioneers and is considered one of Graal's biggest draws for entertainment. When Albin Leigh became governor of Graal he began to rent the Amphitheatre Fulminis directly from the government itself, meaning he is essentially paying himself to own the colosseum. When he began to rent it he also took over The Tournament and made it more high-profile than ever before. Now The Tournament is the biggest event of the year in all of Graal. The Amphitheatre itself acts as the home of Albin Leigh's gladiators, which he regards as his property along with the building. Many link his continued tenure as governor to his success and popularity with the people through the Amphitheatre Fulminis.

Rise to Power
Albin Leigh went from rags to riches in his rise to power over Graal. His success is unprecedented in Graal's long history of governors and reflects the ancient history of his banking family, the Mor Constabulary Bank. The banking family had once been a group of mercenaries operating within Graal, turned gangsters, turned police, turned bankers. Extortion and lending money was their forté and they were more prone to violence than some of the other, softer banking families. Yet the Mor Constabulary Bank never achieved the fabled upper echelons of governance in Graal and none of the previous family heads had ever seemed inclined to do so.

He was born into debt, a debt his parents had accrued, to their own family. Never able to pay that money back, the bank asked that the young Albin be put to work for them and he would gradually pay off that debt off his parents. They agreed and Albin was set to work running errands, messages, goods and writing down notes in ledgers. When he got older he was given more dangerous and violent jobs on behalf of the family, earning a positive reputation amongst the family members. He was a skilled talker, able to get what he needed through persuasion, threats or charm. If all that failed, he was able to follow through with the violence that the Mor Constabulary Bank was renowned for. Around this time, whatever was left of his parents' debt was forgotten as were his parents. He saw his family as the bank, and his parents had given him nothing but debt to that bank. Yet he allegiance was to the banking establishment, not to those who ran it. He would play feuding family members off of each other, gaining profit from the fallout. He was also not adverse to making alliances with rival banks and their family members. In particular he struck up two important relationships at this time, which would allow him to begin operations of his own. Kale Median was an enforcer for the Mor Constabulary Bank but seen as nothing but a grunt. Albin saw that the man was highly intelligent and gifted, however, and took him into his direct employ. Kale Median had an old-world sense of honour to him that made him very loyal to Albin, despite being much older and more experienced than Albin. Kale was able to provide the muscle that Albin lacked himself and the man's reputation as a good guy reflected well on Albin too, giving them a reputation as good businessmen to deal with so long as you towed the line. A second associate was Ursa Tudor of the Tudor's Premier Bank. Ursa, like Albin, wasn't overly committed to her superiors within her own bank and was willing to forge an alliance with Albin to subvert and undermine those superiors and reap the rewards of the fallout. She deliberately sabotaged her own father's career so that she could take his place as head of her own family branch.

Although most people within the Mor Constabulary Bank were born into it, it was not exclusively for family members, allowing in non-family members regularly, such as Kale Median. The Tudor's Premier Bank, however, was far more exclusive and conservatively refused to allow non-members into their ranks. So Ursa's alliance with Albin was largely done in secret. While it wasn't unheard of for banking members to have relations and agreements, working with each other to bring down other members of their own banks would get them both killed very quickly if word got out.

Success led to Kale Median joining the Graal Metropolitan Police Department with a high rank, helped when Albin pulled some strings. With a man in the police force, Albin set up some of his biggest rivals to get caught red-handed in illegal affairs - and done so very publicly so they couldn't buy their way out. In one blow, Albin took out the competition and he was instantly seen as the most legitimate heir to the bank due to his reputation and success. All he had to do was remove the current head of the bank. Ursa, head of her own branch, was able to steal assets and stage business coups against the head of the Mor Constabulary Bank, thanks to insider information from Albin Leigh. Although this wounded his bank, it humiliated the head and forced him to resign in shame - a worthwhile loss. Albin was voted in as head of the Mor Constabulary Bank.

Ursa Tudor was never going to be able to rise further in her family bank without outside help but only outside help with the power to do so. Albin Leigh wanted that power. Leaning on Ursa to rally support for Albin Leigh to become the new governor, he also concocted a scheme to create hundreds of votes - slave votes. Slavery is illegal and yet common in Graal. Those slaves don't vote but they technically have a vote because they are citizens in Graal. He entered the slave trade and began buying up many slaves of his own, under the pretence that he would be setting himself up in the business. Nobody questioned his buying up of large numbers, normal behaviour for someone setting up shop for the first time. However he was making these slaves members of the Mor Constabulary Bank by creating a whole new sub-division called the labour force. Now members of a bank, they could vote. And vote they did.

With votes coming in from his own bank in huge numbers, he was also given a lot of support from smaller branch families of the Tudor's Premier Bank. Both of these areas of support came as a surprise to many, including the heads of the Tudor's Premier Bank, who had been planning to supply their own candidate for governor. In an unheard of victory, Albin Leigh was nominated governor of Graal.

Success
Those that supported him did not go unrewarded. Ursa Tudor was able to rise higher into the upper family heads of the Tudor's Premier Bank and, likewise, Kale Median was able to rise, quickly, through the ranks of the police until he was Police Chief. Albin helped Kale to arrest many of his rivals, from many different banks, and was able to keep his own operations going without hindrance - including his new slave trade, under the guise of the labour division of his bank.

However he knew he was in a vulnerable position but there was an easy answer to ensure his long-term success and safety - he had to be popular with the people. It would be difficult to oust him or have him murdered in the streets if people loved him. He began to rent the Amphitheatre Fulminis from the government, essentially from himself. The amphitheatre had long been the most popular attraction in all of Graal, especially The Tournament that happened each year. Albin Leigh took control of his and declared himself the host, using his money to considerably improve the formula. Many features of The Tournament were staged, including some of the wins and losses. Albin took this and upped the ante, creating a whole mythos around the gladiators and created stories and drama for the fans to become invested. The Tournament may be the must-see event of the year, but now every show of the year was building to that single event and the stories and heroes could rise in glory or fall to their deaths. The love of the shows and Albin's public presence at them made him a hero in the people's eyes. Popularity made him invincible.