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ALFRED SOLOMON STROUD
Born into a post-WW2 British intellectual household, Alfred was raised during the tail-end of Britain's imperial afterglow. His father, Joseph Stroud, a Jewish refugee and a respected constitutional historian. His mother, Mary-Beth Stroud, a civil registrar and devout Christian, ensured he grew up steeped in tradition and respect. Even in youth, Alfred was austere- precise, curious and drawn more to fact rather than imagination. While peers chased the thrill of youth, Alfred studied. A keen eye for political writing, the future of the world and the leaders that ran it. Combined with his interest in public speaking- he had the knack for debating and reporting. Studying the likes of Burke, Hobbes and T.S. Eliot, building a worldview that saw modern liberal experiment as bloated and self-defeating was ingrained within his teen years.
Studying at Oxford University with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics. He served as a civil service analyst in Whitehall during the Thatcher years. While he found her economic reforms intriguing, they were also regarded as too chaotic, lacking in moral spine. With the country seemingly less of an Empire than its history suggested, it was tempted into petty battle after petty battle. Calling for stability, and the need for fight- many youthful individuals, much like Stroud, looked towards the Navy as a form of guidance.
Participating in the short but sweet Battle of the Falklands, Stroud served for several years, as a non-commissioned officer. Disciplined, with a short tongue and a lack of patience, the navy years taught him to lighten up and laugh more at life rather than treat it like one long tape measure that eventually reaches its end.
By the early 1990s, Stroud had left his civil service position in Whitehall, disillusioned by the increasing gridlock and spectacle of modern British politics. He took up a smaller position at the local Newspaper. While the local newspaper hadn't much resource nor country-wide fame, it did fulfil a position in his heart to release local news and provide for the population. Stroud focused on papers that critiqued what he termed 'participatory instability'- the tendency for democratic systems to undermine their own institution. Though, he was especially critical of liberal consumerism, what he saw as a growing cult of personal rights over civic responsibilities. Stroud was a fan of the working man, the traditional man that did not complain but instead fulfilled his duty.
Though rarely cited in public-facing academic journals, his internal policy essays were known within certain circles of local council and beyond. Resonating with members of the National Socialist movement, as well as reaching surviving remnants of the long dead British Union of Fascists. Most widely discussed was an essay titled, "The Quiet Empire: Civic Identity Without Sovereignty". In it, Stroud proposed that a society could maintain its dignity and purpose without full autonomy, so long as it upheld continuity, competence and ceremonial cohesion.
Within this short remaining time before the unknown strike in the early 2000s, Alfred settled down garnering a wife and kids with his long time sweetheart, before joining the local Union Movement. Strangely, as the years went by and before the occupation, many writings released by Stroud and his companions within Union movements eerily resembled that of what was to come.
With the portal storms and the invasion of Earth, the British landscape in its entirety turned into something that'd only been seen in media released apocalypse films. He watched the world collapse from his apartment in London, moved from location to location in a desperate act of civil defence. When it became clear that resistance was futile, Alfred, like the rest of the human populous: Cooperated.
During the Combine's initial bureaucratic consolidation, Stroud made himself indispensable. A patriot in attempts to keep himself and his family alive and well. He drew up local council doctrines, to allow locals to comply correctly with what would be the global mandate for civil affairs. His early writings, flagged by local leadership and Combine advisory, translated directly into the policy model tested in the largest human camps across the planet.
By 2006 Alfred had been transferred to the largest 'city' on the British aisles, that of City-2. Working under the department of labour as a political architect. Here, he began laying the groundwork for his most enduring legacy: The Devotionist Union. Though during these early years of the occupation, individual political remnants mattered little, so it was merely a hobby while he helped the rest of the human populous rebuild old-world aspects including media, machinery and policing.
Years into the occupation, Alfred would pass numerous screenings and join a number of local loyalists in an introduced Collaborator system at the behest of the Global Administration. Nothing special, but a something of a playground to release his former interests out into the ever-changing landscape of the Combine occupation. Beginning his work within the Civic Media Group as a writer, the entire city began reading some articles, having a knack for political thought. Stroud believed that human compliance couldn't be enforced by brutality alone. It needed to be ritualized. Just as the British Empire had turned monarchy into civic religion, he believed the Combine could do the same with subjugation. He founded the Devotionist Union, the first of its generation. Sanctioned by the local Administration, a political front that preached redemptive labour, class-based loyalty and obedience as salvation. Using old world ideals, he believed people should be thinking of the Combine as their true leaders, and that everyone gains pride through displaying acts of loyalty.
By the mid 2010s, Alfred was introduced into more public speaking, taking up the role of the local news broadcaster. Releasing daily morning and nightly news to the entire population of City-2 and all of its districts. Rising within the ranks of Collaboration, he was noticed and awarded numerous rings and ribbons for preaching Combine law and loyalty methods. "Obedience is not submission- it is contribution. Our Benefactors are not our masters- they are our reflection." Resistance movements by this time were rife, and it was only a matter of time before the local Collaborators blocks were attacked, therefor, Alfred and many others were moved to a more stable district... That of Europe's Jewel- City Twenty-Four.
Now in his sixties, Stroud resides in a luscious district within City Twenty-Four, the presenter of the local news and talk show host of "The Nightly Crackdown". He has few known personal relationships to new arrivals, sleeping miniscule hours per night and dining on the best of which City Twenty-Four can provide. He is a humble yet devoted man. He will continue on the way he is or will fail on the path to ascension.
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CIVIC COHESION ANALYSIS — FAMILIAL STRUCTURE REPORT
COMBINE OVERWATCH CIVIC DEPARTMENT
CLEARANCE: i5 GRANTED
SUBJECT: STROUD, ARTHUR SOLOMON
STATUS: Privileged Collaborator Tier
CIVIC STATUS: REGISTERED, HIGH COUNCILLOR
MARITAL STATUS: 1986, CONFIRMED
SUBJECT DOB: 1959
DESIGNATION: City Twenty-Four - Ministry of Enlightenment, Teleprogramming Department
PARENTAL ORIGINS:
FATHER: STROUD, JOSEPH – DECEASED
MOTHER: STROUD, MARY-BETH – DECEASED YEAR 02 OF OCCUPATION
SPOUSAL RECORD:
SUBJECT: STROUD, LOUISE MIRIAM
CIVIC STATUS: UNREGISTERED, PRESUMED DECEASED
MARITAL STATUS: 1986, CONFIRMED.
LAST RECORDED COHABITATION: SECTOR HOUSING BLOCK, CITY-2.
REPRODUCTION OFFSPRING RECORD:
KNOWN SUBJECT COUNT: 02
SUBJECT: STROUD, JONATHAN ELIAS
SUBJECT DOB: 1992
CIVIC STATUS: COMBINE CIVIL DIRECTOR – CITY 50
SUBJECT: STROUD, MARGARET ELEANOR
SUBJECT DOB: 1994
CIVIC STATUS: LAST REGISTRY, CITY-2. SUBJECT PARTICIPATION IN JUVENILE SECTOR, ██████
SUBJECT DOB: 1994
SUMMARY: SUBJECT – STROUD, ARTHUR SOLOMON DETAILS NO SIGN OF VOLUNTARY IDEOLOGICAL FRACTURE, FAMILY COHESION IS PRESERVED.
COHESION STATUS: SECURE
██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
CIVIC COHESION ANALYSIS — FAMILIAL STRUCTURE REPORT
COMBINE OVERWATCH CIVIC DEPARTMENT
CLEARANCE: i5 GRANTED
SUBJECT: STROUD, ARTHUR SOLOMON
STATUS: Privileged Collaborator Tier
CIVIC STATUS: REGISTERED, HIGH COUNCILLOR
MARITAL STATUS: 1986, CONFIRMED
SUBJECT DOB: 1959
DESIGNATION: City Twenty-Four - Ministry of Enlightenment, Teleprogramming Department
PARENTAL ORIGINS:
FATHER: STROUD, JOSEPH – DECEASED
MOTHER: STROUD, MARY-BETH – DECEASED YEAR 02 OF OCCUPATION
SPOUSAL RECORD:
SUBJECT: STROUD, LOUISE MIRIAM
CIVIC STATUS: UNREGISTERED, PRESUMED DECEASED
MARITAL STATUS: 1986, CONFIRMED.
LAST RECORDED COHABITATION: SECTOR HOUSING BLOCK, CITY-2.
REPRODUCTION OFFSPRING RECORD:
KNOWN SUBJECT COUNT: 02
SUBJECT: STROUD, JONATHAN ELIAS
SUBJECT DOB: 1992
CIVIC STATUS: COMBINE CIVIL DIRECTOR – CITY 50
SUBJECT: STROUD, MARGARET ELEANOR
SUBJECT DOB: 1994
CIVIC STATUS: LAST REGISTRY, CITY-2. SUBJECT PARTICIPATION IN JUVENILE SECTOR, ██████
SUBJECT DOB: 1994
SUMMARY: SUBJECT – STROUD, ARTHUR SOLOMON DETAILS NO SIGN OF VOLUNTARY IDEOLOGICAL FRACTURE, FAMILY COHESION IS PRESERVED.
COHESION STATUS: SECURE
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