Dake

Dake Kalgren is the youngest child of the family, with three older sisters and two older brothers. He never knew his father, who left while his mother was pregnant with him. His family is very poor, living in a small two room shack at the far back of the underground village of Dri (Der-ee). His sisters and mother run a fabric shop, mending enough clothing and fabric to support their family if sixteen (including Dake's nephews and nieces). Dake eventually left for the military, desperate for some kind of job to help his mother.

Childhood
Despite being one of the poorest children in Dri, Dake had a happy childhood. The neverending supply of nephews and nieces gave him plenty of friends to play with, though their play area was limited to the darker areas of the city, and subsequentlymore dangerous. Eventually he moved on to find friends that weren't so closely related to him, and ended up meeting several boys who lived at the sunlight side of the city, which lined the opening of the city cave in the side of a canyon. Energized by the sunlight, Dake started exploring the desert with some daredevil friends, until he accidentally stumbled upon a foreigners camp.

Amazed by the technology they carried, Dake ultimately decided to one day leave Dri and Kokili and explore the world.

The Teen Years
Homosexuality is a common thing in Kokili, so when Dake started dating a boy at thirteen no one in his family batted an eye. The relationship didn't last long, since both boys were too young to get beyond giggling at hand holding. Two months after that relationship ended, Dake met Varden, a boy from the richer side of town looking to leave, same as Dake, but for different reasons. He wanted to travel the world as a performer, either in the circus or on his own. He caught Dake's attention with his fanciful ideas of circus tents and clowns, and the two eventually started dating. They lasted two years before eventually drifting apart to persue different career paths.

When he was sixteen Dake broke up with Varden and left for the military. Having no schooling, Dake could barely sign his own name, but the war was getting frantic and the Allies could hardly be picky about grammar, so they took him in. It didn't take long for him to realize he had an exceptional shot, and his superiors were quick to give him a position as sniper in his unit.

The war
As soon as he had mastered the gun, Dake was taken to the front lines, where troops were stationed all around the floating city of Badryn. Their jobs were to prevent shipments of food and water to be taken to the city, which involved shooting down any plane they saw. The problem was many of the planes were civilians fleeing the war to live safely on the ground. Dake was instructed to shoot many of the planes down himself, and was taught a mantra to make the killing easier. "Just consider it one step closer to utopia, by killing off the parasites of society." It made things easier, but also warped Dake's thinking until he considered Airdan's to truly be a parasite on the planet.