Anithias Freedom as First Mate, seen quoting his hallmark "Imperial Navy Handbook"
Anithias Ambicilus Freedom, born Anithias A. Goldfur, served as captain of The Golden Hide for a span of eight months in the year 1729. Despite declaring a Golden Age for his ship (a play on words based on his distinctive golden fur and the name of his ship), Captain Freedom's reign was short and tummultuous, ending in disgrace due to a multitude of command failures and possible blackmail from the Kreehold. He later served as a judge in the Criminal and Common Courts of Bully Harbor, a position possibly acquired from political connections. During the Winter War, he was appointed emergency Mayor of Bully Harbor upon the death of Tandor Slemm. He served in this position first in the refugee camps established outside Bully Harbor, and continued his reign upon the retaking of Bully Harbor. He lives in Zann's Backyard with his wife, Dr. Julia Freedom, and their two kits, Falun and Mikaela.
Early life (1710-1727)[]
Anithias A. Goldfur was born the son of merchant tycoon Ucilus Goldfur. The seventh son in the family, Anithias was often picked on by his older brothers. Instead he spent much time with his neighbor, Julia Heartwood, daughter of the Goldfur family's trade rival, Ariscus Heartwood. Their friendship managed to unite the two families, even leading to Anithias' brother Erdin and Julia's sister Marianna becoming engaged.
The one thing the two families did not count on, however, was that at age sixteen Anithias and Julia would also fall in love. This would have been fine, had the two families not already made arrangements for them to marry Anthony and Percia Snipp, the heirs of the Snipp textile industry. Both extremely unpleasant, Anithias and Julia agreed they would rather take their chances in a new life than be bound to the Snipp family. At age 16 they ran away, hoping to start a new life away from Bully Harbor.
Unfortunately, their actions had repercussions. Erdin and Marianna's marriage was called off by the families, much to their distress. Anithias' other five brothers, angered by what they saw as betrayal by their youngest kin, hunted Anithias and Julia to their room at a tavern in the Slups. Anithias and Julia were hauled back home in shame.
The next two years were hard on them. Anithias often managed to sneak out of his room in the coal cellar to visit Julia, who was locked up in her room with Marianna. On one of these trips he observed his eldest brother, Enulli, with the daughter of a blacksmith. Angered by this hypocrisy, Anithias informed his parents of Enulli's secret life. The fox lost everything- his captaincy, his fortune, and his fortune. He briefly joined the navy before finally succumbing to drink and gambling, the two debts that drove him to suicide. The five remaining brothers, disillusioned with their parents, abandoned the family business. All eventually fell to gambling, ending in suicide. Anithias, the last of the Goldfur brothers, swore not to let this happen to him. While his brothers attempted to scrape enough money to fuel their vices, Anithias devoted himself to his work.
Officership (1728-1729)[]
Anithias A. Freedom, as he renamed himself upon his naval enlistment, demonstrated a remarkable propensity for career advancement in the navy, gaining minor officership as aide-de-camp within a month of his enlistment. This was due in part to his unswerving devotion to naval law and protocol, which he memorized verbatim; he swiftly gained the nickname "Ye Walking Handbooke" for his constant quotations from the Imperium Navy Handbook, a volume largely regarded as extraneous to the functioning of the navy or, at least, that of the unusually lax crew of the Hide. This also brought him into conflict with several members of the crew, including Second Mate Shadow Seerclaw and Armina Rogue. This latter relationship was complicated by a forced guardianship over the young vixen, enacted in order to bypass age restrictions on naval service by claiming her as family (this bond was later transferred to Captain Tanya "Tox" Rainblade-Ryalor due to irreconcilable conflict between guardian and ward).
The only known violation of naval code during this early period was when, following his elopement and marriage to Julia, he attempted to smuggle his wife aboard as a stowaway. This was quickly caught by his fellow crewbeast and friend Mikaela Locke and by Tox, who rigged the crew manifest to protect the runaway couple from their families' efforts to hunt them down. This could not entirely prevent an altercation with the Goldfur and Heartwood families, and an attempt by the families to seize custody of Anithias and Julia's unborn kit was blocked only by use of Tox's legal immunity from her position as Last Quartermaster . Their son, Falun Enguil Thomas Freedom, was later born aboard the Hide.
Following the Valles Mensa War , Anithias was promoted to the rank of First Mate aboard the Hide. This position saw the development of his distinct command style, a blend of legalism and tributary privilege which granted exceptions to hard-and-fast rules only to a few favored crew members; others, such as Armina Rogue, were especially targeted for punishment. When command of the Hide transferred to Fafnir Harlgren rather than to Anithias, the fox was enraged, especially as Fafnir was a just-pardoned mutineer and traitor to the crown who had brutalized Anithias' old friend Mikaela; as a result, Anithias had to be talked down from resigning his post in protest. Fafnir's reign, however, proved to be very short, as the monitor appeared to have more interest in tormenting his crew than leading them and swiftly grew bored with both pursuits. A mere thirteen months after enlisting into the navy, Anithias was declared Captain of The Golden Hide.
Captaincy (1729)[]
Anithias's captaincy at first appeared to be a turning point for the beleagured Hide. His appointment speech declared the coming years to be a golden age for the ship and their crew the stuff of legend, and as a gift for his captaincy several members of the crew, led by future captain Brek Larks, secretly restored the patina of the Hide to its original golden hue. Shortly afterward, however, cracks in his leadership began to appear. An ambitious expedition to recover the wreckage of the fabled warship The Amber Cannon ended in utter failure when a monsoon forced the crew to abort the mission. Freedom's choice of appointments in officership also engendered much distrust when he gave the First Officership to Jeshal the Ironclaw over far more senior officer Xhavek Mokorai. Intracrew discord grew as faction loyalties, old grudges and opportunistic schemes bubbled to the surface, unchecked by an increasingly disconnected captain.
Worsening matters was Anithias' failure to delegate legal and financial duties to his officers, choosing to take the entire financial upkeep of the Hide upon his own shoulders instead. This proved an impossible task, and rather than seek outside help in order to balance the ship's budget, Anithias secretly halted his crew's wages. Guilt over this action compelled him to order increased raids against woodlander villages in an attempt to make up for the lost coin. Increased ventures outside of Imperial waters brought with it new risks, and in Dismembre 1729 Anithias and then-Admiral Tanya Ryalor were seized and held hostage while inspecting a Callisparian slaving vessel. Rather than fight, Anithias surrendered to the slavers in an attempt to spare the lives of his crew, though condemning them to lives of slavery instead. It was only the brave actions of Brek Larks, Armina Rogue, and her then-toddfriend Tomias Redford that saved the ship and crew from this fate.
This incident proved to be the final nail in the coffin for Captain Freedom's career. He was summoned before the admirals to account for the many failures in his command, including allowing his ship to be captured by slavers and failing to pay his crew. Despite intense media hype over the 'fall' of the navy's poster todd, Freedom got off without a court martial, in part due to Tox's protective influence over the trial proceedings. Instead, he resigned his commission on the Hide and retired from the navy, ceding the ship to Captain Ironclaw. However, rumors have abounded that Freedom was coerced into making a backroom deal by Kreehold Captain Padraig Kesey, who was said to possess incriminating information regarding Anithias's past.
Judgehood (1730-1733)[]
Since his retirement from the navy, Anithias Freedom has been mostly preoccupied with his new role of judge in the Bully Harbor legal system. He has been commended by the Imperium Barrister's Association for his levelheaded judgments, and for a while certain rumors circulated regarding his candidacy for ministership. This proved to be a false lead when his former ward Armina Rogue rose to the level Captain of the Hide and Minister of War following Tanya Ryalor and Jeshal the Ironclaw's sudden dual assassination by Kreehold member Kerri Quilaine. Freedom presided over the case of Imperium vs. Quilaine and awarded the death penalty to the culprit, though this was never carried out due to an explosion in the prison cell block that left no survivors.
Outside of work, Judge Freedom is a member of the Zann's Backyard Community Council, for which he has already redrafted the constitution and bylaws three times. He lives with his wife and kits in Freedom Manor, where he enjoys the benefits of a large library and staff. There are some unsubstatiated rumors of marital troubles between the Judge and Dr. Freedom, which are lent a semblance of credence by the doctor's frequent terms of service in the navy that require long stints away from home.
Mayorship (1733-Present)[]
During the Winter War, Mayor Tandor Slemm was killed by Verfolger troops who attacked and destroyed the Mayoral Mansion. Judge Freedom, as the next surviving member of the succession, was appointed emergency mayor by default. He assumed his leadership upon arriving at the refugee camps established outside Bully Harbor, which he declared to be the "Harbor-in-exile". His reign, however, was notably troubled and ineffectual. He attempted to claim leadership of the council of Ministers, much to their chagrin, and thoroughly alienated the Ministry of Misanthropy and House Ryalor with his haughty and confrontational demeanor. He failed to contain the vulpine supremacist gangs that were dividing the camp and creating fox-only enclaves. His grandiose and self-important speeches, moreover, led some to derisively label him "His Grace, the Emperor Freedom".
Upon reclaiming the Harbor with the help of Fyadorian troops, Mayor Freedom immediately committed what would turn out to be a key political blunder. The very day of their victory, he ordered the arrest of Fyadorian Princess Vaelora Ryalor, accusing her of being the notorious serial killer, madbeast and traitor Armina Rogue, who had been presumed dead for two years. Given the presence of Fyadorian troops in the city and his well-known acrimonious relationship with Armina Rogue, as well as his rivalry with Misanthropy and House Ryalor, many in the city accused him of impropriety. This was only enhanced by his decision to hold the trial a mere two hours after the arrest and to sit on the bench himself. Riots broke out in the streets between Fyadorian troops and supporters, and Imperial troops and nationalists. Only a threat by Minister of War Nadia Darkon to strip him from the case and hold it in a military court was able to change his mind, forcing him to agree to a tribunal with himself, Minister Darkon, and newly-returned Admiral Ladorak Fugate presiding.
Mayor Freedom had intended to use the trial as a political maneuver to strip House Ryalor of their influence in the Harbor. Had Vaelora Ryalor been proved to be Armina Rogue, the members of House Ryalor would have been accused of abetting a traitor. Anithias intended to offer them a plea deal to flee the Imperium, securing the dominion of the Ministry of War over Bully Harbor. He expected that House Ryalor would not be willing to take military action against the Harbor when they were counting on Imperial reinforcements to retake their own homeland. He miscalculated on several fronts, however. He did not expect that Minister of Commerce Bridger Vorsky, Vaelora's suitor, would rally to her defense and join forces with his political rivals, the Ryalors. Nor did he expect the Ryalors to actively defend Vaelora in court, assuming that they would not be willing to tarnish their image for the sake of someone who was not family. When the Ryalors recruited his own wife, Julia Freedom, to testify in court for Vaelora's sake, it caught him in a political trap. He could not find his own wife in contempt of the court; nor could he be seen accepting her evidence. In the end, he recused himself from the case, allowing Minister Darkon and Admiral Fugate to declare her "not guilty".
Since the trial, Mayor Freedom has faced a steep climb for his approval ratings. He has devoted hundreds of thousands of gilders to public works and reconstruction projects in an attempt to win favor, though this appears to have produced mixed results. Moreover, there are rumors that he and his wife are now separated, with his family living at Freedom Manor and himself in full-time residence at the Mayoral Mansion.