Corwin Gray

Corwin Gray
Corwin is an old friend of William Newton, very nearly back to Newton's vigilante days. On of Newton's closest friends, Nathaniel Gray, had a son with a Laurel prostitute and, unusually, chose to proclaim the child as his own rather than hide him from view. Making the situation even more unusual, Gray was from a fairly well to do family that, even though they had their share of bastard, were hardly the sort to think it acceptable. Feeling the pressure, Nathaniel decided to take William up on his offer to carve a new life from the bandit kingdom.

Thus, Corwin was the youngest of Newton's original band, and grew to be one of the wealthiest. He inherited his father's excellent relationship with William, and in time they grew to be close friends. Corwin is a shrewd businessman and has a fairly insidious political mind, and both of these have served him well, making him the largest landowner in Newton outside of the actual Newton family.

In his thirties, Corwin married and had a number of children. His wife, Celeste, died of influenza during an outbreak, but three of his sons (Blake, Robert, and Alexander) and two of his daughters (Isabel and Carmen) survive. He is on good terms only with Blake, who is the only one who's shown any interest in and inclination for managing Corwin's substantial properties. The rest of his children he regards as disappointments and maintains distant relationships with them.

In terms of personality, Corwin is kind and warm to his friends, and though he has few of them, prides himself on his loyalty. To nearly everyone else, he ranges from more or less civil to impatient and sharp-tongued. He has very high personal standards, and if someone fails to meet them their ideas will almost always be dismissed as unfit. In general, he is not well liked and people avoid him. He is not afraid to get his hands dirty (or dirty the hands of others), and there are rumors that he's had numerous enemies dealt with, one way or another, over his lifetime.

Corwin's dramatic axis is as follows: owing to his presumtive tendencies, he also believes that he knows what's best for Newton better than Jeffery (who he's never really liked) or anyone else who takes his place. William trusted his abilities greatly and he's on the landowner's council, so he can't be ignored, but neither can he just ignore everyone else. Time will tell if he'll be shuffled off or try to take more power for himself.