Independent Demetrius Parada

[Nor'baal]

Demetrius Parada was born to a pair of commoners of Tatooine during the 'Force Eternal Era'. An entrepreneur and businessman with a competitive edge, he worked several jobs in the desert world through his teens, initially as an assistant to a water-monger and later as a broker of sand whale oil. Soon enough, he was eighteen and left the world, taking jobs where he could find them along the Hydrian Way.

Taking up a scholarship through the Independent Systems Consortium, he was to begin studies in his late twenties at one of the Consortiums academies. The Consortium's considerable investment into the rim enabled him to complete a degree in 'Intergalactic Commerce and Finance'. He returned to the Hydian Way with a new trick, setting him apart from other spacers. With the contacts, he had made through education and was determined to make the most of it.

Heading to Canto Bight, which he had long believed to be the place people went to get disgustingly rich, Demetrius set his sights on doing just that. First, he was employed as a salesman for BlasTech Industries and several other similar companies. He now works as an arm's dealer and information broker, operating his own 'Trading Company'.

Biography

Born to a pair of commoners on Tatooine, Demetrius (or 'Dee' for short) found the earlier parts of his life challenging. His parents were often away, seeking work wherever they could to make ends meet. Usually, the young Dee found it hard to see a future for himself. He believed his lot in life was to be one of poverty and destitution in a world the Galaxy seemed to have almost entirely forgotten.

However, when he was forced (as many young Tatooinians are) to take a job to support his parents, he found he had quite the knack for making a quick credit. Becoming a shop assistant to a local water monger, Dee soon became a valued part of the man's operation, able to sport forthcoming demand and react accordingly. Such an eye for opportunity soon enabled him to branch out into the sale of Sand Whale Oil, a more niche market with greater demand. Finally, when he turned eighteen, the young Dee brought in enough credits to buy himself a ticket off-world.

Determined to learn how the business worked on the broader Galaxy, he became a shipping agent on the Hydian Way. Matching cargo with captains, handling complex deals and settling disputes (hopefully, without bloodshed) in the lawless parts of space, Dee was toughened up, and quickly, in his years in the Space Lanes. Over five years, in which he only made enough credits to keep himself afloat, he learned more than anyone else about how business was done.

However, the budding business-being needed something else to make it big. Credibility.

The opportunity would come knocking in the form of the Independent Systems Consortium. With their leader, Emryc Thorne, focusing a majority of the Governments efforts on developing the Outer Rim, including Tatooine, Dees homeworld, he endowed a scholarship scheme at a series of new academies. Dee was successful in securing such a scholarship. Studying for a degree in 'Intergalactic Commerce and Finance', he graduated second in his class, and soon, as the result of a tip-off from a classmate, headed to Canto Bight, where he took a job as an arms dealer - a role he has been in ever since, initially as a contractor for the Corellian Engineering Corporation, and now as a freelancer in his own right. Working the circuits of shady business, Dee dabbled in information brokerage alongside his conventional business of arms dealing.

Personality & Traits

As a businessman and a man of the Galaxy with harsh roots, Dee knew that the Galaxy was a cruel and unforgiving place. Nevertheless, he lost himself in his work, seeking to prove to himself and to others that, no matter where one came from, you could rise to the top of the pack. Aware of the broader goings on in the wider Galaxy by his work, he always saw a profit to be gained in conflict and did his best to position himself between warring factions, business entities and individuals, appearing to be on neither side by to profit nonetheless.

Competitive but also deeply knowledgeable of the ways of the Galaxy, Dee saw opportunity everywhere. He knew the Galaxy was filled with opportunities, traitors, criminals and thieves, which enabled him to enter into deals and agreements aware of the other side's capacity to screw him over. As such, he was slow to trust people, instead seeking to ensure he came out on top.

Skills & Abilities

A talent business being, Dee would see a profit to be made, and opportunities abound in even the most unlikely of places. Morally grey, or as he called it, 'a realist', Dee made sure he was able to look after himself from a young age, having seen first-hand what happened to people to others who could not. As such, he can fly his own vessel, a ship or a speeder and handle a weapon easily. A talented mechanic (a requirement of the trade), he is also handy with numbers and odds and is a skilled Pazaak and Sabaac player.

Equipment & Assets

A businessman who has enjoyed a varied but not overly successful career at the current time, Dee owns several sets of fancy-looking robes (following the ethos of 'fake it 'till you make it'). He owns a NalPhone, and his prize possession is an expensive time-piece which may (and probably is) a fake. He owns a CEC-22 Yacht which he used as his base of operations.