P

Species: human
Gender: male
Age: ~35
DOB: February 9, 1895
Birthplace: Russia
Praetor:
Occupation: Lord Minister of Transportation, Greyhaven
Languages: Russian, French, Italian, German, English

Personality
 

Physical Characteristics
Height: 5' 9"
Weight/Build:
Hair: dark brown, cropped short, straight with moderate fullness; it usually behaves well
Eyes: icy blue
Skin: pale to medium
Face:
Attire: long grey or black coat,

POST-FLEET

FLEET ERA
     

Collective History:
 

Individual History
Born in 1895 to peasant parents, Antipov resented his family's lowly position in life and vowed that he himself would not suffer an ignominious fate. To that end he left his town for Moscow, where he was able to enter university and support himself giving French lessons to the children of aristocrats. Around this time, popular dissent was beginning to form concerning the aristocracy and royalty, with incendiary ideas concerning class warfare and the thought that a man's station in life should not be determined by the class of his birth. Antipov, feeling stymied by the bourgeoisie and the fact that they would never allow a peasant such as himself to be anything more than a servant for their children, quickly threw his lot in with the burgeoning revolution. If the rulers of Russia would not accept him, he would simply have to help overthrow them.

He attended several revolutionary meetings and used his position in various aristocratic households to funnel information to the revolution: who would be where at what time, what families were planning to do concerning the whispers of revolution, the widespread fear and unease. He also helped to sow the seeds of revolutionary spirit among servants in the households, crafting a network of spies throughout the aristocracy. Everywhere he went he was welcomed: as a well-spoken and well-regarded French tutor by unsuspecting nobles and as a passionate and competent intelligence operative by other revolutionaries. At one meeting he met a sympathetic young woman whom he courted and, after several months, secretly married. They planned to move to the country after the revolution.

In October of 1917 (or November by the Gregorian calendar) revolution was sprung simultaneously in Moscow and Petrograd (modern-day St. Peterburg) -- a revolution which surely would have succeeded had not a man by the name of Vasily Ivanov penetrated the higher ranks of the revolution in Petrograd. Ivanov was a spy, and his information effectively countered the revolt in the worst way possible. A massacre occurred, taking with it the lives of the movement's best and brightest leaders. Antipov was not present and escaped death, but his days were numbered as Ivanov, an immediate hero with the government, led the charge to ferret out the remaining revolutionaries and through several interrogations was able to identify Antipov. Antipov was arrested and sentenced to work camp in Siberia without trial in 1920. Antipov's young wife vanished and he never heard from her again, though news did reach him of his mother's death in 1921.

The work camps were horrible places where people were sent not to serve time, but to die. Provisions were inadequate; the coats and blankets issued to prisoners were barely serviceable in the summer. Many people were killed for the clothes off their back. Others froze to death in the winter. There were female prisoners as well, and theirs was generally a fate worse than death. Bodies could not be buried due to the layer of permafrost so they were burned, for warmth as much as anything else. Tuberculosis spread throughout the camps. Thousands died, and yet somehow the government always seemed to find more people to send. During this time, Antipov had a relationship with one of his fellow inmates, but she killed herself after a few months and there was nothing else he could do but take her clothes and cigarettes.

In late 1922 Antipov contracted active tuberculosis; being young and previously healthy he resisted it for almost two years, though it is almost certain he had a prior latent TB infection given his exposure. As his condition worsened he began seeing what he thought were hallucinations of a little girl; for a time he fantasized that he must have a daughter his wife was hiding from him, but the little girl was too old. The little girl would play, seemingly oblivious to the cold and the bodies, and smile at him. She never seemed to notice anyone else; certainly no one else ever noticed her.
 

Post-Extraction
Finally, in the summer of 1925 Antipov laid down on a pile of bodies to die and looked up at the sky, his last cigarette resting unlit on his lips. The little girl appeared and reached out a hand for him. When he took her hand he felt suddenly much lighter and he found himself standing and looking down at his own unmoving body. A committed atheist, he was momentarily plagued with doubt and thought surely he beheld the angel of death, but the little girl merely smiled at him, introduced herself as Em (later expanded to Emperial), and said she was going to take him away so he could never die.

She was as good as her word and Antipov took his second chance very seriously, leaving behind everything he had once held dear: his ideals, his relations, even his motherland. Instead he started to take pleasure in the simpler things of life and learned about the plethora of worlds available to an intrepid explorer and the intricacies of extradimensionalism. Gradually he began to understand the gist of the battle being fought; it was his influence along with the Lady Admiral that led to the formation of the Fleet, though it would be many years before the Fleet became anything like its eventual incarnation.

At the same time as the Fleet's founding, Antipov met the only person who would ever be more important to his life than his newfound little sister: he assisted in the retrieval of a strange little man called Dr. M. M was in fact one of Antipov's dimensional alters. At first Antipov had a hard time understanding how this M could ever be connected to himself, but he found he had an uncanny understanding of M's behavior and M understood him just as well. He ended up quietly appointing himself M's protector and at the same time, beginning work as an intelligence operative for the Fleet under the Lady Admiral's direction. This took him away from Emperial for long periods of time but led to several important victories over the course of ten years.

Unfortunately, infiltrating the enemy and relaying back information entailed rather risky dimensional travel which damaged Antipov's innate matrix. He was forced to retire from active duty or be destroyed, quite literally. The Fleet had undergone many changes in his ten years of field work and he was appointed the Director of Intelligence, a position originally held by the Lady Admiral and then by her lieutenant Atri Durris -- undoubtedly one of the most powerful roles in the Fleet. He held the rank of Admiral. Antipov participated in the earliest stages of the feien program, serving as bond for Verine Antipova, one of the original stock. He later became head of the feien project to help Emperial.

Then, the dimensional schism which initiated a Code Omega occurred. Antipov took it upon himself to join the effort to contain the schism by killing the affected Ems. He was with Djerod when Djerod shot himself in the head. Harrowed by having to kill his little sister over and over, it was a very changed Antipov who finally arrived at the Conference: broken, lifeless, and ready to give up. At the Conference, Antipov was one of the lucky few chosen by the lottery to help shape the Fleet's future. He chose as his second Nikolai Vasilivich Belyakov, completely throwing the Conference into disarray. Antipov did what was best for the community instead of what was best for his relationship with M. Dr. M was furious at the choice of Belyakov and vowed to never forgive Pavel for the insult. The two parted ways.

At the Conference, Antipov helped form the Neighborhood and the Bridge, and used his chance to rewrite history to bring Migel Laroux back. He also returned to his roots as a Russian peasant, giving up all his former power and prestige. He intended to head to the icy Siberian plain and take up residence there, but was distracted by the city of Greyhaven and wound up going to live there instead. He and Belyakov began the Transportation Authority to get Greyhaven's trains up and running again, and also founded the Russian Hockey League.