Elvaris
2006-10-01, 10:22 PM
Excerpt taken from Humanoids magazine's article "50 Most Beautiful Creatures"
27 Tal Aladon
Love him or hate him, you certainly can't ignore him... And that's just how Tal Aladon likes it. The ex-pirate, multimillionaire, business baron, entertainment magnate and man about town is an attention addict. Whether he's yelling at the referuts at a Buccaneers game, handing out free passes to Pirate World in front of a new Six Ninjas park, or spending a day managing a Frost Queen ice cream shop after saying he wouldn't trust baseball's commissioner to do the same, he's always front and center in the public eye...
Captain Tal Aladon spent four years as what he refers to as a "maritime acquisition expert." He was unique among his peers in that he invested a significant portion of his wealth into an extensive series of land bound contacts, informants, and snitches that let him cherry pick the most lucrative "acquisitions," leaving the lesser targets to the "mere pirates."
Unfortunately for Tal, this success made him a target for those interested in the security of the shipping lanes. After a bad tip from several members of his organization, Tal's ship was set upon by four ships of the king's navy. While he emerged from the ambush with his life, his ship was no longer seaworthy, his crew was battered, and his trusted network could no longer be trusted.
Instead of acquiring a new ship and putting back out to sea, Aladon took a new path. He and his crew paid visits to each of the contacts that led him into the ambush. Upon reassembling his information network, he set them to finding legitimate business opportunities. He has since built a massive fortune acquiring down on their luck companies and turning them into profit, whether by improving their methods, selling off their assets, or simply eliminating competition for another of his properties.
During this time, Aladon remade his image. He convinced a noble to intervene on his behalf before the king, reducing Tal's sentence for piracy to a year of imprisonment and a significant fine. He cleaned up his crew and retrained them to handle administrative duties. He distanced himself from any mention of his previous exploits, and most importantly, upon gaining his release, he made a number of public appearances reinforcing his image as a respectable businessman.
Circumstances, however, caused him to reverse course on this public relations campaign. Upon the completion of his purchase of a downtrodden "Fireballers" team known as the Pilots, King George was heard to say, "My Royals will not be beaten by that pirate." The good captain took the attention garnered by the king's vitriol and ran with it. He renamed the team the Pirates and built them a state of the art stadium in the booming metropolis of Lost Cutlass. This was followed by a series of Pirate themed entertainment venues: "Pirate Land" and "Pirate World" theme parks, a Buccaneers football team, and even his own Lost Cutlass casino, the Treasure Island.
27 Tal Aladon
Love him or hate him, you certainly can't ignore him... And that's just how Tal Aladon likes it. The ex-pirate, multimillionaire, business baron, entertainment magnate and man about town is an attention addict. Whether he's yelling at the referuts at a Buccaneers game, handing out free passes to Pirate World in front of a new Six Ninjas park, or spending a day managing a Frost Queen ice cream shop after saying he wouldn't trust baseball's commissioner to do the same, he's always front and center in the public eye...
Captain Tal Aladon spent four years as what he refers to as a "maritime acquisition expert." He was unique among his peers in that he invested a significant portion of his wealth into an extensive series of land bound contacts, informants, and snitches that let him cherry pick the most lucrative "acquisitions," leaving the lesser targets to the "mere pirates."
Unfortunately for Tal, this success made him a target for those interested in the security of the shipping lanes. After a bad tip from several members of his organization, Tal's ship was set upon by four ships of the king's navy. While he emerged from the ambush with his life, his ship was no longer seaworthy, his crew was battered, and his trusted network could no longer be trusted.
Instead of acquiring a new ship and putting back out to sea, Aladon took a new path. He and his crew paid visits to each of the contacts that led him into the ambush. Upon reassembling his information network, he set them to finding legitimate business opportunities. He has since built a massive fortune acquiring down on their luck companies and turning them into profit, whether by improving their methods, selling off their assets, or simply eliminating competition for another of his properties.
During this time, Aladon remade his image. He convinced a noble to intervene on his behalf before the king, reducing Tal's sentence for piracy to a year of imprisonment and a significant fine. He cleaned up his crew and retrained them to handle administrative duties. He distanced himself from any mention of his previous exploits, and most importantly, upon gaining his release, he made a number of public appearances reinforcing his image as a respectable businessman.
Circumstances, however, caused him to reverse course on this public relations campaign. Upon the completion of his purchase of a downtrodden "Fireballers" team known as the Pilots, King George was heard to say, "My Royals will not be beaten by that pirate." The good captain took the attention garnered by the king's vitriol and ran with it. He renamed the team the Pirates and built them a state of the art stadium in the booming metropolis of Lost Cutlass. This was followed by a series of Pirate themed entertainment venues: "Pirate Land" and "Pirate World" theme parks, a Buccaneers football team, and even his own Lost Cutlass casino, the Treasure Island.