Vendrin (Character)
| Name | Vendrin Latanis |
| Race | Caldari |
| Bloodline | Civire |
| Licensed | 12 December, 107YC |
| Occupation | Pirate |
| Specialization | Command Ships |
| Corporation | Veto. |
| Age | 37 |
| Date of Birth | 27 June, 74 YC |
| Hair | Greyish Blonde |
| Eyes | Light Blue |
| Height | 180 cm |
| Weight | 48 kg |
| Bloodtype | AB |
| Birthplace | Perimeter IV |
| Parents | Davron Latanis,
Jasmine Latanis |
| Known Cybernetics | Capsule and mindlink interfaces, memory implants |
| Distinguishing Features | Former State Identification ID tattooed under left eye. |
Vendrin is a roleplaying character created on December 12th 2005. He was the former CEO of APEX Unlimited and is now a member of Veto.
Character History
Pre-Capsuleer History
Vendrin Latanis was born on Perimeter IV to Davron and Jasmine Latanis. Both parents worked for the Lai Dai corporation. At the age of 6, his father died in a factory accident, though no specifics were ever released on his death. This hit Vendrin and his brother Darius understandably hard.
His mother later fell in love with a Gallente trader named Jonas Tralist which caused a great deal of trouble at home. Though Vendrin never appreciated his step-father or step-brother, his step-father's business profits were what allowed Vendrin to enroll and pay for the State War Academy. Upon graduation as a capsuleer, Vendrin quickly paid his step father back, even though Jonas did not want the money. Vendrin then seemed to cut all contact with his family.
Tsurokigaarai
Vendrin's first employment was with Tsurokigaarai, a Caldari loyalist corporation. This seemed to fit Vendrin's initial disposition to the Caldari State, he was pleased to help strengthen the State through economic strength. He quickly rose through the ranks and was active in recruiting much new blood to the TKI corporation. His actions and the friends made in TKI would influence Latanis' future actions.
Caldari Civilian Defense Force
The Caldari Civilian Defense Force(CCDF) was a Neocom channel formed by Vendrin Latanis to help combat what he saw then as the scourge of piracy as well as to assist other Caldari Loyalists in serving the State. He set a strict policy of who was allowed to enter the channel. Only those with a security status of greater then 0.0 security status could enter the channel. This naivete in such a strict policy led to conflict with those who thought themselves servants of the State, even if they did partake in illegal actions.
Due to this, the corporation known as Serial Killerz(SERK) declared war on Tsurokigaarai the main sponsor of the channel and the Caldari Independent Navy Reserve the Cosponsor. At the time Fleet Admiral Dev Larren withdrew support from the channel and from TKI and SERK withdrew their war against CAIN. Eventually CAIN re-entered the fight, but this first set of actions was the first mar against the Caldari Independent Navy Reserve in Vendrin Latanis' eyes, one that would grow in the future.
While the war with SERK ended voluntarily due to commentary on their actions from the GalNet community, they regained access to the channel to the dislike of Vendrin Latanis. This caused him to remove himself from it in protest, and whether it was his withdrawal, SERK members access, or simply the problems caused by the war for the channel, the channel was soon shut down for good.
APEX Unlimited
APEX Unlimited was founded by Vendrin Latanis on March 26, 108. Latanis was frustrated by the lack of action by Gorion Wassenar, CEO of Tsurokigaarai(TKI), due to Gorion's planetside activities. Several other employees that Vendrin had recruited into Tsurokigaari joined Latanis in leaving TKI for APEX.
Vendrin served as the CEO of APEX Unlimited for just short of two years, and grew it into a successful and profitable corporation for the Caldari State. He wrote the charter of the Kimotoro Directive, and eventually founded the APEX Conglomerate when he engineered a deal to buyout it's former parent company Tsurokigaarai.
Rouges War
One of his first acts as CEO of APEX Unlimited upon it's formation quickly declared war on a Minmatar extortionist corporation known as the Rogues, in support of the Caldari Independent Navy Reserve. Vendrin did this to show that the Caldari forces should work together despite any personal feelings, and was an attempt to return the favor of the eventual help with CAIN against SERK.
Formation of the Kimotoro Directive
Latanis was a strong supporter of the formation of the Kimotoro Directive, partly because of his own ambition to one day be a leader among the Caldari Loyalist forces. He was initially proud to be a founding member, and of the Charter he wrote for the alliance, but later realized and admitted that rushing into the alliance was a mistake, and his own actions within the alliance did little to keep it together.
InoTech Star Drive Solutions
APEX Unlimited was an essential part in the testing and development of the InoTech Star Drive. The InoTech Star Drive was meant to be a jump drive that could be used on sub capital ships, and some suspect it was a leading cause to the creation of the jump drives on Black Ops class starships. Inoki Shotsu, CEO of InoTech Star Drive Solutions worked closely with Vendrin Latanis and Research Director Irias Salo of APEX Unlimited in the development and testing, with many key breakthroughs supplied by APEX employees.
Unfortunately it was later discovered that the test pilots InoTech employed were being forced to take illegal boosters. This caused a schism within APEX Unlimited with Irias Salo arguing to expose InoTech and free the test pilots, and Vendrin Latanis taking a more practical approach in attempts to ensure APEX would profit from the generous deal InoTech had offered to APEX. Irias Salo however disobeyed orders and broke into InoTech facilities with APEX Security Forces and rescued the test pilot that was left alive.
This risked APEX's business relationship with InoTech, and so Latanis disavowed Salo's actions and put out an arrest warrant him and his assistant Mio Katungi. While neither Salo or the test pilot were ever captured, Latanis' actions as well as an agreement to use APEX pilots in further test runs(even though it could potentially kill them permanently) saved the business deal with Inotech.
After further attempts by Salo and his allies to disrupt InoTech's research that were stopped by the Kimotoro Directive as whole, a final test run in front of [Caldari Navy] officials was planned. APEX test pilots were planned to jump from the Icarus testing facility to another secure location in CalNav ships. Unfortunately, the jump portals malfunctioned and set the test ships into uncharted 0.0 space across the cluster. Even worse, the portal collapsed causing a giant explosion that destroyed the Caldari Navy Chimera sent to observe the final test run.
It was undetermined whether the research was simply flawed or Irias Salo somehow sabotaged the navigation data and portal components.
After this occurred, a noted change in Vendrin's personality was noted by co-workers and employees. He became far more reserved, and APEX Unlimited seem to shift from a more politically Liberal business practices(such as Ishukone) to a more Practical business status (such as Nugoeihuvi or [[Sukuuvestaa]_Corporation_(NPC_corporation)|Sukuuvestaa]]).
Leaving the Kimotoro Directive
Over disagreements with the Caldari Independent Navy Reserve as well as the Directive leadership insisting Vendrin give up the chase on Salo and hiring mercenaries to attack corporations that assisted Salo in what Latanis viewed as a betrayal of the Caldari State, Vendrin took his corporation out of the alliance.
At this time, since he had formed the Neocom portal used by the Directive for internal communication, he left himself with hidden access to monitor the Directive. When this was discovered shortly before the Mito Conflict, it worsened the already strained relationship between Latanis and the other Caldari loyalist organizations. Many surmise it as at this time that Latanis began reaching out to illegal organizations for new allies.
Mito Conflict
Shortly after leaving the Directive, Vendrin learned of plans by The Star Fraction to attack the Kimotoro Directive through his access to the Directive NeoCom portal. To show he was still loyal to the State as a whole if not certain part of it's organizations he brought APEX Unlimited to war against the anarchist forces. This would be the first and last conflict against Anarchist forces, and it is unknown if these initial engagements had any influence on later directions he would lead his corporation.
When the Caldari Independent Navy Reserve left the Directive, as well as other allies, it seemed clear how the conflict would end, and so Latanis negotiated a cease fire with The Star Fraction that ended APEX's involvement in the Mito Conflict.
Confirmed Contact with Pirate Organizations
Latanis' personal activities for the most part are still unknown for the next few months. He seemed remarkably concentrated on purely business, CONCORD does have have some indication that during this time frame he began to solidify a basic working arrangement with an organization known as The Black Rabbits, a Gurista pirate loyalist corporation.
APEX employees were also seen in Curse at the time, and some believe select employees were working with the Angel Cartel as well at this time.
Latanis was also seen having a number of private conversations with known Sansha supporter Lillith Blackheart. However most of this information was not available to legal authorities at the time, and most within APEX Unlimited itself did not know of the activities with illegal parties.
Formation of the APEX Conglomerate
When Boma Airaken joined APEX Unlimited, there was a marked increase in APEX expansion as Latanis found Airaken's contacts and enthusiasm useful. With Airaken's help Latanis planned the buyout of his former parent company, Tsurokigaarai, and secured planetary headquarters on Perimeter IV, buying the local land of his home city, as well as the contracts of employees within it. Whether becoming the CEO of his own family and all those he used to know as a child was a measure of generosity and thanks to them, or one of petty pride showing his superiority, is unknown as working conditions only slightly improved after the APEX buyout of the area.
With the buyout of Tsurokigaarai, as well as partnership with Black River Industries and a few other minor corporations, the APEX Conglomerate was formed with Vendrin Latanis as the sole executive officer and in complete control of the Conglomerate.
Involvement with Lillith Blackheart
Shortly after the formation of the APEX Conglomerate, Lillith Blackheart a known supporter of the Sansha Nation was employed by APEX Unlimited. It was explained to shareholders that she was to head up a cybernetics division for the corporation, however many shareholders and employees questioned the hold Blackheart held over Vendrin Latanis, as she was given what appeared to be unsupervised access to resources, and a lab within Amarr space, well known for it's less then stringent laws on human testing.
However nothing eventually came of this cybernetics division as Blackheart left the corporation within a few months. Both Latanis and the corporation were left with little to show for her employment and the internal problems it caused. It can be noted that many employees noticed a remarked increase in the cynicism and bitterness of Mr. Latanis at this time.
War with the Cyrene Initiative
The Cyrene Initiative declared war on the APEX Conglomerate due to the Conglomerate actions in Placid, and specifically Latanis' actions himself of destroying an Idama's unarmed freighter that was believed to be filled with a harmful new drug entitled RISE. While Latanis and his executive board wished to pursue a diplomatic solution, they immediately began looking at ways to defend corporate assets and profit margins, some of these options being open alignment with entities that existed outside of legal operations.
When it became clear that the Conglomerate would not be an easy fight for the numerically superior Cyrene Initiative due to the Conglomerate's hiring of mercenaries as well as the entrance of Stimulus to the battlefield, the Cyrene Initiative withdrew it's war declaration.
However, Vendrin was not satisfied with their withdrawal as they had not admitted any mistake on their part, and so he lead his alliance to pursue war against the Cyrene in it's home territory to show the Conglomerate would not be an easy prey. Thanks to it's alliance with Stimulus and the Black Rabbits, the Conglomerate was able to create a decisive victory against the Cyrene Initiative. This victory shattered the Gallente loyalist alliance, and to this day it has yet to rebuild.
Caldari Business Tribunal Investigation
The Caldari Buisness Tribunal investigation began an investigation during the war with the Cyrene Initiative due to allegations by capsuleer pilots, some of them former APEX members about the corporations dealing with illegal organizations, many accusations levied personally against Vendrin Latanis.
While Vendrin was first unworried about the investigation, the bias of the investigator(and some say his resistance to bribes), one Davrin Yurisko, seemed to have already determined the guilt of Latanis and his corporation. However the investigation was never completed as Yurisko went missing, and his data lost in a power surge. When the CBT wished to send another investigator, under Latanis' orders and the direction of the Conglomerate's executive board, Vendrin effectively removed himself and his corporation from CBT jurisdiction, becoming an entity independent of the Caldari State.
Though at the time no formal charges were made of Yurisko missing, it was later found that Latanis ordered the death of Yurisko, and the cover up of the information he discovered on illegal activities by Latanis and the APEX Conglomerate. This information, discovered after Vendrin became a member of Stimulus was what caused the Caldari State to officially revoke Latanis' citizenship.
Cloning Accident
On 13 November, 109 YC, Vendrin Latanis was forced to make an emergency clone jump. Because of the rushed nature of this jump, there was no time to inspect the destination clone before transfer. Only after it was too late did the cloning technicians discover that bad biomass had been used in the creation of the clone.
The result of this jump had left Mr. Latanis unable to interface with Jovian pod technology, and by extension clone transfer systems, leaving him trapped in that clone.
Latanis remained planet side until early February 110 YC, when a cure was discovered and he was able to return to life as a capsuleer. Unfortunately for him, when he returned to space he found the space bound operations of his corporation in tatters, and most of his best employees moved on to other corporations.
Ghost Festival
Though he tried for a short while to rebuild his corporation, he joined some of his former employees in the Angel Cartel loyalist organization Ghost Festival. Without the power base of his former corporation Vendrin knew that his only way back to power was through an existing organization and he initially thought the Cartel and their Serpentis allies would be that. Unfortunately, while he enjoyed flying for Ghost Festival it was not to last.
Vendrin saw an opportunity to rebuild APEX and gain copious amounts of profit through war profiteering with the Gallente Federation and Caldari State going to war, and so left Ghost Festival amicably.
Selling of the APEX Conglomerate
Vendrin's attempt to rebuild APEX at this juncture failed, though in truth he did not put full effort into the matter. He was too bitter over all his employees leaving him to attempt to go through it all again, and so when an offer arose to sell the Conglomerate's assets to a former employee he also sold the Conglomerate itself, though he still retains 10% ownership of APEX Unlimited.
Stimulus
While Vendrin's specific reasons for joining the anarchistic corporation known as Stimulus are unknown, their support of APEX against the Cyrene Initiative was no doubt a deciding factor. Latanis still seems motivated by economic profit more then any true belief in the overthrow of the Empires, and seems to be profiting from the chaos left in the wake of Stimulus after it has entered a region and begins it's terrorist operations. After the formation of the Rote Kapelle alliance and the discovery of wormholes, Latanis left Stimulus to form Aperture Harmonics.
Aperture Harmonics
Aperture Harmonics was a corporation formed to exploit the resources found within wormhole space. It set up an initial base, codenamed Genesis within w-space and begin to recruit pilots to it's cause. It quickly grew beyond what Latanis expected, and to this day thrives in another w-space system codenamed Exodus. While Latanis' exact reasoning for leaving his successful corporation, many believe it is because he never felt connected to his new corporate employees like he had in APEX.
Current Activities within Veto. Corp
Vendrin currently operates with Veto. as a low-echelon member, keeping a low profile in areas he used to frequent such as Gal-Net and the Mercantile Club. A noted increase in his flight operations has been noted however, as well as a far greater variety of ships flown compared to the Caldari ships he has been seen in before. Latanis has quickly acquired active outlaw status due to his new activities with Veto.
Philosophy and Personality
Vendrin Latanis' current beliefs are markedly different from those he had when he was a new pod pilot. He used to be a staunch supporter of the Caldari State and expansion of the State through economic superiority. He was outspoken against any illegal action, especially piracy as he viewed it as a great deterrent to further commerce. This changed over time to more practical beliefs, showing in his dealings with pirate organizations and a disinterest in outside organizations unless they affected his corporations bottom line.
Latanis now sees his initial actions as a pod pilot as naive, and believes that most if not all pilots will come to be as callous as he has. He subscribes to much of what Aria Jenneth describes as caspuleer madness, though he does not think himself mad, he does realize he no longer has the thought processes a normal human would have. He knows he has committed atrocities, and the blood of thousands if not more is on his hands through his actions, and he does not care. Due to this he no longer sees himself as human, though he does not believe he is better then human, simply different.
Vendrin for the most part is callous and disinterested in the beliefs or problems of others unless they are friends, past or present, or those he respects. He seems remarkably focused on business, and does not seem to interact socially with many.
Latanis once abstained from alcohol and booster use, but has been seen engaging in such activities.
Employment History
State War Academy from 2005.12.08 to 2005.12.17
Tsurokigaarai from 2005.12.17 to 2006.03.26
APEX Unlimited from 2006.03.26 to 2008.02.25
Ghost Festival from 2008.02.25 to 2008.6.12
APEX Unlimited from 2008.06.12 to 2008.09.14
Stimulus from 2008.09.14 to 2009.03.13
Aperture Harmonics from 2009.03.13 to 2009.08.04
Veto. from 2009.08.04 to present day
