General

Green eyes, heavy eyebrows, and a large nose gave General a distinctive face beneath light brown hair. Military service put him in the Westalian uniform, a grayish-green jacket over a white dress shirt, belted in brown and finished with black boots, his hair cut short with a side part. The boy he had been wore it at medium length with a cowlick, usually dressed in black overalls and navy shorts over a white shirt.

General led by force of personality. Dominant and loud within his circle of friends, he needled the others constantly, ribbing Loid in particular over his toys and his battered rubber gun. The teasing never masked much; his affection for the group ran deep, and it spilled out openly when he discovered the friend he thought dead standing in front of him alive. As a soldier he carried the standard training of the Westalian Army, from weapons handling to field survival.

He grew up in Luwen in eastern Westalis, one of four boys who all wanted to be soldiers. The group gave themselves military codenames: the future Loid Forger became Advisor, joined by Corporal, Major, and General himself. Their secret base was a disused army depot Loid had found, where they played cards and staged mock wars between East and West. Loid's knack for tactics meant the Westalis side always won, so General and Major usually got stuck playing Ostania.

In the run-up to Luwen's festival, the four boys pitched in with setup work, paid in candy, and General mocked Loid over his missing toy soldier kit and busted gun. Loid turned up at their next meeting with the kit, then abruptly left to help prepare the festival, baffling his friends. As they chased after him, a bomb struck the depot, the second East-West war's opening blow. They searched but never found him.

General, Corporal, and Major eventually became privates in the Westalian Army, and years on they crossed paths with Loid again behind the lines. The reunion was joyful and short. Loid proposed a weekend restaurant outing, but the three revealed their deployment that very night to the Roberts Campaign, and another soldier confusingly addressed Loid as "Roland" before they parted with promises to keep in touch. The campaign proved rushed and reckless, and it killed all three. Their dog tags came back to Loid, whose grief hardened into the vow that still drives him as a spy: building a world where no child cries because of war. He revisits their memory in dreams after a Tonitrus Bolt scare at Eden and again at Berlint's Winter Sheep Festival.