Boris Black
There are street fighters, pit fighters, and then there is Boris Black.
Brutal Boris “the Black” was born Boris Andreevich Storhooven of the Storhooven clan. The Storhoovens, like any mining clan of the Avarice Peaks, are a stout and strong people. Boris was no exception. Strength and resolve were the guiding principles the clan taught him while he worked the mines beside his family.
Growing up, he worked in the mines of Deg Lodaar, the clan’s stronghold in the Avarice Peaks. Gold, cobium ore, or the precious trivauxite diamonds is Deg Lodaar’s stock-in-trade. The miners are allowed to take a cut of the ore or diamonds as pay, and most take a reasonable share. But for Boris, that wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough.
Boris worked both the mines and the miners. With blackmail, gambling, and brutal pit fights, he squeezed his fellow miners out of a small fortune. Anything else? That was from stealing more than his share from what the mines produced. The Razorback Borva crime syndicate of Hogsburg, who held a stake in the mines, eventually noticed.
The syndicate saw an effective tool in Boris. For Boris, the Razorback Borva was an untapped vein of opportunity.
Boris started as an enforcer. But his short and stout frame, typical of anyone from the Avarice Peaks, combined with his raw strength, played to his advantage. It didn’t take him long to rise through the syndicate’s ranks. He soon became the Borva’s chief enforcer with the nickname “the Black” because of his favorite weapon; a blackjack filled with trivauxite diamond dust. It was a sentimental reminder of home.
But Boris’ raw strength, ambition, and stubborn nature were his downfall. He met his match when the syndicate sent him to force protection money out of Thomas MacInty, owner of the Golden Carrot grocery franchise.
The thin, frail Thomas was no match for Boris. But Thomas’ mountain of an older brother, Damian “Iron Hog” MacInty, was a different story. The brothers challenged Boris to a pit fight for the money. It was double or nothing, with half for Boris and half for the Borva. Boris quickly accepted.
That fight made history. It was Boris Black against the towering figure of the Iron Hog. It lasted seven hours. In the end, Boris lost the fight, the protection money, and his standing with the Borva.
The Razorback Borva isn’t known for forgiveness, especially when someone disobeys orders. But the Borva’s head, Vitomir Yellin, still saw Boris as an asset. Boris just needed a lesson in obedience and patience.
Quietly, the Borva syndicate provided ample evidence against Boris to the authorities. That, along with a brutal fight when Boris resisted arrest, landed him in Maincastle Prison.
Today, Boris Black is serving 13 years in Maincastle Prison for unlicensed prize fighting, blackmail, first degree aggravated assault, and tax evasion. Currently, Boris spends his days in prison as the ‘go to’ guy for physical fitness training.
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