Mayor William Dunbar
William Dunbar was born on the streets of Black Bottom; left on the foot of the doorstep of the Beeker Street Orphanage. The orphanage was a hard place to grow up, and it turned the young infant into a hardened little boy; at 10, Little Will Dunbar climbed the fence in the orphanage playground and never returned.
Young Will became a street urchin, living off whatever scraps he could pickpocket or steal; soon he appeared on the radar of Thomas Kohry. Thomas was the the leader of the then most powerful gang in all of Black Bottom; The Cheeky Bastards. The Cheeks as they were called were the first organized gang to take the five towns of the Burrows for themselves; Khory saw a particular charm in Will, as he took him under his wing. He offered Will an apprenticeship in his fathers butchery and slowly began teaching him the ways of the Underworld of Black Bototm. As Will grew into a young man he earned the nickname "Sweet William" a bit of irony, as he was anything but sweet when working for Mr. Khory.
William was a particularly talented Bare Knuckle fighter, he won The Black Bottom Brawl 7 times in his youth, an event in which all the cities gangs and occasionally the town guard fought it out in a tournament to determine certain rulings and truces for the rest of the year. He would return to the Brawl after The founding of Sweet's Meats in his 36th year, becoming the oldest champion in the contest history as well as the fighter to have won the tournament the most times. The press from The Black and White Journal catapulted Sweet's Meats into a household name.
William eventually became second in command to Tommy Khory, and was known as his top enforcer and assassin. The name "Sweet William" struck fear into men, women and children of both the Burrows and The Meat Districts. The Cheeks were moving into the Ports, dealing with a gang called the Scourge Boys, they were smaller and easily crushed under the foot of Khory and Sweet William. But shortly after their takeover of the port, The Bang Syndicate arrived in Andrim from The Elder's Hand and began a full scale assault to take the ports for themselves. Having never encountered firearms before, the Cheeky Bastards were woefully outmatched, experiencing losses on an unprecedented scale; Khory himself was shot and left bedridden.
Khory trusted William to lead the Bastards in his stead, and he did. But instead of attempting to continue fighting the bang syndacite, he brokered a deal with them; take out the Beeker Street Gang and they would be given the ports, with no resistance. This deal infuriated Khory who threatened William with excommunication; William responded by killing Thomas in his bed, as well as his brother and Son. This is when The Bastards and what was left of the Beeker Street Gang were formed under a new banner, and William purchased the orphanage he grew up in, demolishing it to make way for his own Butcher Shoppe, and he purchased the rest of the street with Khory's left over assets; renaming it Cleaver Street.
William took the foundation he built on Khory's bones and created a profitable racketeering business, he set his sights beyond that of the Burrows, he wanted the market district, he wanted to walk the Ivory streets and feel like he belonged there; He aspired to be more than rich, he aspired for power that organized crime could not give him. Within 5 years of founding the butcher shoppe, He was one of the richest men in the city; he invested his fortune into a legitmate buisness venture once again, founding the Dunbar Meat Company and Black Bottom's first Canneries; This lead to the creation and popularization of Sweet's Meats.
William continued building both is legitimate business income as well as his dubious ones, and the Cleaver Street gang became a target for everyone from the lowly Rat Hatters to the devious Kaldo Nostra Crime Family. William wheeled and dealed his way through the politics of the city successfully until he was arrested for the murder of a banker in his 39th year. He was able to hire the best lawyer in the kingdom, and it was discovered that some of the evidence had been fabricated by Scribe S'lesso of The Trade Council of Black Bottom causing the case to be thrown out, and putting the Butcher in a favorable political position from that point forward.
The Butcher of Cleaver Street, owner and operator of Dunbars Meat Market, creator of Sweet's Meats. Notorious crime lord and leader of the Cleaver Street Gang. Public chair holder, and de facto Mayor of the Lower Districts
View Character ProfileSweet's Meats
When Oma oil engines emerged and their practical mechanical use was displayed at The Fair of Infinite Wonders, William was enamored by their potential; he struck a deal with one such engineer to create machines that could pulverize and can meat. William took the trimmings and undesirable bits from the butchery along with cheap grain and fat and created a product called Sweet's Meat. It was cheap, and in a can it could last for years; it quickly became a staple to the impoverished people of the Burrows diets as most could not afford "real" meat. Sweet's Meat became a household name after William was interviewed by Beck Trazmora and was invited to pay for a show wagon in the annual Lunar Solstice Parade; during the parade William gave away thousands of cans of Sweet's Meat to the people of the Burrows and The Ports. Sweet's Meats comes in 5 flavors; Original, Dragon's Breath (its spicy), Onion Vinegar, Garlic Honey and Fish Mash. Garlic Honey is the most popular, it is said that the Butcher himself devised the flavor.
Children
Questions of Lineage
Though it is not known to the public or even William Dunbar himself, it was discovered by The Heroes of Rend that William was the son of a witch named Granny Frogs and the then emperor of Kaldore Fheleaden IV; It is said that The Outcast demanded the Witch abandoned the baby in black bottom, saying that he would be the one to escort black bottom into the future, and so far it would seem the Butcher of Cleaver street is indeed a driving force behind Black Bottom's new industrial revolution.Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
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