<!-- extra imperials -->
<!-- Doctor, forced to torture -->

<NPCCharacter id="spc_wanderer_empire_10" name="{=cud22JY1}{FIRSTNAME} the Surgeon" voice="ironic" is_template="true" age="31" default_group="Infantry" is_hero="false" culture="Culture.empire" occupation="Wanderer" skill_template="SkillSet.spc_wanderer_empire_10_skills">

<!-- surgeon - forced by intel to torture, guilt-racked -->

<string id="prebackstory.spc_wanderer_empire_10" text="{=rOUaG9iG}I can tell you my story, though it is painful to recall." />
<string id="backstory_a.spc_wanderer_empire_10" text="{=0FHF0OXK}I'm a surgeon. I trained at the imperial academy in {IMPERIALCAPITAL}. I had many rich and influential patients in the town. I thought I was well shielded from the intrigues and dangers of the Empire. " />
<string id="backstory_b.spc_wanderer_empire_10" text="{=pzK7TN05}But one day I was contacted by an agent of the Bureau of Barbarian Affairs. I do not know how well you know them. Their original mission was to keep the foreign tribes divided and weak, but they expanded their remit into all the affairs of the empire, anything that might be deemed a threat. At first they wanted small harmless details about my patients. To do so was a violation of my oath, but I was anxious to have the favor of the Bureau. But soon they began to call on me for more and more." />
<string id="backstory_c.spc_wanderer_empire_10" text="{=sfFLudTM}One time they came at midnight - they had a man who plotted against the Emperor, they said, and they needed a confession, and wished me to use my art to elicit that confession. If I refused, they said, they would disclose our relationship to my patients - I would be ruined. I went with them, to my shame, and what I was asked to do to that man's body -- I shall not repeat it." />
<string id="response_1.spc_wanderer_empire_10" text="{=BIsvfC0x}You too are a victim of the hideous power of the state." />
<string id="response_2.spc_wanderer_empire_10" text="{=hikXX6zE}You broke your oath. It is not surprising that you fell further." />
<string id="backstory_d.spc_wanderer_empire_10" text="{=x50bW6NF}I should have refused - my practice was ruined anyway. To blot out the memory of that night, I took opium, until my pallid face so alarmed my patients that they no longer called on me. So I fled the city, and have wandered from town to town ever since. I would welcome steady work, if I could find it." />
<string id="generic_backstory.spc_wanderer_empire_10" text="{=pya1JSNe}I was a surgeon, trained at the imperial academy. But my home and infirmary were burned in a bout of unrest, and now I must wander the world a bit. There are many of us out there, you know, forced to make what living we can." />