The Jester

The Jester (formerly known only as Charles) is a prominent crime lord in the city of Los Angeles, and one of the most sinister member of The Shroud's rogue gallery. Previously a homicidal maniac who led a group of murderers called "The Family", the Jester has become even more crazy and dangerous after his transformation.

Pre-Mako Champions
Charles was born in South Los Angeles some 30 years before the Mako Champions set off on their first adventure. A single child, he lived with his parents in a neighborhood rampant with crime and violence. His father Richard worked tirelessly to make sure that his son was safe and would grow into a fine young man. His mother Jane, on the other hand, was never home; in fact, for much of Charles' childhood, she had multiple affairs at the same time. Eventually, by the time Charles was 7, his mother walked out on her family, leaving his father to raise the child alone.

For the next 8 years, it seemed as if Richard had successfully raised his son into a respectable young man. Indeed, he had high marks in school, was very popular, and was noted as a kind, intelligent person by many. Unfortunately, on Charles' 16th birthday, a tragedy would strike that would change his life forever. As he was out with his friends that night, his house was visited by a raging drunkard. The man was one of many that Jane cheated on her husband with. He came to Charles' house in order to look for his former girlfriend-however, upon knocking on the door, he was instead greeted by Richard. Under the impression that he was Jane's new boyfriend, the man strangled Richard to death in a drunken rage, then quickly fled the scene. About an hour later, as Charles approached his house, he was shocked to see a crowd of police standing in front of it. One of the officers, noticing Charles, solemnly walked over to him and delivered the grave news: Richard had been murdered. It was at this moment that Charles started walking the path to insanity. His performance in school dropped significantly to the point he became a high-school dropout, he transformed from one of the most popular kids at school to an antisocial youth full of angst, and he became a severe alcoholic.

Once he reached adulthood, Charles got a low-paying job as a garbageman, and would continue to be one for the next 5 years. His life at an all-time low, the 26-year old continued to get drunk almost every day and had no purpose except to retrieve trash from dumpsters. One day, as he was going to go pick up the trash from a dumpster of his local bar, he decided to get out of the truck and get a drink. Inside the bar, he overheard a drunk man blubbering on about something he did 10 years ago. As he listened closer, Charles realized that the drunkard was bragging about killing Richard. It was at this point that the fragile sanity Charles had left finally disappeared. After about 3 hours, the man finally left the bar. Unknown to him, however, was that Charles was following him. The man reached his home and walked inside-never noticing that Charles had slipped in. That night, the once respectable young man murdered the man who killed his father in cold blood. After disposing of the corpse, a vile thought formed in the insanity-driven brain of Charles: killing was fun. With this mindset, Charles quit his job as a garbageman and took on a full-time career of murder. As time went on, the new maniac of Los Angeles recruited several other homicidal-seeking youths as part of his "family" of crime and violence. The atrocities committed by this group would make them feared throughout LA for years to come.

Trivia

 * 1) Charles is based off of the real-life Charles Manson.
 * 2) Originally, Charles was meant to be a minor villain to the Mako Champions that would be gotten rid of shortly after his introduction. However, upon learning of the upcoming Shroud, the creator of Charles decided to transform him and make him into the Shroud's arch-nemesis. According to the creator, "since The Shroud is MC's Batman, I decided to make Charles become MC's Joker."
 * 3) The Jester can actually be connected to 3 stories of Mako Champions: The main roleplay (since he was originally an enemy of the Champions), LA Knights (where he is most relevant and prominent), and Seven (since he was responsible for the crippling of Chrono Youtou, which could possibly be considered the start of the swordsman's downfall and the cause of his transformation into a cyborg).