Vampire Council: Lead Hunter
Maximus was raised on a small farm outside Trujillo, Spain. His father taught him the love of Earth and Horses. When he was a young man he saw another having trouble with too large of a horse, and he moves into help without thought. With his training and love for horses, he is able to calm the animal down and comes to the attention of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Commodus offers Maximus a position in his army.
Maximus takes the opportunity and joins the Roman Army.
His own skills and the favors from Marcus Aurelius has him moving up the ranks to General of Felix Legions and Commander of the Armies of the North.
On one of his trips home to Trujillo, his father found him a wife, a local woman named Elena. Maximus courted her properly, soon falling in love with her easily. The two married, and before he returned back to his army, he discovered she was carrying his child. Eight months later he celebrated with his men, the fact he had a son, Alejandro.
In 180 AD, General Maximus Decimus Meridius leads the Roman army to a decisive victory against the Germanic tribes on the frontier, ending a long war on the Roman frontier and winning the favor of elderly Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The emperor is already old and dying, and although he has a son, Commodus, he asks Maximus to succeed him as a regent and turn Rome back into a republic. The emperor speaks with Commodus afterwards and explains his decision, but Commodus reacts by killing him and claiming the throne.
Still in Germania, Maximus is confronted by Commodus, but suspects foul play and refuses to pledge loyalty. General Quintus, captain of the Praetorian Guard and a friend to Maximus, chooses to follow Commodus. He obeys Commodus’s orders and reluctantly sends men to Spain to kill Maximus’s wife and son. Maximus manages to escape his own execution by Praetorians and races back to his home in Spain, but he finds his wife and son already dead. He buries them and collapses. A slave caravan passes by and captures Maximus, assuming that he is a deserter. Maximus is taken to Zucchabar in Roman Africa and sold to a man named Proximo, who uses him as a gladiator.
Proximo, not wanting to lose his most valuable asset, Turns Maximus after one fight where he was injured.