About

| Senel Coolidge |

| His; P a s t |


War was never very far away living in the village. When Senel was four years old, it came too close. It could have been advancing Gadorian troops, or it could have been the retreating Crusand army wanting to destroy the supply base of a captured area -- Senel doesn't know who was winning the war at that time. What mattered was that soldiers came to the village and set it ablaze. Many people were trapped inside their collapsing houses or put to death when they tried to flee. The last and really only memory Senel has of his parents is of them placing him inside the storm cellar and then disappearing for something else, never to come back


When Senel managed to open the cellar doors and emerge, the village was gone. The fields and houses were razed to the ground. With no food or shelter, the small group of survivors was forced to leave and head on foot across the mountains to a larger town. Senel was very small, and only made it the entire way with the help of an older woman. He barely remembers her now, but knows that without her he probably would have fallen prey to monsters.

Once they reached the town, they joined a refugee encampment with people from many other villages in the area. The woman attempted to care for Senel and some of the other orphaned children in the squalid conditions. Her health was poor, though, and she eventually succumbed to one of the diseases running through the camp and died. Senel was left completely on his own by the age of five. Just one more face in a large number of orphaned children, Senel stole and scrounged food to survive.


Camp conditions were horrible, with food and money very scarce and the main water source, the river, polluted by waste. Many young children died of disease or violence. Senel survived mostly because of his eres, which gave him strength despite being small. At this point, Senel's control over the ability was mostly unconscious, and he used it when he became angry. Senel was often teased and bullied by other children for his size and white hair until he broke the jaw of an older child trying to take food from him. After that, he was left alone —- by bullies and friendlier children alike. Being an eren made him isolated and different.

When Senel was eight the army of Vaclav, third prince of Crusand, came to the village. Somehow Vaclav heard about a young eren among the slum children and arranged for him to be sent to a military training facility. The promise of food was too much for Senel to resist (though he wouldn't have had much choice either way) and there he spent the next few years training his eres and learning to be a soldier. He made a few acquaintances, but no friends—Vaclav's army was not a kind place for anyone, much less a child, and Senel was still shunned for his age, his origin, and his ability which frightened ordinary people.


When Senel was 12, he was given his first mission. His task was to infiltrate the Ferines village Vaclav's intelligence had indicated contained the legendary Merines. Whatever country could claim the Merines' power would have the ability to control the mysterious island-ship called the Legacy, and have weaponry enough to put the entire world on its knees. After gaining the Ferines' trust and gathering as much information as he could, Senel was to take the Merines and return her to Vaclav, or lower the barrier around the village so that soldiers could march in and take her themselves. Senel was brought to just outside the barrier and beaten by the soldiers to give him the alibi of an orphan attacked by bandits. They set a two-month time limit for his return and left him there.