Xian was born on the world of Potsdam. While he bears the Chinese features of the majority of his homeworld, he inherited piercing blue eyes from his paternal grandfather, one of the Germanic soldiers who settled Potsdam following Emperor Gustav Anderman's rise to power. Due to the slightly higher than Earth normal gravity of Potsdam, Xian is well below average height, though the same gravity well left him powerfully built. From a young age, Xian has been interested in one thing only: War. And money. So two things really... Luckily for him, Potsdam's primary export is mercenary troops, highly trained and disciplined in the Imperial academies.
Following his graduation, Xian took service with a raider company known as Tagon's Toughs. While at first work was good, a contract with what turned out to be a psychotic warlord left the company tarred by the same brush. With an undeserved reputation for illegal butchery, the Toughs could only find work in the most distant and dangerous battlefields. While there were some decent missions, including a raid on a pirate base which scored Xian his personal suit of Combat Armor, the Toughs found themselves surrounded and betrayed during the midst of an extremely bloody civil war. Xian was one of the few survivors; after spending months living behind enemy lines, he managed to contact a neutral merchant who smuggled him out [Step's character]. Returning to Potsdam, his skill and experience quickly found him a position in another mercenary company, Hammer's Slammers. As before, work was good, and Xian even got into a good relationship with one of the company medics, though it was not to last. During a prolonged siege a few years later, the explosion which landed Xian in the hospital killed his lover. It was while he was recuperating in the hospital that Agent Simms approached him with an offer to join the crew of a small armed ship; with too many memories tied into his time with the Slammers, Xian decided a change of pace might be good for awhile.
