naib subedar
mercenary
introduction
Naib Subedar, or the Mercenary, is one of 27 Survivors currently featured in Identity V.
Although not tall and physically strong, Naib is like most Gurkhas, and the rugged terrain has trained their strong body and indomitable spirit. Naib used to be a mercenary for the East India Company, but because he believed in the idea of equality for human beings, his dislike of war reached its peak and refused to sell for the British. He then became a free mercenary, but he has long since left his bloodthirsty life after retirement. Perhaps a dangerous game can give him the same experience on the battlefield?
atttributes
Naib Subedar is a strong-willed man, and operates with a strong sense of shielding his teammates from harm, often bodyblocking hits from the hunter for them with his enhanced durability. As a former soldier, he takes on the role of a protector for others around him, always striving to help out and keep his own issues under wraps.
To those that are unfamiliar or not yet acquainted with him, he may come off as dark, reserved and brooding; making friends is not his forte, as he'd rather only interact with others when necessary. However, once he's around people he's comfortable with, Naib is rather rowdy and enjoys bantering with his friends, often cursing and joking around.
below the surface
Naib carries a lot of physical and emotional trauma from his Gurkha days. His body is littered with scars across his arms, legs and torso, presumably from the battlefield which he used to face every day. While it is not official, I imagine him to have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), low self-esteem and anxiety, with the former drawing from his experiences as a soldier and the latter deriving from those, along with the addition of separation and abandonment issues.
Naib has always learnt from a young age to suppress his emotions, and thus has never been able to find a healthy method of coping with his issues. Having to take on an incredible amount of responsibility so early on in his life, helping others comes as second nature to him, and more often than not, his own needs are left alone in favour of tending to those of others. This led to him developing a rigid personality as he grew older, with a particular desire in his actions to assist others. Failing to do so in any situation, despite it having been out of his control, will fill him with a sense of despair and worthlessness, thus feeding further into his bottled-up emotions.
One of the various entries in his deductions mentions a fallen fellow soldier that was lost before Naib's very eyes. This may be the event that in my reasoning, perpetuates into the diagnosis of his PTSD and abandonment issues. Losing a comrade who appeared to be very close with him as well as his survivor's guilt would certainly prove to be an incredibly traumatic experience, thus allowing mental health issues to take root and plague the mercenary for years after his departure from the army. His deductions also allude to the fact that he has been responsible for many deaths, which may also add to his trauma of war. It is also mentioned that his decoding is slower than other survivors due to him being scarred from the effects of war, which is a painfully obvious symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Contrary to his rugged appearance, Naib possesses a surprising amount of hope; an accessory description alludes to his belief in fireflies being harbingers of magic and wonder, perhaps indulging in his desire to reminisce a time before all the pain and suffering he has withstood. It is this beautiful innocence amidst all the hardship within him that draws in so many people to admire and care for him — a flower bud that blooms in barren wasteland after a war.
