Simon Williams

Name:	Simon Williams
Occupation:	Software Developer, Hobby Farmer
Home:	Southern Michigan
Gender:	Male
Age:	42
Height:	6'0"
Abduction Date:	~May 2014
Alliances:	His Team

Simon Williams is a software developer and hobby farmer who lives in Southern Michigan. He begins the race on the planet of Offworld alone, with only himself and God along for the journey. But then, over time, he picks up five other team members, including Trevor Thompson, Ariana Peterson, Birash, Yurg and Alexander Baker. All of the members of his team, save only for Birash, start out their time with him as atheists, but each gets saved along the way, save only for Yurg. Also, despite being a Software Developer, Simon is an experienced and highly skilled woodsman and farmer, having received lots of training in these skills as a child. His spiritual gift is teaching, of which he is very good at, even though he very humbly denies that he has any real gift for it. While being a leader is not one of his gifts, he proves to be very good at this, and even promises to those under his care that, God willing, he will do all he can to ensure that everyone makes it to the end, alive, and in one piece. Or, at the very least, alive.

His Offworld Journey

Simon arrives on the planet, completely to his surprise, after leaving work late one night. Immediately, while at the Reception Center he meets Trevor Thompson who, after a brief and rocky relationship, they become good friends and trail partners. He even leads Trevor to salvation, and loves on him like his own son, even though Simon is single, and never been married. In fact, he's never even had a date. Not that he didn't want to, but simply because God chose for him to remain single for very important reasons. Later on he meets Aria, who joins the group, followed by Birash, Yurg and Alex, the latter of which join the team after Simon, Trevor and Aria have a run-in with the local bandits of the 1st hextant, which are ruled by Orbus, the bandit king.

Later on in their journey Simon learns the local language of Bonisi, and becomes surprisingly fluent in it. Simon is also a very strong Christian, and because of this he initially gains the ire and disdain of the demon Sheobaal, who spends countless days trying to find ways to kill him. However, God, through the angel Caleb, and his legion of angels, work diligently to protect Simon and his team from him. But, despite this protection, there are times when Simon suffers severely for his faith, including receiving a severe, debilitating being at the hands of Narcella's guards in the land of Venodor. Simon's strong faith in God is what sustains him throughout his journeys on the planet of Offworld. When the team initially receive a gift of horses, he takes possession of the oldest, which he names Caesar, who later suffers a debilitating illness, forcing Simon to put him down, after which he takes possession of Tiny as his primary steed.

History

Simon was born on a small family farm in 1972 near the city of Marshall, Michigan, not far from the village of Marengo, to a farming family and is the fourth of seven siblings. Growing up they raised corn, wheat, oats and soybeans, and had a fair sized herd of cows, which they milked, as well as a sizable collection of chickens, which they raised for eggs and meat. As he grew he was exposed to both modern and traditional farming techniques, as well as woodsmanship, tanning (via an old Chippewa man), horse care (via the Amish), woodland survival (Boy Scouts), and may other things. When he graduated from High School he enrolled in Michigan State University (MSU) in their agricultural program. However, in his first year there he fell in love with computers and switched majors to information systems, transferring his education to University of Michigan (UofM) where he received a degree in computer science. After this he went to work for IBM for a time before moving down to Texas to work for a company there named Techsys (no pun intended), where he had the unique opportunity to work in software development while studying under several prominent bible teachers from Dallas Theological Seminary, receiving more or less the same training that the seminarians were getting in the process of that.

Afterwards he moved to Lansing, Michigan to work for a small startup company there. Upon moving back to the state, he bought a small hobby farm of about 120 acres, and began raising chickens, horses, cattle, sheep, goats and a limited number of crops, mostly for his own use, or to help offset the costs of the farm. The farm rarely makes a profit. But, as long as it pays for itself, Simon is satisfied.

Acquisitions

At Node Zero he retrieves a bible (King James), a survival knife (US Army Issue) and a Navigator Compass. His next acquisition, aside from food, which is a regular item that he collects periodically, is a poncho. Not long after that he picks up a bow, with quiver and arrows and begins using these for hunting, bow fishing and self defense. It's at this node that he requests for it to give him a holographic menu to use rather than the voice activated method he'd been using previously. To his surprise, it grants that to him, after which he uses that almost exclusively the remainder of the race. Later on he picks up a mess kit to make eating meals easier, and a pair of binoculars.