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Chase was the first born of six siblings in a successful and rather political merchant's house, doted on by his parents but very often also given the most responsibility of them all. As a child he showed a great aptitude for mathematics and athletics, and so quickly went into the study of math and accounting, along with the study of the art of fencing on the side. During his late teens and early 20s, he decided he wanted to not just study but experience supply-chain management, so for at least a couple of years he worked manual labor, from spice farming to dockworking to cooking, trying to absorb first-hand a single product as it went from raw material to final product. It was also during this time that he honed his fencing in his spare time, winning Port Omenal Fencing Champion three years in a row!
Something of a ladies man in his 20s, he earned a reputation as a shrewd businessman, with rumors of dark dealings and a string of broken hearts left in his wake, But as he got closer and closer to the end of this decade in his life, he began to grow much more matured, finding a focus in building and growth and progress. He enhanced the stature of Stevens Enterprises, the family merchant shipping business, with the advent of several cost-saving procedures that increased the efficiency and reputation of the company. This, and some background actions by a highly motivated and well-connected mother Isabella, caused the Baroness Isolde Claremont Lieberman to notice him and promote him to Lord of Omenal after a vacancy was created by the demotion of the once-Noble Silenus Family.
As Lord of Omenal, Chase started implementing much of what he had learned through his life to date, focusing heavily on the infrastructure of Port Omenal and the surrounding lordship, improving roads and bridges, making the whole lordship a more efficient place to get in and out of. As more people started steering business towards Omenal for its ease, the lordship's treasury grew with taxes, and he continued to roll that back out into making a better Omenal and improving the lives of the people at large.
With the disappearance of Baroness Lieberman, he was noticed by the Duke and Duchess Draught and was thus promoted again, from Lord of Omenal to Baron Regent Destine for the still-minor Grant Lieberman. Here he began to shine, extending his notions of efficiency and promoting business and keeping out of its way into Moria. It wasn't long though before disaster struck. The Great Schism hit Draught Hard, with an entire section of its Southern Coastline falling into the sea. This completely destroyed Port Omenal, rendering its coastline completely incapable of handling another port, and cleaving much of that new infrastructure into a disconnected and jagged mess.
Chase refused to sit on his duff as everything went to hell around him, however. Once the immediate crisis was handled, he went straight to work with rebuilding. Realizing that Port Omenal could never be rebuilt, he started working on the repair of Star's Landing in Moria, a long-forgotten port village close to the late Port Omenal that was often referred to as the 'also-ran' that lost the race against its greater brother in Omenal. It shared the same current system, and he could see the same potential with it that Port Omenal once had. This began the on-again, off-again feud with Baron Miller's Isle to the North, who seized opportunity with both hands and started maneuvering his still-intact shipyards at Tinker's Bench into direct competition with the overwhelmed Star's Landing. Chase refused to admit defeat however, and as Miller's Isle started negotiations to open their port to Outer Barrier Traffic, Chase managed to get Star's Landing into the running to take over the domestic traffic. Even when the focus of port operations continued to flow towards the Bench, with the help of his Chamberlain, the inestimable Solphin Acaran, she secured the lumber necessary to complete repairs at the Landing and Chase managed to successfully fend off attempts by the Bench to seize or divert it elsewhere.
After the 'Lumber Incident' as it became known to some, the Duke and Duchess decided that they wanted to put Chase into a new and unique position closer to the Ducal Seat. Demoting him in the Nobility back to Lord Omenal to avoid much specter of impropriety, they also promoted him into the Ducal Cabinet to the position of Lord of the Exchequer, placing him in charge of Budget and Treasury matters. Part of the reason for this was so that he could take charge of more Draught-wide projects, including one that he had promoted as Baron Regent, the new Draught Highway System, meant to reconnect the lost roads on the new southern coast from Elixir Vitae through Ethos and Destine, and eventually strengthen and modernize all the roads throughout Draught, expanding his successful concepts of efficiency and better infrastructure to the whole Isle.
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