Difference between revisions of "Roman Sionis"

Latest revision as of 07:05, 29 December 2012

Roman Sionis was born to wealthy parents in Gotham about four or five years before the boyish face of Gotham, Bruce Wayne. His father ran the profitable Janus Cosmetics company, and his mother was the stereotypical trophy wife. A serious child, Roman despised his parents' shallowness; they played doting parents to the public and media and ignored him in private, leading their own separate lives. They also befriended the parents of Bruce Wayne to gain business contracts and further their own public image, to the point that they even forced Roman to befriend the young Wayne. His parents' hypocrisy led to an abiding distrust in people and to anti-social behaviour, which would later result in his being sent to a private boarding school as a young teen.

Despite his distrust and dislike of his parents, Roman applied himself to his studies in a vain effort to prove himself worthy of their attention and love. He wrote letters home to no effect, until the daughter of one of his former tutors wrote him on the insistence of her mother, who felt sympathy for the young man. At first he was coldly polite in his responses, but his craving for attention led to a sustained correspondence and later a romance which slowly blossomed upon his leaving school four years later, somewhat based upon his manipulation of the girl's feelings.

Roman proved adept at literature (he published a short book of poetry at 16), languages (he is fluent in five and conversational in four more), chemistry, and biology in his secondary schooling, and in post-secondary, he excelled at business management and psychology in addition to furthering his previous strengths. However, it did not garner him what he wanted from his parents, who continued to ignore him, and when they did not, belittle him in relation to Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen. The final blow to his desire to please his parents came when he announced that he was marrying the tutor's daughter; his parents vigorously opposed the idea and threatened to cut him off from his inheritance and the company. Not content with merely telling him he could not marry the girl, his parents fabricated an affair on his part, and his fiancée left him, mailing his engagement ring back to him. Devastated and in a murderous temper, Roman left on a world tour of his own, making ties with the Gotham mafia and other gangs, as well as other organized crime rings across the world.

Upon his return, his parents' reputation was in shambles, following a series of 'leaks' about their clandestine activities and a tutor's tell-all book about how they had treated their staff and Roman himself. The pressure did not let up, either. Janus Cosmetics was nearly bought out by a rival company after leaks emerged about testing practices, and Roman engineered an affair between his mother and a rival. Throughout all of this, Roman's own reputation remained unblemished, though he never lied about his antipathy toward his parents. Roman's revenge left his father in prison where he was murdered by a former employee, and led his mother to commit suicide. Last, but not least, Janus Cosmetics was in his hands, as president and CEO of the company.

He devoted his time to restoring its reputation, leading to a number of savvy investments in a start up pharmaceutical company (now known along with the cosmetics company as Janus Enterprises) and a marketing campaign that has made the company an internationally recognised company, with the main slogan, “Put Your Best Face Forward”, a household term in North America. Most recently, he has been contacted by William Glenmorgan of Queen Industries, having been offered the position of CEO of the larger company; an offer Roman accepted. There is rampant speculation as to who will take the helm of Janus Enterprises in his absence.