Raul didn't even really hate anyone, and still, he spent an awful lot of time thinking about why exactly that was. The things he'd seen, experienced, and lived through were enough to incite hate in any man, to be sure, but Raul was only a man some of the time. The rest of it, he was a force of Nature. And Nature doesn't hate: it culls.
He hadn't had much of any formal schooling, but then who had? What he did learn, though, resonated deeply. On some level, the concepts seemed to make intuitive sense. He'd seen enough of the way the world worked by the time he was grown to have internalized the idea: the lucky survive, and being strong gives you better odds. Nothing was every certain, though, even for the strong.
Raul was born and grew up just outside of a relatively-forgotten South American small city, which had at some recent point in its history been mostly turned into a rather unremarkable crater. Their small community and a smattering of others like it managed to survive by scavenging what little remained of the city and hunting the local fauna. Farming did little for them, and most didn't bother-- something about the land just didn't suit crops. Fortunately though, their community was removed enough from the population centers that they didn't often get visitors, and rarely paid taxes or tribute. Every so often though, a warlord would consolidate power semi-locally -usually by joining together two or more of the roving bands of bandits- and extract what they wanted from what little the surrounding communities had. This oppression rarely last lasted long though, and in his youth Raul could only remember 2 or 3 different leaders who'd managed to ascend to such a role. Neither lasted a full year. With unstable politics and inconsistently available resources, it was hard for anyone to gather much of a hold on anyone else.
Despite the odds, as only about half of his peers made it to adulthood, Raul matured to full age free of any serious ailments or incidents. Soon after, though, a new and terrifying warlord appeared- a Gifted. No one knew where she came from, but within 4 weeks she'd either rallied as allies, or wholly taken over all of the separte bands of pirates. Raul's village had no plans to resist. They'd taken on refugees from surrounding towns who spoke of villages completely razed after trying to protest their overtaking. No one even knew their foe's name, and yet, realistically, they had no hope.
When the vanguard showed, with the Gifted at the head, Raul found himself rounded up and placed in line in front of a firing squad- it seemed they intended to set a tone with some quick and unprompted slaying of citizens. Raul closed his eyes and braced for impact...BANG!
The noise came, and all around him people cried out and fell dead, but Raul did not. He felt the bullets hit him, but they didn't pierce his skin- they didn't even bruise him. Shocked, he cried out, and as he did, clouds came into being, seemingly from nowhere, blinding everyone. Unable to see, panic set in. Lightning followed, striking down the marauders with impugnity, their leader included. Raul found himself travelling throughout the cloud unseen, taking the form of lightning itself as he kept a safe distance from the Warlord while the storm took its toll. When it was all over, many of the people he'd known were dead- bullets fired wildly in the cloud no doubt- but so were all the pirates. Raul unsure of what was happening, Raul found that he didn't feel scared, or uncomfortable. He felt at peace.
Soon after, a delegation from Athens showed up, intending to give the Ultimatum to the Warlord. They were surprised to find her dead, and at Raul's hand no less. They gave The Ultimatum to him instead, and he accepted their terms, accompanying them to Greece, intent on using his gifts to prevent such attrocities from happening elsewhere.
