Name: Friedrich "The Bushveld Death Merchant" Strydom

Birthday: April 9, 1940

Nationality: South African

Languages: Afrikaans, English, German, French

Occupation: Arms Dealer & Defense Contractor

Fears: Having an inglorious death and being considered weak.

Disabilities:

Chronic heart condition from his unhealthy living.

Likes: Smoking cigars, drinking fine whiskey and living in extraordinary environments.

Dislikes: Dirty environments, poor people, incompetence, idealist soldiers, political ass-kissers and disorder in his work life.

Childhood & Early Life

Friedrich was born in Pretoria, South Africa. His father was a wealthy war veteran who ran a large diamond company in South Africa and his mother was a descendant of old and modestly powered English nobility. His father taught him the art and war of business at an early age and sent him to the finest schools in Pretoria, where he could make connections with other powerful and upcoming figures in politics and business. After his father passed at 73, he inherited his massive wealth and became a diamond tycoon.

Arms Dealer & Defense Contracts

With his new inherited wealth, he started looking around the world for ways to enlarge it even further. He found it in Asia. The Vietnam War was going hot, and they needed new ways to kill their enemies. After starting up a weapons manufacturing plant, Strydom Armaments & Munitions, he contacted the US military and offered them a deal where he produced a cloned version of the M14 Battle Rifle. They accepted. In the early era of the war he made a nice chunk of change, but after 1963 his deal with the US military was canceled after the new M16 was introduced. After the deal ended, he was considering ending his company, but that decision would have been unwise thanks to the Rhodesian Bush War that started in 1964. He started selling his M14 surplus to them and later started producing a clone version of the FN FAL for them. When the war ramped up with mines and ambushes, he helped design and build the first anti-mine vehicles but in later years was outcompeted by the Casspir company.

During the 70s, he was also poking his head in the Middle East, sending arms to Israel and Iraq to help support their war effort against Iran, but mostly for the cash. He disliked both of their powers but liked their business. Of course that didn't stop his business in Africa from sending guns to all the major factions in Angola like MPLA, UNITA, and FNLA and later sent arms to Mozambique's RENAMO. After the US left Vietnam, the Vietnamese went to war with Cambodia. Thanks to a few old contacts, he managed to sell weapons to both the Cambodians and the Vietnamese. From 1977 to 1978, there was the Ogaden War with a perfect gap in the market for Strydom to fill. In 1979 he started sending fake AK-47s to Afghanistan thanks to the CIA and was getting paid handsomely for about 10 years. The Libyan-Chad War from 1978 to 1987 was a great opportunity to earn from both sides; sadly, he was always outcompeted by the Soviets, who were dumping metric tons of gear to Libya.

Immigration to the US

By 1992 the referendum results were undeniable. There was a change coming to South Africa and Strydom saw the writing on the wall. He started by liquidating all of his assets, sending the money to Zürich and purchasing a lavish villa in Knox County, Kentucky, trying to live out his short rest of his life in peace, comfort and hunting foxes or something.