Plaek Phibunsongkhram or Phibun is a Thai military officer with the rank of Field Marshal and current president of the Republic of Thailand.
Biography[]
Born in 1897, the Grand Marshal was given the name "strange" as a young boy - few could predict how prophetic this title would come to be, as he now rules over a Thailand unrecognizable from all those years ago. Decades of grooming the Thai nation to fit his idealized image has led Plaek Phibunsongkhram to this moment - opulent, prosperous, yet woefully out of time.
Plaek sits as the Pater Patriae, at the helm of almost thirty years of brutal modernization and cultural rejuvenation programs. Championing the successes of fascist movements in Europe, Plaek emulated it's deeply authoritarian nationalism by taking inspiration from Italy's Duce and Germany's Führer to rival the European empires encircling the underdeveloped nation. If anyone is responsible for dragging Thailand into the modern day, kicking and screaming, it is Plaek Phibunsongkhram, who did so with ideological conviction and martial abandon.
Having involved Thailand in the violent and bloody uprooting of European colonialism across Asia in Japan's nationalist coalition, Phibun's public support grew in zeal. Yet, the passing of the 'Patriarch Charter' - abolishing the monarchy and assuming sovereign power - had prompted others to finally draw out their daggers in the dark.
The Grand Marshal's ailing health degenerates; the people ask more questions of the future - will he live long enough for him to answer them?