Headcanons

Full name: Major Alexei Nikolaevitch Kalashnikov
Birthplace: Kharkiv, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine
Birthday: December 11th
Known relatives: Anya Kalashnikova (née Pavlichenko) (mother); Nikolae Kalashnikov (father, deceased)

Alexei Nikolaevitch Kalashnikov came into the world just months before chaos consumed his homeland and claimed the life of his father. From his first days, he had never known life without the rattle of gunfire and the whistling of mortars overhead, and with such a history, it may seem rather befitting that he would grow up to be the Bullet Farmer. But many children began life under similar conditions; a good chunk of them never lived to see their first birthday.

While luck certainly played a role in his survival, his ability to thrive in the Wasteland came down to an advantage no other child had. The Bullet Farmer had the good fortune of being born to Anya Kalashnikova, a woman every bit as loving to her child as she was ruthless toward the outside world.

Her attentive care and bravery sustained him as she sought to escape her hometown and bring her son to a better life where her parents had made their new home years prior — Sydney, Australia. It took seven years from the time of Alexei’s birth to reach their destination, but Anya believed all those sacrifices to be worth it, a thought that would become dubiously true in the future. Despite his difficult start in life, Alexei managed to have an idyllic childhood in Sydney, even if he did endure some degree of culture shock.

Many of these misunderstandings came from his upbringing. Anya prioritized teaching him self-defense and survival over standard pro-social skills. And as Alexei grew, he found himself drawn toward a career path that seemed tailored to his particular skill set: service in the military.

He rose through the ranks during the Oil Wars and Water Wars, eventually earning the rank of Major by the time the world fell. And when the Wasteland’s hierarchy came under the rule of the most brutal and violent men left breathing, Alexei’s upbringing left him uniquely well equipped to dominate the new world. But this very same boldness and bloodlust would be his undoing — a fact that haunts Anya to her dying breath.