=== Early years ===
Born in [[Fort Cobalt]] on E7-626, Prima 12, Thomas Wight was a through-and-through military brat; both . Both of his parents were members of the First Company, living in the capital city of the Military, bathing in the faction's culture and customs , and spending most of his childhood dreaming of following in his parents' footsteps.
At the age of 18, he joined the Military and famously aced every single basic training exercise. In recognition of his exceptional performance, the young Wight was granted the privilege of choosing which company he wanted to serve in, rather than be being assigned one. The newly-minted Private Wight requested to be part of the 1st Company, 1st Platoon, 1st Squad, citing that he wishes to become "the number one soldier". The request was granted, and in 644, he formally joined the Military as a member of the First Company, 1st Platoon, 1st Squad, serving under Sergeant Zachary Geist.
Wight spent the 26 years that followed quickly proving his talents, rising through the ranks, and gaining the reputation of a skilled marksman, a talented leader, and a relentless soldier, for whom there was no task too great, no monster too big to kill. His successful career is a point of pride, and although almost no-one would argue that he was a bad soldier, he . He had a markedly low opinion of critics and stagnating soldiers and was not afraid , unafraid of calling out what he regarded as "un-soldierly" behavior. In particular, Wight could not stand laziness, thinking of a lazy or stagnating soldier as "equal to a knife with no edge; sharpen it or lose it".
=== Promotion to Captain, and the Ambush ===
By 670, in Prima 18, Colonel Ethan Humbra, the Military leader at the time, Colonel Ethan Humbra had passed away. Zachary Geist, Wight's lifelong superior, by then Captain of the 1st Company, was selected as Humbra's successor and became the new Colonel. In turn, Wight succeeded to Geist as the 1st Company leader, reaching the rank of Captain and finally achieving what was always his childhood objective: to be "the number one soldier of the number one company".
However, just one month later, on Duplima 18, while leading a small group of soldiers on a training exercise in the Northern Zone, Captain Wight is ambushed by a large group of [[activist fighter|youkai activist fighters]] looking for a fight. The exact nature of the dispute is not known, but the prevailing theory is that the activists believed Wight's group to be too close to the Nation's borders. Unsuccessful in his attempt to negotiate his group's departure, one side opened fire on the other, triggering a huge massive gunfight.
Despite being outnumbered four to one, Captain Wight ordered his forces to fall in and fight, but a flashbang grenade detonating inches away from his head caused the Captain to go down, missing most of the fight. The flashbang left the famous burns and scars to on the right side of his head. When he came to his senses again, Wight found the bodies of his subordinates littering the floor, being stripped of their every last clothes and gear by two remaining activists. The sight reportedly filled Wight with indescribable rage. Having lost all his weapons besides his [[KA-BAR|knife]], Wight charged the two activists with it, proceeding to eliminate both of them before they could land a shot on him. He then desperately searched all of the bodies for signs of life to try and find a survivor, but finds only one; Lieutenant Lewis Dunbar, Wight's best friend, and oldest colleague.
Deeply Profoundly changed by the events, Wight described himself as "awakened" by a terrible reality: the existence of a far greater threat to humanity than the regular monsters he's been fighting for the last three decades. This ambush is widely considered to be the turning point in Wight's life, responsible for his sudden support for hardline, anti-youkai measures.
=== Becoming the new Colonel ===
A year later, in 671, Colonel Geist went MIA. Last seen in the Central Zone leaving [[Neo Khazrun]] for [[Nanton]], the Military leader mysteriously disappeared without a trace. Searches and investigations to find his whereabouts are were launched, but after three months, all turned up unsuccessfulafter three months. With Geist MIA and presumed dead, the Military decides to elect a new leader, and . Captain Wight of the 1st Company is selected; he becomes the new Colonel, reaching the apex of his military career. Lieutenant Dunbar, the only other survivor of last year's ambush, is also promoted; he succeeds to Wight as the leader of the 1st Company.
There was no cause for celebration, however; the man had just lost several of his friends in an ambush, and now he had lost his mentor and career-long superior. Embittered and filled with the desire for revenge, Wight's first major decision as the new Colonel is to start a seven-year plan, the '''Great Military Reform'''. Between 671 and 677, several massive changes were enacted, all aimed at increasing the Military's size, reach, and might of the Military. Training programs were modified and patterned after Wight's personal routines, a . A new elite branch of the Military - (the Phantom Forces - ) was founded, four . Four new towns were settled so to create new bases could be built to and house these new elite soldiers, and most shockingly, Fort Cutlass is renamed to [[Fort Wight]]. The faction was changing, being remodeled into the perfect shape that the new Colonel had of it in his mind since first joining.
Perhaps most shockingly, Fort Cutlass was renamed [[Fort Wight]]. Some perceived the renaming as an act of megalomania; others saw a symbol of high morale and proof that he had the Military's complete approval. The faction was changing, being remodeled into the perfect shape that the new Colonel had of it in his mind since first joining. The first strategic plan of this new and improved Military was the re-establishment of Weil-era "harassment patrols". Although soldiers are were explicitly told to avoid entering the Northeastern Zone, they are were once again tasked with searching for activist groups, caravans, couriers, and other people affiliated or protected by activist fighters, and to engage engaging in combat with them on sight. Although Wight enjoyed enough popularity that the new decision was barely questioned by his personnel, outside observers began worrying that the Military's new direction was straying away from its original purpose of defense, in favor of anti-youkai, warmongering rhetoric.
With the death of his last original colleague, Captain Dunbar, in 692, the Colonel became increasingly alone and isolated, restricting his social interactions to the minimum required to keep the Military running.
At the advanced age of 78, Colonel Wight is now an aging, graying man. Although he keeps as physically active as his age allows him to, he has largely withdrawn from the intense training routines he had invented and turned into the new military standard.
It is said that he bides his time, somewhere deep in the city that bears his name, waiting for the right opportunity to finally launch an assault on the Youkai Nation. Time will tell if this opportunity will come during his lifetime.
=== Service history ===
= Personality =
As a lifelong career military man, Thomas Wight is best described as "a soldier's soldier", living . He lives and breathing breathes military life every day of the week, demanding excellence if not perfection from those he works with, and always striving to be the best, regardless of the task at hand. Although he is a skilled shooter and an accomplished monster hunter, with well over fifty years of experience, by far his most important and well-developed talent is leadership. Wight's capabilities only serve to illustrate his ability to inspire and lead others in an orderly and effective manner; so much so, that to the point that many subordinates and colleagues he's had over the years described themselves as "feeling lost" and "inefficient" without Wight around.
Despite his perfectionist approach and his talent for leadershiptalents, Wight is not known for being an overly harsh or unfair leader. He is widely considered to be the "father" of the entire Military, treating all men and women serving under him as his own family.
After the ambush in 670, Wight became markedly colder, more bitter, and so focused, to the point some would even say single-minded and obsessed with the desire for revenge. The personality trait for which he is now most famous for was revealed then: his deep and personal hatred for non-human sapients, [[youkai]] in particular. In Wight's worldview, as long as there are other sapient species than humans in the world, there will always be the potential for a greater, existential threat to humanity, more dangerous than the creatures the military faces every day. Therefore, he firmly believes that fighting the [[Youkai Nation]] is simply part of the Military's mission of protecting the world's towns and communities from the dangers of the Mazes.
Following the Great Military Reform of 671-677, some have expressed the concern that the new Colonel was becoming megalomaniac exhibiting signs of megalomania and trying to build a cult of personality. However, his enduring popularity within the Military's ranks has all but drowned out those concerns.
He is, however, supportive of [[halfling|halflings]], accepting them as equals to humans, and viewing the human purity movement as a group of "delusional fools". This stance is in line with past military leaders since halflings have had first been sighted in the world in 315.