Origins

Alex Karolyi was born in Hungary on 3 January 1986. He is aged 26 on Crystal Day. He claims to descend from Count Mihály Ádám György Miklós Károlyi de Nagykároly (1875 – 1955) who was briefly Hungary’s Prime Minister and then President in 1918-19 during a short rare spell of democracy. Many people question whether this story is true, however.

Childhood

Alex was the eldest child of a small import/export wine merchant in Budapest who was too busy trying to save his failing business to give Alex any time. His mother was a neurotic woman of Austrian descent who was too busy trying to cope with her anxieties to look after Alex.

As a child Alex remembers constantly crying for his mother. When he realised that she was not going to look after him, at about the age of eight, he decided he must take care of himself. This determination was sealed when his father’s business collapsed, his mother committed suicide and Alex was left to look after his six brothers and sisters.

Street Life

From that moment he devoted himself to making money. Initially he sold newspapers on the streets of Budapest, rarely going to school. His life on the streets soon led him into petty crimes and eventually into buying and selling drugs.

Entrepreneur

He was rescued from this decline on one of his rare trips to school where an inspiring teacher, recognising his natural talent and intelligence, taught him how to program a computer one afternoon. From that moment Alex was inspired with the idea of starting a programming business. He soon wrote a successful program, gave up the drugs business and started a company.

SciSofta

He now runs more than ten companies, all based in Eastern Europe. His ambition is to be a millionaire within the next year. His Hungarian software company not only wrote Atlantis (the programme the ATLAS scientists use to visualise particle events) but also all the simulations in the Globe and the Microcosm.

Personality

Until he met Marianne, Alex had a butterfly personality, flitting from woman to woman, from one new scheme to another, never spending much time or energy on anything. Like most extroverts he seems unable to commit himself to any one thing, incapable even of devoting his attention to anything for very long. He is fun-loving and does not hesitate to indulge himself in the pleasures of life, and for this he needs as much money has he can get.

He is a risk-taker but he always tries to calculate the risk first. He is charming, especially with women, but his laid-back appearance is deceptive. He is capable of extremely hard work, especially when a deadline is looming.

Physical Appearance

He has thick long black hair above a sun-tanned face in which nestle two beautiful dark-chocolate eyes. He is fully aware of their power of women. His lips are thick and sensuous, his nose not too large, and his body is tall and muscular, although his hands are surprisingly small. He always dresses for summer, even in the middle of winter, and almost always wears sunglasses except when he wants to unleash those eyes on a new victim.

His voice is deep, languid and as sensuous as a water-snake. He wears musk-based aftershave.