Cathy and Roland Rivers met each other whilst protesting the Vietnam war in London during the early 70's. Committed pacifists and environmentalists, they trekked around the world during the 70's and early 80's protesting just about anything topical at the time. However, by the mid-80's, they decided to settle down in Australia, and more specifically Bidawal.

They established a small health food shop that was prominent for selling freshly squeezed juices and wheatgrass. In the 90's, the juice bar market exploded exponentially and Cathy and Roland suddenly found themselves owning the dominant chain of juice bars throughout the city (and some of the surrounding towns).

With their new found wealth came a different perspective. Whilst they still maintain most of their political views, they are now reasonably prominent (and respected) citizens of Bidawal. They have four children, 3 sons and a daughter, the youngest of which they named Gentle Rivers (because as a baby he rarely ever cried).

Gentle, or "Edward" as he prefers to call himself these days was rather quickly identified as being prodigiously intelligent. He completed the primary school curriculum by the age of 10, at which point his parents decided that home schooling might be more challenging. He graduated from high school at 15 and finished his first undergraduate degree (including an honours year) at BEU by the age of 18. He then commenced working on his PhD thesis. Four years later, it still remains unfinished.

Ed is an intelligent and (usually) sensible sort. He is generally easy going and has a natural charm, but spending some of his formative years completing home schooling have left him a bit sheltered. He is well known amongst the BEU academic fraternity as highly intelligent but also somewhat argumentative and difficult. His passion for knowledge (obsession: knowledge) and exploring (sometimes controversial) new ideas has put him at odds with some of the university's professors. His usually calm demeanor will crack when faced with people he considers willfully ignorant (rage passion: ignorance).

Although he has mostly eschewed the lifestyle and trappings of his hippie parents (such as christened name), he still shares their social conscience. He is particularly sensitive to those less fortunate than himself such as the homeless (noble passion: victims).

Eighteen months ago, Edward was working back late at the university library compiling some material for his thesis. It was late and very dark and the library was very, very quiet. Suddely he heard the sound of someone giggling, perhaps a young girl, and decided to investigate. But he was alone on that particular floor. In fact, he was completely alone in the entire library. He checked the time and it was almost 1am - way past closing time! But wherever he walked around the library, he could hear the sound of voices, and giggling - like a child playing. At first he was mostly curious about the sounds, until the giggling started giving way to the sounds of sobbing and then screaming.

At 1.30am in the morning, Edward was found by campus security, hiding under a bookshelf with his eyes closed and his hands over his ears. He kept mumbling "Make the screaming stop. Please make it stop." Since then, he hasn't been back to the library and is officially on hiatus from his studies. Fearing being accused of being crazy and getting expelled from the uni he has kept the incident to himself.