Mateo Cardoso, District 10
"Heaven ain't close in a place like this,"
The Killers, Somebody Told Me
War was brewing.
It was an election year. Those were always bad news in Panem.
Victors, gamemakers, even regular citizens choosing sides, pitting brother against brother and friend against friend. The great race of Cardew versus Snow was looking to change the nation forever.
Mateo Cardoso knew who he was siding with. Snow was a tyrant, and while Cardew was no better, rumor was that Barker Rowland, rebel extraordinaire, was backing her. Maybe it had something to do with their illicit activities between the sheets of Cardew's exquisite manor, and maybe it didn't, but any chance to save the nation from the monsters that butchered Mateo's parents was one that he would jump at without a second thought.
The moment that changed Mateo's life forever happened when he was seventeen, just three days after he'd won the Hunger Games. Mateo had been walking home like it was just another day, when he heard a scream from inside his house. He'd ran in, terrified of what he would find.
His fear was well founded.
There were two peacekeepers in his living room.
His parents were dead on the couch.
Mateo knew why they were killed. The peacekeeping chief of Ten's daughter was his district partner. She'd also tried to kill him.
He'd killed her.
Personal vendettas were dangerous in Panem. Especially from those in power. Mateo's parents knew that quite well.
So say what you want about the ludicrousness of Barker's plan. Say what you want about it's likelihood of success. Mateo was behind it, no matter what the cost was.
Another short one, and this time for a much bigger victor than Orion or Alec. Mateo played one of the bigger roles in 40th Hunger Games of the first decade of victors, simply because it was his own tribute who won. Mateo's parents being murdered definitely traumatized him, but by no means did it break him. Barker's plan may not have succeeded, but Mateo wasn't beaten, not by a long shot. Next up is the third and final major career founder, after Caspian and Orion. She wasn't mentioned in 40th Hunger Games, but she's quite the character all the same.