A tall, slender man with a healthy musculature that reveals itself when he flexes to do work.  Short brown hair, and often a close-cropped beard.  Some gray and white whispers of his age, but time has not yet dulled his capabilities or ruined his looks.  Expressive eyes convey mirth, sadness, or ire with equal ease and thorough intensity.  Seldom seen without his Lancaster pistol at his side, or his Lancaster rifle strapped to his horse, a black mare called Ember.

Reputed to be capable at his trade and honest in his dealings, there is nonetheless the hint of something impure about him.  His departure from England is whispered to be somehow marred by dishonorable conduct, as surely so skilled a smith with so much fine equipment would not be found so far from home and so deep into the frontier without some reason for it.  He can enjoy a laugh and a play on words, but also become serious as a stroke from one moment to the next.  He is well-mannered but not always good-tempered, seeming to have little patience for insulting behavior.

Roland keeps his true name, believing himself far enough from home that his troubles can't follow him.

Roland is a Gunsmith and Gun dealer who runs a small shop in town which is built into the ground floor of his home.   He was trained in England beside one of the world's best gunsmiths.

Riding - Roland knows how to ride a horse fairly well and under most conditions.  

Shooting - Roland is a poorer shot than most, but has a steady hand when he decides to lay down fire.  He prefers shotshells to slugs due to the spread that might earn him a hit when he might otherwise miss.  

Brawling - Roland was in a lot of fights as a youth, and learned to give and take a punch quite well.

Gunsmithing - Roland is a world-class gunsmith and is trained as a custom gun-maker.   His experience with lockwork and machining gives him a fair understanding of most machinery, from steam engines to clocks.  But not at professional level.

Education - Roland was well educated in England and has a broad scope of knowledge about literature and the world.  Less so about life on the frontier, although he is learning.

Roland is the illegitimate son of Charles Lancaster, famed British gunsmith.  His mother was Beatrice Smith, the daughter of a minor noble who was disinherited due to the dishonor of her pregnancy.  

1835 - Roland Horatio Smith is born to Beatrice Victoria Smith.  She gives birth at her family's holiday home on the Isle of Wight, far from the prying eyes of society.

1836 - Roland's mother Beatrice is disinherited by her father, Sir Arthur Smith, due to the dishonor she brought to her family.  She is able to keep personal jewelry and uses the careful sale of these jewels to support herself and her son.  She is 'graciously' allowed to live at the family vacation home until Roland is ten years of age.

1840 - Potato blight comes to the Isle of Wight.  Many farmers move away and Beatrice is able to secure an inexpensive country home.

1845 - Roland is sent to a boarding school near London, The Vermilion Academy, where he is given a proper British education.  Beatrice convinces Lancaster to pay for this expensive education.  As a bastard, Roland had a rough time and was frequently bullied, beaten, and mocked.  The experience would toughen him, but also leave a wound at the core of his being.

1853 - Roland graduates from the Vemillion Academy one month before it is consumed in a fire.  His mother sadly died before she could attend his graduation.  The Academy would never re-open.  He seeks out his father in the hopes of securing an apprenticeship.  His father gives him minor duties surrounding the gunmaking trade, and gradually Roland learns every aspect of gun-making over the subsequent years.

1860 - Roland accompanies his father, great gunmaker Charles Lancaster, working as a 'finisher' in the workshop.  His father invents the 'Oval' rifling system which would go on to be used in all Lancaster firearms for the rest of the man's life.

1876 - Charles Lancaster's gunsmithing operation had achieved sufficient renown that the work was more than could be done in a single shop.  Henry Thorn, an apprentice of his father, was to be set up in an expansion smithing shop which he would manage independently. 

Roland had hoped to become his father's chief apprentice at the new shop, but learned he was going to be laid off instead, in favor of Thorn who would apprentice with his father and manage many of the business affairs. 

Roland's last duty would be overseeing the movement of a substantial amount of equipment to the new shop.  Unfortunately, robbers attempted to steal the equipment.  There was a fight, as the Lancaster group refused to surrender equipment worth thousands of pounds.  Two workers were slain, but Roland managed to kill three of the robbers and drive the rest off with the help of the survivors.  

This is when Roland hatched a plot, in the aftermath of the crisis.  He bribed the surviving workers to deliver the goods to a storage facility but to tell everyone everything had been stolen.  Then he had the expensive equipment loaded onto a ship upon which he'd booked passage to America.  By the time the authorities caught on to the deception, Roland was long gone with thousands of pounds worth of gunsmithing and gunmaking equipment. 

His father, not wanting this matter looked into too deeply lest it be discovered that the thief was actually his son, covered the expense of the loss and supported the false public story that the goods had been stolen by robbers.  It is unlikely that anyone is pursuing Roland for the crime.

Roland arrived in America and decided he'd open his own shop on the frontier (just in case someone was pursuing him, being in the West would make it doubly unlikely he'd be found.)  He did nothing to conceal his name or identity, gradually feeling he'd merely claimed his proper birthright and inheritance, rather than been guilty of thievery.  Or so he tells himself.

In the fall of 1876, he arrived in Oakdale with his ill-gotten goods and enough money to buy a small piece of property.  The train goes no further.  He's bought a horse, and hired a wagon.

Soon, he'll be fully his own man, making what he can of himself on his own merits...

Roland is typically armed with two weapons.  A Lancaster four-barreled pistol in .577 Snider and a four-barreled rifle in the same caliber.  These weapons will also accept 24 gauge brass cartridge shotshells, which is what he employs to give him a bit of spread to make up for his lack of pinpoint accuracy.  The weapons are worth hundreds of pounds, although few on the frontier are likely to know what they are, exactly.  

In addition to his shop/home and machining equipment, he owns a black mare named Ember.