A quiet man with a strong sense of duty, but Rude was not always his chosen name. He was born Aiden Rudinski. Aiden grew up in Mt. Coral but when he was eight, the family moved to Midgar to look for work. Mako was beginning to take over the energy market and coal wasn’t as profitable anymore. His parents opened up a sundries shop in the Wall Market and worked their way up to a larger location in the heart of Sector Eight. His parents still run the shop to this day.

Aiden had always been the more reserved one out of his two older brothers and little sister. Hoping to make him more outgoing, his father enrolled him in a local dojo after they relocated to Midgar. His demeanor didn’t change, but he took to the martial arts lesson like a fish to water. A year passed when a traveling master came to visit the dojo. He told the students that he was searching the world for young and aspiring martial artists to train. He would chose only one individual from each school around the globe and they would get private lessons with the master.

Excited students lined up to show the man what made them the one he should choose and one by one, he passed them over. Aiden had taken a seat off to the sidelines of the training room floor. There he meditated for some time before the instructor called his name. But lost in thought, he could not hear the man. The instructor called again, this time using the nickname he had given the quiet boy, a slight play on his last name. “Rude! You’re up!” Aiden quietly stood and walked to the center of the room. Once there, he struck a difficult martial arts pose and proceeded to hold his position. The traveler waited but Aiden did not budge. He held the position for fifteen minutes and would have continued to do so if the instructor hadn’t rushed over and ordered him to relax.

He did so and the instructor apologized profusely for the child’s behavior. Having made his decision, the man held up his hand and announced that ‘Rude’ would become his student. The instructor was astounded, but pleased. The students left the room, leaving only Aiden and the man. He told Aiden his name was Zangan and that he would begin his training tomorrow, but that he needed to continue this lessons with the dojo as it would be three months between lessons. Aiden told Zangan his real name, but he only laughed and said he would keep calling him ‘Rude’ if it was alright. Aiden agreed and it was probably one of the only times his smile was genuine.

Through training with Zangan, Rude met several other gifted martial artists from around the world. Two in particular would be people who he would run into later in life: Morgan Narshe, a young woman from Icicle, and Tifa Lockhart who hailed from Nibelheim. Rude would eventually be offered a job with the Turks when he thwarted a robbery in the Shinra Building lobby. He went to the building to apply for a job posting about a porter to help transport heavy shipments around the building. The man came barreling towards Rude yelling “Out of the way, asshole!” to which Rude responded by stepping directly into the man’s path and answering with both fists. After a good pummeling and a few less teeth, the security team showed up to apprehend the man. Rude finished putting in his application and left without incident. Veld had been in the lobby and witnessed the beat down. Highly impressed by his skill, he managed to track Rude down to his family’s shop in Sector Eight. At first Rude was skeptical, but upon hearing the pay, he agreed to ‘give it a try’.

He met Tseng the next day and Reno joined not long after. At first, he wasn’t sure what to make of his new partner. Reno was a slacker in every sense of the word with his ‘devil-may-care’ attitude. But Rude soon learned to work with him and discovered that they both shared a strong passion for alcohol. Though Rude has lightened up, he will be the first to remind Reno that they are professionals.