Alec Hoshin

Hoshin of the Wilderness (荒地のホーシン ) was a man who lived in the years prior to the Great Calamity. He is most well known for uniting a multitude of small countries and founding one of the Four Great Nations known as the Kararagi City States, implementing within it a culture that strongly resembled that of Japan.

He is considered a world-wide symbol of success for merchants and as such is a figure that is looked up to by any individual even remotely associated with business. This includes Anastasia Hoshin, who named herself after him.

Appearance
Not much is known about Hoshin and how he looked like, though assuming that he is in fact from Japan, he is presumed to have had like most ethnic Japanese, black hair, brown eyes, and a fair skin tone.

Personality
It was unknown what he was like during that time, but it was mentioned that he was both brave and sympathetic. Some theorized that Hoshin was a lolicon as Ricardo described him as one, though the word coined and became a common term in Kararagi that meant "love at first sight".

Though often overlooked, Hoshin was in fact a rather brutal and at times savage person who did everything to achieve his goals both as a merchant and as the founder of the Kararagi City States. It is precisely due to this trait that he was able to unite all the countries and cities into one of the Four Great Nations. If one refused to join them, he did not hesitate to topple the entire city and giving birth to a new one from its ashes.

History
Roughly 400 years ago, before Subaru's arrival, Hoshin was summoned to the new world and stumbled into an unnamed area that was devoid of life. By introducing and spreading his knowledge from his home world around while travelling, he started uniting the cities and small countries scattered around the region. With the help of the Witch of Greed, he was able to successfully bring them under his dominion, thus creating the Fourth Great Nation which soon became known as Kararagi. During that time, he involved himself in a regional conflict between Kararagi's Humans and Demi-Humans. He made several allies along the journey and fought in the battle of Banan and won, which originated the phrase "Hoshin was Banan's setting sun".

He introduced cultures from his time on earth such as clothing like Kimono and Yukata, and foods like Okonomiyaki (later named Daisukiyaki), and Dorayaki, which became a popular phenomenon in the new world. He also introduced the new world to Kansai dialect, a version of Japanese that was used in the Kansai region of Japan. It was adopted in the world and it became the native way of speaking in the Kararagi City States.

Trivia

 * Different anecdotes about Hoshin are still circulating around the world. For example, in one of the failed loops of Arc 4, Garfiel used the anecdote "Hoshin was Banan's setting sun" as a declaration of hostility towards Subaru, Ram and Otto.
 * It was speculated that one of Ricardo's ancestors was involved in the battle of Banan. The reason being is that Ricardo was the only one that referenced him by name (before Anastasia adopted the name) in Anastasia's Kararagi Merchant Path as he knows what a lolicon is.
 * It is unknown if Hoshin had any children. Anastasia only adopted the name from inspiration, and is not directly related by blood.
 * Hoshin himself may have been from the Kansai region of Japan, since he's the only one found in the new world who seemed know about the dialect before it was spread across Kararagi.