Alec Hoshin

Alec Hoshin (アレク・ホーシン), better known to history as 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 remotely associated with business. This includes Anastasia Hoshin, who even named herself after him.

Appearance
Alec appeared to be a middle-aged man with long, dark red hair tied into a ponytail, small mustache, and a beard. He wore a long, black cloak with red on the inside and grey woven robes. He was also adorned with a bronze pin that featured a hanging red robe and a cane given to him by Farsale Lugnica.

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
According to history, Hoshin lived roughly 400 years before Subaru's arrival, and was responsible for uniting the cities and small countries scattered around the Western regions of the continent. 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 previously unseen cultural aspects 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.

Abilities
Divine Protection (加護 Kago): Alec possessed the Divine Protection of Evaluation (目利きの加護 Mekiki no Kago), which enabled him to determine if an item is of good or bad quality, and if the item was in front of him, he could evaluate its condition and quality with perfect accuracy. However, if he happened to be evaluating an item he'd never seen before, he would only know if it was of good or bad quality, and therefore gained no knowledge of how it was used or how much it was worth.

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.
 * Alec's reveal as a character is unique in that his first official appearance takes place not in licenced Re:Zero media, but rather in the non-canon-relevant Isekai Quartet Movie as part of promotional material.