Samir Duran has been the personal adviser to all the emperors of The Empire, outliving all of them. Having been alive for many years, this doppelganger should have died many times.
Attempted Assassination of Arcturus
Duran's first sight of Arcturus, was from behind as he tried to assassinate him. He was stopped and his life was in the Emperor's hands. Arcturus pointed the sword at his throat and he told him, "You are a brash, arrogant thing. But I see potential in you. Why have you come here creature?"
The creature, surprised that the emperor knew of his race, pondered for a bit, not responding for a time. He eventually responded, "Oh Emperor, I am honor-bound to my promise - and I vowed to remove you from power until I die. If you do not take my life, I will not stop trying to take yours."
The emperor responded, "To whom did you make this promise villain?" Duran kept his tongue. Arcturus said, "If you do not tell me I will take your life, if you tell me I may not. Tell me assassin, are you a gambling man?" Duran spoke up, "I told you already, I am honor bound oh emperor. I will greet you on the other side."
Arcturus smiled, "I knew of his plot and of he who sent you. What I did not know was how good his assassin would be. The conspirator has already been dealt with, and now I will deal with you." The doppelganger closed his eyes and prepared to loose his head. Nothing happened. The doppelganger opened his eyes to see the emperor resting the end of his sword on the ground. Arcturus spoke, "I have spared your life. If not for that you'd be a dead man. I believe that with this 'death' you have completed the terms of your vow. Now give me your word creature." The doppelganger looked curiously. Arcturus continued, "Yes, give me your word that you will serve this throne until a time such that it no longer exists. Do I have it?" Samir got on one knee and angled his head down, "I promise you, with the gods as my witness, that I will serve this throne until such a time that it ceases to exist, or I do."
"Do you know what you have that none of my other servants have?" Arcturus asked. "The ability to shapeshift?" the Doppelganger said with a smile. Arcturus returned the smile and responded with one word, "Honor." The Doppelganger raised his eyebrow. Arcturus continued, "You know what I need? Advice that is not dripping with hidden motives - council that isn't designed to manipulate me. Come with me Dopple..," Arcturus stopped mid sentence. "What should I call you creature? Surely you have a name." The Doppelganger responded, "I have had many names through out the years, but you may call me," he transformed before the emperor's eyes into a handsome black human, with a goatee, looking just like the man who hired him, "Samir Duran." He took the shape of the emperor's cup-bearer.
Service to the Empire
Samir served as adviser to Arcturus, Valerian, and Edmund.
Arcturus valued his advice, and often followed it.
Valerian grew up with Duran, and while one not call them friends, Valerian knew of the honor that drove the man, but also knew that Honor does not dictate morality. While emperor he often disagreed with Duran, and rarely followed his advice, but was known to do so from time to time. Valerian kept him around to always get the opposite view on matters, since he almost always reflected a worldview in direct opposition to Valerian.
Edmund knew of the adviser's intimate knowledge of The Empire's inner machinations, and the machinations of it's previous rulers, and thus Edmund found him a valuable resource and allowed Duran to keep his position.
Service to the White Witch
When the Witch took over she immediately saw through Duran's fleshy disguise and instead of killing him, saw use for him. She had him captured and imprisoned in the palace. After eight years in the palace's prison, Duran thought she had forgotten about him - he was wrong. One day he was taken out of his prison cell and taken to a laboratory of sorts. There he was experimented on by Abathur over and over again. After two years of experimentation he had been changed into less of a person and more of a weapon. The process was extremely painful, and two years of constant pain would twist anyone no matter how strong into someone else completely.
He was given two abilities of note. One was the ability to sever any part of himself, and that part become a separate entity, with a life and will of it's own. Second he was given the ability to assimilate bio-organic matter. These two abilities combined gave him a way to sort of multiply. He could split off part of himself, and long as that part had enough organic matter it could form an exact double of Duran!
Duran was packed up and secretly delivered to the Dwarven Trade Guilds along with other items of trade. There he began to multiply in secret. He would split parts off of himself, and have that part kill a Dwarf. It would then assimilate it's body and then become a copy of that Dwarf and take it's place. This happened exponentially quicker with each Dwarf replaced, and using this method Duran was able to replace much of the Dwarf's population in secret.
Duran hated the Witch and that damnable Merfolk for what they did to him. So he hatched a plan to get revenge on them. While en route to the Dwarven Trade Guilds Duran severed his hand and threw it out of the cart's barred window. The hand sought out a host, and consumed him turning into a full formed Doppelganger. This new Duran then took on the guise of a human and purposefully let himself get captured. They took him to Auschwitz as he had expected. When he was delivered Duran remarked that it was all too easy. He then began assimilating the people of the camp - for in the walls of the camp were hundreds of Humans who would serve as raw bio-organic matter for him to multiply an army. He very quickly began outnumbering the people who ran the camp, a not-too-difficult task because it was running on less and less personnel with each day. The Doppelgangers took over the camp and surrounded the last piece of the camp not under his control, the residential house - Seth's house. They broke down the doors and though Seth put up a fight, quickly overwhelmed the Catfolk and attempted to consume him. But strangely the Duran that tried to was not able to.
See Seth for more information.
The Doppelgangers spread like wildfire in Korhal. There seemed to be no way to stop them, they numbered in the thousands, every person who was used against them just became another Doppelganger. But the Witch had already left the city with her armies, and she left a gift for them - she released all the Kaylas upon the city giving them their free will back. The Kaylas and the Doppelgangers do not get along, and there is now an all out war happening between the two in Korhal. Korhal is now a gigantic graveyard, and nothing aside from these two creatures live within it's walls.