aight, just had an insane family lore drop, specifically regarding my absentee father
so i grew in a single-parent family, with only my mom and grandparents on her side as my known relatives (aside from grandmother's siblings, but that's a story for another day). my father was never in the equation, and my mother outright refused to answer any questions as to who he was, what he was like and where he's supposed to be, which i used to find endlessly frustrating.
eventually i just gave up and abandoned this line of inquiry, resigning to never knowing anything about him - which to be honest was probably a healthy decision. fast forward to a few decades in the future, however, specifically to just a couple days ago when i figured i'd ask my grandfather about him one last time before putting this whole matter to rest, fully expecting him to go mum as he normally would.
this time, however, the stars aligned (oh the irony, as you'll see later) and he deigned to share what little he knew about my father dearest, and boy was that a bombshell and a half
brace thine asscheeks, for here it comes
so, back in the nineties i was in a very famous TV show there was a resurgence of various alternative beliefs, like psychics, astrology, faith healing, zoroastrianism and all that crap. trust me, this is relevant. what was once persecuted in the USSR quickly became the next hottest thing after it dissolved, and quite a few prominent cult-like communities formed around these beliefs.
my mom used to be a fairly sheltered teen and young adult, kind of a sit-at-home wallflower type (thanks to my grandmother's particularly overbearing parenting), and at some point she got massively into astrology and zoroastrianism. i vaguely recall us having some literature on these topics back when i was around four or five years old, as well as her praying to Ahura Mazda and making astrological charts, which i grew to consider a bit of a left-field phase of hers, not knowing its origins quite yet. no matter, moving on.
so, somewhere in the early nineties (approximately mid-1992) she traveled all the way to Moldova to attend an astrologist/zoroastrianism meetup hosted by one of the prominent stars of this movement. turns out she exchanged letters with this guy for quite some time preceding that, however we can only speculate on what they were really talking about. anyhow, she's only been there for around a week, then somewhat unexpectedly returned and shut herself off to the rest of the world, which her parents found rather suspicious.
a few months passed, where she mostly kept to herself and continued exchanging letters with that astrologist guy, but then she could no longer conceal her pregnancy and had to admit it to her parents, which predictably caused a massive shitshow in the family. at some point in this transitional period our family was visited by the right-hand man of that very same movement that she was in - who then met up with my mother in private and evidently came to some sort of an arrangement (most likely based on intimidation, as was customary at the time), and the matter somehow blew over.
that was pretty much the extent of info that my grandfather was able to share with me. my mother never divulged the real identity of my father to anyone, including her parents, but at this point it was pretty much obvious who the culprit is, considering how there were only a few of these communities active back in the day. i dug up some info on the prominent cults operating within that belief system at the time, and lo and behold, here he is.
seems like the guy's really intent on keeping the records on his biography and family affairs vague (gee, i wonder why), but based on the limited information available online i was able to verify the timeline of these events - at this stage, he had two officially recognized kids with his wife Tamara, and their marriage fell apart somewhere in the early nineties as his cheating escapades came to light. he then mostly bailed on his family and went onto his merry way, barely interacting with his ex-wife and kids (bit of a pattern there, don't you think?)
but what sealed the deal and vanquished all doubts for me personally was finding a photo of this guy in his youth. just take a look here and tell me i'm tripping
all things considered, i have it at around 85-95% confidence that this guy is indeed my absentee father. so, yeah - guess that makes me a cult leader's bastard child. no fucking wonder i related to Regent so much lmao
